The Body is the Platform: New Essay on Patreon
Censorship, Labor, and the Networked Body- a continuation of “Anonymous” and the politics of being seen online
Hi everyone,
I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be visible online — especially as a woman, an artist, and someone who has been documenting herself through image and text for over a decade. This month, I published a new essay on my Patreon that explores these themes and the evolving shape of my current work.
It’s a continuation of questions I first began asking in Anonymous (2014), a project that highlighted the intersection of femininity, vulnerability, and violence online. Since then, the platforms have changed — but the gaze hasn’t. It's just become more sanitized, more monetized, and more fragmented.
We’re now living in a time when:
Tumblr once a refuge of artistic freedom — flags and removes classical artworks and censored portraits
OnlyFans has become a survival strategy for many women in unstable industries
Paywalls straddle the line between community and commodification
Hate comments and subs are coming from the same users
Burnout at the cost of trying to remain visible and safe
This new piece weaves together personal history with references to digital labor, feminist theory, and the politics of the body. Here are a few of the thinkers I cite in the full post:
“The invention of the camera changed the way men saw. The visible came to mean something different to them.”
— John Berger, Ways of Seeing“Pain comes unbidden… it is communicated, structured, interpreted, and ultimately turned into language or action.”
— Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain“Glitch is the catalyst. The error that exposes the system. The moment the mask slips.”
— Legacy Russell, Glitch Feminism
In the full essay, I dive into the cyclical nature of digital censorship, the rise of “spicy work” as resistance and survival, and the complexities of self-portraiture when attention itself becomes a kind of currency.
If any of this resonates — if you’ve ever felt trapped between being watched and being erased — I’d love for you to read and engage with the full piece on Patreon:
I'll be sharing more behind-the-scenes writing, image studies, and process notes there over the next few weeks as this project takes shape. I’d love to involve you in that process — your thoughts, feedback, and questions help me build this work more intentionally.
Thanks, as always, for being here.
More soon, from the glitch.
-Lindsay