Scroll through TikTok or Instagram Reels for five minutes and you will probably see it: a pottery video where the camera lingers on wet hands caressing clay with unnecessary intensity. A cooking tutorial where someone bites their lip while drizzling honey.

A woodworking creator in a tight tank top, making suggestive comments about their "hard wood." The craft almost becomes secondary to the performance happening around it.

We have arrived at a weird moment in content creation where skill alone apparently isn't enough. Mastery needs a side of sensuality. And honestly? It is exhausting to see.

The Algorithm Made Me Do It

What is driving this trend is engagement. Platforms reward content that keeps eyeballs glued to screens, and sex has always been a reliable attention-grabber. Creators have figured out that a suggestive caption or strategic camera angle can mean the difference between 5,000 views and 5 million.

More views equals more followers, brand deals, and money. When you are competing against millions of creators, and the algorithm favours provocative content, the pressure to perform, not just your craft, but yourself, becomes intense.

A talented baker might spend years perfecting their technique, but the video that goes viral is the one where they are making subtle sensual references.

The problem is that platforms have created an environment where genuine skill increasingly feels like it is not enough on its own merit.

When the Craft Becomes the Excuse

What bothers me most is how the actual craft gets diminished. Pottery becomes an excuse to film hands sensually. Cooking becomes a backdrop for performing attractiveness.

The years of practice, technical knowledge, genuine artistry all gets flattened into aesthetic seasoning for content that is really about something else.

I have watched cooking videos where I learnt absolutely nothing about the recipe because the creator was too busy trying to make the process sensual. I have seen woodworking content where the comments section is entirely about the creator's appearance and body rather than the beautiful table they just built.

The craft becomes almost incidental, a prop in a different kind of performance.

This is not to insinuate that creators can't be attractive or that sensuality doesn't have a place in art. But there is a difference between someone who happens to be attractive while demonstrating genuine skill, and someone using craft as a vehicle for sexualized content.

You can feel the difference in intentionality.

The Pressure to Perform (Everything)

Talk to creators privately and many will admit they feel trapped. They built an audience by showing their craft authentically, but growth has stalled. They see others in their niche leaning into suggestive content and exploding in followers overnight.

The unspoken message is clear: your skill matters less than your willingness to perform desirability.

This hits different depending on who you are. Women and femme creators often face an impossible choice: maintain boundaries and potentially limit their reach, or sexualize their content and deal with increasingly inappropriate comments and expectations.

Male creators can benefit from this trend too but they are generally less likely to receive the kind of harassment that comes with being sexualized online.

And if you are not conventionally attractive? Good luck. The message becomes your craft better be absolutely exceptional, or you might not matter at all.

What We Lose

We are losing the ability to appreciate skill for its own sake. We are training ourselves to need the additional stimulus of sexual appeal to pay attention to someone's genuine talent. That feels like a cultural loss.

When everything needs to be sexualized to be interesting, we are essentially saying that competence, mastery, and artistry are not compelling anymore. That seems bleak, especially when you consider how much dedication goes into developing real craft skills.

I think about younger creators coming up who might never know a digital landscape where you could just be good at something and have that be enough. Where showing your process and sharing knowledge was the point, not just a vehicle for building a personal brand based on desirability.

Can We Go Back?

Maybe I'm being nostalgic for an internet that was never that pure. Sex appeal and marketing have always been intertwined. But it feels like we have hit a point where the balance has shifted too far.

The solution isn't to shame creators working within the system they have been given. It is to be more intentional about what we engage with.

If you are frustrated by oversexualized craft content, support creators who focus on their actual skills. Leave thoughtful comments about technique. Share videos that teach you something.

Because skill should not be boring. Mastery should be enough. And maybe if we start acting like it is, the platforms might eventually catch up.