Emergent research on the platform economy shows how race and gender oppression shape economic roles and virtual marketplaces enabled by digital technologies. While digital platforms promise economic self-determination, they also reinforce inequalities through algorithmic bias, platform policies, and precarious work conditions, particularly for women of color. This study asks: In what ways does platform-dependent entrepreneurship reflect the intersectional stratification resulting from the dual racialized sexualization and feminization of body work? Centering Black exotic dancers, this article examines how they use Instagram for self-branding and market-making in pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities. Analyzing user-generated content from 73 Black exotic dancers in the southeastern United States, this study explores how “erotic influencers” extend their work beyond strip clubs to connect marginalized consumers and proprietors. Their profiles facilitate an intraracial online network where they advertise Black cultural products and services in beauty, fashion, and rap music. These findings illustrate how these women navigate a racial enclave economy on Instagram to construct new economic roles shaped by platform constraints and racialized erotic capital. To conclude, this article argues that erotic influencers are key market actors, linking formal and informal Black economic activities while contending with racial capitalism’s structural constraints in a digital society.
babylonfemiBergHeather. 2021. “Erotic Labor within and without Work.” South Atlantic Quarterly120(3):631–40.
2.
BaileyMoya. 2021. Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance. New York: New York University Press.
3.
BalajiMurali. 2010. “Vixen Resistin’: Redefining Black Womanhood in Hip-hop Music Videos.” Journal of Black Studies41(1):5–20.
4.
BayorRonald H.1996. Race and the Shaping of Twentieth-century Atlanta. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
5.
BluntDanielleCoombesEmilyMullinShanelleWolfAriel. n.d. “Posting into the Void: Studying the Impact of Shadowbanning on Sex Workers and Activists.” Hacking//Hustling.
6.
BluntDanielleWolfAriel. n.d. “Erased: The Impact of Fosta-Sesta & the Removal of Backpage.” Hacking//Hustling.
7.
BoydRobert L.2000. “Race, Labor Market Disadvantage, and Survivalist Entrepreneurship: Black Women in the Urban North during the Great Depression.” Sociological Forum15(4):647–70.
8.
BrockAndré. 2020. Distributed Blackness: African American Cybercultures. New York: New York University Press.
9.
BrooksSiobhan. 2010. Unequal Desires: Race and Erotic Capital in the Stripping Industry. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
10.
BrownMelissa. 2024. “Instagram Vixens: The Racialized Sexual Scripts of Erotic Labor Online.” Feminist Media Studies.
11.
CarbyHazel V.1998. “It Jus Be’s Dat Way Sometime: The Sexual Politics of Women’s Blues.” Pp. 471–83 in The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, edited by O’MeallyR. G.New York: Columbia University Press.
12.
ChapkisWendy. 1997. Live Sex Acts: Women Performing Erotic Labor. New York: Routledge.
13.
ChildsKiara M.2022. “The Shade of It All: How Black Women Use Instagram and Youtube to Contest Colorism in the Beauty Industry.” Social Media + Society8(2):1–15.
14.
ChristinAngèleLuYingdan. 2023. “The Influencer Pay Gap: Platform Labor Meets Racial Capitalism.” New Media & Society1–24.
15.
ClarkKarinDuckhamMattGuilleminMarilysHunterAssuntaMcVernonJodieO’KeefeChristine M.PitkinCathyPrawerStevenSinnottRichard O.WarrDeborahWaycottJenny. 2018. “Advancing the Ethical Use of Digital Data in Human Research: Challenges and Strategies to Promote Ethical Practice.” Ethics and Information Technology21:59–73.
16.
CohenRachel LaraWolkowitzCarol. 2018. “The Feminization of Body Work.” Gender, Work & Organization25(1):42–62.
17.
CollinsPatricia Hill. 2000. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. London, England: Routledge.
18.
CollinsPatricia Hill. 2004. Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. New York: Routledge.
19.
CottomTressie McMillan. 2020. “Where Platform Capitalism and Racial Capitalism Meet: The Sociology of Race and Racism in the Digital Society.” Sociology of Race and Ethnicity6(4):441–49.
20.
CruzAriane. 2016. The Color of Kink: Black Women, BDSM, and Pornography. New York: New York University Press.
21.
CunninghamAlexandria. 2018. “Make It Nasty: Black Women’s Sexual Anthems and the Evolution of the Erotic Stage.” Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships5(1):63–89.
22.
CutoloDonatoKenneyMartin. 2019. “Platform-dependent Entrepreneurs: Power Asymmetries, Risks, and Strategies in the Platform Economy.” Academy of Management Perspectives35(4):584–605.
23.
DavisAngela Y.1998. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. New York: Vintage Books.
24.
DrentenJennaGurrieriLaurenTylerMeagan. 2019. “Sexualized Labour in Digital Culture: Instagram Influencers, Porn Chic and the Monetization of Attention.” Gender, Work & Organization27(1):41–66.
25.
DuffyBrooke ErinHundEmily. 2015. “Having It All on Social Media: Entrepreneurial Femininity and Self-branding among Fashion Bloggers.” Social Media + Society1(2):1–11.
26.
DuffyBrooke ErinHundEmily. 2019. “Gendered Visibility on Social Media: Navigating Instagram’s Authenticity Bind.” International Journal of Communication13:4983–5002.
27.
EdwardsErica B.EspositoJennifer. 2018. “Reading the Black Woman’s Body Via Instagram Fame.” Communication, Culture and Critique11(3):341–58.
28.
FarmanJason. 2012. Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media. New York: Routledge.
29.
franzkealine shaktiBechmannAnjaZimmerMichaelEssCharles, and the Association of Internet Researchers. 2020. “Internet Research: Ethical Guidelines 3.0 Association of Internet Researchers.”
30.
Gentles-PeartKamille. 2018. “Controlling Beauty Ideals: Caribbean Women, Thick Bodies, and White Supremacist Discourse.” Women’s Studies Quarterly46(1/2):199–214.
31.
Gentles-PeartKamille. 2020. “Fearfully and Wonder-fully Made: Black Caribbean Women and the Decolonization of Thick Black Female Bodies.” Feminism & Psychology30(3):306–23.
32.
GolderS.AhmedS.NormanG.BoothA.2017. “Attitudes toward the Ethics of Research Using Social Media: A Systematic Review.” Journal of Medical Internet Research19(6): e195.
33.
GrahamRoderick. 2014. The Digital Practices of African Americans: An Approach to Studying Cultural Change in the Information Society. Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers.
34.
GreenAdam Isaiah. 2008. “The Social Organization of Desire: The Sexual Fields Approach.” Sociological Theory26(1):25–50.
35.
HallJulie E.1983. “Exclusionary Zoning City of Memphis V. Greene.” National Black Law Journal8(1):138–43.
36.
HarrisLaShawn Denise. 2016. Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City’s Underground Economy. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
37.
HarveyAdia M.2005. “Becoming Entrepreneurs: Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender at the Black Beauty Salon.” Gender & Society19(6):789–808.
38.
HemphillKatie M.2020. Bawdy City: Commercial Sex and Regulation in Baltimore, 1790-1915. New York: Columbia University Press.
39.
HunterTera W.1997. To’ Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors after the Civil War. London, England: Harvard University Press.
40.
InghamJohn H.2003. “Building Businesses, Creating Communities: Residential Segregation and the Growth of African American Business in Southern Cities, 1880-1915.” The Business History Review77(4):639–65.
41.
InmanKatherineGrantLinda M.2005. “African American Women and Small Business Start-up: Backgrounds, Goals, and Strategies Used by African American Women in the Initialization and Operation of Small Businesses.” Pp. 105–19 in International Handbook of Women and Small Business Entrepreneurship. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.
JohnsonAmber. 2014. “Confessions of a Video Vixen: My Autocritography of Sexuality, Desire, and Memory.” Text and Performance Quarterly34(2):182–200.
44.
JonesAngela. 2015. “For Black Models Scroll Down: Webcam Modeling and the Racialization of Erotic Labor.” Sexuality & Culture19(4):776–99.
45.
JonesAngela. 2020. Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry. New York: New York University Press.
46.
JudsonSarah Mercer. 2003. “Leisure Is a Foe to Any Man: The Pleasures and Dangers of Atlanta during World War I.” Journal of Women’s History15(1):92–115.
47.
KangMiliann. 2013. “’What Does a Manicure Have to Do with Sex?’ Racialized Sexualization of Body Labour in Routine Beauty Services. Pp. 160–74 in Body/Sex/Work: Intimate, Embodied and Sexualised Labour, edited by WolkowitzC.CohenR. L.SandersT.HardyK.New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
48.
KenneyMartinZysmanJohn. 2016. “The Rise of the Platform Economy.” Issues in Science and Technology61–69.
49.
LawsonCaitlin E.2020. “Skin Deep: Callout Strategies, Influencers, and Racism in the Online Beauty Community.” New Media & Society1: 17.
50.
LeighCarol. 1997 [2013]. “Inventing Sex Work.” Pp. 225–31 in. Whores and Other Feminists. London, England: Routledge.
51.
Le LudecClémentCornetMaximeCasilliAntonio A.2023. “The Problem with Annotation. Human Labour and Outsourcing between France and Madagascar.” Big Data & Society10(2).
52.
LiangYinArolesJeremyBrandlBernd. 2022. “Charting Platform Capitalism: Definitions, Concepts and Ideologies.” New Technology, Work and Employment37(2):308–27.
53.
Liepe-LevinsonKatherine. 2003. Strip Show: Performances of Gender and Desire. London, England: Routledge.
54.
LoganJ. R.2017. “Racial Segregation in Postbellum Southern Cities: The Case of Washington, D.C.” Demographic Research36:1759–84.
55.
MarcotteAlexandraGarciaJustin R.2017. “Negotiations of Identity, Pleasure and Health in Women’s Online Sex Work Advertisements.” Pp. 6 in Sex in the Digital Age, edited by NixonP. G.DüsterhöftI. K.London, England: Routledge.
56.
MarwickAlice E.2015. “Instafame: Luxury Selfies in the Attention Economy.” Public Culture27(75):137–60.
Miller-YoungMireille. 2008. “Hip-hop Honeys and Da Hustlaz: Black Sexualities in the New Hip-hop Pornography.” Meridians8(1):261–92.
59.
Miller-YoungMireille. 2014. A Taste for Brown Sugar: Black Women in Pornography. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
60.
MoormanJ. D.HarrisonK.2016. “Gender, Race, and Risk: Intersectional Risk Management in the Sale of Sex Online.” The Journal of Sex Research53(7):816–24.
61.
MorganJoan. 2015. “Why We Get Off: Moving Towards a Black Feminist Politics of Pleasure.” The Black Scholar45(4):36–46.
62.
NakamuraLisa. 2002. Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. London, England: Routledge.
63.
NashJennifer Christine. 2014. The Black Body in Ecstasy: Reading Race, Reading Pornography. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
64.
NashJennifer Christine. 2017. “Pleasurable Blackness.” Pp. 261–78 in The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education, edited by AllenL.RasmussenM. L.London: Springer.
65.
NobleSafiya Umoja. 2018. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: New York University Press.
66.
RobinsonCedric J.1983 [2000]. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
67.
RobinsonCynthia L.2011. “Hair as Race: Why Good Hair May Be Bad for Black Females.” Howard Journal of Communications22(4):358–76.
68.
RossJasmine N.ColemanNicole M.2011. “Gold Digger or Video Girl: The Salience of an Emerging Hip-hop Sexual Script.” Culture, Health & Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care13(2):157–71.
69.
RoweKristin Denise. 2021. “Rooted: On Black Women, Beauty, Hair, and Embodiment.” Pp. 186–204 in The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics: Routledge.
70.
SandersTeela. 2005. “‘It’s Just Acting’: Sex Workers’ Strategies for Capitalizing on Sexuality.” Gender, Work and Organization12(4):319–42.
71.
SchieberDavid. 2018. “My Body of Work: Promotional Labor and the Bundling of Complementary Work.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World4:1–13.
TrautnerMary Nell. 2005. “Doing Gender, Doing Class: The Performance of Sexuality in Exotic Dance Clubs.” Gender & Society19(6):771–88.
82.
van der NagelEmily. 2017. “From Usernames to Profiles: The Development of Pseudonymity in Internet Communication.” Internet Histories1(4):312–31.
83.
van DoornNiels. 2017. “Platform Labor: On the Gendered and Racialized Exploitation of Low-income Service Work in the ‘On-demand’ Economy.” Information, Communication & Society20(6):898–914.
84.
WamaiJacqueline WambuiKalumeMaureen ChadiGachukiMonicahMukamiAgnes. 2023. “A New Social Contract for the Social Media Platforms: Prioritizing Rights and Working Conditions for Content Creators and Moderators.” International Journal of Labour Research12.
85.
WilliamsJ. Patrick. 2008. “Nonparticipant Observation.” Pp. 561–62 in The Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, Vol. 1&2, edited by GivenL. M.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
86.
WingfieldAdia Harvey. 2008. Doing Business with Beauty: Black Women, Hair Salons, and the Racial Enclave Economy. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.
87.
ZimmerMichael. 2010. “But the Data Is Already Public: On the Ethics of Research in Facebook.” Ethics and Information Technology12(4):313–25.
88.
ZimmerMichaelKatharinaKinder-Kurlanda (eds). 2017. Internet Research Ethics for the Social Age: New Challenges, Cases, and Contexts.
89.
ZysmanJohnKenneyMartin. 2020. “The Platform Economy: Restructuring the Space of Capitalist Accumulation.” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society13(1):55–76.
