We need to talk about patriarchal censorship

In this bonus episode of The Shameless Wisdom Podcast with Natacha Guyot, PhD, we're talking about patriarchal censorship, especially on social media, and how we can navigate systems overseen by the bro-bots and build alternatives.

Welcome to the Shameless Wisdom Podcast where we rebel against patriarchy bullshit and help you stand in your power to take aligned to action.

I am so tired of patriarchal censorship.

Like freaking done with it.

And I know I'm not the only one, and it's going to be on the unscripted and rant side of things.

But I also believe it's an important discussion to have.

I want to talk about the censorship that plagues a lot of creators and professionals on social media, generally online, or even in real life, even though today we're going to be especially talking about social media.

Earlier this year, I tried to expand on Instagram in addition to LinkedIn and YouTube for promoting my business and engage with my audience.

It went alright until the moment I started to be talking about sensuality and women's pleasure there.

I already knew that there were certain things you couldn't talk about on Instagram, but apparently sensuality was really one of these topics that did not exist, you know, in terms of hashtag and all my posts about it just really tanked.

And I was not even talking about sex, because I can also talk about sex.

You know, pleasure can be non-sexual and sexual as I previously discussed on this channel.

And I'm also aware about certain things that YouTube can be iffy about.

But really, we should be able to have this conversation.

The thing is that patriarchy has loved keeping women and gender expansive individuals under lock and in their “designated” place forever.

But having healthy conversation and, you know, building safe and including spaces is important to be able to unpack what the patriarchy has done and how we can reclaim our sovereignty, including through the work I do, which now exists as the Empress Framework, which stands for )exploration, magic, pleasure, rebellion, expression, sisterhood, and sovereignty.

There should not be anything controversial about having, you know, discussion about pleasure and about sensuality because sensuality can exist in every freaking aspect of our existence and does not even have to be sexual.

But, you know, I eventually left Instagram and was river focusing on building on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn used to be a better space to talk about these topics, much to my surprise, because we've the professionalism and read conservatism aspect of how the platform came to be.

I was not expecting that it would be a really good space for that.

And for the first few months when I was talking about that, it went, alright.

I even have some posts really perform well even when talking about these topics.

And it's kind of changed during the summer.

I do not know either somebody in particular who took offense and clutched their pearls about what I was talking about.

But I started receiving warning when I was about to post something on a sensuality like sensuality, not even sex, not kink, not whatever.

Like, oh, you are about to post something that as content that was previously reported before, do you want to carry on?

And I'm gonna be honest.

I want to be able to get my message across and continue build on LinkedIn.

But at the same time, it's also like, I'm done with this shit.

You know.

And really just being like, I'm going to use the word as is.

So it's kind of a really tricky balance that time between the, I'm going to mess the system up and just going to talk about what I need to talk about, and also the, I still want my message to be heard.

So I have to play the game, even if the game is complete crap and harmful, especially when you consider that a lot of hate speech is still acceptable.

Racism, misogynoir, homophobia, transphobia, plain sexism, ableism, ageism.

The bro-bots are cool with that cause that's how I call them now, the bro-bots.

Because they just feel like both humans and bots, which are trained by humans, are just bro-bots.

And it's a pain in the butt.

So that was already kind of frustrating, especially since there was no consistency in when I would get warned about.

And when I would not get warned, I would still have posts that would perform really well even though I was kind of like, you should probably not be happy with me right now, algorithm.

But you know, the inconsistency is one of the things that drives me nuts, along with freaking censorship.

And then earlier this summer, I released a new book, which you may have seen on this channel, for which you may have seen announced on this channel, which is based on some of my doctoral research which is named “On the Clitoris: Claiming Validity in Scientific Research.”

Because we need to talk more about the clitoris as well.

You know, even from a simple physiology standpoint, let alone.

Let's talk about, you know, pleasure for people who have one.

And the first couple of announcements went really well on LinkedIn.

So, I was just like, okay, well, apparently clitoris is not a bad word.

Ha.

I recently did a book launch event on leading because I've always done a lot of leading live.

It took me 2 days and multiple hours to finally figure out why it was bugging.

I kept getting an error message like, please review the details of blah blah, blah without ever showing me where the issue was.

I couldn't even use the word clitoris even when I was removing some letters to use the numbers knowing that I had a couple of posts doing really well when I point blank spelled everything out.

I could not even have the word even transformed in the title or in my alt text for the banner.

I eventually was able to figure that out.

And even if I could have the word altered in the event description, so able to have that.

Were the post’s impressions good?

No, I mean thankfully you can invite people on LinkedIn, but I also had people who did not get the notification, like the invite even though they were like, yes, I want to attend or, you know watch the replay or what not.

And it was just so frustrating.

I could barely repost it again to announce it later on.

And it just driving me nuts because I do not have the interest or the energy to build on another social media platform.

And LinkedIn is where I, I've made my best connections so far and really I've had the biggest engagement.

So this is kind of where it all came from because when I shared the book event with my mailing list, I turn into a very feisty rant, which is basically kind of what led to this because I'm just like, we need to talk more about it.

And I understand that, you know I'm one example that is fairly limited when you look at it compared to what other people are, you know are dealing with.

But it's also like, okay, just let's, let's roll. You know let's talk about it.

So if you're watching along this kind of ranty video, thank you so much.

I really do appreciate you.

And it's also been making me think about what I could or could not talk about, you know even in my about section or, )you know in the work I'm doing.

Or like, I do two different types of work.

3 if you count that I still do research, media research. I'm still publishing it.

And like, can we even talk about patriarchy on LinkedIn?

And you know it's the goal post is always changing, which is not surprising, sadly.

But it's like, how much, you know do you need to change the words even if you alter the words, whatever going?

I know it's been also a big thing on LinkedIn with social issues, including like world crises, like the situation in Gaza and over lot and lots of other issues.

But it's still like, how can we see consistency?

How can we still keep our message going on?

And I also want to point out that I know a lot of people are just like, oh, you just need people to get on your email list.

I am very grateful if you're on my email list and I would love you to join if you would like to.

And yes, there's a link down in the description with the freebie the Empress handbook if you're interested in hearing more from me where I can speak more freely, so far, from social media.

But at the same time, it's just like not everybody really cares about email even when your emails are interesting.

And personally, I subscribe to different email lists from different creators and professional I find interesting.

There might be three or four people I read on a regular basis.

So, I cannot fault people not to want to be on my email list or preferring scrolling on social media.

Even though I understand that many of us have issues with social media, it still is where a lot of following, and interaction and exposure is built.

And I said that as somebody who is really focusing this year on Evergreen and SEO-rich platforms, like with YouTube as you are watching right now.

I just recently launched my podcast, and I'm also planning to start dabbling into Pinterest, hopefully more than dabbling, but, you know need to start.

It's, it's been a year.

And I believe this is also one of the places where, you know it's important that we can build other private, safe, inclusive spaces like I am doing on Patreon.

But it's also the thing like even if you talk to people, like getting the exposure it's difficult because first of all, the algorithm, you know if it's social media, even for people who loves you and want to have the notification on because the notification work when they have time.

And then the email can also be its own thing.

And even though we can have conversation, you know everything takes time and energy.

And when I see people, okay, that’s another pet peeve of mine, who are just like, oh, you just need to have everything automated in your funnel.

You don't even need to post or anything.

And I'm just like, I've done my research, it is all very good and cute.

But even if my amazing freebie and funnel and email sign up exist somewhere, if I don't post about it anywhere, nobody's going to find it.

So I'm all about witchiness. I'm all about it, but I'm just like, I'm probably missing a spelling ingredient there because if I don't create content, you know it's included, whether it's evergreen or social media, I am unsure that there will be enough people looking for what I'm doing and just stumble on my website and find me through there.

And I say that as somebody who just recently worked with an amazing content marketer because sometimes you did external eyes and skill set because you're too close to your own stuff even if you're working this field too, to redo the homepage and one of the service pages on my website, which is amazing.

Love my new website.

If you’ve not seen it yet and you're interested in intuitive guidance or writing and video services, check the link in the description.

I think that right now being, you know looking in the face of like, oh, I'm probably on LinkedIn’s bad side now to the point that I have lost one of the creator features for those who may not be familiar with it.

There are four creator features which I think is the there's the LinkedIn lives the LinkedIn audio lives something else I don't remember, but I still have.

And then there's the follow link that is supposed to be a customized link you can share everywhere else for people to follow you on LinkedIn.

Which personally I'm just like you know you can just drop your LinkedIn links right there or, you know head it to a button or, you know hyperlink it anywhere else in your text.

So whatever, probably another one of those feature where if that makes you happy it makes you happy but I don't care about I’ve lost it.

But I'm pissed to have lost it because apparently I must have had an egregious violation somewhere.

I'm just like, oh, that’s because I'm trying that, all that because I'm trying to have discussion about why it's birthright to experience pleasure in any aspect of our lives.

Whether it's like cozying up in your favorite soft blanket, having a really good orgasm like this, the spectrum is wide.

It's actually a freaking nebula.

And it's not even covering like all the issue around social justice or sex work, which may seem completely different from the get-go.

But both suffer from heavy censorship for no reason except patriarchal oppression wants to keep them quiet.

And that was one of the reasons, like the lower censorship that I actually went to Patreon for my community.

Because even though we do not center everything around sensuality and sexuality, it's still topics we talk about.

And most of the other membership communities options I had were like really vague about what they may tolerate or not.

And I didn't want to start building something somewhere, you know for my members and everything.

And one day just because somebody decided to clutch for Pearl because puritanism to lose everything.

So this is why I could at least go and be an 18+ creator on Patreon.

And I was like, if you want to check my ID, this is fine.

Probably everybody and their cousin has seen it now.

So at least trying to minimize and work in these spaces.

But it's also like a pain in the rear to be able to still, you know promote and everything.

And I am all for collaboration.

I'm hoping that doing more evergreen content is going to help and also hoping that I get to share more freely with my email list as well.

And, you know possibly on podcast.

And since I know that even YouTube, you know, depending what we talk about, there are still censorship coming around.

But, I did not expect LinkedIn to go down the drain that much.

And I say that as somebody that uses it as her one and only professional social media, not that I really use social media personally at this point, but that's another story.

Some days I really feel pre-Google.

And I'm somebody who loves the internet.

Like I met most of my closest friends and some of my heart family, through the internet.

So, it's not anti-technology.

It’s anti-patriarchy.

If today's episode resonated, join us in the Shameless Lair on Patreon to embody a revolution.

It's where we unless our inner Empress.

They didn't try to burn us for nothing.

Join today and find a sacred community worth its witchy salt.