Email or username:

Password:

Forgot your password?
★ Amy Star ★ :verified:​'s posts Post Back to profile
★ Amy Star ★ :verified:​

Earlier today, the admin of .art ordered the suspension and removal of one of the users of their instance. The reason was that the user talked about how they use GIMP, the image editor, for their art, and "gimp" is a (very archaic, barely-used, not relevant in this context) slur. The user in question didn't know, as English is not their native language, and were puzzled about the entire interaction. There was no negotiation: they were suspended, and ordered to leave.

Later, they announced that they were federating firefish.social from .art due to guilt-by-association, as firefish.social was federating with an instance they did not approve of.

Unprompted(!), the .art admin DM'd an admin of firefish.social, and called them a homophobic slur, right before blocking them.

These incidents aren't related, are they? Not directly. But we can see clear and violent hypocrisy at play here. There's no excuse for this behaviour when they hold other people to such impossibly-high standards.

How is this performative social justice at all acceptable? If there was no excuse for "GIMP" when referring to a widely-used image editing app, how is the slur "cocksucker" acceptable when directed towards an LGBT individual?

Evidently, they are not capable of wielding their power responsibly. The admin of .art should apologize, and step down immediately.

Curator Mastodon•ART 🎨 Curator @Curator@mastodon.art Fediblock, firefish.social #Fediblock https://dotart.blog/dotart-blog/suspending-firefish-social Annoucement for .art users: we've limited firefish.social and will be suspending in a week because the instance federates with a known abusive racist instance, and the lead dev is interacting with a known anti-black harasser on that instance. Full explanation in the post above. I am not at all happy about this and I am really f'ing tired that people keep making space for racists. Just... ugh. Can you not? Do better, people. (picture)
Kainoia - 02/05/2023 12:57 PM Hey, just wondering why you blocked stop.voring.me? Kainoa - 02/05/2023 1:51 PM @WelshPixie | gave you my list of instances we federate with a while ago, and since we were supposed to share moderation info | find it weird you blocked me for guilt by association. You wouldn't even think to ask me about any context or clarification or anything? - July 27, 2023 - WelshPixie - Today at 1:47 PM don't talk to me again, eris cocksucker
Pages in category "Homophobic slurs" The following 18 pages are in this category, out of 18 total. B * Batty boy C * Cocksucker
Your safe space Its not safe. Its just toxic because you want to R have an inch of power. Bye. Cuenta limitada Aún puedes usar tu cuenta, pero solo las personas que te estan siguiendo veran tus publicaciones en este servidor, y puedes ser excluido de varias funcionalidades de descubrimiento. Sin embargo, otras cuentas podran empezar a seguirte manualmente. We take the safe space of our instance and the people who use it very seriously. We have many, many disabled folk on here who recognise the word 'gimp' and what it means and what it stands for, who have been called it offensively by people, who grew up with the word used against them. It is NOT a good word, and there is NO defense for using it - the fact that a company chose to name their software for it does not excuse that it is a vile word. Since being asked to be considerate of the well-being of the people you share this instance with is too toxic for you, your account has been limited, and you have seven days to move to another instance.
27 Jul 2023 at 22:55 | Open on unstable.systems
41 comments | Expand all CWs
✧✦✶✷Catherine✷✶✦✧

@AmyZenunim why is "cocksucker" a homophobic slur? (there's no actual page there, nor does the wiktionary page explain it)

27 Jul 2023 at 23:01 | Open on mastodon.social
sparrows

@whitequark @AmyZenunim implies sucking cock as a guy is bad because its effeminate and submissive (especially when the person they’re submitting to in this case is a trans woman)

27 Jul 2023 at 23:56 | Open on social.translunar.academy
m
@AmyZenunim oh wow this was even worse than i thought, thanks for the context
27 Jul 2023 at 23:04 | Open on mycrowd.ca
Jorin, Subcontra Sorceress
@AmyZenunim that's infuriatingly shitty. Good reminder to stay away from that instance.
27 Jul 2023 at 23:07 | Open on soc.punktrash.club
DELETED

@AmyZenunim Can you provide references for the GIMP user incident? I'm really interested in this one because it matches certain problematic attitudes among native anglophones towards non-native speakers I've been seeing for a long time (I'm a non-native speaker myself).

27 Jul 2023 at 23:10 | Open on chaos.social
★ Amy Star ★ :verified:​

@mikolaj sure. here's more context.
27 Jul 2023 at 23:22 | Open on unstable.systems
:chaos: :chaos: :chaos: Star Group :chaos: :chaos: :chaos:
@AmyZenunim @mikolaj holy fucking shit i hate this so much

it's the name of an art software, should the software be renamed? yes. but cancelling people for saying the name of a computer program is ridiculous and i think it's also classist if people are expected to pay for proprietary software just to not use an ableist slur
27 Jul 2023 at 23:34 | Open on social.translunar.academy
DELETED

@AmyZenunim Thanks. The attack on GIMP for its name is culturally imperialistic in nature, because it prioritizes the feelings of native, US American English speakers over a symbol (a 4-letter string "GIMP"). It fails to realize that GIMP is also a name that is used by speakers of many different languages all around the world, where there's no such connotation. It thus seeks to delegitimize their interpretations, and reify the privileged one.

27 Jul 2023 at 23:38 | Open on chaos.social
Cheese Fiend

@mikolaj on the other hand the program was named by american english speakers in america to refer to a specific scene with a sex slave in the film pulp fiction, so it isn't an interpretation added later but rather the intended meaning all along

28 Jul 2023 at 0:36 | Open on infosec.exchange
DELETED

@parasyte In the interview, the author states that e originally wanted to name it XIMP, but then the name "GIMP" popped up to eir mind, and only a few minutes later e realized that e caught it up from Pulp Fiction. So very clearly the "IMP" ending was prior to the "G", and "GIMP" was somewhat prior to the Pulp Fiction's "gimp". It's also unclear if the author knew that "gimp" can be used as an insult in some US American slang.

28 Jul 2023 at 0:52 | Open on chaos.social
DELETED

@parasyte But it should be pointed out that etymology can only be used to provide context -- it doesn't determine meaning. What ultimately matters is how this word is perceived by the communities of speakers using it (the vast majority of these never heard the concept that "gimp" is ableist), and most importantly the volunteer, mostly unpaid community which goes under the name GIMP (they don't interpret it this way either).

28 Jul 2023 at 1:00 | Open on chaos.social
DELETED

@parasyte And also, it's a bad idea to rebrand just like that after using the same name for 28 years. Just take a look at the Twitter to X rebrand. It's really problematic to attack the volunteer developers for not wanting to do that.

28 Jul 2023 at 1:06 | Open on chaos.social
Cheese Fiend

@mikolaj certainly there's decades of inertia and the name isn't going anywhere. i've thought it gross and juvenile for a substantial portion of that time but i'm just one voice on the internet without investment in the project so my opinion matters little.

would've been something to change back in the day, like how the gimp toolkit changed its name around when it was adopted

28 Jul 2023 at 1:13 | Open on infosec.exchange
Serenus

@parasyte I feel like I remember seeing similar critiques of it when I first learned about the app a couple decades ago, so you're definitely not alone on feeling like it's a bit gross. They probably should've changed the name back then, would've been a lot easier than it would be now.

28 Jul 2023 at 2:21 | Open on mas.to
shxdow ❉

@AmyZenunim thank you for providing context. I had no idea either that the name of the software was a slur.

27 Jul 2023 at 23:12 | Open on social.treehouse.systems
Jake Hamilton

@AmyZenunim Hasn't this been a pattern for .art? No communication, immediately overreacting, and using their size to quell opposition.

There also seems to be a refusal to accept that they may have made an incorrect moderation decision.

27 Jul 2023 at 23:14 | Open on hachyderm.io
Jake Hamilton

@AmyZenunim Maybe I'm missing context on this, but it seems like another overreaction without even having a dialogue first.

27 Jul 2023 at 23:16 | Open on hachyderm.io
m
@jakehamilton @AmyZenunim i think you just *gave* the important relevant context with your initial reply
27 Jul 2023 at 23:45 | Open on mycrowd.ca
Inken Paper

@AmyZenunim the chat screenshot is doctored. look at the timestamp formats.

27 Jul 2023 at 23:36 | Open on tsukihi.me
Tobleh 🇨🇦

@AmyZenunim The screenshots of the admin calling Kainoa that slur have been shown to have been forged. mastodon.art/@welshpixie/11078

I don't mean this as an endorsement of the .art admin or whatever, I've just been sitting back and watching from the sidelines for the most part, and I don't know if there's other bad shit that they've done; but I'm also not a fan of misinformation.

27 Jul 2023 at 23:57 | Open on sakurajima.moe
ThatOneCalculator

@tobleh@sakurajima.moe @AmyZenunim@unstable.systems With all due respect, all that shows is that she, indeed, deleted the message after sending it.

28 Jul 2023 at 0:02 | Open on stop.voring.me
Misty

@AmyZenunim I think that Discord screenshot might be doctored... the baseline on the username text and the date text on the bottom isn't right, unlike the rest of the image

(Doesn't take away from the rest of what you had to say, of course)

28 Jul 2023 at 0:09 | Open on digipres.club
nebulabc (she/her)

@AmyZenunim I’ve just de-federated from mastodon.art. I don’t look at enough art for it to matter, and making this much of a commotion over nothing (the name of a popular graphics software) is enough for me to be done with the instance for now.

28 Jul 2023 at 0:17 | Open on social.neb.cx
Stephanie 🎀

@AmyZenunim Having been subjected to abusive adminship in the past (specifically on other Discord servers), I knew .art wouldn’t be a safe space for me. I am glad I didn’t join their instance. But seeing this?! How can one claim to run a safe space while being abusive like this? The very thing one claims to protect one’s users from?

28 Jul 2023 at 0:33 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
Stephanie 🎀

@AmyZenunim and even if the slur is doctored in, the original suspension reason is an overreaction. That is the kind of administrative behavior that tells me it’s not a safe space to be in.

28 Jul 2023 at 0:38 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
Maria The Martian :Shiropuyo_rainbow:

@AmyZenunim@unstable.systems You said what I've been too frustrated to get out. Thank you. ​:bhjflag_autism:​

28 Jul 2023 at 0:43 | Open on firefish.social
Vieil Ogre

@AmyZenunim Give anyone some form of power and they'll abuse it. Always.

28 Jul 2023 at 0:53 | Open on mastodon.top
★ Amy Star ★ :verified:​

people claiming the screenshots are doctored: I call bullshit. Discord is a buggy mess of JS and CSS. you cannot forensically prove anything based on misaligned pixels. Discord frequently misaligns things for me in daily usage, requiring me to reload.

this pattern of behaviour has gone on for months and possibly even years, matching a routine of using social justice as a cudgel and resorting to DARVO at many opportunities.

do what you want with this information, but be wary of .art and it's extremely aggressive staff. they cannot be trusted at their word.

people claiming the screenshots are doctored: I call bullshit. Discord is a buggy mess of JS and CSS. you cannot forensically prove anything based on misaligned pixels. Discord frequently misaligns things for me in daily usage, requiring me to reload.

this pattern of behaviour has gone on for months and possibly even years, matching a routine of using social justice as a cudgel and resorting to DARVO at many opportunities.

28 Jul 2023 at 1:08 | Open on unstable.systems
Cyberfæ :pentacle:

@AmyZenunim the thing is that like theres nothing stopping her from having deleted that from the conversation right

28 Jul 2023 at 1:15 | Open on anarchism.space
Cyberfæ :pentacle:

@AmyZenunim its weird though because i remember her being a good bean back when i was on catgirl dot science so

28 Jul 2023 at 1:15 | Open on anarchism.space
Bjornsdottirs

@alexandria @AmyZenunim yeah if true this is a MAJOR heel turn.

28 Jul 2023 at 2:28 | Open on mastodon.top
★ Amy Star ★ :verified:​

disclaimer:

let the record show that I am a hardcore leftist-anarchist trans woman who believes extremely firmly in the abolition of private property and capitalism, the rights of every living being on this planet, the empowerment of disenfranchised minorities in our colonialist society, and the disenfranchisement of every single fascist.

I have been extremely firm about that in every interaction for the past ten years. references available upon request.

if someone calls me a "Nazi sympathizer" then they are trying to sell you something.

disclaimer:

let the record show that I am a hardcore leftist-anarchist trans woman who believes extremely firmly in the abolition of private property and capitalism, the rights of every living being on this planet, the empowerment of disenfranchised minorities in our colonialist society, and the disenfranchisement of every single fascist.

28 Jul 2023 at 2:11 | Open on unstable.systems
Hanna
@AmyZenunim should mention this is the same admin who has fediblocked instances for, and I quote, "federates with the usual suspects" with no backing, proof, or explanation.
28 Jul 2023 at 1:09 | Open on wifey.dev
𝟙𝔸

@AmyZenunim@unstable.systems must be the gay imps

28 Jul 2023 at 1:21 | Open on snug.moe
Elizafox (new edition)
pizzapal

@AmyZenunim it's the fediverse dawg, if they don't like ppl talking about "GIMP" on their instance, cool.

that said, i like GIMP and use GIMP a lot.

28 Jul 2023 at 3:01 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
eevee 🦊

@AmyZenunim ah yes, GIMP, software best known for being written by "a company"

28 Jul 2023 at 4:42 | Open on queer.party
防空識別區ᴏᴜᴛᴇʀɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴᴀʟ:adm1::adm2:

@AmyZenunim@unstable.systems I don't understand how mastodon.art isn't widely fediblocked considering how sociopathic and terroristic their administration is towards the wider fediverse/other instances.

28 Jul 2023 at 5:26 | Open on soc.outrnat.nl
Trash Panda

@AmyZenunim@unstable.systems They won't because they're on a power trip.
Where did the banned non native english speaker gimp user go?
Are they ok?
I feel pretty bad for them to be honest.

28 Jul 2023 at 5:29 | Open on den.raccoon.quest
shrimps
“Do better” is the catchphrase of self righteous abusive freaks
28 Jul 2023 at 5:32 | Open on shitposter.club
Go Up