Tess (is abominable) Tanenbaum
@mothmother.com
Neurospicy disabled anarchist trans lady, making music, stories, poetry, and trouble. Recovering academic. 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Patreon: patreon.com/MothMotherTess
Moth Mother Studios: MothMother.com/
Consulting: TessTanen.com
Everything Else: linktr.ee/MothMother
Patreon: patreon.com/MothMotherTess
Moth Mother Studios: MothMother.com/
Consulting: TessTanen.com
Everything Else: linktr.ee/MothMother
Pinned
New Introduction post! I'm Tess! I'm a disabled, queer, trans, neurospicy, musician, producer, game maker & poet! I run Moth Mother studios: an 800 sq/ft. music production studio in Central Illinois.
Currently making audiodrama, audiobooks & trouble & always looking for gigs & collaborators.
Currently making audiodrama, audiobooks & trouble & always looking for gigs & collaborators.
Holy shit, yes! This! This is what I'm fucking saying! They are SO outnumbered! They are SO disliked! The entire basis for their "power" is a consensus that the arbitrary computer numbers they have accumulated have more value than the collective labor of humanity. We don't have to let them matter!
You know society wouldn't even skip a beat if we arrested all the billionaires tomorrow, right? They're not adding anything to society. They're provably taking everything away. Everybody could keep on doing the same thing that they're doing now and things would immediately start to get better...
February 9, 2026 at 7:51 AM
Holy shit, yes! This! This is what I'm fucking saying! They are SO outnumbered! They are SO disliked! The entire basis for their "power" is a consensus that the arbitrary computer numbers they have accumulated have more value than the collective labor of humanity. We don't have to let them matter!
On Staying Too Long
My heart is so big and clumsy
and awkward to maneuver
and even when I put my back into
steering into the turn
it is slow to come around
able to only gradually change direction
in long graceful parabolas
My heart is so big and clumsy
and awkward to maneuver
and even when I put my back into
steering into the turn
it is slow to come around
able to only gradually change direction
in long graceful parabolas
February 9, 2026 at 7:15 AM
On Staying Too Long
My heart is so big and clumsy
and awkward to maneuver
and even when I put my back into
steering into the turn
it is slow to come around
able to only gradually change direction
in long graceful parabolas
My heart is so big and clumsy
and awkward to maneuver
and even when I put my back into
steering into the turn
it is slow to come around
able to only gradually change direction
in long graceful parabolas
Reposted by Tess (is abominable) Tanenbaum
The fact that life goes on despite the incompetence and violence of the supposed rulers and their enforcers is evidence that life can go on even better without them. When people act together in community, keeping out that violent system from above, we make miracles for each other.
the empire is weak & largely run by the nepobabies of oligarchs with generational wealth.
America clings to power through horrible violence as it plunders the rest of the world. Now that same violence & pillaging is coming home to roost in the imperial core.
this often happens as an empire dies.
America clings to power through horrible violence as it plunders the rest of the world. Now that same violence & pillaging is coming home to roost in the imperial core.
this often happens as an empire dies.
February 9, 2026 at 12:44 AM
The fact that life goes on despite the incompetence and violence of the supposed rulers and their enforcers is evidence that life can go on even better without them. When people act together in community, keeping out that violent system from above, we make miracles for each other.
The only thing that's real in human society is people. The only thing that matters is people. The only reason to care about something is because of people. The only source of meaning is people.
Trying to replace People with AI is a nihilistic, eschatological, genocidal, project.
Trying to replace People with AI is a nihilistic, eschatological, genocidal, project.
February 8, 2026 at 7:47 PM
The only thing that's real in human society is people. The only thing that matters is people. The only reason to care about something is because of people. The only source of meaning is people.
Trying to replace People with AI is a nihilistic, eschatological, genocidal, project.
Trying to replace People with AI is a nihilistic, eschatological, genocidal, project.
Reposted by Tess (is abominable) Tanenbaum
IF I SHIT MYSELF EVERY MINUTE, AND YOU ONLY POOP ONCE A DAY, WHO IS GOING TO WIN?
I'm going to win.
February 8, 2026 at 2:20 PM
IF I SHIT MYSELF EVERY MINUTE, AND YOU ONLY POOP ONCE A DAY, WHO IS GOING TO WIN?
I was doing research on obscure Yōkai for a section of my book and found a website that seemed like a good resource...until I got to an entry on a specific demon and found it illustrated with AI slop with a "Grok" watermark.
BARF!🤢🤮 Absolutely NOTHING undermines a source's credibility faster.
Ugh!
BARF!🤢🤮 Absolutely NOTHING undermines a source's credibility faster.
Ugh!
February 8, 2026 at 6:44 PM
I was doing research on obscure Yōkai for a section of my book and found a website that seemed like a good resource...until I got to an entry on a specific demon and found it illustrated with AI slop with a "Grok" watermark.
BARF!🤢🤮 Absolutely NOTHING undermines a source's credibility faster.
Ugh!
BARF!🤢🤮 Absolutely NOTHING undermines a source's credibility faster.
Ugh!
Reposted by Tess (is abominable) Tanenbaum
I worked this metaphor out as it relates to our politics in a thread this time last year, and it's only become more relevant since then:
bsky.app/profile/moth...
bsky.app/profile/moth...
This feels like a moment to talk about the difference between "players: "cheaters" and "spoilsports":
Players try to win by following the rules.
Cheaters try to win by breaking the rules.
Spoilsports don't want to win, they just want to ruin the game for everyone else.
Players try to win by following the rules.
Cheaters try to win by breaking the rules.
Spoilsports don't want to win, they just want to ruin the game for everyone else.
When I was a Hill staffer in 2009, a Dem trifecta was trying to pass universal healthcare. In response, Senate GOP released a memo detailing all of the tactics they in the minority could use to delay the effort as much as possible. I'm recirculating that 2009 GOP memo here. Take inspiration from it.
February 8, 2026 at 6:02 PM
I worked this metaphor out as it relates to our politics in a thread this time last year, and it's only become more relevant since then:
bsky.app/profile/moth...
bsky.app/profile/moth...
Have I mentioned lately how much I fucking LOVE working with my homemade ink! There's something about working with it that speaks to me at a deep level. It smells good, it moves with water, it lifts, it sculpts, it blends.... it's just unlike any other medium I know!
www.cauldronfirestudios.com
www.cauldronfirestudios.com
February 8, 2026 at 5:18 PM
Have I mentioned lately how much I fucking LOVE working with my homemade ink! There's something about working with it that speaks to me at a deep level. It smells good, it moves with water, it lifts, it sculpts, it blends.... it's just unlike any other medium I know!
www.cauldronfirestudios.com
www.cauldronfirestudios.com
Reposted by Tess (is abominable) Tanenbaum
Going through old documents & files today & stumbled upon the draft of an essay arguing that "Father & Son" by Cat Stevens is actually much better if you understand it as a conversation where a trans girl comes out to her dad (who can't see her for who she is) & now I'm going to inflict it on you.
🧵
🧵
February 7, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Going through old documents & files today & stumbled upon the draft of an essay arguing that "Father & Son" by Cat Stevens is actually much better if you understand it as a conversation where a trans girl comes out to her dad (who can't see her for who she is) & now I'm going to inflict it on you.
🧵
🧵
Going through old documents & files today & stumbled upon the draft of an essay arguing that "Father & Son" by Cat Stevens is actually much better if you understand it as a conversation where a trans girl comes out to her dad (who can't see her for who she is) & now I'm going to inflict it on you.
🧵
🧵
February 7, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Going through old documents & files today & stumbled upon the draft of an essay arguing that "Father & Son" by Cat Stevens is actually much better if you understand it as a conversation where a trans girl comes out to her dad (who can't see her for who she is) & now I'm going to inflict it on you.
🧵
🧵
I'm writing poems about you to quarantine my feelings
so that they don't infect how I love
anyone else
so that they don't infect how I love
anyone else
February 7, 2026 at 9:37 PM
I'm writing poems about you to quarantine my feelings
so that they don't infect how I love
anyone else
so that they don't infect how I love
anyone else
the closet almost killed me
even if my seeking death
looked like a failure to
care for a body that
I couldn't bear to be trapped within
even if the listed cause
would have been pancreatitis
& my obituary would have mourned
a dead father & husband
I'd have been another
unrecorded
trans suicide
even if my seeking death
looked like a failure to
care for a body that
I couldn't bear to be trapped within
even if the listed cause
would have been pancreatitis
& my obituary would have mourned
a dead father & husband
I'd have been another
unrecorded
trans suicide
Furthermore these figures are underestimates. If Alice had died at her first OD her death wouldn’t have been recorded as a trans death. How many other child suicides are deaths of trans people who’ve not yet come out to hostile family or came out and were abused, with their identity denied in death?
Thank you GLP for exposing Appleby’s report, a report the UK government repeatedly used to accuse trans people, and those that love them, of exaggerating and thereby ⬆️ the risk of suicide in trans people.
Removing health care ⬆️ risk. Abuse ⬆️ risk. Conversion practices ⬆️ risk. Gaslighting ⬆️ risk.
Removing health care ⬆️ risk. Abuse ⬆️ risk. Conversion practices ⬆️ risk. Gaslighting ⬆️ risk.
February 7, 2026 at 3:40 PM
the closet almost killed me
even if my seeking death
looked like a failure to
care for a body that
I couldn't bear to be trapped within
even if the listed cause
would have been pancreatitis
& my obituary would have mourned
a dead father & husband
I'd have been another
unrecorded
trans suicide
even if my seeking death
looked like a failure to
care for a body that
I couldn't bear to be trapped within
even if the listed cause
would have been pancreatitis
& my obituary would have mourned
a dead father & husband
I'd have been another
unrecorded
trans suicide
transphobes will tie themselves in knots so long as they can keep being transphobic. because clearly the outcome of Wright's argument is to mandate genetic testing of all people for intersex conditions & then forcibly transition them socially & medically if their genetics misalign with their gender.
Most people can go their entire lives without realizing they're intersex. So Colin wants someone born and raised female to suddenly abandon her entire identity in her twenties when they get a chromosome test for sports despite having female genitalia as well?
None of this makes any sense.
None of this makes any sense.
February 7, 2026 at 9:24 AM
transphobes will tie themselves in knots so long as they can keep being transphobic. because clearly the outcome of Wright's argument is to mandate genetic testing of all people for intersex conditions & then forcibly transition them socially & medically if their genetics misalign with their gender.
Autocorrect just tried to change "transgender" to "transferal" and I just want to know who told...
February 7, 2026 at 5:22 AM
Autocorrect just tried to change "transgender" to "transferal" and I just want to know who told...
I'm turning 47 in March and I support this message!
February 7, 2026 at 5:20 AM
I'm turning 47 in March and I support this message!
Finished painting the creepy crawly! These little guys scuttle up your body with their many legs, wrap their tentacles around your neck, lamprey onto your face with their mouths & stick their ovapositor claws in your ears. Then the eyestalks rotate around & they pilot your body as their eggs mature.
February 7, 2026 at 3:49 AM
Finished painting the creepy crawly! These little guys scuttle up your body with their many legs, wrap their tentacles around your neck, lamprey onto your face with their mouths & stick their ovapositor claws in your ears. Then the eyestalks rotate around & they pilot your body as their eggs mature.
Me chatting with @faithfalkner.com this afternoon: "My mid 40s are the age where I've gotten SERIOUS OPINIONS about enemas and bowel clean-out procedures, and I feel like there should have been a pamphlet about that."
"YOUR BODY IS CHANGING! HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT!"
"YOUR BODY IS CHANGING! HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT!"
February 7, 2026 at 12:02 AM
Me chatting with @faithfalkner.com this afternoon: "My mid 40s are the age where I've gotten SERIOUS OPINIONS about enemas and bowel clean-out procedures, and I feel like there should have been a pamphlet about that."
"YOUR BODY IS CHANGING! HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT!"
"YOUR BODY IS CHANGING! HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT!"
I will have at least five of these print versions of Abominations available (although I might print more if they're popular), each signed with an original, unique, piece of art available in the black walnut ink.
What's a fair price? $20? $30?
Is that something that folks would be interested in?
What's a fair price? $20? $30?
Is that something that folks would be interested in?
February 6, 2026 at 1:13 PM
I will have at least five of these print versions of Abominations available (although I might print more if they're popular), each signed with an original, unique, piece of art available in the black walnut ink.
What's a fair price? $20? $30?
Is that something that folks would be interested in?
What's a fair price? $20? $30?
Is that something that folks would be interested in?
Still drawing creepy crawlies, despite not having any specific project in mind for them. I've got the entire life cycle for this little guy worked out in my mind.
(still a work in progress, but having too much fun to not share!)
(still a work in progress, but having too much fun to not share!)
February 6, 2026 at 5:03 AM
Still drawing creepy crawlies, despite not having any specific project in mind for them. I've got the entire life cycle for this little guy worked out in my mind.
(still a work in progress, but having too much fun to not share!)
(still a work in progress, but having too much fun to not share!)
Reposted by Tess (is abominable) Tanenbaum
I left a blank page at the back. I'm considering making a limited number of signed print versions available with a unique original drawing in the back of each. Spent some time today doing a trial piece, and it's NOT EASY to draw with ink on the glossy cover paper!
February 6, 2026 at 1:13 AM
I left a blank page at the back. I'm considering making a limited number of signed print versions available with a unique original drawing in the back of each. Spent some time today doing a trial piece, and it's NOT EASY to draw with ink on the glossy cover paper!
I left a blank page at the back. I'm considering making a limited number of signed print versions available with a unique original drawing in the back of each. Spent some time today doing a trial piece, and it's NOT EASY to draw with ink on the glossy cover paper!
February 6, 2026 at 1:13 AM
I left a blank page at the back. I'm considering making a limited number of signed print versions available with a unique original drawing in the back of each. Spent some time today doing a trial piece, and it's NOT EASY to draw with ink on the glossy cover paper!
I printed a very small number of chapbooks and it's so cool to hold this thing in my hands after years of writing, and planning, and prepping it!! I'm so excited about how everything looks!
February 6, 2026 at 1:08 AM
I printed a very small number of chapbooks and it's so cool to hold this thing in my hands after years of writing, and planning, and prepping it!! I'm so excited about how everything looks!
"Fuck!" I shouted as the klaxon went off and the red BREACH lights flashed. "Quick, Smelda, hide the craft rules! frivolousgirl_ has caught up to us again!"
Smelda went ashen. "We must have a mole! There's no other explanation!"
I nodded grimly. "Agreed. Without these babies—" I patted the...
Smelda went ashen. "We must have a mole! There's no other explanation!"
I nodded grimly. "Agreed. Without these babies—" I patted the...
fell victim to one of the classic blunders (opening threads) and was immediately subjected to whatever the fuck this is
February 5, 2026 at 11:07 AM
"Fuck!" I shouted as the klaxon went off and the red BREACH lights flashed. "Quick, Smelda, hide the craft rules! frivolousgirl_ has caught up to us again!"
Smelda went ashen. "We must have a mole! There's no other explanation!"
I nodded grimly. "Agreed. Without these babies—" I patted the...
Smelda went ashen. "We must have a mole! There's no other explanation!"
I nodded grimly. "Agreed. Without these babies—" I patted the...
Y'all...I...I don't get it!
This...this...isn't a real number right!?
*incoherent gay poet noises*
This...this...isn't a real number right!?
*incoherent gay poet noises*
February 5, 2026 at 4:26 AM
Y'all...I...I don't get it!
This...this...isn't a real number right!?
*incoherent gay poet noises*
This...this...isn't a real number right!?
*incoherent gay poet noises*
I started writing a poem a night in 2022 because I wanted to stay in touch with my girlfriend on the other side of the planet.
Now, years later, the girl and I are broken up, and much of what I wrote to her will never be read again.
But these poems live on.
(a 🧵)
tesstanen.itch.io/abominations
Now, years later, the girl and I are broken up, and much of what I wrote to her will never be read again.
But these poems live on.
(a 🧵)
tesstanen.itch.io/abominations
Abominations by Moth Mother
Poems of Feminine Monstrosity, Transformation, & Horror
tesstanen.itch.io
February 4, 2026 at 2:16 PM
I started writing a poem a night in 2022 because I wanted to stay in touch with my girlfriend on the other side of the planet.
Now, years later, the girl and I are broken up, and much of what I wrote to her will never be read again.
But these poems live on.
(a 🧵)
tesstanen.itch.io/abominations
Now, years later, the girl and I are broken up, and much of what I wrote to her will never be read again.
But these poems live on.
(a 🧵)
tesstanen.itch.io/abominations