Hypercategorization and hypersexualization: How webcam platforms organize performers and performances

Abstract

Webcam sex platforms simultaneously host thousands of live performances. To allow users to explore these, platforms categorize. On porn sites, this has led to extremely detailed, hypercategorized classification systems. Developing the concept of “categorization regime,” which refers to all categorization options on a platform, we examine hypercategorization on 50 webcam sex platforms. In the heavily stigmatized, yet immensely popular, webcam sex industry hypercategorization shapes working environments and conceptions of desirability. Through critical content analysis, we find that the examined platforms, employing over 1700 unique categories, categorize in detailed, messy, and elaborate ways. Analyzing examples from categorization systems for gender, ethnicity and body type, the article demonstrates that these categories both celebrate diversity and offer earning opportunities, yet also reinforce regressive discriminatory and fetishizing narratives about marginalized groups of webcam performers.