If you spend any time on the internet (which if you are reading this article it’s safe to assume you do), then there’s a strong chance you have created, contributed or consumed fetish content.
The first time I have this thought, I’m scrolling through Facebook. A platform I use almost exclusively to trawl through marketplace for secondhand finds or stay updated on the parallel lives of my former school peers.
It is here, nestled between a grey pregnancy scan and a divorce announcement, that I find myself fixated on an unassuming craft video.
The clips shows an old cleaning broom being repurposed into a pair of shoes, followed by a close up of a woman’s feet sliding into the ‘footwear’ and sweeping the floor.
Curious, I click through to the ‘5 minute craft’ page, where I’m met with hundreds of equally bizarre DIY solutions being advertisers as quick and simply life hacks.
From massaging food onto feet to assist with dry skin to pouring silicon over a phallic-looking car gear stick, I couldn’t help but feel there was another agenda at play than simply pushing craft content.
“Yes, this is what you think it is,” content creator Lydia Love explains in a TikTok duet with a popular DIY cake video. “Watch how the woman’s hands are perfectly manicured and the way that she is holding the cup. You’ll also notice that the woman talks with a man off camera about spilling the icing down the cake, but they never actually do. This is edging. People are also into the fact that she is playing with the food.”
@5.minute.crafts Extra wig laying around? we know what to do
♬ FEEL THE GROOVE – Queens Road, Fabian Graetz
#fashiontok #creative #designer #diyfashion #highheels
What Lydia is exposing is fetish content (primarily food/sploshing and feet) being disguised as life hacks or craft to bypass strict social media guidelines and shadow banning.
The giveaway being that despite these ‘hacks’ beings relatively useless solutions, the top five craft videos on TikTok’s each boast over two million followers, with the most popular account revealing 12.1 million followers alone.
While TikTok implements strict guidelines banning content that depicts sexual fetishes, the social media platform claims that they have reviewed the clips and they don’t break their rules.
If The Content Seems Innocent Is It Harmless?
While there is nothing wrong with engaging and exploring fetish content online, the issue is that there are alternative platforms where fetish requests can be fulfilled in both a consensual and more age-appropriate online spaces (the sign up age for TikTok is thirteen years and over).
Indulging in the occasional kinky craft might seem innocent but the issue of violated consent online extends beyonds craft videos, with popular (and often underage) ASMR creators being a prime target.
ASMR content creator, Lilliana De explains tells VICE that “fetish miners enjoy preying on ASMR artists’ particular eagerness to please the audience,” and that “There is a sexual arousal component. People are getting off on the idea that these people are fulfilling requests unknowingly. That is what makes it so exploitative and scary.”
What Is Fetish Mining?
According to the internet, fetish mining is soliciting fetish content from somebody without them knowing the true purpose and without their informed consent. You will often see this in the comments of popular creators where subscribers will make requests to “style your hair in pigtails” or “play with slime in your next video please.”
As the creator is usually unaware that the requests have a hidden agenda, the fetish miners are aroused by the fact that the creator is unknowingly fulfilling their requests for personalised fetish content.
How Fashion Became A Playground For Fetishes
While trolls and unsolicited behaviour sadly come with the territory of engaging in public platforms like Twitter and TikTok, second hand fashion sites including Depop, Poshmark and Vinted have increasingly become a target for savvy fetish miners.
With listings including used bikinis, underwear and other intimates making marketplaces a prime playground, the real danger is in the DM’s.
22-year-old British student Evie was attempting to sell a pair of high-waisted Topshop denim shorts on Depop, when she received a weird message from a suspicious-looking. The user asked her if she could take multiple photos of the detailing on the back of her shorts, while she was wearing them. “I was essentially just taking photos of my bum, but I needed the extra £10!, ” she told Dazed. “After posting the photos, the person originally keen to purchase the shorts was no longer interested.”
While these calculated requests continue to allow miners to hide in plain sight, it is important to report any suspicious activity you see online. Being savvy to what you are consuming and engaging with is perhaps the only way to out smart your algorithm and stay off #crafttok for now.
This article originally appeared on Marie Claire Australia and is republished here with permission.
