Abstracts
Abstract
Romance fiction has a complicated relationship with visibility. It is a genre with undeniable presence in the contemporary publishing industry in terms of output and sales, but has historically been hidden in personal, rhetorical, and material ways. Within the genre, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and erotic romance writers and their works experience a kind of hyper(in)visibility, a concept which describes how non‑normative identities and bodies are overlooked, ignored, and underrepresented, while simultaneously subject to intense scrutiny, surveillance, and stereotyping. Semi‑automated decision‑making technologies, including content moderation and search and recommendation algorithms, further compound these invisibilizing forces. Drawing on interviews with authors, metadata analysis, and critical discourse analysis of terms of service, this article argues that algorithmic systems maintain a politics of hyper(in)visibility for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and erotic romance authors and books, which risks exacerbation in light of the broader deplatfomization of sex online and current conservative political movements, particularly in the United States.
Keywords:
- Hyper(in)visibility,
- self‑publishing,
- platform,
- imaginaries,
- algorithms,
- content moderation
Résumé
La romance fictionnelle entretient une relation complexe avec la visibilité. Il s’agit d’un genre dont la présence est indéniable dans l’industrie éditoriale contemporaine en termes de production et de ventes, mais qui a toujours été occulté sur les plans personnel, rhétorique et matériel. Au sein de ce genre, les autrices et les BIPOC, LGBTQ+ ainsi que les autrices et auteurs de romans érotiques, ainsi que leurs oeuvres, font l’expérience d’une sorte d’hyper(in)visibilité, un concept qui décrit la manière dont les identités et les corps non normatifs sont négligés, ignorés et sous-représentés, tout en étant soumis à un examen minutieux, à la surveillance et associés à des stéréotypes. Les technologies de prise de décision semi-automatisées, notamment la modération de contenu et les algorithmes de recherche et de recommandation, renforcent encore ces marques d’invisibilisation. S’appuyant sur des entretiens avec des auteurs, l’analyse de métadonnées et l’analyse critique du discours des conditions d’utilisation, cet article soutient que les systèmes algorithmiques maintiennent une politique d’hyper(in)visibilité pour les autrices et auteurs BIPOC, LGBTQ+, pour leurs livres et pour la romance érotique, qui risque de s’aggraver compte tenu de la déplateformisation plus générale du sexe en ligne et des mouvements politiques conservateurs actuels, en particulier aux États-Unis.
Mots-clés :
- Hyper-(in)visibilité,
- auto-publication,
- plateformes,
- imaginaires,
- algorithmes,
- modération de contenu
Appendices
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