Decoding Stigma 2021: What do we want NOW?
Looking back at our Fall "semester" and planning goals for Spring: events, artifacts, and opportunities
When Decoding Stigma started meeting last fall, it quickly became apparent that our “thinking” group would develop into a “working” group. As such, we got a lot done, especially given that meeting attendance grew totally organically and on a volunteer basis. The bi-monthly meetings, initially a space designed for peer support without much of a tangible goal, became a space for operative collaboration. We produced two amazing events with excellent turnout (read about our Surveillance Transparency event here. A report on our second event, Freedom to F*cking Dream, will be available shortly), validating the fact that the conversations we are having are sorely needed. Our work was featured by the Berkman Klein Center Collection, as well as presented in classrooms at NYU and John Jay. People are subscribing to receive updates from us, including you amazing readers here.
More importantly, a lot of potentialities shifted behind the scenes, as our meetings of mutual support created paths toward sharing opportunities and helping each other with projects internally. We’re doing a lot of cross-pollinating given the interdisciplinary nature of our core members, and finding ways to illuminate socio-technological connections across disciplines. Some of these will be shared via Decoding Stigma, so please stay tuned :)
We decided to start our year the same way we started last Fall: with an open discussion about why a group such as Decoding Stigma was necessary, and ideate on things we would like to achieve (or at least see more of in the world). We took a more visual/interactive approach for brainstorming, which are included for documentation in addition to the clearer distillation.
What do we want internally? How do we want to help each other? What is this space for mutual aid? Is there something tangible you’d like to ask? Offer? How can this group support you in your work and/or life?
Wants:
opportunity to debrief, share self care strategies, talk about what its like to be a sw in the tech/academic space, share project and job opportunities, get feedback on project and conceptual ideas, share references and resources, share networks, promote each other’s stuff, share skills, capacity build each other
Sharing info about each other's work and/or relevant work by people outside the group
Actively work to have more group members who are not white, bring different kinds of expertise both inside and outside of academia -Livia Offer: design work. Ask: feedback on a workshop idea. Support: I really value having the space to learn with and from all of you, and I will be happy if that continues.
Offers:
Peer support/validation
Editing/copywriting help
create digital solutions against censorship
political and/or personal connections
Care / community and support in terms of showing up, and consistency, uplifting/ boosting each others work. Space to vent/seek advice. Excited about potentials in collaboration
Video/sound editing support.
I can offer engagement activity design, various visual arts skills/knowledge
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What tangible things do we want to produce? What events, toolkits, media do we want to make and put out in the world? How can we build venues that accommodate peers and community?
Ambitious one: create our own payment platform on the long term.
A Decoding Stigma patreon for writing? Would help get money to fund projects. Fundraise a pool of $$ to pay sex workers to speak at institutions
Donate buttons, donate by crypto currency, funding grants spreadsheet. Patreon, fundraisers, merchandise, zines, etc
Resource guides (for academics, students, clinicians?)
co-authoring an academic journal article on sw liberatory futures
Currently working with Amanda Levendowski and Kendra to create a PDF toolkit from the Trademark Transparency event we did. More like this! Creating materials from events we put on, sharing more broadly
Academy of Whores listserv + resources, published conversations and events about sw in academia - there is a UK sw creating her own peer SW academic journal! Producing a sex work + tech curriculum could be part of the work of Academy of Whores?
Decoding Stigma pitch deck
Develop relationships with other sex worker organisations around the world, especially student sex worker networks
More artistic interventions, zines? Curate an art exhibit?
Regular newsletter or instagram w. Opportunity postings. Thinking of social media and how we can use the platform to serve ourselves and uplift each other and others doing similar work. So in terms of tangible production like making (shareable/?) content really excites me
Resources we would have wanted before we had this space … or when we were young and starting out.
Set of principles, similar to Design Justice Network… a kind of “seal of approval”
A super basic (for non-tech folks) “how to” for setting up all the things a sw-er needs to be safe on the internet: protonmail, Tor access, VPN, encryption etc.
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What experiential things do we want to share/learn? What sort of events should we produce? How can we bring community together in time?
Would love to learn more video-making/ animation skills to make short informational videos about sw law policy etc
Mastadon Clinic
Following on from this, workshop on what good ‘community standards’ look like
Definitely github wiki-thon, 100% we should hold the editathon and pool all our articles on sw & tech
I’m down to help with a policy curriculum and can do a skillshare on policy analysis
I code and I can teach. Also, I can write. I can write or do a workshop on SW as a migrant as well, challenges and how to avoid legal trouble.
A second liberatory dreaming sesh
Events for a general audience to... get sw speakers paid ; talk about issues that are relevant to tech workers, students, other specific audiences ; get experience running workshops/events ; have a way for more people to participate/get involved with our work
Learn about cryptography/steganography
Workshops that result in some sort of artifact
Mapping “resistant digital infrastructures” for sex worker activism. What are some infrastructures that can allow for resistance - the trademark registry, SEO for promoting activist work, etc.
A Decoding Stigma patreon for writing? Would help get money to fund projects
Panel on funding activism in academia
All of the above is the result of a single one hour meeting. Surveying the results, it’s apparent that there are overlapping desires for tech-related workshops & demystification events, artistic interventions, and most of all concrete community-building. There is a perpetuating need for more intersectional participation, resource sharing, and general support/validation. Critically, ideas around money floated throughout, both as compensation for the value of things we create or ask others to help with, and also for mutual aid among peers in the community.
Decoding Stigma is sort of at a crux right now: do we push hard toward becoming an established (and therefore fund-pursuing) entity? Or do we pull back and concentrate on smaller goals that we can achieve extracurricularly? It’s a difficult position because it has become clear that something like Decoding Stigma has been desired, yet without real fiscal/institutional support the energy to maintain such phenomenal ideas is unsustainable, especially given the fact that we first gathered as a peer group that is sick of being neglected by the multitude of establishments that maintain the status quo.
So where do we go from here? And who do we ask for help? What path do we forge to make sure we don’t get lost in “all that needs to be done” and make something useful for those who have been gathering regularly, as well as for the community at large?
We’d love to hear from you, especially if there’s something on the list above that you can help with. Please reach out: decodingstigma@protonmail.com or hit the share button below!