VOX LAID OF EMILY ST JAMES?!

EMILY?!

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME

JOURNALISM IS HELL JOURNALISM IS HELL JOURNALISM IS HELL

i gotta talk more about why i am so fucking furious

emily st. james has been THE media critic, gunning for underdog media, since the early days of the AV club before the g/o merger. remember how the AV club used to do episode by episode reviews as tv shows would come out and then everywhere else started to do it? THAT'S EMILY. THAT WAS EMILY!!! she's one of the main reasons Community is considered a classic! she was the one telling us to watch it! she was THE FIRST tv editor there!

in the last few years she started working at Vox. she rose in the ranks quickly because she's fucking brilliant. her work is not without flaws, but it is so real, so earnest, so filled with a genuine genuine love of art -- and specifically art made for the masses, which so many other critics look down on!

she takes discussions about pop media SERIOUSLY. she cares so much about art, how we consume it, and what it says about us. she cares about capitalism sapping the art out of art and begs us to not become complacent about it.

and while working at vox, she came out as a trans woman. sorry for the self link here but i was EXTREMELY HONORED. EXTREMELY HONORED. to be able to interview her about her coming out. which then led to me coming out. (Different surname used then.)

Emily then went on to talk about culture overall, and wrote some of THE most important pieces on trans life and liberation.

im not saying that this firing was specifically because Emily is trans. i TRULY do not know enough about vox and ive only ever written for vox-owned polygon, which was mostly very good to me, even as a freelancer.

but i can say that trans journalism is dying and the journalism industry is killing us. back in 2018, 2019, it felt like we were finally getting jobs and being listened to. we could write about things other than trans issues -- but we were also being trusted to give our views on trans issues without being labeled as "not objective enough" while literal transphobes got to write about us instead.

but the churn of capitalism kept churning. and investors don't like trans people speaking. and cis editors don't like mouthy trans journalists who get mad just because they platformed and paid a widdle terf.

i know maybe... maybe three trans journalists who were working back then who are still working. more at autostraddle and other specifically queer pubs, i guess. but this is just. a slap in the face.

laying off Emily, one of the single most important media journalists of my lifetime, is absurd. it's ridiculous. and with more and more trans journalists looking for any kind of work, even with the most nightmarish working conditions, and ESPECIALLY during some of the most violent and horrific anti-trans legislation i have ever seen -- it's just irresponsible. it's reprehensible. im fucking furious.

oh and also?

SHE'S LITERALLY ON MATERNITY LEAVE RIGHT NOW.

…what in the absolute fuck