iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

"That trans girl sure is going through it" - Freud, probably

Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Anyway I've been nervously giggling about terrifying things and then having uncontrollable sobbing jags for like a week, this is a classic sign of excellent mental health.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It's wild to fight so hard for a thing then actually go to do it. Because yeah you wanted it! You still want it! But holy shit what a thing you've signed up for!

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Surgery is just asking to be badly injured in a hyper-specific way that we're pretty sure will ultimately improve things. It's this giant leap of faith and trust. And like... I have trust issues and almost zero capacity for faith.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Not all joy comes at the cost of equivalent pain BUT IT SURE IS A *COMMON* DYNAMIC

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Yeah it’s weird - everyone treats it as like “yaaaas girl goals” and I’m over here like “let me talk to you about disordered eating and body dysmorphia”

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Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme

Kristin Meekes @kmeekes.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

The pandemic should have led to clean indoor air, treatments for long covid and related illnesses, next gen vaccines, normalization of masking, mandatory respiratory protection in healthcare, sick leave, and a paradigm shift around what infections do to people

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

You know, reporting *isn't* the same as platforming - which is a big part of why more journalists should try actually doing some reporting.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In a time of mandated thinness, only the cool people will be fat. Take that as you will.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

IDK y'all if you're viewing major surgery as a weight loss opportunity you're probably not thinking about recovery in a healthy way.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Oh gods yes. My kingdom for a single transfem space that doesn't operate as a meat market, and isn't hierarchized based on sexual availability and proximity to socially-idealized whiteness and thinness.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

This is not to say that young cis girls aren't horrible to fat cis girls - they really, really are - but in transfem spaces, it seems like no one ever learns this lesson and becomes more compassionate towards different kinds of bodies. When I'm in a group of 30+ yr cis women, they've grown past it.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

It's such an ugly part of transfem community! I've spent a ton of my life in community with cis women, and tbh this is one of the places where trans girls are WAY behind re: understanding and compassion. I see ~50 year old trans girls doing high school mean girl fat shaming, acting like shitty teens

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

One thing pursuing gender affirming care has convinced me of is that fat trans women need more spaces and resources that are explicitly fat-positive and exclusively for us.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Never forget the thing that binds all conservatives together: a deep, deep desire to harm women.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Gutting title IX is a huge win for conservatives, because it lets them actively harm trans women they've never met while also making it easier for their sons to get away with raping any woman while in college.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yeah, I'm absolutely saying you can't expect to have fun on social media if you're a big time journalist. It's unprofessional of you to do so, and yea, your account here isn't ever going to be a personal account, really. Go cry about it on the vacations you can afford, in the house you own.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I am honestly not even sure why an account that big would allow people to randomly reply, and then consistently take the bait. Seems like a good way to get into a bunch of pointless arguments for engagement, mostly. Oh... maybe it's that?

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I have limited sympathy for extremely successful people with stable jobs and giant platforms these days.... wonder why 🤷‍♀️

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Like I'm sorry once you are a ~10k+ account, you can't act like you're just having simple conversations. You're not. Every quote post at that point is a potential target on someone's back, and people are right to be wary of it. Stop and consider your impact, not your desire to mix it up.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

IDK, maybe if you're an NYT columnist with a huge platform, you shouldn't be spending your time quote-posting smaller accounts in general? It just seems to always turn into a situation where marginalized folks with way less stability than the least stable NYT columnist of all time get targeted.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Popeyemaxxing spinach-based HRT for boys send post

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Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme

Wilde Butch @wildebutch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Honestly the way some Leftists/progressives are leaning into fatalism and doomerism right now really feels like the secular version of the death cult that conservatives peddle Just a reminder oppressive systems adapt and you are not immune to propaganda

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Me explaining why I'm excited for surgery but also pretty nervous: "see, for the last 40 years, I've been really, really invested in not being in the kind of circumstances where someone comes at me with a knife when I'm unconscious, so this whole experience is a little outside of my wheelhouse"

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

All of this said: I think we could maybe all learn a lesson here about how we talk about changes that are going to be negative for some community members? Like... you can't make it into a joke or try to be winky with it. That's a solid way to piss people off.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

There was a whole club on campus that was about clean air and masking. They did cool events where they gave out masking supplies. I see folks in masks walking down my street literally right now. The framing was bad faith *at best*

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This is a really good point re: the lesbian bar story. Yeah, I'm sure the Globe reporters and their friends don't mask, but lots of folks in Boston, ESPECIALLY queer folks, mask pretty consistently. Like I work at a college and I see young folks in masks CONSTANTLY. It's pretty normalized here.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

A more senior person once told me that everyone relevant already knew my beliefs, so continuing to express them was just virtue signaling. Nah, my man, that's commitment. That's followthrough. You have to advocate more than one time to make change happen. Values aren't "set it and forget it"

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Things I have publicly supported that got me accused of "virtue signaling" by more structurally powerful queer people: - trans rights - grad student unions - respect for nonbinary identities - COVID precautions IDK y'all, they might just be saying "virtue signaling" to shut us up in bad faith.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

IDK y'all, kinda think that as the world descends further and further into authoritarianism, it... might actually be important to signal what your virtues and values are? Like it might be more important than ever to stand by your beliefs and express them?

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I don't need escape rooms and mazes, I have Microsoft Outlook

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Opening a Microsoft product is always an interesting exercise in picking out what new features I need to block or disable. Great UX, really spectacular job by the boys at Microsoft, it's like a shitty scavenger hunt every time I want to check my work email.

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Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme

Wilde Butch @wildebutch.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Some of you have FOMO so bad that anytime anyone is offering you an ounce of validation for inconsequential shit y'all bend over backwards and sideways just to be included And it means your ethics are virtually meaningless Bc you still care if the fascists think you're cool

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Wife sent me a complex shipping grid of the way the romances SHOULD work in Cyberpunk and tbh this is a nonzero part of why I married her

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

You could make your own list, completely independently of links to the NYT. That would be a cool thing to do with that energy.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Y'all do whatever you want, I'm just saying that if you actually believe in boycotting the NYT, like I do, you can't be making exceptions. Like you can't be out here yelling at people about the crossword if you're linking to their interactive entertainment features. That's just foolishness.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Why worry about your rights when they're slandering your comfort characters

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

"Why don't queer people seem to be able to organize things like boycotts effectively" THEY SAID A BAD THING ABOUT A TV SHOW I WATCHED 20 YEARS AGO

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

We are apparently boycotting the NYT due to their support of trans genocide and anti-democracy actions. Unless they say a good or bad thing about a TV show we like, then we spotlight their coverage and send them traffic. Jesus Christ we're bad at boycotts. We're never gonna be free.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Student funding is precious and rare. We're careful with it. Demonstrating that you actually read, comprehended, and have something to add to my body of work is like.... baseline, folks, and AI can't do it for you.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Here is your explanation for why I'm just not responding to like 80% of inquiries from prospective students. We know what it looks like when you used AI instead of actually thinking through why you'd like to work with us.

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Reposted by Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme

David Forbes @davidforbes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

If it seemed like a major newspaper making some conflict at a random dyke bar a national news piece in a push to depict trans and higher-risk folks as inherently unreasonable was suspect af...well, it was. Y'all who were breathlessly sharing that story? You were just being played. Have some sense.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

"If only we could help them understand" They've understood perfectly since the mid-70s when oil companies figured the patterns out and buried them. Stop assuming positive intent when dealing with monsters.

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Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme @michaelann.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

They do not care that you're going to die. They do not care that their kids are going to die. They care about themselves. End of list.

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