Elisabeth M

Writer, artist, anthropologist. Probably definitely autistic. In Corvallis, Oregon.

Art, folklore, music, more—subscribe: https://www.patreon.com/independentpen
See everything I'm up to, at a glance: https://linktr.ee/independentpen

Public Key

npub18amk0w5jppvah3z6mwtnmslktmjv0x3hete5d3ns35dprf5uxu5spx45l3

NIP-05 Address

independentpen_at_mas.to@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsr7am8h2fqskwmc3ddh9eac0m9aex8ngmu4u6xcecg6xs356wrw2gpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds33n2tm

Publishing to

offchain.pub

nos.lol

relay.damus.io

Author Public Key

npub18amk0w5jppvah3z6mwtnmslktmjv0x3hete5d3ns35dprf5uxu5spx45l3

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-06-11 00:30:31 UTC

My fifth grader is going through a wringer, which will surely only increase next year, sixth grade, new school. He's undiagnosed-probably-definitely-autistic with a big tender heart. And certain kids (who used to be friends) are doing little things that cut him to the bone, probably(?) because they know they can get a rise out of him. I know what I did to survive school at his age, but I don't know my strategies were best.
How do you advise your kid so as to minimize normie-inflicted trauma and preserve the availability and tenderness of that beautiful ND heart? What strategies do you advise? How do you prevent hiding, masking, toughening and shame?
#actuallyAutistic #askingAutistics @npub1pce…geep

2026-02-11 20:44:10 UTC

- reply

you? Are you computer?

2026-02-02 05:38:35 UTC

- reply

also an anthropologist! Trained by Franz Boas, the founder of American anthropology, who fought eugenics in the leadup to WW2 when it was considered science and common sense, worked with women before they had the vote, and worked with Black women like Hurston amid the Jim Crow era. As a folklorist, Hurston is one of my heroes. As a novelist too

2026-01-22 19:40:38 UTC

- reply

why are they banning shapes?!

2025-12-24 15:40:52 UTC

Has anyone had laser eye surgery? How did it go?
#pleaseBoost

2025-12-14 15:15:10 UTC

- reply

and also with you 👋

2025-12-09 16:17:59 UTC

- reply

how do you do it?

2025-11-28 17:22:31 UTC

- reply

what's frustrating to me is that I'll remember my conclusions, and I'll know that they are extremely well founded, but I won't remember the details I need to explain to other people why I'm certain or how much it matters. So people don't believe me when I say things. Unless I put in huge effort to memorize key points, and even then sometimes they don't stick! I often feel a bit like the Greek prophet Cassandra

2025-11-28 05:14:45 UTC

- reply

I'm like this too and I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Sort of doubting my whole cognition. And the value of reading or watching things which I won't remember without taking notes. Is the value simply the experience of it in the moment? To what extent is it detrimental not to remember? Is something wrong with me? etc

2025-11-01 21:12:07 UTC

Hello fediverse, can anyone give me a technical deep dive on how the body uses iron? I have a friend with anemia whose iron "storage" is low but iron is high? Lotta specific terms floating around (ferritin, platelets), and the way the Internet summarizes it isn't answering questions about the actual mechanisms involved. Neither is her nurse practitioner. So she wants the deep-in-the-weeds geek explainer.
#pleaseBoost for reach!

2025-09-25 13:21:31 UTC

Stephen Miller talking about waking the dragon with some big Viserys energy

2024-11-03 14:17:49 UTC

- reply

There's a guy in Portland, Oregon who rides around town on a unicycle while playing a bagpipe

2024-10-31 20:10:55 UTC

- reply

Then we did a deep dive on how "othering" works and the many shapes it can take, within and beyond race. They were coming up with great examples! It's encouraging to me to see how receptive to these ideas they are
@npub12wm…pwfj @npub104l…ddda @npub1e4z…xz2t

2024-10-31 20:09:04 UTC

- reply

We framed it with Gravlee's article "How race becomes biology," which argues that on one hand race is a social construct with no genetic basis, but also, social constructs have biological impacts; ie race may be made up, but the consequences of racism are real. So if you want to understand people's experiences in society, you need to understand race, among other things
@npub12wm…pwfj @npub104l…ddda @npub1e4z…xz2t

2024-10-31 14:20:56 UTC

- reply

I teach cultural anthropology to community college students. Last week we debunked the colorblind fallacy together in class; the students were into it!
@npub12wm…pwfj @npub104l…ddda @npub1e4z…xz2t

2024-10-12 17:03:10 UTC

- reply

NEVER DO ANYTHING ANY TIME

2024-09-08 14:12:52 UTC

- reply

Kinda plays into a gendered stereotype about ladies being untechnical; tech is for men. But some of the most tech critical people I know (including total opt-outs) are devs. True believer technophiles tend to be those who don't understand or misunderstand the tech
@npub1vjw…7s9n

2024-09-08 14:01:55 UTC

- reply

That headline is annoying: "men are more likely to turn to tech" makes it sound like women aren't using tech at all. I'm a digital strategist, web builder/admin, and technical writer who doesn't use LLMs; am I someone who doesn't "turn to tech"? Or am I, like a lot of devs and CS people, uninterested in this particular tech because of its particular problems?
@npub1vjw…7s9n

2024-09-03 05:33:33 UTC

- reply

I've been looking for literature that references it specifically, if you know of any
@npub10nd…urdx @npub1j9l…jvxt

2024-09-02 22:33:06 UTC

- reply

When you say the Sapir Whorf hypothesis has been disproven, what are you referring to? ie where in the literature is it rejected?
@npub10nd…urdx @npub1j9l…jvxt

2024-08-07 14:24:53 UTC

- reply

There's a book I've got about the European sailor ballad tradition where women cross-dressed to save the day. Extremely popular vernacular plotline in the, what, 1700s
@npub1whs…vn0x