Melissa Em
@meowwwls.bsky.social
she/her
🖌 part-time #illustrator
👩🏻💻 part-time front-end developer
🧘🏻♀️ full-time worrier
Art Fellow @theflytrapmedia.com 💖
📍 Chicago
🖌 part-time #illustrator
👩🏻💻 part-time front-end developer
🧘🏻♀️ full-time worrier
Art Fellow @theflytrapmedia.com 💖
📍 Chicago
Pinned
Melissa Em
@meowwwls.bsky.social
· Oct 22
It's ✨ spooky season ✨, and what's scarier than putting yourself out there? 👻
A few of my recent illustrations:
A few of my recent illustrations:
Reposted by Melissa Em
Hi, I’m a sighted alt text user! Here are some reasons I use it:
- Slow Internet on an airplane
- I’m over 40, I have no idea who that celebrity is
- Bluesky broke images again
- My vision sucks and that text is too small to read otherwise
- Conveys further context and authorial intent
- Slow Internet on an airplane
- I’m over 40, I have no idea who that celebrity is
- Bluesky broke images again
- My vision sucks and that text is too small to read otherwise
- Conveys further context and authorial intent
Why do people with vision need alt text for an image...?
October 11, 2026 at 5:07 PM
Hi, I’m a sighted alt text user! Here are some reasons I use it:
- Slow Internet on an airplane
- I’m over 40, I have no idea who that celebrity is
- Bluesky broke images again
- My vision sucks and that text is too small to read otherwise
- Conveys further context and authorial intent
- Slow Internet on an airplane
- I’m over 40, I have no idea who that celebrity is
- Bluesky broke images again
- My vision sucks and that text is too small to read otherwise
- Conveys further context and authorial intent
Reposted by Melissa Em
This is like the ultimate payoff for orange cat behavior, it's like an MLB scout coming to your high school game
Megan Thee Stallion Finally Adopts Stray Cat That Visited Her at Recording Studio
Megan Thee Stallion revealed on TikTok that she finally a...
www.complex.com
October 11, 2026 at 2:28 PM
This is like the ultimate payoff for orange cat behavior, it's like an MLB scout coming to your high school game
Reposted by Melissa Em
If you have not seen teenage sex and death at camp miasma yet - stop right here and go fix that. If you want a screening buddy I am right here and I can host a digital party for the small price of letting me ramble for ~5 min
Then come back to read this
Then come back to read this
CALLING ALL CAMP MIASMA FANS
@nicolefroio.bsky.social gets into queer desire and monstrosity in the best horror movie of the year.
@nicolefroio.bsky.social gets into queer desire and monstrosity in the best horror movie of the year.
Death Becomes Her
The lesbian ultraviolence of "Camp Miasma" pulls at the threads of queer desire.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
October 9, 2026 at 9:32 PM
If you have not seen teenage sex and death at camp miasma yet - stop right here and go fix that. If you want a screening buddy I am right here and I can host a digital party for the small price of letting me ramble for ~5 min
Then come back to read this
Then come back to read this
Reposted by Melissa Em
spoilers ahoy so please go watch Camp Miasma if you haven't yet and THEN read this
CALLING ALL CAMP MIASMA FANS
@nicolefroio.bsky.social gets into queer desire and monstrosity in the best horror movie of the year.
@nicolefroio.bsky.social gets into queer desire and monstrosity in the best horror movie of the year.
Death Becomes Her
The lesbian ultraviolence of "Camp Miasma" pulls at the threads of queer desire.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
October 9, 2026 at 4:20 PM
spoilers ahoy so please go watch Camp Miasma if you haven't yet and THEN read this
Reposted by Melissa Em
coming up for air from the Brazilian chaos to share that I wrote about Camp Miasma and the fear of queer desire for @theflytrapmedia.com :
www.theflytrapmedia.com/death-become...
www.theflytrapmedia.com/death-become...
Death Becomes Her
The lesbian ultraviolence of "Camp Miasma" pulls at the threads of queer desire.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
October 9, 2026 at 1:07 PM
coming up for air from the Brazilian chaos to share that I wrote about Camp Miasma and the fear of queer desire for @theflytrapmedia.com :
www.theflytrapmedia.com/death-become...
www.theflytrapmedia.com/death-become...
Reposted by Melissa Em
I understand that accurately describing the position of the GOP at this point makes you sound crazy, but no one accurately describing them is making all of us feel crazy.
October 9, 2026 at 12:33 AM
I understand that accurately describing the position of the GOP at this point makes you sound crazy, but no one accurately describing them is making all of us feel crazy.
Reposted by Melissa Em
And you, presumably a non-Brazilian reading this, should be too. The Amazon is what holds this world together, it's what stops climate change from accelerating. This is the last frontier. The extractivists will get to it eventually. Not if, but when.
October 5, 2026 at 5:11 PM
And you, presumably a non-Brazilian reading this, should be too. The Amazon is what holds this world together, it's what stops climate change from accelerating. This is the last frontier. The extractivists will get to it eventually. Not if, but when.
Reposted by Melissa Em
I keep coming back to this amazing feature by @tinavasquez.bsky.social for @prismreports.org. Fantastic reporting on heat illness in farmworkers, which is only getting worse.
Despite farmworker death and another disabled by heat stroke, employer keeps sending people to fields
Florida Orange Gold has exposed workers on H-2A visas to extreme heat, but continues to bring hundreds of migrants to North Carolina
prismreports.org
October 4, 2026 at 8:53 PM
I keep coming back to this amazing feature by @tinavasquez.bsky.social for @prismreports.org. Fantastic reporting on heat illness in farmworkers, which is only getting worse.
Reposted by Melissa Em
Honestly instead of learning new techniques to hack my nervous system I'd like to live in a equitable life-affirming society that didn't push me into fight or flight hour after hour. You?
October 2, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Honestly instead of learning new techniques to hack my nervous system I'd like to live in a equitable life-affirming society that didn't push me into fight or flight hour after hour. You?
Reposted by Melissa Em
Apparently some people need to hear this, but if a public figure gets outed as a rapist, the public has no obligation to continue supporting that public figure.
October 3, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Apparently some people need to hear this, but if a public figure gets outed as a rapist, the public has no obligation to continue supporting that public figure.
Reposted by Melissa Em
talked about this before and again, i'm speaking as a third generation journeyman trades worker, but working in trades is not something that any of the people who write these pieces, or honestly most of you, respect at all. It's perceived as something you do when all the "good" options are gone.
I was raised by a nurse with an associates degree and a steel mill electrician. I am not denigrating the value and dignity of blue collar work when I ask how many elite national media staffers are raising future bricklayers themselves.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...
Time to Consider Becoming a Bricklayer
College degrees hold less value, while jobs in the trades are booming.
www.theatlantic.com
October 2, 2026 at 8:38 PM
talked about this before and again, i'm speaking as a third generation journeyman trades worker, but working in trades is not something that any of the people who write these pieces, or honestly most of you, respect at all. It's perceived as something you do when all the "good" options are gone.
Reposted by Melissa Em
lol one of our website designers used our organization's entire monthly claude credits yesterday and now half the company doesn't know how to do their jobs. it's october 2nd.
October 2, 2026 at 4:59 PM
lol one of our website designers used our organization's entire monthly claude credits yesterday and now half the company doesn't know how to do their jobs. it's october 2nd.
@theflytrapmedia.com is definitely not cursed 👀
IT'S TIME FOR SPOOKY FLYTRAP FRIDAY!! Happy spooky month, everyone. This week, @sesmith.lol wrote about tourists towns where things go wrong in pop culture (and why they love them so much): www.theflytrapmedia.com/worst-vacati...
Worst Vacation Ever
Underneath every quaint small town, there's class war. It's just a little more literal in some.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
October 2, 2026 at 1:16 PM
@theflytrapmedia.com is definitely not cursed 👀
Reposted by Melissa Em
While I hate relentless self-promotion, I also like being able to eat, so a reminder that my book came out this summer and you might want to pick it up if you like thinking about attitudes around grief in a culture where people are scared of things they don't understand and can't fix.
All My Dead Cats and Other Losses: Practicing Good Grief in a Culture That Fears Mourning
"Both a grief book that doesn't read like a clinician's notes and a memoir wrapped around a bigger subject, All My Dead Cats takes grief from the taboo to the universal." — BooklistHave you suffered a...
bookshop.org
October 1, 2026 at 4:27 PM
While I hate relentless self-promotion, I also like being able to eat, so a reminder that my book came out this summer and you might want to pick it up if you like thinking about attitudes around grief in a culture where people are scared of things they don't understand and can't fix.
Reposted by Melissa Em
Read it here! Where you can also appreciate the art @meowwwls.bsky.social made for it!
The 'MAGA Makeover' is Over, and Its Replacement is (Even More) Terrifying
Fascists are using fashion to normalize radical perspectives and groups into normie society.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
October 1, 2026 at 12:09 AM
Read it here! Where you can also appreciate the art @meowwwls.bsky.social made for it!
Reposted by Melissa Em
WE MADE IT, WE REACHED OUR GOAL OF 200 NEW SUBSCRIBERS!! Thank you, everyone <3
September 25, 2026 at 1:02 PM
WE MADE IT, WE REACHED OUR GOAL OF 200 NEW SUBSCRIBERS!! Thank you, everyone <3
Reposted by Melissa Em
I wrote a little thread earlier about how important The Flytrap is to me, and specifically, what it means to be part of a collective of people working with shared values on a project you are joyful about. You are supporting SO MANY cool creative people with a Flytrap membership.
@theflytrapmedia.com is also @andreagrimes.com, @nicolefroio.bsky.social, @freeblackgirl.bsky.social, @katelynburns.com, @tinavasquez.bsky.social, @thebugbeardispatch.bsky.social, rommy torrico (who is too cool for Bluesky) and our amazing art fellow @meowwwls.bsky.social.
September 25, 2026 at 3:12 AM
I wrote a little thread earlier about how important The Flytrap is to me, and specifically, what it means to be part of a collective of people working with shared values on a project you are joyful about. You are supporting SO MANY cool creative people with a Flytrap membership.
Reposted by Melissa Em
this is high-key my favorite thing i've ever designed
Hate the algorithm and love a big old rumbly pickup? Have I got the shirt for you.
Keep on FTA tee
The official shop of The Flytrap Media. Buy merch, and support your favorite feminist media collection!
theflytrapmedia-shop.fourthwall.com
September 25, 2026 at 3:41 AM
this is high-key my favorite thing i've ever designed
Reposted by Melissa Em
We can do it! Final stretch! Reminder that The Flytrap is member-supported. No ads, no secret private equity, no hidden personal wealth, just you and us on this ride together. Keep feminist cultural criticism sustainable!
WAIT, WE SOLD 160 SUBSCRIPTIONS ALREADY!
We need to sell 40 subscriptions to reach our goal of 200 subscribers by the end of the day!
This deal will go away forever at midnight:
www.theflytrapmedia.com/no-slop
We need to sell 40 subscriptions to reach our goal of 200 subscribers by the end of the day!
This deal will go away forever at midnight:
www.theflytrapmedia.com/no-slop
The Flytrap
Feminist cultural criticism against the algorithm
www.theflytrapmedia.com
September 24, 2026 at 9:39 PM
We can do it! Final stretch! Reminder that The Flytrap is member-supported. No ads, no secret private equity, no hidden personal wealth, just you and us on this ride together. Keep feminist cultural criticism sustainable!
Reposted by Melissa Em
If we hit this goal I will go to the Western Mass lesbian bar this weekend and live post about it.
YES ONLY 62 SUBSCRIBERS LEFT TO REACH OUR 200 SUBSCRIBERS GOAL! www.theflytrapmedia.com/no-slop
The Flytrap
Feminist cultural criticism against the algorithm
www.theflytrapmedia.com
September 24, 2026 at 5:36 PM
If we hit this goal I will go to the Western Mass lesbian bar this weekend and live post about it.
Reposted by Melissa Em
Y’all should be getting your feminist pop culture coverage from The Flytrap. They’re cool as hell.
I usually refrain from talking about my experiences working with outlets until I’m through pub, but I’ll make an exception here:
Their contract is super freelance friendly, esp for an indie outlet.
I usually refrain from talking about my experiences working with outlets until I’m through pub, but I’ll make an exception here:
Their contract is super freelance friendly, esp for an indie outlet.
We need 68 subscribers by the end of the day to reach our goal of 200 new subscribers. SALE ENDS TODAY!!!! get it here: www.theflytrapmedia.com/no-slop
The Flytrap
Feminist cultural criticism against the algorithm
www.theflytrapmedia.com
September 24, 2026 at 1:24 PM
Y’all should be getting your feminist pop culture coverage from The Flytrap. They’re cool as hell.
I usually refrain from talking about my experiences working with outlets until I’m through pub, but I’ll make an exception here:
Their contract is super freelance friendly, esp for an indie outlet.
I usually refrain from talking about my experiences working with outlets until I’m through pub, but I’ll make an exception here:
Their contract is super freelance friendly, esp for an indie outlet.
Reposted by Melissa Em
I guess we need a viral story to get 1k subscribers. Well, we can settle for reaching our goal of 200--we still need 68 people to sign up! www.theflytrapmedia.com/no-slop
September 24, 2026 at 12:13 PM
I guess we need a viral story to get 1k subscribers. Well, we can settle for reaching our goal of 200--we still need 68 people to sign up! www.theflytrapmedia.com/no-slop
Reposted by Melissa Em
This is a non trivial risk. I'm not knowingly paying for, reading, or promoting slop, and that includes slop that replaces art and voice work.
"Little to no financial risk" ... except that readers may be disgusted and mentally blackball them forever. (In addition to all your other critiques.)
September 23, 2026 at 9:20 AM
This is a non trivial risk. I'm not knowingly paying for, reading, or promoting slop, and that includes slop that replaces art and voice work.
"Sometimes we hang on to hurt and trauma and discomfort because feeling a familiar, predictable pain is less terrifying than the possibility of feeling unfamiliar pleasure."
I don't have the same experience as the reader, but damn if the advice doesn't hit close to home.
I don't have the same experience as the reader, but damn if the advice doesn't hit close to home.
This week for Ask The Flytrap, a reader is struggling to get distance from their controlling parents -- even though they've already moved time zones away.
Ask The Flytrap: How Do I Emotionally Escape My Hoarder Parents?
I moved time zones away, but I can't find emotional distance.
www.theflytrapmedia.com
September 23, 2026 at 3:20 PM
"Sometimes we hang on to hurt and trauma and discomfort because feeling a familiar, predictable pain is less terrifying than the possibility of feeling unfamiliar pleasure."
I don't have the same experience as the reader, but damn if the advice doesn't hit close to home.
I don't have the same experience as the reader, but damn if the advice doesn't hit close to home.
Reposted by Melissa Em
Imagine accepting these first two sentences from the NYT piece as a normal feature of American life:
"What can a laid-off worker over 50 do to get health insurance? Besides staying healthy until Medicare kicks in at age 65, the answer is: Not a lot."
"What can a laid-off worker over 50 do to get health insurance? Besides staying healthy until Medicare kicks in at age 65, the answer is: Not a lot."
September 22, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Imagine accepting these first two sentences from the NYT piece as a normal feature of American life:
"What can a laid-off worker over 50 do to get health insurance? Besides staying healthy until Medicare kicks in at age 65, the answer is: Not a lot."
"What can a laid-off worker over 50 do to get health insurance? Besides staying healthy until Medicare kicks in at age 65, the answer is: Not a lot."