a queer disposal: about

aqueerdisposal:

we live in increasingly fractured times. our communities have never been anything but broken. history elides our neat categorizations. and we are broken, again and again, by each other. what is to be done?

hi, i’m shana. this is a project i am conducting to document the stories of people within or near social justice / activist communities who have been or are being abused, ostracized, and disposed of via social media. i want to queer disposability. we need to talk about this more.

to give you an idea of where i’m coming from, here are some other projects i’ve organized or been involved in around themes of community abuse and accountability, clashes of multiple marginalizations, disposability politics, transformative / restorative justice in the face of punitive culture, rethinking ‘safe spaces,’ etc.:

• Western Mass QTPOC Perspectives on Community Accountability, Abuse, and Transformative Justice (November 2016)
• Rethinking ‘Safe Spaces’: a theoretical investigation (May 2016)
• Traumophelic: a collaborative project (May 2016)
• Disabled & Neurodivergent People in Western Mass: Experiences of Alienation and Isolation (February 2016) 

similarly to these other projects, i will be presenting this current project at an upcoming academic conference – the five-college film & media studies conference at smith college. 

to participate in this project, please review the following criteria:

1. are you a marginalized someone in or near social justice / activist circles? [this can really be as broad as you want it to be. you don’t have to actually identify as an activist. as long as you have affiliations with or affinities for left or liberal social justice spheres, and somehow deviate from the norm of the white, western, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, neurotypical, thin / fit, rich man – you are probably eligible to participate.]

2. have you been ostracized, alienated, publicly shamed, or disposed of of by any communities or groups of other activists / social justice people? [some popular reasons for ostracism: your own abusive behaviour, being an abuse survivor who speaks up against people with more social clout, clashes of multiple marginalizations leading to enhanced states of vulnerability, respectability politics, etc.]  [here is a brilliant and devastating article about disposability politics, if you want more context.]
   
3. did this ostracism or public shaming happen (or is it happening), partly or wholly, via social media? if yes…
4. … do you want to share your experiences (anonymously / pseudonymously) on this public blog (which will also be shared elsewhere)? are you comfortable with me using your (anonymous / pseudonymous) stories in my research? if so, please go ahead and submit your story here. [screenshots of public posts welcome; i will change names and omit identifying details if present – or you can edit the pictures to do so, too. because of my own limitations, i am not allowing audio or video submissions at the moment, only text and visual submissions.]

re: social media – i am particularly interested in the ways in which technology is changing the landscape of social response to marginalized community issues. i do not have a simplistic view of the situation at all – i believe technology is a tool, and can be manipulated in many different ways. also, technology, regardless of how we feel about it, is the future – perhaps it would be better to try to investigate and use it to facilitate our radical movements rather than prescribing a deeply problematic view of anarcho-primitivism or neo-luddism (for example). among others, i love this article about technology and radical praxis.