the penne opticon

hey everybody. i’m promoting my blog, “Tenderly Borderline.” please subscribe, read, and share my essays. two recent essays:

“The Politics of Anti-Sanity” — open.substack.com/pub/tenderly...

“What is our responsibility with regard to personality disorders?” — open.substack.com/pub/tenderly...

At a time when mass surveillance and autonomous weapons companies like Palantir are openly announcing their plans for violent world domination, it is crucial that our attempts at “big tech reform” don’t actually give them more power—ie via government mandated age verification/identity software

“Portrayals of sex work in mainstream media such as Euphoria rely on reductive and harmful stereotypes, which often shape public perception of sex workers in ways that justify harmful policy."

*nod*
What really kills me about men consistently denigrating fields like women's studies is that history is the history of *everything* and to ignore half the population lops off the continuity of the human experience. 🤨

a simple drawing of a cat laying on a big pillow captioned "what a medium sized day! i'm proud of myself!"

#catcrumb

Israeli strike severs last bridge linking southern Lebanon to rest of country, Lebanese security official says An ​Israeli strike ‌has severed the ​last ​bridge linking southern ⁠Lebanon to ​the ​rest of the country, a ​senior ​Lebanese security official ‌told ⁠Reuters, adding that the ​strike "shattered" ​the ⁠bridge and ​left ​no ⁠possibility of repairing ⁠it.

Israeli strike severs last bridge linking southern Lebanon to rest of country, Lebanese security official says reut.rs/4cz3JPn

‘Everything is gone’: Israel destroys entire villages in Lebanon Rights groups fear tactic of ‘domicide’ trialled in Gaza, where entire areas are made uninhabitable, is being used again

‘Everything is gone’: Israel destroys entire villages in Lebanon

Friend of mine got publicly harassed on a panel by a comics writer everyone knew was a creeper—to the extent that older female editors would carefully make sure no young women sat next to him in meetings.

When she wrote about her experience, even without naming the guy, she got death threats

growing older is just revisiting your formative memories and going "did kid-me deserve that, or was a grown ass adult just being unfathomably cruel to a child?" and the answer is the same every time

Why MAGA men actually loathe tradwives A new study shows submissive women aren't cherished but are held in contempt

“If you hate your wife, it’s a lot easier to justify exploiting her unpaid labor for your own personal gain." - my take, in this terrific piece from @amandamarcotte.bsky.social on why MAGA men want--but also loathe--"traditional" wives.

www.salon.com/2026/04/08/w...

We are just people who want to live our lives in peace I would just like to go on the record as opposing genocide.

Wrote a quick little essay about my friend in Iran and the dread I feel as my government attacks his country

medium.com/@douglasmack...

💫

Gouache and pencil on aqua board!

"His loss is felt deeply not only by those who knew him here at the University, but also everyone who understands his potential to have contributed to breakthroughs in science that would have positively impacted people around the world." -Dean of Engineering Karen Thole

I do not wish to profit off stolen valor but Claire Wilmot’s article here - about Titus Andronicus, Jeffrey Epstein, and the terrifying efficacy of discrediting accusers - is excellent

LYRIC LOGIC is out in the world now!

4-panel comic. Panel 1: "I'll never know who I might have been if it hadn't happened" Panel 2: "I'm different now, and I can't go back" Panel 3: "But this too is me" Panel 4: "And I don't have to be anyone else"

a couple of quotes i wish i saw when i was 15 or 16--

An illustration of four cats using four gachapon machines lined up next to each other. Toby has a large tote bag full of capsules, Pesto is carrying hers, Wilson is holding a gachapon ball up proudly and Pixel is inserting a coin into a machine. The gachapon prizes are all cat designs. This print is for this month's Shiny Club, part of my patreon.

🌸✨ patreon.com/sarahgraley

Trustfnd | Indie Media Bundle Three creators collaborating.

Newsletter bundle alert—me, @marisakabas.bsky.social, and @katelynburns.com are offering a 1-month trial for 50% off our usual subscription prices! It's a one-time payment, no strings attached. With so many newsletters out there, we wanted to try something new!
trustfnd.com/kattenbarge/...

4-panel comic. Panel 1: "I'm going to try to get everything I want in life" Panel 2: "Maybe I'll succeed, maybe I won't" Panel 3: "But either way, I'm going to love my life and everyone in it, myself included" Panel 4: "I hope you do the same. I hope you get everything you want"

Rooting for all of us, always.

So I'm trying to make the tiktok happen to reach all the book & comic ppl for the comics in the hopes that more readers will be able to find my stuffs, so if you're on there & like my art, why not give a follow? www.tiktok.com/@triaelf9

I can't have a bio link until 1000 & I'm farrrr from that lol

Free Ornamentation II. This work is dedicated to the public domain.

My friend Sama'a has lost so much. She and her family have gone through things we can't imagine in order to survive. Please give what you can to help.

chuffed.org/project/157569

To be completely clear, this was at its worst on Twitter, and in regards to fiction and people who don't have very good boundaries around art. It's gotten less weird over the time I've been away from that platform and people have become critical of this kind of stuff, but it's still in the air

film poster. black text on cream. black panther in the corner. poster reads: Power to the People Y'all. A tressie mcmillan cottom film.

Sign up for updates: linktr.ee/powertothepe...

What Happened to the Black Women Trump Purged From the Federal Work Force? Over a year later, they are struggling to find financial footing and make sense of the racist backlash that displaced them.

"Black women ...comprise 6 percent of the overall U.S. labor force and 12 percent of the federal labor force. But of the almost 300,000 federal jobs slashed in 2025, Black women were a stunning 33 percent of those cuts."

Re Chavez:
Thread for sexual assault survivors/victims (however you see yourself is ok!) and people supporting them today.

Here are some things that I think are useful. I am not an expert, just someone who has been navigating being public about my experiences, including in media interviews. 🧵

A digital drawing of author Maia Kobabe, a white nonbinary person with short brown hair wearing a patterned blue shirt, who scowls while holding up a copy of eir book GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR. Maia is saying: H.R. 7661 is a national book banning bill which seeks to remove any book that "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism" from all public schools in the US. This would ban my books, and any other book with trans themes, from public schools. PLEASE call your House Reps and say: NO ON H.R. 7661!

H.R. 7661 is a national book banning bill which seeks to remove any book that "involves gender dysphoria or transgenderism" from all public schools in the US. This would ban all my books, & any other book with trans themes, from public schools. PLEASE call your House Reps & say: NO ON H.R. 7661!

A Fuller Statement About My Bluesky Posts Let me paint a picture of what it was like to be a woman math major at the University of Chicago circa 2004.

More details and context about what being a woman math major in the early-2000s was like and why it was so damaging here:

cooperativeoverlapping.substack.com/p/a-fuller-s...