Perverts, Pornhub, Sexual Feats & Freedom of Speech
A Quick & Dirty dispatch on the latest in sex, desire, and modern culture
Hi everyone, back to you with another edition of Quick & Dirty—this time featuring dispatches on Pornhub and the Supreme Court, TikTok’s uncertain future, the Substack sex discourse and more. You can read the first Quick & Dirty here; as always, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Justice Alito asks if Pornhub is like the old Playboy: “Does it have essays, modern-Day Gore Vidal, stuff like that?”
This soundbite from Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing is objectively funny. I’m glad it went viral, because hopefully it will lead to more information about what he was discussing: a first amendment challenge to a Texas Law that requires people to undergo an invasive age verification process before accessing sexual content online. It’s called Speech Coalition v. Paxton, and the outcome stands to effect the future not just of online porn, but our freedom of speech.
Since 2022, 19 US states have passed age verification laws, which are billed as a way to stop minors from accessing online porn. The problem is that by requiring people to submit personal data to view websites that host more than ⅓ explicit content—an intentionally broad label encompassing everything from porn to sexual health materials to R-rated movies—these laws set a dangerous precedent for how adult content might be regulated and censored online. We shouldn’t need to submit license information, facial scans, government ID or employment history to access sites that host sexual content.
Right now, Pornhub is blocked in 17 US states as a result of age verification laws. As The Free Speech Coalition argues, these laws chill free speech, disincentivizing adults from accessing sexual content due to potential privacy issues, which could in turn increase the popularity of VPNs and drive traffic to less-regulated porn sites. The law is also ineffective at actually preventing kids’ exposure to porn, because it does not apply to search engines and social media platforms—the sites where minors are most likely to be exposed to sexual content. But that hasn’t stopped its advocates for using “children’s safety” as an excuse to chip away at our right to sexual privacy.
There’s a reason that the adult industry is considered the “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to free speech, because much of the legislation that involves it also has downstream effects on the online ecosystem we all use. Take, for instance, FOSTA/SESTA, a series of bills that while purported to prevent sex trafficking, actually endangered sex workers by reducing their ability to vet clients online. And because companies were made liable for any off-color sexual content posted by their users, it also incentivized websites to censor and shadowban all adult content—including artistic and educational content involving sex (RIP, Tumblr.) Oh, and it didn’t help with sex trafficking.
No decision was reached this week, and listening to the Supreme Court justices squabble, I wasn’t filled with hope. “These dinosaurs really think that flashing an ID to a high video store clerk is the same as a website collecting personal data,” my journalist friend texted me halfway through the hearing. “It’s so clear they hate porn and don’t give a shit about the people who make it.”
A few pieces I’ve written about sexual censorship, and sex workers’ rights, below:
Why can’t sex workers find a bank?
The risks and rewards of jailbreaking ChatGPT
Why is menstrual blood banned in porn? Ask your credit card company
I also highly recommend Sam Cole’s book How Sex Changed The Internet, and The Internet Changed Sex.
TikTok may be on the clock—but the hijinx won’t stop
It’s been called Chinese malware, junk food, a metaphorical gun pointed at Americans’ heads. That’s right, I’m talking about TikTok, which was banned in the U.S. last night—then reinstated this morning “thanks to Donald Trump,” who, you might recall, was actually the person who requested the ban in the first place.
The official reason for banning TikTok is “national security.” But, as TikTok personality Soupy points out in a viral video, it’s common for fascist countries to ban apps and websites under the guise of national security when what they’re really doing is suppressing freedom of speech. “If the government believes that a single app could ‘skew the perspective of American citizens to be anti-American,’ maybe the real problem is that American citizens are already in such a state of political unrest and unhappiness,” she argues. It begs the question: why are other popular Chinese-developed apps like Shein and Temu, which collect the same amount of data, not being banned too? In her view, the answer is simple: “You can’t politically organize on Temu.”
In the days leading up to the ban, many users posted videos about migrating not to Meta or YouTube Shorts, but RedNote, another Chinese-owned app. They framed the mass exodus as a “fuck you” to the US government, posting information videos repurposing Chinese songs as a national anthem, and information about RedNote alongside spoofed footage of the Boston Tea Party. Within days, Americans were being served up content about Luigi Mangione on RedNote (“Baby Lulu,” as he’s called there) and using the app to compare medical bills with their Chinese counterparts. “RedNote is swiftly becoming RedPill for the Western world,” one Twitter user commented.
TikTok was never the gold standard for free speech; after all, we’ve spent the last several years reverting to algospeak like “lesbean” and “seggs” to circumvent algorithmic censorship. But beyond the dance videos and the GRWMs, the app served as a powerful consensus-building tool: a way for people to express themselves, share information, and consume news unregulated by mainstream media networks. TikTok’s algorithm is so notoriously effective at determining what you like—and surfacing content from likeminded people and communities—that some people credit it with knowing they were queer before they even did.
When I started using the app, I remember scrolling late into the night, amazed to learn that so many people felt as I did: fed up with capitalism, disenfranchised by the system, and a little bit gay. I felt I’d been dropped into a group chat of likeminded people—and they dared to say the things often left out of polite conversation, making me feel less alone in my experience of what it feels like to exist in this world right now.
The banning of TikTok felt ominous—but I’m also not terribly reassured by the series of push notifications I’ve received from the app, praising “President Trump” in his efforts to get it reinstated. If banning the app for “national security” was a thinly-veiled effort to suppress our freedom of speech, then Trump’s decision to link arms with TikTok should be met with a similar degree of skepticism. Like anything else, TikTok is a tool—and it matters who is using it, and to what end.
Elsewhere on the Internet:
Much Ado About Sexstack
Last month, there were a few articles going around about “Sexstack,” notably a particularly creepy piece in which one Substacker accused women writers of “writing content dripping with over-sexualization” while simultaneously talking about women “stroking” their “big ego of manlike superiority,” convincing themselves they’re “above the OnlyFans girls,” and calling the reader “babygirl.” It’s basically fetish content, as Eliza McLamb pointed out.
There is discourse to be had about the need to market one’s writing via personality, intimacy, and appearance—one that resurfaces every couple of years (see “The Journalist as Influencer” and “The Makings of a Literary It Girl.”) But this piece is dripping with misogyny, and the person who wrote it misses the mark by by blaming individual women for the social media environment they inherited instead of critiquing the system itself. Eliza McLamb said it best in her excellent takedown: “Every creative has to sell themselves,” she wrote. “If you want to sell yourself as a Pollyanna who only cares for Real Writers, congratulations, you’re whoring out your literature degree.”
Gangbangs as Extreme Sport: Groundhog Day with the Sexcapades
For last month’s Quick & Dirty, I wrote about how OnlyFans model Lily Phillips slept with 100 men in one day, then broke down on camera, prompting discourse about the emotional toll of sex work. Now, there’s a new sexual stuntsman in town: Bonnie Blue claims she’s “broken the world record” for sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours. Controversially, she also claimed to be targeting “barely legal men.” This is fucked up, but also makes sense in a dark, logistical sense: she’s expecting these men to come in 40 seconds or less, after all… and I can’t think of a demographic more suited to the cause.
Ethel Cain’s Album, Perverts, Is Out Now
Read my profile of her here, or perhaps this article in i-D about “Pervert Winter” that ran with the subhead: “Give me mildew. Give me a wailing Ethel Cain. Give me vampire dick.” Would looooove to know who greenlit that one!!
Neil Gaiman Outed for Sexual Assault
And, as was the case with Armie Hammer, people are unfortunately conflating his abusive behavior with BDSM. On that note, I’ll leave you with this quote from the piece:
“BDSM is a culture with a set of long-standing norms, the most important of which is that all parties must eagerly and clearly consent to the overall dynamic as well as to each act before they engage in it. This, as many practitioners, including sex educators like Dossie Easton and Janet W. Hardy who wrote some of the defining texts of the subculture, have stressed over decades, is the defining line that separates BDSM from abuse. And it was a line that Gaiman, according to the women, did not respect.”
Speaking of which, Babygirl is sparking plenty of cultural conversations about marriage, kink, and desire. You can expect a piece from me about this—quite possibly multiple—soon.
Lately on Pleasure-Seeking…
New podcast episode with Erika Lust
I interviewed “the queen of ethical porn” about how feminist pornography can rewrite our fantasies, and why it matters. Lust has redefined adult filmmaking with authentic, female-centered stories that challenge industry norms, so it was a real pleasure to tour her Barcelona HQ and speak with her about how desire shapes culture. You can listen to the free audio version of the podcast for free here or on Apple podcasts; the video version is available for paid subs.
At the Chelsea Hotel, queer subculture continues to thrive
I wrote about how the Chelsea Hotel first became a sanctuary for outsiders and misfits—and interviewed the artists keeping its transgressive legacy alive with secret late-night burlesque, drag, and sideshow performers.. My friend Molly Crabapple, an incredible author and journalist, also published a sketchbook her drawings from these parties that is definitely worth checking out.
A week in my life, via Chloe Pingeon’s newsletter Collected Agenda
This is a guest edit I did for Chloe Pingeon’s series Collected Agenda last month: a diary chronicling a week in my life, alongside an introduction she wrote about my work. If you've ever wondered what I'm up to on a day-to-day basis, this one's for you! Ft. meetings with Pornhub, Perverted Book Club, Luigi Mania—plus, cameos from Anna Delvey, Caroline Calloway, Rayne Fisher-Quann and more.
I’ll leave you with some provocative reads…
Why I Stopped Using They/Them Pronouns After 13 Years (Spoiler: it’s nuanced!)
What the Supreme Court hearing about age verification could mean for you
Oh, and join the Pleasure-Seeking group chat, where we’re talking about our sexual firsts: first kiss, first queer encounter, loss of virginity… I’ve loved hearing your stories.
XOXO,
Camille