My Saga of Getting Banned on Patreon
Recently, I’ve had to go several weeks without access to my Patreon account, which, while meager, is basically the only source of semi-reliable income I have to even start trying to recoup some of the many financial losses I’ve incurred creating and upgrading my Topless Topics videos.
As you can see from the screenshot above, even the version I provided (after deleting every single Patreon post I ever posted since the asinine moderators wouldn’t tell me specifically WHICH pages they found so offensive) was still too sexy for “implied nudity” (which is a baffling statement to make, as by that logic even regular clothing still has “implied nudity” since it’s implied that the person is nude under those clothes!).
The only way I was able to finally get my account restored was to pick the most boring generic shit ever as my profile and banner, though frankly I’m surprised they haven’t told me I’m not allowed to have “Topless” in my title, given their new push for total-brand-friendliness that seems to go even further than the draconian misogyny of Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and all the rest of the usual Patriarchal Pride Posse.
While dealing with this nonsense ban, I googled “why is patreon banning me” and came across some revealing articles that might explain why:
“Patreon Is Suspending Adult Content Creators Because of Its Payment Partners”
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vbqwwj/patreon-suspension-of-adult-content-creators
“Why Adult Content Creators Are Mad at Patreon”
https://gizmodo.com/why-adult-content-creators-are-mad-at-patreon-1827254676/amp
“The real consequences of Patreon’s adult content crackdown”
https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/27/patreon-adult-content-crowdfunding-uncertainty/
“Patreon continues to crack down on NSFW content creators”
https://thenextweb.com/tech/2019/06/27/patreon-continues-to-crack-down-on-nsfw-content-creators/
Some of these shifts in anti-NSFW policy have led to the beginning of an exodus to less-sex-worker-hostile platforms:
“I’m a queer adult content creator ditching Patreon for good”
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/patreon-nsfw-content-ban-sponsus/
I’m “fortunate” in that my Patreon posts are sort of an afterthought for all the other places I post my content first–namely, the original, uncensored versions to Vimeo, then (sometimes) heavily censored versions to Youtube, then highlight clips to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Also to the new Topless Topics subreddit, when I remember to. (I also include it in the Newsletter when I get around to writing it…which has been a difficult task lately, given everything else on my plate).
Then and only then do I try to remember to make a post about the new content to Patreon, for donors of mine who don’t follow me on social media or regularly visit this site, toplesstopics.org. I really try to encourage everyone to follow me on social media so they have more opportunity to see a post alerting them to new uploads, but I understand that some people aren’t interested in using social media, either because they’re not in the target demographic (though Facebook grows ever more popular among the elderly conservative crowd), or perhaps out of principle–such as Facebook and Twitter’s embrace of “free speech” for nazis and political disinformation campaigns, but not for nonsexual female nipples.
Anyhow, the new plan is to post my content to Patreon using thumbnails censored to the point of absurdity, such as this:
Which, hopefully, doesn’t have too much “implied nudity” for Patreon to allow! (They might re-suspend my account for pure snarkiness however, time will tell).
(Bonus Link)
While I was going down the rabbit hole of googling Patreon bans, I came across this “know your meme” page for “female-presenting nipples,” a term (now derided) that originated during Tumblr’s shift towards banning any and all “adult content” following their buy-out by Yahoo! (Just as the buy-out by Google marked the beginning of the end of Youtube’s “by creators, for creators” free enterprise).
You can read more about the phenomenon here, and below are a few screenshots from that page that gave me a caustic chuckle:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/female-presenting-nipples
