Navigating Racial Erotics in Adult Content Creation: Comparing Black Brazilian and U.S. Creator Experiences

• In Event: 50661 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Scripting Selves & Sexualities

Abstract

ABSTRACT

In early 2020, as countries began locking down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, people needed to generate revenue in creative new ways. Many people turned to online work, using platforms like OnlyFans, Just.ForFans and Fansly to engage in adult content creation. The result was an explosion of adult content creators who were able to make money for themselves in new and provocative ways. This was especially true for Black and mixed with Black content creators, who were most heavily hit during the onset of the pandemic and who sought unique avenues for income. While much of the previous research on sex work has largely imagined it as either exploitative and morally “dirty” work (Bergman & Chalkley 2007), or liberating and self-fulfilling (Jones 2020), very little research has explored the nuances of sex work since 2020 that reveals both the difficulties and benefits of such work for Black creators. Even more so, very little research has compared the experiences of Black adult content creators in the US and Brazil, two countries with large Black adult content creation populations. This study attempts to address these gaps in the research literature. Using Han’s (2021) concept of racial erotics or the way that racial hierarchies shape erotic desires and sexual practices as well as Green’s (2011) concept of erotic capital, or the social value derived from a person’s ability to elicit an erotic response in others, the researchers analyze 20 qualitative interviews with adult content creators in the US and Brazil. The findings suggest that Black adult content creators in both the US and Brazil use their race as a form of erotic capital on the sexual market, experience racial hierarchies when it comes to content creation and navigate sexual rejection and racial fetishization. Yet, where Black US adult content creators felt they could stop doing the work if they wanted too, many Brazilian content creators felt like their livelihoods depended on continuing the work.

Authors

• Jesus Gregorio Smith, Lawrence University

• Dominik Jackson-Cole, University of Derby

• Linnea Ng, Davidson College

• Marcy Quiason, Lawrence University