💉Tattooed, Pierced & Shadowbanned: When the Algorithm Hates Your Vibe💋
Okay but real talk: why does the internet love body mods until you’re actually real about them?
Tattoos, piercings, filler, fishnets, nipple tape... It’s all 🔥 aesthetic until the algorithm decides you're "too much." Like damn, I didn’t get inked and snatched just to be buried on the feed. Welcome to the weird-ass world of digital body politics, where your body is a ✨brand✨, but only if it fits the platform’s safe-for-ads vibe.
As Drenten et al. (2020) break it down, we’re basically doing sexualized labour without clocking in. That “effortless hot” look? Yeah, it’s strategy. A curated, monetizable vibe. Especially for femme creators, being sexy sells - but be too sexy and suddenly you’re flagged, shadowbanned, or worse, deplatformed. 🤡
Duffy & Meisner (2022) call this algorithmic invisibility. Creators at the margins: especially queer, body-modified, POC, alt babes - are constantly navigating a double standard. The platforms profit off our edgy aesthetic, but don’t protect our reach. It’s giving exploitation with a filter. 🧍🏽♀️📉
So here we are: modifying our bodies IRL for self-love or identity, and then modifying our content online just to survive the algorithm. I didn’t get my septum and sleeve just to be told I’m “inappropriate,” Susan.
Body mods are more than trends: they’re culture, rebellion, healing. But on the ‘Gram, they’re only allowed if they’re polished, pretty, and palatable. Messy? Real? Raw? Banned.
Post your piercings. Show your stretch marks. Own your OnlyFans if that’s your lane (jk pls don't); but the main point is to be your authentic self, stop supressing what the bots prevented you from truly upholding; but in the same time let's be mindful in honoring our body, in the way we speak to one another instead of demolishing and promoting distortion. #love
References:
Duffy BE and Meisner, C 2022. “Platform governance at the margins: Social media creators’ experiences with algorithmic (in)visibility,” Media, Culture & Society. Drenten et al ‘Sexualized labour in digital culture: Instagram influencers, porn chic and the monetization of attention’