Wow, I hate this.

[lb_lee]

Today I just realized that All in the Family ISN'T just plain invisible or "Error 404" when people reach it. People see the takedown notice and since I very obviously don't do photorealistic art, kinda the only conclusion to draw is that my work is "Content glorifying sexual violence" or "minors, minor-presenting, or suggested minors in a sexual context."

This is incredibly degrading. This might be more humiliating than getting shadowbanned from Gumroad for Cultiples, and that was pretty damn crummy.

I make mental health work about sexual trauma. It's bad for business to have "minors in a sexual context" as code for "child pornography" anywhere near me professionally, even if you ignore that this is, again, a memoir about how incest fucked me up. The whole point is that it's awful! Josie Riesman called it "one of the most brutal and engaging comics I’ve ever read." Tarun Athmika did a whole fucking paper on the politics of implication in (among other things) All in the Family, and how bans of discussion of oppression supports that oppression! Holy shit, he couldn't have been more prescient had he tried!

I've still heard nothing from itch.io. I ordered my payout a week ago and it's still "in review." I don't know if I'm going to get paid. The idea that I might get pedojacketed, AGAIN, for totally nonsense reasons is...

I don't know what it is.

This never used to happen to me until 2023, and now it's becoming normal to me. This is just life to me now. And I feel stupidly naive that it took this long to happen; it feels like it was always going to.

At least I can take comfort that the Banned Book Sale is going well. But god, I would've way rathered never throwing one.

Comments

[wolffyluna]

[Internet hugs iff wanted] that sucks so, so much.

[lb_lee]

Thanks. Just, ugh.

[(Anonymous)]

god im sorry you have to go through all this. this whole thing sucks. i'd...say i hope it ends soon but im not optimistic this wont become a new normal

[lb_lee]

Rogan: Man, I look FORWARD to it being my new normal! Because then the workarounds and tricks will become second nature!

[(Anonymous)]

pfffffff ok ngl that actually makes me feel a bit better about the garbage fire

[lb_lee]

Hahaha

[vaguelyautonomous]

This whole thing is absolute bullshit, and I'm sorry you're being put through it. Hopefully the backlash against this awful censorship will be effective.

[lb_lee]

Yeah, I need to start calling, but since all this happened at the end of the month, other work tasks have all taken precedence.

[synecdoches]

god that fucking sucks. it would have been way better for it to just 404. this reads like a public scold

[lb_lee]

Rogan: I know, right?! I’m also kinda baffled as to WHAT exactly is getting banned, because I follow a bunch of porn itches and I haven’t found anything banned yet. Who’s taking all the heat? I must be in the wrong place!

[dreamer_marie]

That's such nonsense! Sorry this is happening. I really hope that itch.io comes to their senses.

[lb_lee]

Itch.io was great for me for many years, but this has been so awful that even if AllFam does get reinstated, I think I’ll keep my eyes out for elsewhere, because this treatment is putting a rancid taste in my mouth. That it’s quite possibly entirely automated doesn’t help at all.

[sinistmer]

Ugh, this is b.s. I hope Itch.io gives you your money.

[lb_lee]

I WANT MY FUCKING MONEY. THERE IS HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS IN THERE, MEGS!

[minoanmiss]

I am so sorr you have to deal with such arrant bullshit.

[pastrylikewolf]

I’m sorry and I hate that this happened to you so much.

[lb_lee]

Rogan: I clearly need to take a page out of Mori's book and make a quarter-size one-sheet zine about this because I'm still mad about it.

[nightforest]

UGH. Such absolute bullshit. It's infuriating. We're sorry you have to deal with it.

[lb_lee]

Mori: I’M SENDING THEM LETTERS. ON PAPER.

[numb3r_5ev3n]

I'm so sorry this is happening. :(