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I do not get a free pass
Something people never realise when they see online content is the actual lived reality of those posting. It is a truism that all online content is curated, and we all like to judge those who post based on our own assumptions of the content creator. Often those judgement calls lack nuance, are arbitrary, and make a whole range of assumptions just to satisfy whatever personal urges we may have. It is the nature of things, and likely the nature of any content going back to the Babylonians. However, conversely, content creators themselves also have a personal angle whenever they post, their content never free from spin or subjectivity. There is no objective content, none; the very act of creating means you have a subjective reason for creating whatever you put out into the world and as such no content creator should ever expect a free pass when they set something loose on the world.
This accountability matters because no-one should expect their creation to be critique free. On a personal level I expect everything I create to be scrutinised, from my writing to my social media posts, which is why I have a certain artifice when I write. It is a hard lesson to learn, especially when there is an assumption that free speech can hand wave away any concerns. Recently I was challenged on my personal trans privileges by a Reddit user, something which I have been facing since I lost my hair. Their words were not…
