Why does the public feel entitled to displays of vulnerability from women, especially women of color, in the public eye, as though their success is a reflection of neoliberalism’s tendency to reward model minorities for their climb up the socioeconomic ladder until they start to “slip up”? For those most at risk of involuntary exposure — those expected to apologize simply for existing in public — self-exposure can be a form of strategy.

Online platforms are indispensable tools for political organizing and education, but this yields a conundrum: organizing online means being constantly exposed to the violence, surveillance, and abuse one is organizing against.