Have you heard the news, Hot Dish readers? The Smitten Kitten is too sexy for YouTube! While The Smitten Kitten is not a bunch of cry-babies that have nothing better to do than complain about stuff being unfair, that’s practically a career for me. Allow me to indulge you in the juicy details.
You may recall seeing or hearing about “Hotel,” an original short film directed by Lars Kommienezuspadt and produced by the Smitten Kitten in October 2011. While everyone involved was excited, I doubt anyone expected the amount of attention the finished effort would receive. Thanks in part to the lovely Violet Blue (tinynibbles.com) and Lust Films (lustfilms.com) sharing the film with their legions of sex-positive followers, people were heading to YouTube in droves to see the sexy goings-on. Within three weeks, “Hotel” was viral, with over 10,000 views and hundreds of shares. Unfortunately, about 7 weeks after its original posting, YouTube deleted “Hotel” due to “violation of Community Guidelines,” leaving us all scratching our heads.
With all of the sexual imagery on YouTube (not to mention violence, hate speech and countless other examples we can all agree deserves legitimate filing under “Stuff That Pisses People Off”), it came as a shock to The Smitten Kitten and its supporters. While some of the staff shrugged it off as another injustice by a huge corporate entity, a few wondered aloud, “What did we do wrong?” To answer their question, and to shed some light for those of you who may also be wondering: not a damn thing.
I was fortunate enough to be present the evening “Hotel” was filmed, which I can say from experience was much closer to a sexy European commercial than a porn set. During the brainstorming and tossing around of concepts that happened in the weeks prior, the producers and director made pain-staking efforts to make a sexy video that clearly showed what The Smitten Kitten was all about while still being sensitive to those who are easily offended. It wasn’t a determining factor, as The Smitten Kitten is unapologetic in serving clientele with a broad spectrum of sexuality, but “Hotel” happened to depict a heterosexual couple. The ground rules were that there would be no nudity, products would be shown but nothing phallic or vaginal in appearance, there would be no sex acts depicted (even if they were implied) and the use of consent and protection (a cornerstone of The Smitten Kitten’s ethical standing) would be highlighted in a way that was direct and appealing to viewers. Bottom line: show sexuality to as many people as possible in a way that was accessible and respectful to everyone. Apparently those efforts were not enough.
Was the short film hot? Absolutely. It may not have been G-rated, but its depiction of sex was healthy, safe, fun, responsible and consensual–something that a barrage of YouTube videos clearly lack. Safeguards were taken to ensure that any potential viewer knew that what they were about to see contained sexually oriented material, (even though its original purpose was to be “safe” enough to show on TV). I, like a lot of people, assumed that YouTube had a zero-tolerance rule and automatically deleted a video after it was flagged once. However, I was a bit stunned to learn that, according to YouTube, “staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our community guidelines. When they do, we remove them. Sometimes a video doesn’t violate our community guidelines, but may not be appropriate for everyone. These videos may be age-restricted.” So essentially what YouTube is saying is that a REAL person from YouTube watched the “Hotel” video after it was flagged, and found that it violated one of their criteria for deletion.
What exactly are those criteria? YouTube’s Community Guidelines reveals the following (and in a “hip” banter all the kids are using these days!): “We’re not asking for the kind of respect reserved for nuns, the elderly, and brain surgeons. We mean don’t abuse the site. We trust you to be responsible, and millions of users respect that trust. Please be one of them. Don’t cross the line.” What line is YouTube referring to? A quick outline is provided that seems fairly easy to understand:
“YouTube is not for pornography or sexually explicit content.” While what is and is not pornography is endlessly debatable, most of us agree that pornography is the explicit display of some kind of sex. I wouldn’t define two clothed people entering a hotel room, unzipping a cocktail dress and kissing before one of them reaches for a condom as “explicit,” even with some nods to the kinky (in the case of “Hotel,” a blindfold and a massage candle being poured on skin), so of course my first response was to bitch about how uptight people are about sex. But, if The Smitten Kitten’s short film falls under this umbrella of pornography, and that’s the reason why it was deleted, surely an internationally-controversial music video banned by MTV over 10 years ago for being “sexually explicit” and depicting live bondage sex play wouldn’t be available on YouTube, right? And if it DID happen to show up on YouTube, it would DEFINITELY be so obscure that not many people would ever find it… Right? One would think so, unless you’ve checked out the official YouTube channel of Madonna, (who, by the way, is named by Guinness Book of Records as the most famous artist of all time, and take a peek at “Erotica:”
“Don’t post videos of bad stuff like animal abuse, drug abuse, underage drinking and smoking, or bomb making.” Of course everyone can agree that “Hotel” clearly doesn’t violate any part of this one. The guideline is understandably put in place so that people do not use YouTube to hurt others or exploit other people (or animals), display or condone illegal or irresponsible activity, or show misguided people looking to cause trouble ways they can hurt or intimidate others. It would have made sense to pull the video if it fell into any of these unfortunate categories, but it never does. In fact, it makes efforts to depict responsibility and respect in a way that looks very, very hot. You can, however, find quite a few videos of animals getting hurt, people smoking pot, kids smoking and drinking… and while I think most people are smart enough not to post videos on how to make bombs, there are plenty that show people doing really stupid things that could seriously hurt someone if they are attempted at home.
“Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone being physically hurt, attacked or humiliated, don’t post it.” Dumb videos of people getting injured is practically what made YouTube famous. Don’t believe me? A simple search results in hundreds of backyard wrestling videos, just like this one where two kids fall off a roof and appear to have seriously injured each other.
“YouTube is not a shock site. Don’t post gross-out videos… or similar things intended to shock or disgust.” While shock and disgust are sometimes easy gateways to get people talking about you or your business, “Hotel” was intended to tastefully depict a loving interaction between two people, and its content was nothing near shocking, especially in a world where we are pretty desensitized. But, if you’d like to view something gross, YouTube has you covered with a video that met viral status over a year ago. Hello, “World’s Biggest Zit.” I won’t post a link to this, but you’re welcome to look it up, provided you are not eating anything and promise not to hold me responsible for permanently burning the imagery into your brain.
“Respect Copyright… Don’t upload videos you didn’t make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to…” It’s never hard to find videos where everyday users post clips (or sometimes, full episodes) of their favorite TV shows, music videos and movies. I’m sure it’s a full-time job trying to ensure that people don’t violate this guideline or any others, and there is just too high a volume to manage every single one that gets posted. That being said, all of the content of “Hotel” is original, so surely that can’t be what made YouTube decide the video needed to come down.
Perhaps the biggest slap in the face is this: “We encourage free speech and defend everyone’s right to express unpopular points of view. But we don’t permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity).” I will spare you of existing examples of every one of these types of hate speech existing on YouTube, but I guarantee you’ve seen at least three of them. While the words in their Community Guidelines can help the powers-that-be at YouTube pat themselves on the back while they present an image that they are tolerant, The Smitten Kitten is one of the few places that actually live these words. They do it in two major parts of our culture (those being sex and business) where corruption can run rampant and there is little accountability for wrongdoing. Each one of those groups YouTube mentioned are in some way represented and welcomed inside the sex-positive, inclusive world of The Smitten Kitten, whether it be the products they carry, their customers or the employees that work there.
But there is good news. Like many of its customers, The Smitten Kitten found that it wasn’t getting the respect it deserved through the most popular mainstream avenues, so it went off in search of a place where their means of expression were valued. Fortunately, Vimeo has welcomed The Smitten Kitten and its short film “Hotel”. There are more sexy videos to come, representing a wide array of people, lifestyles, relationships, and sex.
Naomi Hedonia is a writer, freelance make-up artist and photo assistant. Her interests include travel, domesticity and excessive manicures, and hates overuse of the word “random.” She is a mother of three and lives in the Minneapolis Arts District.