Category: Size community

SizeCon 2023 — Proud Of You All

Various-sized people browsing the SizeCon website on a laptop and mobile phone

SizeCon 2023 is happening this weekend, 2-4 June, in-person for the first time since COVID-19 emerged. It’s in Piscataway-Somerset (northeast New Jersey, about 40 miles from New York), the same venue as previous SizeCons. I don’t know if tickets are still available, but I’m confident the hotel rooms reserved for the convention have long been filled. If you can’t attend in person, they’re holding a couple of “hybrid” events where you can socially interact online with attendees. Details here.

I am once again unable to attend for the same financial reasons as before. When the first SizeCon was held in 2017, I didn’t think it was the event for me. When they held it again in 2018, I was at the height of my involvement with Size Tumblr, and I had to admit there were a few people I would love to have met in person. I live on the other side of the continent, however, and it just wasn’t practical. SizeCon 2019 didn’t happen due to difficulty securing a venue. SizeCon 2020 was held in February, mere weeks before COVID-19 gripped the world.

I think a lot of us were feeling a little apocalyptic in 2020, and reading the SizeCon after-action reports as the pandemic shut down one element of public life after another induced pangs of real regret that I had missed out on a wonderful opportunity, quite possibly for good. Nothing like a global pandemic and the rise of fascism to remind one of one’s mortality.

Jitensha was the prime mover behind the first SizeCon and she has remained deeply involved in subsequent events. She even moved to Japan last year and is still flying back for this SizeCon. Scores of people have volunteered their time, effort, and skills to make each of the SizeCon events happen, including the online “Micro” SizeCon get-togethers since 2020. I haven’t seen the actual attendance numbers, but it really seems to me that the anticipation for 2023 doesn’t seem to be any less enthusiastic than it was for 2020, and that is a true testament to the spirit of fellowship generated by these people.

By my people.

SizeCon 2023

Image by Docop

SizeCon is back for 2023, back in-person and back in northeastern New Jersey. The last in-person SizeCon was in February 2020, and they’ve spent the last three years doing “micro” virtual conventions. Curiously, I haven’t been able to find any current discussion of vaccination or mask requirements.

June 2-4 in Piscataway-Somerset, NJ. Follow the link for the deets. The site also has an invite to their Discord server where you can pre-socialize. I expect there will also be updates on their Twitter.

The Persistence of Motivation

Shrunken Olo gazing in awe and lust at the nude sleeping form of Aja from the movie KINGSAJZ
Kingsajz (1987)

Today marks the tenth anniversary of my very first post on any Internet size fantasy site. It was the first chapter of the first size fantasy story I ever wrote for publication. It was a leap of something to decide that I wanted to add my voice to the size conversation, and that someone wanted to hear it. I’ve met several fascinating people in the online size community over the years, and a precious few of them have given me helpful feedback on my writing. One person even said my writing has improved over time.

I’ve been struggling recently to devote most of my free time to writing a story that I don’t know more than a single person would want to read. My motives are divided between wanting to express a vision and just wanting to get more practice at creative writing. I’m also trying to improve my executive functioning, such that simply completing a task I have set for myself is an achievement. I have unquestionably benefited from reader feedback, but “writing for myself” remains my only reliable motive.

I wonder if I shouldn’t experiment with crafting a story that I know I will not share with anyone. How will that inform my judgment? Should that even make a difference?

The goal of the Size Aesthetic project is to develop ways to appreciate size fantasy beyond the simple litmus test of “does it scratch my itches or not.” I always love it when people tell me they get off to the same things I do, but these days I’m more concerned with whether I’ve told a compelling story, whether I’ve described a vivid scene, whether I’ve introduced interesting characters. These concerns, of course, apply to all creative fiction, not just size fantasy.

I’ve never participated in a creative writing workshop, either in school or for recreation. Perhaps I should look into changing that.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Gulliver running to keep pace with the strolling Queen of Brobdingnag and her Maids of Honour.
Wasn’t that something?

We’re coming up on four years since Tumblwintr, and the world is getting yet another demonstration why it’s a bad idea to let billionaires exercise their sociopathy by controlling critical infrastructure. The crazy thing is, Musk isn’t even trying to ban porn on Twitter (yet). If grownups ever regain control of what’s left of Twitter, however, advertisers are going to demand they severely restrict or ban porn. It’s inevitable.

Elle Largesse (aka MightyTinyGiant), among others, is exploring the possibility of creating (and running?) a Mastodon server for hosting size fans. Unlike Twitter posts, Mastodon posts can be added to a RSS feed that can be aggregated by apps like Feedly. Presumably, this server will both allow NSFW content as well as moderating against harassment and hate speech. Here’s a form where you can sign up to be notified if/when they get it operational. I will also update this post with the URL if I learn about it.

Continue reading “Where Do We Go From Here?” →

Sex Objects

No Entry for Tinies by MgA

This article is an expansion of an earlier post on Daddy’s Dollhouse.

Because it is an under-served niche in size fantasy, I’ve recently been combing through my size smut collection to find M/f content to post on Daddy’s Dollhouse. It’s really driven home something that I’ve long been aware of but could always use revisiting, especially given the transient nature of the size “community.” I want to talk about the role of the (straight) male gaze in size porn.

Size porn is like any other kind of porn in that it contains the presumption that its audience is mainly straight men. The primary consequence of this is that the vast majority of imagery (and text) focuses on women, usually with an idealized body type. In M/f smut, this means a lot of handheld naked cuties. A lot.

The good news is that this is changing, although perhaps not as fast as one might like. The internet is old enough now that a couple of generations (of all genders and orientations) have grown up with ready access to porn and thus have had the opportunity to develop their own tastes in porn and even start to demand and create alternatives.

Continue reading “Sex Objects” →

Tumblin’ Tumblweeds

Großer Mann ganz klein!

It seems like just yesterday a platform that had hosted size shenanigans suddenly became much less welcoming to everyone who had come to rely on it. Now, with a change of ownership looming, #SizeTwitter is asking itself where they might decamp to if it became necessary.

I don’t have any advice other than that the Pornocalypse will continue to make hosting porn unfriendly to advertisers, which in turn will make it difficult for web investors to make money from sites that don’t have content moderation. So far, Twitter hasn’t made Google or Facebook money, and Musk doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to pay 38% over market value for something without hope of making a profit.

In any event, I would like to take this occasion to remind everyone that I continue to maintain and update the Where To Find Everyone page that I set up for Tumblwintr. Please feel free to give me your forwarding information as you determine next steps.

Larry Philby, RIP

I never met Larry Philby, never communicated with him, never really saw much of his art. What I know of him is solely due to SizeCon. He figured largely in many after-action reports, a generous spirit full of stories that made everyone feel accepted. It seems he found his own personal size community well before the internet made it much easier, which still gobsmacks me to think about. Seeing photos of him sharing his art made me chagrined that I ever thought a size get-together was beneath me.

Seize your joys while you can.