How News Genius Silences Writers

March 25, 2016.Reading time 14 minutes.

The very loss of control that boxed me into writing just for my site has been exacerbated by a tool originally built to annotate hip hop lyrics.

Peeple Launches Today. Here’s Its Plan to Profit from Harassment

March 7, 2016.Reading time 5 minutes.

Peeple is back, and it’s worse than ever.

Why STDRegistry.com Is Disgusting, and Outing Your Ex as STI+ Makes You an Asshole

January 14, 2016.Reading time 18 minutes.

A few weeks ago I wrote a carefully crafted essay on my conflicted feelings about individuals who fail to disclose their herpes status and the criminalization of the transmission of sexually transmitted infections. These are painful topics, highly subjective and personal, and I delicately side-stepped any absolutes on what is and is not immoral. My […]

Everything 2015 Taught Me About Harassment

December 31, 2015.Reading time 11 minutes.

It would be easy to say 2015 was about herpes. In reality, this year was about my voice and the Internet and growing up and falling short. I conquered some demons by capturing a specter in words. I gained a few thousand Twitter followers. I broke my own heart and never wrote about it. I moved into […]

“Who Has The Time To Count Facebook Likes?” Fuck You, I Do.

December 28, 2015.Reading time 8 minutes.

I get so pissed off when people rag on social media. You know that conversation, usually at a cocktail party (oh who am I kidding, I’m twenty-three and I go to cramped apartment parties or loud bars where I have to strain myself to reluctantly listen to sermons about modern technology), when someone you thought […]

To The Woman Who Announced Her STI on Snapchat

December 19, 2015.Reading time 3 minutes.

I learned about you when I Googled myself—as a narcissist is wont to do—and discovered I’d been mentioned in an article about you on the Daily Star. I’m not entirely sure why my efforts to destigmatize herpes were mentioned in the article, which was a masterpiece of stigmatizing, sensationalized journalism that in no way respected […]

Dear Internet Commenters Who Really Don’t Want Herpes,

October 8, 2015.Reading time 7 minutes.

Your Facebook comments have made me think. I’m not being facetious—whenever I read a comment from someone (usually a man) upset that rejecting someone who has an STI makes you a bad person, I wonder why you are so alarmed and defensive. When have I ever said that turning down someone herpes+ makes you a […]

Why “Peeple” Is Dangerous To Survivors… and, Really, Anyone

October 1, 2015.Reading time 10 minutes.

UPDATE 3/7/2016: Peeple has launched, with a new paid “truth license” that allows you to read hidden reviews to come soon. You can read my latest take here. I work in social media. It is part of my job to stay up-to-date on the myriad new social networks that spring up like weeds every day. Some […]

A Lesson In Herpes Stigma, Via Facebook Comments

September 12, 2015.Reading time 10 minutes.

The classic mantra of reading, writing and merely existing on the Internet is “Don’t read the comments.” Internet comments, and Facebook comments in particular, are widely discredited as a cesspool of nastiness and trolling. If the writer or subject of a given article is anyone other than a straight, white man, the comments are even worse. […]