The intimacy triple bind: Structural inequalities and relational labour in the influencer industry

IF 1.7 2区社会学 Q1 CULTURAL STUDIES

European Journal of Cultural Studies Pub Date : 2023-08-31 DOI:10.1177/13675494231194156

Zoë Glatt

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The careers of social media content creators, or influencers, live or die by their ability to cultivate and maintain an invested audience-community. To this end, they are encouraged to practise what has been framed as ‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 2002 [1983]) and ‘relational labour’ (Baym, 2018), commodifying their personalities, lives and tastes in order to build ‘authentic’ self-brands and intimacy with audiences. Drawing on an ethnographic study of the London influencer industry (2017–2023), this article examines emotional/relational labour through an intersectional feminist lens, foregrounding the ways in which structural inequalities shape relationships between creators and their audiences. The tolls of managing audience relationships are higher for marginalised creators – especially those making stigmatised and less brandable content genres – who find themselves on an uneven playing field in the challenges they face as well as the coping strategies at their disposal. These creators are in an intimacy triple bind, already at higher risk of trolling and harassment, yet under increased pressure to perform relational labour, adversely opening them up to further harms in the form of weaponised intimacy. This article explores four key tactics that creators employ in response to such conditions, as they navigate relational labour and boundaries with audiences: (1) leaning into making rather than being content; (2) (dis)engaging with anti-fans through silence; (3) retreating into private community spaces, away from the exposure of public platforms; and, in parallel, (4) turning off public comments. The adverse experiences of marginalised creators who speak about their identities and experiences online raise serious concerns about the viability of content creation as a career for these groups, as well as the lack of accountability and responsibility that platforms show towards the creators who generate profit for them.

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亲密关系三重束缚:网红行业中的结构性不平等和关系劳动

社交媒体内容创作者或有影响力的人的职业生涯，取决于他们培养和维护投资受众社区的能力。为此，鼓励他们实践被定义为“情感劳动”（Hochschild，2002[1983]）和“关系劳动”（Baym，2018），将他们的个性、生活和品味商品化，以建立“真实”的自我品牌和与观众的亲密关系。本文借鉴了对伦敦影响者行业的民族志研究（2017-2023），通过跨部门的女权主义视角考察了情感/关系劳动，突出了结构性不平等塑造创作者和受众之间关系的方式。对于被边缘化的创作者来说，管理观众关系的代价更高，尤其是那些制作污名化和品牌化程度较低的内容类型的创作者，他们发现自己在面临的挑战和可支配的应对策略方面处于不均衡的竞争环境中。这些创作者处于亲密关系的三重束缚中，已经面临着更高的攻击和骚扰风险，但在进行关系劳动方面的压力越来越大，这给他们带来了武器化亲密关系形式的进一步伤害。本文探讨了创作者在应对这种情况时使用的四种关键策略，即在与受众的关系劳动和边界中导航：（1）倾向于制作而不是内容；（2）（dis）通过沉默与反粉丝接触；（3）退回到私人社区空间，远离公共平台的暴露；同时，（4）关闭公众评论。边缘化创作者在网上谈论自己的身份和经历，他们的不良经历引发了人们对内容创作作为这些群体职业的可行性的严重担忧，以及平台对为他们创造利润的创作者缺乏问责制和责任感。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Cultural Studies Multiple-

CiteScore

5.50

自引率

4.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： European Journal of Cultural Studies is a major international, peer-reviewed journal founded in Europe and edited from Finland, the Netherlands, the UK, the United States and New Zealand. The journal promotes a conception of cultural studies rooted in lived experience. It adopts a broad-ranging view of cultural studies, charting new questions and new research, and mapping the transformation of cultural studies in the years to come. The journal publishes well theorized empirically grounded work from a variety of locations and disciplinary backgrounds. It engages in critical discussions on power relations concerning gender, class, sexual preference, ethnicity and other macro or micro sites of political struggle.