Faceless bodies: Negotiating technological and cultural codes on reddit gonewild

Abstract

Through a case study of reddit gonewild - a bulletin board that features photographs of naked bodies with their faces hidden or removed - this article argues that anonymity is an important social practice, and one that reveals a complicated interplay between visibility, gender, and the false yet perceived neutrality of code. Although hundreds of photographs of naked bodies are submitted to reddit gonewild each day, only a few appear on its ‘front page’. Which of the photos feature depends on not only who posts photographs and who votes on them, but also on technological codes (reddit’s algorithms, interfaces, and user accounts) and cultural codes (guidelines, social norms, and ‘karma’ points) that operate alongside these actions. When technological and cultural codes are taken together, they reveal an amateur pornography site that appears open and inclusive, but is instead closed to all but the few who fit the amateur pornography ideal: young, white, slender and female. Users negotiate these codes when they post or browse photographs on reddit gonewild, and in doing so, they decide how anonymous they want to be in a complex layering of conscious identity work.

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