by Ella Greenfield, Brooke Hesslein, Jonathan, Venice Harrison, Mia Udwary, and Tyler Stiefel
In this digital poster, we have decided to utilize different forms of media and artistic expression. We aim to bring awareness to the sexualization and commercialization rampant in the perception of alternative communities, while tying those struggles to the online sex industry. We examine how alternative communities are portrayed in sex work whilst unpacking the prejudices of our modern day realities.
We chose to include different forms of media in our final informational piece, such as makeup, photography and writing to better convey the broad range of experiences embodied by alternative sex workers– we know that our research does not reflect all lived experiences, but hope that it sheds light on larger issues influencing them.
Within our research project, we analyzed histories of alternative communities to steep ourselves in the roots of this culture, read feminist literature on sex work and how fetishization begins, and conducted a massive outreach project to hear firsthand from the communities of alternative sex workers being impacted by rampant fetishization and exploitation within online sex work, as well as organizations built to support the workers whose lived experiences we are interested in.
Our final multimedia infographic reflects that consistent effort, including these valuable explorations, as well as direct quotes from an alternative former-sex worker turned artist, who explores her connection to the alternative community through art depicting kink, within a coalition of former and current sex worker artists. Using these valuable resources, our research has delved into the core causes of rampant hyper-sexualization of alternative people.
We have come to understand this fetishization as a result of the manipulation of capitalistic societies, which consistently undermine alternative women through rampant degrading speech online and in person– the fetishization of alternative women is a deliberate attempt to undermine communities which have historically stood with disenfranchised communities. The resulting online sexual niche of alternative women is complex, as it reflects both a historic participation in kink culture and a capitalistic fulfillment of the demand for fetishized pornographic content of alternative presenting people, largely women.
Our resulting multimedia infographic aims to shed light onto these realities while realistically depicting the complex relationship with kink culture and sex work within the alternative community: depicting what empowering sex work looks and does not look like. Our use of alternative makeup styles reflects the commercialization of alternative identities over the past half-century, while our additional pieces of photography contrasting the makeup represent abstract depictions of sexualization. We hope that these images, as well as the information we share will create greater widespread understanding of both the complexities of sex work and the historical disenfranchisement of alternative women. We look forward to seeing the ways in which the Claremont Consortium and future feminist scholars engage with and experience this piece, and we hope that it will allow for richer future dialogues of alternative identities and how fetishistic attitudes are created.
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