Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
@pixielauren.bsky.social
Queer & genderqueer. Associate Professor. Creative writer. Backpacker. I teach LGBTQ Studies! 🌈 I'm obsessed with mushrooms & cats. Tiny farm in rural Ohio, USA. 🍀 🍄 🌸
Pinned
Friends it's the end of the semester, so for the academics #academicsky among us, please enjoy this gif that I keep open in a browser tab when I need to remind myself that I'm going to make it through:
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
i make a lot of jokes about the male loneliness crisis and please believe me it's not because i dislike men on an individual or class basis it's just that i dislike revanchist social movements that exploit human compassion to reify gendered hierarchy, rape culture and transphobia
December 4, 2025 at 6:57 PM
i make a lot of jokes about the male loneliness crisis and please believe me it's not because i dislike men on an individual or class basis it's just that i dislike revanchist social movements that exploit human compassion to reify gendered hierarchy, rape culture and transphobia
Friends it's the end of the semester, so for the academics #academicsky among us, please enjoy this gif that I keep open in a browser tab when I need to remind myself that I'm going to make it through:
December 3, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Friends it's the end of the semester, so for the academics #academicsky among us, please enjoy this gif that I keep open in a browser tab when I need to remind myself that I'm going to make it through:
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
in reality i think ONLY trans people should be teachers
December 2, 2025 at 9:26 PM
in reality i think ONLY trans people should be teachers
You could NOT POSSIBLY get more dystopian than asking AI to "look for authenticity" in a human person 😐
December 2, 2025 at 4:21 PM
You could NOT POSSIBLY get more dystopian than asking AI to "look for authenticity" in a human person 😐
University of Oklahoma's response to a trans instructor having the audacity to ... teach in their subject area !!! ... has me thinking about this.
Academic folks who don't teach gender studies ought to listen. We're the canaries in the coal mine, and if we fall, you're surely next.
Academic folks who don't teach gender studies ought to listen. We're the canaries in the coal mine, and if we fall, you're surely next.
“The university is under attack because gender studies is under attack, and if universities don’t stand up to this infringement on academic freedom now, it is not just gender studies that will be lost, but all free and open inquiry.”
— Laurie Essig, in a new post for AAUP’s Academe Blog
— Laurie Essig, in a new post for AAUP’s Academe Blog
December 2, 2025 at 2:03 AM
University of Oklahoma's response to a trans instructor having the audacity to ... teach in their subject area !!! ... has me thinking about this.
Academic folks who don't teach gender studies ought to listen. We're the canaries in the coal mine, and if we fall, you're surely next.
Academic folks who don't teach gender studies ought to listen. We're the canaries in the coal mine, and if we fall, you're surely next.
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
Within just a few hours of getting this feedback, the student *emailed the fucking governor*. Her mom is all over Xitter posting like mad. I mean, are you new here? This coordinated RW attack is a pattern, and if you aren't paying attention to this context, I can't take you seriously. Do better.
December 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Within just a few hours of getting this feedback, the student *emailed the fucking governor*. Her mom is all over Xitter posting like mad. I mean, are you new here? This coordinated RW attack is a pattern, and if you aren't paying attention to this context, I can't take you seriously. Do better.
LITERALLY THIS.
a lot of people debating the merits of that dogshit essay meanwhile the girl’s mom is retweeting demands to ban all trans people from teaching at any level. it’s forest for the trees shit
December 2, 2025 at 1:18 AM
LITERALLY THIS.
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
“AI is clearly sticking around so you have to get used to it” wrong. I don’t have to get used to shit. I am a practiced hater and I can keep this going for decades if I am required to
December 1, 2025 at 11:29 PM
“AI is clearly sticking around so you have to get used to it” wrong. I don’t have to get used to shit. I am a practiced hater and I can keep this going for decades if I am required to
YES! I want my students to be different people at the end of the semester! YES, I have a worldview that I bring into the classroom. YES, I hope I am shaping hearts and minds!
University administrators have been 100 percent cowardly in their inability to defend this kind of teaching.
University administrators have been 100 percent cowardly in their inability to defend this kind of teaching.
Instead of the stupid "We're not indoctrinating students, we can't even get them to do the reading *laughs on twitter*", we should have said "Yes, ideas are powerful and transformative, education is a form of soulcraft, and we're here to defend our vision of a just society."
December 1, 2025 at 4:24 AM
YES! I want my students to be different people at the end of the semester! YES, I have a worldview that I bring into the classroom. YES, I hope I am shaping hearts and minds!
University administrators have been 100 percent cowardly in their inability to defend this kind of teaching.
University administrators have been 100 percent cowardly in their inability to defend this kind of teaching.
I named my fists Benson and Stabler because they take sex offenders off the streets
I named my fists Chekhov and Gun because you know they're coming but you don't know when
i named my fists Rodgers and Hammerstein cuz theyre always in my own little corner
December 1, 2025 at 3:31 AM
I named my fists Benson and Stabler because they take sex offenders off the streets
Serious question: What does "religious freedom" have to do with anything? It is IRRELEVANT in the classroom.
Student can pray all day if she wants. She can go to church six times a day. But course assignments are NOT the place to say what you think god told you about anything. For f*ck's sake 🤐
Student can pray all day if she wants. She can go to church six times a day. But course assignments are NOT the place to say what you think god told you about anything. For f*ck's sake 🤐
JFC Oklahoma you fuckin cowards. Now every Jesus-freak right-wing student who can't get a passing grade for a bunch of bible quotes masquerading as an essay is going to file a 1st amendment complaint. You gonna suspend the whole Biology department for teaching about evolution? (Don't answer that)
OU has put the professor here on administrative leave:
December 1, 2025 at 3:12 AM
Serious question: What does "religious freedom" have to do with anything? It is IRRELEVANT in the classroom.
Student can pray all day if she wants. She can go to church six times a day. But course assignments are NOT the place to say what you think god told you about anything. For f*ck's sake 🤐
Student can pray all day if she wants. She can go to church six times a day. But course assignments are NOT the place to say what you think god told you about anything. For f*ck's sake 🤐
The reason it's important to remind enlisted regular military folks NOT to obey illegal orders is that Hegseth is out here gloating about war crimes -- but he's protected by Trump. He's not gonna go down for this.
If I were the guy who pushed that button I'd be terrified right now.
If I were the guy who pushed that button I'd be terrified right now.
December 1, 2025 at 3:03 AM
The reason it's important to remind enlisted regular military folks NOT to obey illegal orders is that Hegseth is out here gloating about war crimes -- but he's protected by Trump. He's not gonna go down for this.
If I were the guy who pushed that button I'd be terrified right now.
If I were the guy who pushed that button I'd be terrified right now.
I MEAN 🧐
There’s just nothing left of a university’s mission if instructors can be disciplined and fired for teaching the current state of knowledge in their fields, the degrees they issue are worth precisely the value of the paper they’re printed on and not a jot more
December 1, 2025 at 2:52 AM
I MEAN 🧐
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
“Based on the available evidence, the skills that future graduates will most need in the AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.”
“When you allow a machine to summarize your reading, to generate the ideas for your essay, and then to write that essay, you’re not learning how to read, think, or write.“
November 30, 2025 at 11:10 AM
“Based on the available evidence, the skills that future graduates will most need in the AI era—creative thinking, the capacity to learn new things, flexible modes of analysis—are precisely those that are likely to be eroded by inserting AI into the educational process.”
Also a reminder: Louis CK's "apology" contains neither the phrase "I'm sorry" nor the phrase "I apologize."
What you WILL find in the "apology" is the word "dick" twice (i.e., he wants women readers to think about his dick!), and SCORES of sentences about how much his victims "admired" him !!! 🤬
What you WILL find in the "apology" is the word "dick" twice (i.e., he wants women readers to think about his dick!), and SCORES of sentences about how much his victims "admired" him !!! 🤬
Since Louis CK is in the news again, it's worth restating that he never gave an honest accounting of his sexual misconduct—his initial "apology" and his subsequent statements have been contradicted by the testimony of his victims, and contained elisions and gaps intended to exonerate him.
November 29, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Also a reminder: Louis CK's "apology" contains neither the phrase "I'm sorry" nor the phrase "I apologize."
What you WILL find in the "apology" is the word "dick" twice (i.e., he wants women readers to think about his dick!), and SCORES of sentences about how much his victims "admired" him !!! 🤬
What you WILL find in the "apology" is the word "dick" twice (i.e., he wants women readers to think about his dick!), and SCORES of sentences about how much his victims "admired" him !!! 🤬
Wading into the important conversation started by @jesbattis.bsky.social and being continued by others.
I teach at a state university and I've lucked into the best gig: I teach LGBTQ Studies. Students in my classroom or in my LGBTQ Studies minor program WANT to be there.
1/?
I teach at a state university and I've lucked into the best gig: I teach LGBTQ Studies. Students in my classroom or in my LGBTQ Studies minor program WANT to be there.
1/?
But if you’re replying to this by saying that *your* students are interested in learning, you’re missing the point. We *all* have students interested in learning. This is not a critique of student morality or intelligence. It’s a critique of institutional (ultimately, social) norms and expectations.
November 29, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Wading into the important conversation started by @jesbattis.bsky.social and being continued by others.
I teach at a state university and I've lucked into the best gig: I teach LGBTQ Studies. Students in my classroom or in my LGBTQ Studies minor program WANT to be there.
1/?
I teach at a state university and I've lucked into the best gig: I teach LGBTQ Studies. Students in my classroom or in my LGBTQ Studies minor program WANT to be there.
1/?
The PEOPLE are fighting ♥️
The institutions are folding.
The elites are collaborating.
The people are fighting.
You want hope? It's that. You want to wake up to why we're here? Start there. You want to know why radicals refuse to give up? That's why.
There is a world elsewhere. 🏴
The elites are collaborating.
The people are fighting.
You want hope? It's that. You want to wake up to why we're here? Start there. You want to know why radicals refuse to give up? That's why.
There is a world elsewhere. 🏴
November 29, 2025 at 12:57 AM
The PEOPLE are fighting ♥️
Introduce yourself with five animals you have seen in the wild:
Luna moth, gray treefrog, copperhead snake, Acadian Flycatcher, fisher (weasel or otter type of guy) ♥️
Luna moth, gray treefrog, copperhead snake, Acadian Flycatcher, fisher (weasel or otter type of guy) ♥️
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you have seen in the wild:
Black bear
Deer
Grey seal
New England cottontail rabbit
Orca
Black bear
Deer
Grey seal
New England cottontail rabbit
Orca
Only 5 huh... Here's 5 I've seen in our yard:
Deer
Owls (3 different ones!)
Fox
Raccoons (of course)
Douglas Squirrel
(SO many kinds of birds, could be a whole nother list!)
* we live in the woods, our yard is as wild as anyone could need it to be
Deer
Owls (3 different ones!)
Fox
Raccoons (of course)
Douglas Squirrel
(SO many kinds of birds, could be a whole nother list!)
* we live in the woods, our yard is as wild as anyone could need it to be
November 28, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Introduce yourself with five animals you have seen in the wild:
Luna moth, gray treefrog, copperhead snake, Acadian Flycatcher, fisher (weasel or otter type of guy) ♥️
Luna moth, gray treefrog, copperhead snake, Acadian Flycatcher, fisher (weasel or otter type of guy) ♥️
We have to use every tool available to us - including our dollars. This Black Friday and weekend @blackvotersmatterfund.org asks you to join “We Ain’t Buyin’ It!” to send a message to Trump’s corporate enablers. Learn more about the companies targeted in this campaign here: weaintbuyingit.com
November 28, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
The "Larry Summers complained to Jeffrey Epstein that MeToo went too far" and "Olivia Nuzzi committed crimes on behalf of the fascist she masturbated with while reporting on him" are the same story: American elites have no ideology other than "I should be untouchable." Society is run by empty husks
November 28, 2025 at 1:50 PM
The "Larry Summers complained to Jeffrey Epstein that MeToo went too far" and "Olivia Nuzzi committed crimes on behalf of the fascist she masturbated with while reporting on him" are the same story: American elites have no ideology other than "I should be untouchable." Society is run by empty husks
Muting the word "turkey" for the day so I don't have to look at your dead meat carcasses thanks 🙄
November 28, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Muting the word "turkey" for the day so I don't have to look at your dead meat carcasses thanks 🙄
THIS IS THE BATTLE THAT MUST BE FOUGHT AND WON.
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 25, 2025 at 3:14 AM
THIS IS THE BATTLE THAT MUST BE FOUGHT AND WON.
Holy fucking shit, Zuckerburg is SO FUCKING EVIL
November 24, 2025 at 3:04 AM
Holy fucking shit, Zuckerburg is SO FUCKING EVIL
It was a bit more than a week ago that Donald Trump said "Quiet, piggy" to a reporter.
I really do not think anyone should have moved on from that.
Media, journalists, politicians, anybody with a voice or a platform: why have you moved on?
1/2
I really do not think anyone should have moved on from that.
Media, journalists, politicians, anybody with a voice or a platform: why have you moved on?
1/2
November 23, 2025 at 11:39 PM
It was a bit more than a week ago that Donald Trump said "Quiet, piggy" to a reporter.
I really do not think anyone should have moved on from that.
Media, journalists, politicians, anybody with a voice or a platform: why have you moved on?
1/2
I really do not think anyone should have moved on from that.
Media, journalists, politicians, anybody with a voice or a platform: why have you moved on?
1/2
Reposted by Lauren Merry Vale (they/she)
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.
November 23, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I don't understand how anyone can watch how blatantly Grok is manipulated to answer the way ownership desires it to and then act like the other LLM chatbots couldn't possibly be similarly but less obviously compromised to produce responses in whatever way corporate interests and priorities dictate.