By Alexander Monea

The MIT Press

2022

Foreword by Violet Blue

An exploration of how heteronormative bias is deeply embedded in the internet, hidden in algorithms, keywords, content moderation, and more.

In The Digital Closet, Alexander Monea argues provocatively that the internet became straight by suppressing everything that is not, forcing LGBTQIA+ content into increasingly narrow channels—rendering it invisible through opaque algorithms, automated and human content moderation, warped keywords, and other strategies of digital overreach. Monea explains how the United States' thirty-year “war on porn” has brought about the over-regulation of sexual content, which, in turn, has resulted in the censorship of much nonpornographic content—including material on sex education and LGBTQ+ activism. In this wide-ranging, enlightening account, Monea examines the cultural, technological, and political conditions that put LGBTQ+ content into the closet.

Monea looks at the anti-porn activism of the alt-right, Christian conservatives, and anti-porn feminists, who became strange bedfellows in the politics of pornography; investigates the coders, code, and moderators whose work serves to reify heteronormativity; and explores the collateral damage in the ongoing war on porn—the censorship of LGBTQIA+ community resources, sex education materials, art, literature, and other content that engages with sexuality but would rarely be categorized as pornography by today's community standards. Finally, he examines the internet architectures responsible for the heteronormalization of porn: Google Safe Search and the data structures of tube sites and other porn platforms.

Monea reveals the porn industry's deepest, darkest secret: porn is boring. Mainstream porn is stuck in a heteronormative filter bubble, limited to the same heteronormative tropes, tagged by the same heteronormative keywords. This heteronormativity is mirrored by the algorithms meant to filter pornographic content, increasingly filtering out all LGBTQIA+ content. Everyone suffers from this forced heteronormativity of the internet—suffering, Monea suggests, that could be alleviated by queering straightness and introducing feminism to dissipate the misogyny.

^{© 2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology This work is subject to a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license.}

^{Subject to such license, all rights are reserved.}

^{The MIT Press would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided comments on drafts of this book. The generous work of academic experts is essential for establishing the authority and quality of our publications. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of these otherwise uncredited readers.}

_{Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data}

_{Names: Monea, Alexander, author.
Title: The digital closet : how the internet became straight / Alexander
Monea ; foreword by Violet Blue.
Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2022] | Series:
Strong ideas series | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021019772 | ISBN 9780262046770 (hardcover)
Subjects: LCSH: Internet—Social aspects. | Homophobia. | Sexism.
Classification: LCC HM851 .M6593 2022 | DDC 302.23/1—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021019772}