A Killjoy Primer: TikTok, Transphobia, and the Art of Killing Joy

How often do you actually sit down and think about the technology you use everyday? I certainly never used to. I would watch TV, flip through Instagram, and mindlessly scroll TikTok without a care in the world.

Sarah Ahmed is a feminist philosopher and activist whose feminist / social justice killjoy framework is greatly concerned with our capacity to notice the world around us, to recognize and call out injustice, and to engage in the world more critically and joyfully as a result.

"Not being conscious of something might be how we have learnt to put up with it. Consciousness of things can thus change them" (Ahmed, 2024).

"Technology is not neutral. We're inside of what we make, and it's inside of us. We're living in a world of connections — and it matters which ones get made and unmade." (Donna Haraway)

My consciousness of technology grew as I learned about the different ways that bias becomes built into the systems we rely on. One of these lessons came from a Media Matters article which explored how interactions with transphobic content led users toward increasingly radical content.

We often think that our technology is neutral, but this isn't the case. Humans are at the centre of the creation of our technologies, from designing vehicles to algorithms. Therefore, we have human bias to contend with.

Algorithms–simply defined—are the set of rules that are coded into the digital technologies we use in our everyday lives.

Safiya Noble's Algorithms of Oppression discusses how algorithms reproduce gender and racial inequality across different types of technologies, particularly in the case of Black women and girls (2018). They argue the importance of "situating racism, sexism, and classism within broader social and historical frameworks to understand 'that algorithmic oppression is not just a glitch in the system but, rather, is fundamental to the operating system of the web.'" (Noble, 2018, p. 10; Pilon, 2024, pp. 3–4).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG_X_7g63rY

Learn about algorithms and the "coded gaze" with Joy Buolamwini

TikTok as a Site of Algorithmic Power

TikTok is a popular social media platform, designed for short-form video sharing. Since its release in 2016, the platform has evolved, with the length and range of content increasing.

The site is known for its innovative algorithms, “realized in the For You Page [FYP] which consists of video feed recommendations anticipating what users would enjoy based on viewing patterns" (Hagman, 2024, p. 1).

In the early days of the platform, there was limited oversight of content. While the systems have improved, the checks and balances are imperfect. Algorithmic content moderation (ACM) is a feature designed to monitor and prevent users from interacting with "unwanted content like hate speech, terrorist propaganda, and overall abusive activity" (Hagman, 2024, p. 1). Inconsistencies in monitoring and flagging content, and the prevalence of dog whistles, means that this kind of content will slip through filters.

This is where a killjoy approach is essential.

Noticing what slips through.

Killjoys take the work of noticing seriously—of making the invisible, visible. Ahmed's killjoy practices ask us to question the "common sense" assumptions that normalize harmful ideologies.

In my previous blog post, I wrote that "common sense is a claim to legitimacy." We discussed how common sense ideas about gender and norms reproduce inequality, and this is true when we talk about transphobia. Ahmed (2024) writes:

"When you are asked to provide evidence for your existence, or when you are treated as evidence, your existence is negated. Transphobia and antitrans statements should not be treated as just another viewpoint that we should be free to express at the happy table of diversity. There cannot be a dialogue when some at the table are in effect (or intent on) arguing for the elimination of others at the table. When you have “dialogue or debate” with those who wish to eliminate you from the conversation (because they do not recognize what is necessary for your survival, or because they don’t even think your existence is possible), then “dialogue and debate” becomes a technique of elimination."

This describes the logics of TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) and other groups who speak against gender diversity. TERFs and Tradwives both frame these discourses as a debate, when they are really about elimination. Learn more about TERFs and Tradwives here.

When algorithms on TikTok fail to detect this harm, or even reproduce it with increased engagement, transphobia becomes part of the background noise of the internet—the low hum that grows harder and harder to detect.

Orientations & the Killjoy Framework

Ahmed's work is phenomenologically grounded. This means that her scholarship is very focused on orientations in the world—particularly how we are oriented in relation to different structures of power.

There is a focus on understanding, describing, and challenging subjective, lived experiences.

Her work isn't just theoretical—there's practical strengths here. Thinking about orientations helps us understand how people come to occupy different “seats at the table,” and helps us understand why certain harms are invisible to some, but unavoidably present for others. Learn more about Ahmed's "tables" metaphor here.

Being a killjoy is in part about valuing the diversity of experiences that come with folks having different orientations. But as we learned earlier, we cannot sit at the table with those who negate ours—or others'—very existence.

As such, orientations are also about turning away, standing up from, or maybe even flipping tables. But turning existing power dynamics on their heads is messy work.

A feminist or social justice killjoy is someone who is committed to questioning the status quo—even when doing so might disrupt the happiness of themselves or those around them. Though, the happiness we disrupt might be just what brings us true joy. 

The Art of Killing Joy

Below, I've outlined the main tenants of killjoying. As you read through the rest of our blog, ask yourself how you can enact these practices, or where these lessons may ring true in your daily life——particularly when you encounter transphobia.

1) "Killjoy Truth: To Expose a Problem is to Pose a Problem" (Ahmed, 2024).

• They call us killjoys for a reason.

2) "Killjoy Equation: Rolling Eyes = Feminist Pedagogy." (Ahmed, 2024).

• There's power in refusal.

3) "Killjoy Commitment: I am willing to cause unhappiness" (Ahmed, 2024).

• Is happiness real? Do we want to be happy / complacent, or do we want joy for all?

4) "Killjoy Equation: Noticing = The feminist killjoy’s hammer" (Ahmed, 2024).

• Every time you notice, you chip away at the facade of common sense. Keep hammering away!

Reflect on these ideas as you read, and when you're ready, take our killjoy pledge.

~ Thanks for killing joy with me!

Sources

Ahmed, S. (2024, June 28). Setting The Table, Some Reflections on Why Tables Matter.

feministkilljoys. https://feministkilljoys.com/2024/06/28/setting-the-table-some-reflections-on-why-tables-matter/.

Hagman, M. (2024). Algorithmic tolerance of human intolerance: An explorative study on the proliferation of the alt-right’s abuse of TikTok’s algorithmic content moderation system. Master’s Thesis, Orebro University School of Humanities, Education & Social Sciences.  http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1884833/FULLTEXT01.pdf.

Pilon, S. (2024). "The World is Watching": The Amplification of Transphobic Rhetoric Through Social Media Technologies. WGST 210: Images of Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture.

TED. (2017, March 29). How I'm fighting bias in algorithms: Joy Buolamwini [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG_X_7g63rY.