“No sexual ignorance”. The structure of Russian Instagram* sex blogs

Abstract

The development of sex education in Russia has been rather dramatic. Temporary liberalization has been replaced by conservative attitudes several times, both in professional areas (education and medicine) and in the public sphere. Now there is free access to information about sexuality and sex on open Internet resources available virtually without any age or territorial restrictions. Social networks and bloggers have become a major source of expertise. Therefore, it is especially significant to notice and describe examples of Russian sex blogs on Instagram as a phenomenon. This article which was written in 2021 is an attempt to delineate content strategies (strategies for using text, photo, video and hybrid content) used by sex blog authors. Additionally, I offer some focal points that are important for continuing and deepening the analysis in future sociological, anthropological and Internet research. In this article, I rely on the methods used by internet researchers working with digital ethnography. I investigate the blogs using long-term participant observation (about two years in total) and description of content elements in sex blogs. I describe blogs, illustrate them using screenshots and citations, analyze and classify the content of Russian sex blogs on Instagram. I also highlight the most notable problematic topics: the boundaries of public and private in sex blogs and methods of self-presentation. As a result, I assume that certain approaches have developed for balancing authenticity and expertise. I suggest that sex bloggers have special and fluid content strategies that allow authors to speak out on sensitive and socially significant topics of sex and sexuality and to broadcast their own identity on the Internet at the same time, regulating the borders of public and private.