Q:
I’m a 19-year-old bisexual woman really into orgasm denial and edging. With
the recent Tumblr ban on all NSFW content, I have no idea where to indulge
my kinks and find my community. I’ve never needed to go anywhere else to
find porn, explore my sexuality, and be surrounded by supportive people—and
now I’m at a loss. A few Google searches have been really disheartening.
Clearly I’ve been spoiled by all the easily found porn made by women, for
women on Tumblr. Hell, I’m used to it being made by bisexuals, for
bisexuals. I feel like I’m 15 again, desperately scouring the internet for
anything that applies to me. Please tell me where I can find my porn!—Missing My Porn Community
P.S. You wrote about how this ban harms sex workers, Dan, but please write about how it harms queer and kinky people, too!
A. “Many people are scrambling to relocate their fetish communities in the
wake of Tumblr’s ban on ‘adult content,’” said Alexander Cheves, a queer
writer who lives in New York City. “Porn is more than hot videos—porn
creates communities. I wouldn’t know half the gross stuff I’m into if it
weren’t for Tumblr!”
Luckily, MMPC, the men and women who created and/or curated the content
that spoke to you and affirmed your identity didn’t evaporate on December
17, the day Tumblr’s porn ban went into effect. Many have taken their
clips, captions, GIFs, and erotic imaginations to other platforms and some
are creating new platforms.
“MMPC should devote some time to scouring Twitter for bisexual women into
orgasm denial and edging, some of whom may be uploading their original
content to platforms like Just For Fans,” said Cheves. “The creators of JFF
are right now working on a more Tumblr-like social-media extension to their
site. Other start-ups like Slixa or ShareSomeCome and social platforms like
Switter have emerged in the wake of this crackdown. These are corners of
the internet where MMPC can find her porn.”
Cheves wrote a terrific piece for Out that connects the dots between
Tumblr’s ban on porn and the anti-sex, anti-porn, anti-sex-work, and
anti-queer crackdown that was already under way on other platforms (“The
Dangerous Trend of LGBTQ Censorship on the Internet,” December 6, 2018).
While there’s still tons of porn on the Internet, as many people have
pointed out (myself included), the crackdown on explicit content on
social-media platforms is fucking over vulnerable queers. As Eric Leue,
executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, told Cheves: “Many people
in straight, heteronormative communities don’t understand what the big deal
is [about the Tumblr adult content ban], because their lives and cultures
are represented everywhere. For those in queer, or niche, or fetish
communities, Tumblr was one of the few accessible spaces to build
communities and share content.”
And as long as sex-education programs don’t cover queer sex or kinky
sex—and there’s no sign of improvement in either area—LGBTQ youth and young
people with kinks will continue to get their sexual education on the
Internet. And the harder it is to access explicit content, particularly
explicit noncommercial content, the harder it’s going to be for young
queers to find not just smut that speaks to them, but the education they
need to protect themselves.
“More youth will get hurt and more will get HIV thanks to Tumblr’s content
ban,” said Cheves. “That’s not scaremongering—that will happen. Case in
point: I grew up in a fiercely religious home on a 500-acre farm in the
middle of Georgia with dial-up and a pretty intense parental blocker. I
couldn’t access porn—I couldn’t even access articles with sexual
illustrations, including sexual health illustrations. When I went to
college in 2010, the same year Grindr hit the App Store, I knew absolutely
nothing about HIV and nothing about my community. It’s no wonder that I
tested positive at 21.”
Shortly after getting the news that he was HIV+, Cheves started an
educational queer sex blog. “I answer sex questions from anyone who writes
in—I stole the idea from you, Dan, to be honest,” said Cheves. “I wanted to
reach those kids in the middle of nowhere, kids like me.”
While Cheves writes professionally today—you can find his advice column in
the Advocate and his byline in other publications—he still updates and
posts new content to thebeastlyexboyfriend.com, his original queer sex
blog.
“Sites like my blog are needed now more than ever,” said Cheves. “If MMPC
wants to help her community survive, she may no longer have the option of
being a passive consumer—she might have to start a website or blog, wave a
digital flag, and find others. The Internet is so massive that censorship
will never be able to keep people with niche fetishes from congregating,
digitally or otherwise. It’s just going to be a little harder to find each
other.”
Follow Alexander Cheves on Twitter @BadAlexCheves.
Q.
My new partner is a swinger. Being GGG, I said, sure, we can go to swinger
parties, even though I have often been uncomfortable in swinger spaces.
Then I was nearly assaulted at a swinger party with my new partner. And if
I hadn’t kicked the shit out of the guy, I would have been assaulted. After
being appropriately upset about the situation, I was told by one of the
organizers: “Well, that is why you should bring a spotter or a couple of
friends to a party. You have to protect yourself.” Nowhere on the website
for this party was that listed as something I should do. No other articles
about swinging that I’ve read (or swinging podcasts I’ve listened to)
suggested bringing “spotters” to ensure safety! So what is the standard of
consent in swinger spaces? Is bringing a spotter just a given that nobody
told me about? I want to be clear about the seriousness of the problem:
What happened to me was not a touch on the leg to see if I might be
interested in another joining in. It was someone trying to stick an
unwrapped cock in me without asking if I would be okay with that!—Unhappy Nervous Swinger Absolutely Fucking Enraged
A.
I’ve strolled around half a dozen straight swinger spaces—more than the
average homo—and the standard for consent at each one I visited can be
summed up in four words: Ask before you touch. My visits to straight
swinging events/spaces/parties were strictly for research purposes, it
should go without saying, but I’m saying it anyway: I went only to observe.
And at one party, I observed a man attempt to enter a scene he hadn’t been
invited to join—by placing his hand on a woman’s leg. The leg-touching
creep was promptly ejected for violating the club’s rules about consent,
which all attendees were informed of in advance and agreed to adhere to
once inside the club.
That’s not just the way it’s supposed to work in swinger spaces, UNSAFE,
that’s the way it must work in any swinger space, club, or party that hopes
to survive. Because bad actors—almost always shitty men—make women feel
unsafe. And when women feel unsafe in swinger spaces, they abandon them.
And it’s difficult to host a successful straight swingers event without
women.
From the sound of things, UNSAFE, you had the misfortune of attending a
shitty party run by shitty people. Someone attempted to violate you in a
space where respect for boundaries, consent, and the bodily autonomy of
other individuals is (or should be) paramount. And, no, you were not at
fault for failing to bring a “spotter.” The club was at fault for not
emphasizing its own rules—and then, when a bad actor broke the rules and
left another attendee feeling violated and unsafe, the club compounded its
failure by blaming the victim.
I wouldn’t blame you for not wanting to attend a swinger party with your
new partner ever again—especially if your new partner stood by silently
while you kicked the shit out of that asshole—but you shouldn’t return to
that particular swinger party again. The sooner Club Bring a Spotter goes
out of business, the better. v
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