12 Jan Navigating ManyVids’ Shift Toward Safe for Work
Posted
in All About Content
In my previous blog, I broke down the recent Creator Plus changes on ManyVids and what they mean for creators on a practical level. I covered the new requirement to upload safe for work videos and store items in order to maintain visibility, and how this shift places the burden on creators to adapt or risk being quietly deprioritized. In this blog, I’ll go over the messaging behind it and why the language coming from the top of the platform should give all of us pause.
FROM SEX WORKER POSITIVE TO STIGMA REPACKAGED
Even though there had been years of sex worker positive messaging from the co-founder of ManyVids, Bella French, her own words paint a very different picture of the platform’s new vision. A few recent quotes of hers make it clear that sex work is no longer seen as the CEO girlboss empowerment it once was. Instead, she echoes many of the same stigmas we’ve been fighting for years. It casts sex workers as desperate people without any other option than to sell our bodies to make ends meet. It feels like a massive step backward for a site that used to champion us, now trying to entice influencers to fill its ranks.
REWRITING SEX WORK AS DESPERATION
One quote from her personal site describes her entry into sex work as a result of “immense pressure” to avoid bankruptcy. She says, “Imagine the level of desperation it takes to choose a camming career just to repay business loans.” She talks about facing rejection, fear, and a “deep sense of shame,” admitting she never wanted anyone to know how profoundly she had failed. That doesn’t sound like what we had been hearing from the site’s banners to their merch. It sounds like the kind of shame and judgment we expect from the anti-porn movements, not our own platforms.
"A WAY OUT" AND THE HARMFUL NARRATIVES IT REINFORCES
Another quote on her vision for ManyVids is even more telling about the future. She says her goal is to create options “so that no one ever has to get naked to survive.” She claims that if you do cross that threshold, they will “show you a way out.” While that might sound supportive to the outside world, to us, it implies that what we do is a trap to be escaped, it treats our industry as something meant only for the desperate. Worse still, it plays right into the narrative that no sex work is consensual and most of us are being trafficked. That’s the kind of propaganda that got us FOSTA/SESTA.
WHY THIS SHIFT SHOULD WORRY EVERY CREATOR
If you didn’t know any better, it would be a fair guess to assume those quotes came from someone advocating for draconian age verification laws. Even if you don’t use ManyVids, seeing the most public-facing voice of the largest clip site talking like this should be throwing up major red flags. It suggests that the people running the show view us as victims who need saving from ourselves.
We shouldn’t ignore this shift in tone, when the platform starts acting like they are doing us a favor by letting us exist, it’s time to be cautious.
IS JUMPING THROUGH THESE HOOPS WORTH IT?
We have to ask ourselves if jumping through these new hoops is really worth it. While we all want to keep our traffic flowing, there is significantly more friction here than there ever has been before. It feels like the platform is having an identity crisis, and we are the ones paying the price for it. We’re the ones who have to scramble to create content that fits their new, sanitized vision. And we have to do it while wondering if the rug is going to get pulled out from under us again next month.
NAVIGATING THE SFW PUSH AS A CREATOR
So, what do we do about it as creators? Should we bite the bullet and contribute SFW content to the site? There are plenty of reasons why a person doesn’t have the option to drop a major platform, so we have to find a solution. If you find yourself stuck monetizing SFW content, you can find ways to make it easier to do without losing your mind. You don’t have to think of potential SFW content as previews or advertising; think of it as a rebrand of your skills.
REFRAMING SKILLS WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF
If you like to write or draw, consider opening commissions for your fans. If you kill it with a hula hoop or crochet, maybe a few tutorial videos would be a fun project that doesn’t feel forced. If you prefer to relax with a book or a movie when you have the time, give a review blog a shot. And if you just don’t want to share those things with the work side of your life, nobody will blame you for doing quick outfit of the day videos. Just hit that twelve video mark and move on.
ADAPTING WHILE PROTECTING YOUR FUTURE
It can be hard on us to constantly adjust how we live our lives and make our living based on the whims of executives or politicians. Sex workers are low-hanging fruit for the outrage and purity industries; it’s not right, and it’s not something we should have to accept. But when a major platform starts telegraphing a huge shift in its content policies, sometimes all we can do is acclimate while we start building our backups.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
In my previous blog, I broke down the recent Creator Plus changes on ManyVids and what they mean for creators on a practical level. I covered the new requirement to upload safe for work videos and store items in order to maintain visibility, and how this shift places the burden on creators to adapt or risk being quietly deprioritized. In this blog, I’ll go over the messaging behind it and why the language coming from the top of the platform should give all of us pause.
FROM SEX WORKER POSITIVE TO STIGMA REPACKAGED
Even though there had been years of sex worker positive messaging from the co-founder of ManyVids, Bella French, her own words paint a very different picture of the platform’s new vision. A few recent quotes of hers make it clear that sex work is no longer seen as the CEO girlboss empowerment it once was. Instead, she echoes many of the same stigmas we’ve been fighting for years. It casts sex workers as desperate people without any other option than to sell our bodies to make ends meet. It feels like a massive step backward for a site that used to champion us, now trying to entice influencers to fill its ranks.
REWRITING SEX WORK AS DESPERATION
One quote from her personal site describes her entry into sex work as a result of “immense pressure” to avoid bankruptcy. She says, “Imagine the level of desperation it takes to choose a camming career just to repay business loans.” She talks about facing rejection, fear, and a “deep sense of shame,” admitting she never wanted anyone to know how profoundly she had failed. That doesn’t sound like what we had been hearing from the site’s banners to their merch. It sounds like the kind of shame and judgment we expect from the anti-porn movements, not our own platforms.
"A WAY OUT" AND THE HARMFUL NARRATIVES IT REINFORCES
Another quote on her vision for ManyVids is even more telling about the future. She says her goal is to create options “so that no one ever has to get naked to survive.” She claims that if you do cross that threshold, they will “show you a way out.” While that might sound supportive to the outside world, to us, it implies that what we do is a trap to be escaped, it treats our industry as something meant only for the desperate. Worse still, it plays right into the narrative that no sex work is consensual and most of us are being trafficked. That’s the kind of propaganda that got us FOSTA/SESTA.
WHY THIS SHIFT SHOULD WORRY EVERY CREATOR
If you didn’t know any better, it would be a fair guess to assume those quotes came from someone advocating for draconian age verification laws. Even if you don’t use ManyVids, seeing the most public-facing voice of the largest clip site talking like this should be throwing up major red flags. It suggests that the people running the show view us as victims who need saving from ourselves.
We shouldn’t ignore this shift in tone, when the platform starts acting like they are doing us a favor by letting us exist, it’s time to be cautious.
IS JUMPING THROUGH THESE HOOPS WORTH IT?
We have to ask ourselves if jumping through these new hoops is really worth it. While we all want to keep our traffic flowing, there is significantly more friction here than there ever has been before. It feels like the platform is having an identity crisis, and we are the ones paying the price for it. We’re the ones who have to scramble to create content that fits their new, sanitized vision. And we have to do it while wondering if the rug is going to get pulled out from under us again next month.
NAVIGATING THE SFW PUSH AS A CREATOR
So, what do we do about it as creators? Should we bite the bullet and contribute SFW content to the site? There are plenty of reasons why a person doesn’t have the option to drop a major platform, so we have to find a solution. If you find yourself stuck monetizing SFW content, you can find ways to make it easier to do without losing your mind. You don’t have to think of potential SFW content as previews or advertising; think of it as a rebrand of your skills.
REFRAMING SKILLS WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF
If you like to write or draw, consider opening commissions for your fans. If you kill it with a hula hoop or crochet, maybe a few tutorial videos would be a fun project that doesn’t feel forced. If you prefer to relax with a book or a movie when you have the time, give a review blog a shot. And if you just don’t want to share those things with the work side of your life, nobody will blame you for doing quick outfit of the day videos. Just hit that twelve video mark and move on.
ADAPTING WHILE PROTECTING YOUR FUTURE
It can be hard on us to constantly adjust how we live our lives and make our living based on the whims of executives or politicians. Sex workers are low-hanging fruit for the outrage and purity industries; it’s not right, and it’s not something we should have to accept. But when a major platform starts telegraphing a huge shift in its content policies, sometimes all we can do is acclimate while we start building our backups.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
