The Mezzanine

The Receipts: An Audit of Fetlife's Sanctioned Slurs and Continued Demand for Decency.

TW: Discussion of Transphobic Slurs (as currently sanctioned within Fetlife).

An Open Letter To the Fetlife Administration

Six weeks ago, I published The T-Slur: A Demand For Human Decency and Community Management, calling on Fetlife's institutional sanctioning of transphobic slurs- specifically "tranny" and "shemale"- in public-facing groups. In response, Fetlife removed these terms from their search engine. They also quietly suppressed the reach of the person who demanded they do so. The original writing is no longer searchable on this website.

That is a step. But it is a half-measure that obscures the deeper rot.

Fetlife also attached a community note to my original writing, stating that they do not act on these words when trans people use them to refer to themselves. This defense is a deflection. These groups and fetish tags are not self-referential. They are categories built into site architecture that anyone can adopt. The community note's defense does not apply here. It shifts the blame onto the victimized community itself- onto trans individuals- and completely ignores the reality of who is building, curating, and consuming these spaces. It ignores the real-world harm these slurs bring our already struggling community. It ignores how these words are commodified as platform-sanctioned categories of fetishization.

To prove this I have spent the last six weeks doing the administrative community management that Fetlife's paid staff has refused to do.

I have meticulously audited this platform.

The Receipts

I have gathered a list of nearly 500 official fetish tags listed on this website as well as 13 groups. Tags and groups that are hard-coded into the site's architecture and available for anyone to add to their profile. These tags and groups all contain the words "tranny" and "shemale" and are viewable within my profile where I have contained them.

These 494 tags and 13 groups are not instances of nuanced personal reclamation. They are institutional infrastructure. They actively facilitate a space where trans bodies are reduced to fetishized objects consumed largely by a cisgender audience. Fetlife's defense implies these tags represent personal reclamation. Out of every tag I audited, only one fits this description and I have added that to my profile as well: “Don’t call me a fucking shemale.” That makes 495 total listed. Fetlife’s defense accounts for 0.2% of reality.

This is the dehumanization that bleeds into the real world. Trans people filmed in locker rooms. These slurs are weapons. These slurs get people killed.

Subverting my own image: Part II

Accompanying this writing is another piece of my censored photography. However, this image is overlaid with a transparency made entirely of screenshots of all 494 of those platform-sanctioned fetishes.

Look at it. Look at the sheer volume of degradation you have coded into your site. It literally obscures and talks over the humanity beneath it. I am once again disrupting the consumption of my art with the very language Fetlife refuses to moderate.

As cultural curators, I demand you end this dehumanization against my community.

The Demand

I did the work for you. One of the most vulnerable individuals degraded by this language took the time to sift through the filth you refuse to confront. Now I've brought it to you. 13 groups containing tranny and shemale, as well as 494 fetishes listed publicly on this site for anybody cisgender or not to add to their profile. Weapons of our dehumanization utilized against us under the guise of free speech.

I collected the data, I audited the fetish tags, and I am handing you the exact, undeniable proof of the hostility you foster. I have carried this up the mountain and placed it at the edge of the volcano.

Do not be Isildur. Do not look at the undeniable harm in your hands and choose to keep it. Cast it into the fire. Purge these 13 groups and 494 tags from your database.

The Ultimatum

Today is March 31, 2026 - The Trans Day of Visibility. This was the deadline I set six weeks ago for a formal policy rollout restricting these slurs in community-facing metadata. Hiding them from the search bar while leaving 494 fetish tags and 13 groups intact is a failure to meet that demand.

My final deadline remains unchanged. My course of action, however, has.

November 20, 2026 - The Trans Day of Remembrance: If the infrastructure supporting these slurs has not been fully dismantled by this date, I will delete close to 2,750 images and 69 writings from my profile. Every photograph. Every piece of art. Every diary. Every rope lesson. Everything that made this profile worth visiting. What will remain are two writings, the censored protest images, the 13 groups, and the 494 fetish tags I cataloged. An indictment, and nothing else.

I refuse to lend my artistic and personal value to a website that considers my identity a slur.

Miranda Flowers, previously known by the stage name of Linzy19, Hereby Claims Her Visibility on March 31, 2026.