Affect theory foregrounds pre‑cognitive intensities that circulate through media texts (Massumi, 2002). In erotic media, affect operates alongside narrative to generate “body‑talk” that bypasses linguistic mediation (Katz, 2017).
Scholars such as Laura Mulvey (1999) and Linda Williams (1999) have foregrounded the politics of gaze and the representation of the female body in visual erotica. Recent work extends this to digital contexts where performers curate self‑representation (Attwood, 2010) and where “performer‑as‑producer” dynamics dissolve traditional industry hierarchies (Burgess & Green, 2018). happy tugs mika tan meat massage 2021
The proliferation of user‑generated erotic content on platforms such as YouTube, Pornhub, and specialized fetish forums has expanded the terrain of visual sexual expression beyond mainstream pornography. Happy Tugs—a 12‑minute video released in early 2021 by performer Mika Tan—exemplifies this trend by coupling explicit bodily manipulation (the eponymous “tugs”) with a culinary‑themed narrative (“meat massage”). While the piece has been shared widely across Reddit’s r/AlternativeFetish and Twitter’s #MeatMassage tag, scholarly attention remains limited. To answer these questions, the study integrates three
This paper asks:
To answer these questions, the study integrates three methodological strands: (a) visual‑textual analysis of the video’s formal components; (b) networked reception analysis of user comments, hashtags, and sharing patterns; and (c) theoretical triangulation using feminist media theory (McRobbie, 2009), affect theory (Massumi, 2002), and sensory anthropology (Kawashima, 2015). To answer these questions