FFS Media’s Guiding Values

1. Connection

2. Honesty

3. Joy

“WHAT DOES FFS MEDIA STAND FOR?”

When people ask me this, they’re usually curious about the “FFS” part. More precisely, they’re curious if “FFS” stands for what it usually does on the internet: “for fuck’s sake.”

Yes, it does.

It goes back to the guiding values.

Connection is hard. It may be the hardest thing humans can do, but it’s also the most important. It takes vulnerability and courage and compassion. Unfortunately, you inevitably get the snot kicked out of you when you practice those necessary qualities to forge real connection, and when that happens, I find it helpful to shout “For fuck’s sake!” and then keep on striving for genuine connection.

Honesty is messy. And if I’m being honest, which is sort of the point, speaking your truth usually results in people coming after you with pitchforks. Writers must do it anyway. Bring on the pitchforks. But when the villagers show up at your doorstep with torches in hand, might I suggest allowing yourself the indulgence of muttering, “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” before facing them down?

Joy is terrifying. But I can’t think of a more worthy reason to be terrified. And here’s the hard truth (I wasn’t kidding about the honesty): if you don’t find joy in this world, you’re not going to last. There will be plenty of things that cross your path and try to steal your joy—reviewers, bills, distant relatives. All of them will try to take up residence in your brain. And when you hear their poisonous voices trying to steal your joy, it’s quite all right, even advisable, to mutter, “For fuck’s sake, take a hike.”

Real threats to a person’s sense of connection, honest expression, and ability to feel joy more than warrant the strong language.

That's what FFS stands for.

-Claire Taylor
Owner, multi-pen-name author, FFS Media