Sex in the Shadows of Celebrity- A Recap

Sex sells and sells well. The phrase stands true: for certain people, being deemed ‘sexy’, physically attractive, or marked as a “sex icon” works wonders for their self brand. I grew up in the era of the “Kim Kardashian sex tape,” “Paris Hilton” (the person and the metaphor) and the frenzy of the popular E! Show The Girls Next Door where Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends were the subject of a camera crew for six seasons. During my pre-teen and adolescent years, these celebrities were symbolic of sex and sexiness as a career, a job, a hobby, and a leisure activity for consumers. 

As the world has become increasingly digitized and the internet has taken on a role more prominent than television, the ways in which sex and sexuality are presented and marketed has changed. Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and OnlyFans are newer platforms that open the door for everyone—not just celebrities—to market themselves in a sexual light. Yet the question remains: does everyone get a fair chance in marketing themselves, or are celebrities still favored when it comes to sexually explicit content? Carolina Are and Susanna Paasonen’s article “Sex in the Shadows of Celebrity” discusses how the art of the shadowban favors celebrities over sex workers. 

IN THE SHADOWS

Are and Paasonen talk a lot about the internet phenomenon of “shadowbanning:” the limitation of a user's posts by a social media platform typically due to displaying content not in alignment with the regulations of a particular app or platform. Usually, this means that depictions of nudity or sexual content from a person’s account could lead them to be shadowbanned. How this affects the account varies from platform to platform. On Twitter/X, shadowbanned users might not appear in the search bar, whereas on TikTok, videos are hidden from various tabs like For You pages or news feed. The most common form of shadowbanning takes place on Instagram, where users’ posts are hidden from the explore page. Those who are already following you might still see your posts, however those who do not will have a hard time accessing it.  In other cases, accounts are banned altogether. 

Shadowbanning takes away the reach sex workers, pole dancers, and cam models have because the “algorithm” (or people these social media sites hire to flag content) determines what is risque or even “pornographic.” The excuse for this comes back to monetary reasons: companies do not want to run ads on an application that condones sexual activity, so social media sites are forced to inflict stricter regulations on these users’ accounts so as to not disrupt the money flow. This was the reason social media platform Tumblr, lost a large part of its users, as the then-CEO banned all adult content of all types. Traces of this are also found on live-streaming website Twitch, which banned some users from doing sexually “suggestive” activities that weren’t even sexual in the first place.

But if the main concern was nudity and suggestive photos/content, that would mean all accounts would suffer the same consequences if their account showcased the same thing, right? Well if you’re an A-List celebrity, then no, you’re safe.

Before discussing the preferential treatment celebrities have, it’s important to discuss why shadowbanning has become prevalent. The FOSTA/SESTA act passed in 2018 held website operators criminally and civilly accountable for facilitating and distributing sexual content, and contributing to sex trafficking by association to those materials. The problem is that sexual suggestive material is subjective; what is deemed sexual or pornographic is not universal. To combat this, Instagram and Facebook reportedly used Victoria Secret’s catalog as what is a permissible and expectable photograph. Yet, this is a commercial outlook on the body and is catered largely to a marketable “female” or “woman” body, disregarding other forms of sexual exploration and bodily love possessed and showcased by sex workers, cam models, and pole dancers.

CELEBRITIES VS EVERYONE ELSE 

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are very capitalistic: they will be in favor of whatever brings in as much revenue as possible. This typically comes in the form of celebrities who amass hundreds of millions of followers. When compared to sex workers, who might not peak over a couple thousand followers, celebrities are heavily favored as “they attract attention, fuel engagement and increase the platform’s overall value.”  The double standard is apparent: when Jennifer Lopez was promoting her 2019 movie Hustlers, no action was taken when the content included clips of semi-nude J-Lo in a strip club, even though actual strippers are deplatformed and shadowbanned when posting the real, unedited version of such activities. Facebook and Instagram’s community standards are constantly changing the regulations on adult content, and in 2020 dialogue that indicated a state of sexual arousal, or actions that “promote” sexual activity like strip clubs shows, live streams, or erotic dances were subject to censorship. Interestingly enough, many music artists have music videos depicting such actions, and their content is not removed or limited like sex workers, queer artists, cam models, and strippers are.

The article ends on a powerful quote:

“sex-related, sex worker and gen-erally ‘nude’ social media accounts are seen as disposable and their content as (at least) borderline objectionable, so that their shadowbanning is framed by platforms as an issue of general, albeit ephemeral, ‘safety’ and public good.”

Sex workers’ productivity is severely limited and constrained on social media platforms that are said to promote the voices of all communities. Celebrities are often celebrated for posting the same content that would get sex workers, cam models, pole dancers, and other erotic artists axed off the platform. This article does a good job highlighting the hypocrisy within social media platforms algorithm, and serves as a reminder that not all bodies and professions are treated with the same care. This article also brings up a very important discussion on the subjectivity of “adult content”, and how current definitions seem to have holes that allow the elite to surpass shadowbans but others are subjected to their effects. Marketed as a way to make platforms safer for all to consume, shadowbans just appears to be a way to alienate individuals under the guise of responsible internet use and consumption, but just ends up favoring some bodies over others.

Written by Destiny Maldonado