(please note this page is a work-in-progress, that I will be updating/adding to as more ideas percolate!)
To help motivate myself, as well as keep members of the Topless Topics community informed, I decided to make this page to type out some of the many goals I have for the future of my content, especially once that I’d like to focus on this year of 2022 (assuming we don’t all die of climate change and/or get nuked by an unstable dictator). This list is mostly for my own reference, but if you have suggestions, notes or questions, feel free to contact me to let me know:
Anyway, on to the goals~
Upload at least 1 new video a week
Doesn’t have to be a super well produced video, though of course if I can find the energy and time to do that, that’s great. I have no dearth of video ideas–just have to make sure I have the spoons to turn on a camera and talk about it, and hopefully get a result that is not too boring or insane.
Get all old videos reuploaded to TROM and Youtube
Since losing all my previously uploaded videos to my now-banned Vimeo account and individually-banned Youtube account, I’ve been slowly trying to reupload all my old content to the small peertube instance TROM, which is owned by a cool dude in Spain who promises he will never ban any of my videos for mere nudity and that he supports my mission 100%. I remain reserved in my enthusiasm for reuploading everything since I’ve grown accustomed to having video hosting platforms either fizzle out of existence (like Plexstorm) or change their rules to decide to ban me after all (like Periscope) or not even change their rules, but merely fall victim to the constant false-flagging from my dedicated cabal of haters (like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc etc etc). But for now, I’m looking through the files for all my old videos (that I luckily had backed up pre-ban) and reuploading the better ones one at a time. All the titles, descriptions, comments etc were lost on all of them when the original posts were banned though, so even if we kept the video, everything else that was attached to it has been forgotten.
Produce and Sell Topless Topics Merchandise
For many years I have had ideas for creating clever, topical merchandise to sell related to the Topless Topics mission–everything from t-shirts with tongue-in-cheek limmericks along with art noveau borders (like “don’t be a twit, they’re just tits”) to branded coffee mugs to bumper stickers declaring one’s support for topless equality, but due to several factors, I have yet to actually act on these ideas:
- the difficulty of finding a company that can produce the merch for a decent price and without sticking me with low quality products (there are sites all over the internet claiming to sell high quality branded merchandise, but it’s anyone’s guess which of these sites won’t just take your money and run)
- the difficulty and time-consumption of boxing up and sending out physical merchandise–even if I limit sales to US only, that’s still a lot of work to get everything boxed up, postage’d, and dropped off at the appropriate mailing depot. If the shirts etc. are only selling for a dollar or two at-cost, this is not worth the extra time and effort, not until I can afford to hire outside help to take care of these sorts of tasks for me
But I think I’ve made these excuses long enough, and perhaps it’s time for me to take the plunge and try selling at least the most popular item. Then we can figure out if it was worth the time and cost, and if not, set a goal for what we need to reach to make it feasible. If you have an interest in possibly obtaining some sweet Topless Topics merch one of these days, you can follow me on social media and/or ask directly if I’ve got any actual plans in the making yet: www.toplesstopics.org/contact
Resurrect the Topless Topics Newsletter
A while ago (years, I think) I briefly had a semi-monthly newsletter where I rounded up links for recently uploaded content, polls and other site news, etc, that I sent out to willing recipients. But the process of setting up and sending out each letter was a huge pain in the butt, and the analytics through mailchimp showed that they had an extremely low click-thru rate, making it seem as though the effort was not worth the limited payoff. However, in today’s social-media-saturated culture, relying on patriarchal mainstream media algorithms to make sure followers see alerts about new content is a fool’s errand. I’ve also become more of a fan of emailed newsletters from other sources, like Crooked Media’s “What a day” sarcastic left-leaning political news roundup, and The Oatmeal’s new comics updates (the creator doesn’t even bother with mainstream social media updates anymore, from my understanding). So maybe it’s worth another try!
Upload audio of all past videos as podcast episodes for the “Topless Topics Podcast”
At the start of 2021, after months of requests by TT followers, I started an audio-only Topless Topics podcast. It felt a bit silly since I don’t really have anything to say in a podcast that I don’t say already in my videos, and shortly into 2021 my mom died, which threw that (along with the newsletter and other projects) onto the backburner/postponed them indefinitely. I’m thinking now that I use the podcast not only to put up audio-only versions of my past videos (not all of them, just the ones that actually make sense audio-only) and perhaps to record new podcasts in the future, especially if I find potential interviewees/cohosts who are unwilling or unable to produce a video chat but are willing to do an audio one instead. If you’d like to vote for which of my old videos should be turned into podcast episodes first, you can contact me to let me know!
Livestream at least 3x/week
There are so many creative projects I want to do–from illustration and wire-wrap jewelry making to sewing and getting back into cosplay–that might also be fun to connect with TT community members by livestreaming while I work on them :p I can’t promise I’ll be the most talkative during the streams, since if I spend too much time talking I won’t actually make progress on the creative projects, but it would be a lot of fun to talk with you guys more while I work on my projects. If you’d like to “call in” and chat with me during livestreams, you can ask during the stream, or contact me to ask how to get set up ahead of time.
Do Handmaid’s Tale Costume Photoshoot for Promo Pics
In mid-2021, I started trying out a new form of ridiculous censorship to hide my heinous female nipples in a patriarchally-approved manner–since neither adding a mosaic censor over my chest or even full body, nor covering my entire body with a digital pastie, have been severe enough to keep Big Tech Bros happy–I’ve been photoshopping a large hood and red cloak in the style of the Handmaid’s Tale TV series over my body, as well as those of my guests. The photoshop job is intentionally awful–the point is to highlight the absurdity of how women’s (and anyone algorithmically-identified as a woman) bodies are banned as “sexually explicit” no matter what we’re doing, while even the most sexual positions and movements are allowed (or even front page’d) as long as the femme person has their heinous female nipples hidden under the tiniest of teacup bikinis or pasties (except when I, Topless Topics, post identical content…thanks to my dedicated cabal of haters who false-flag all my content so it’s taken down despite not breaking any community guidelines/terms of service). But I thought it might be interesting to make some real-life Handmaid’s Tale photos to use for promos, as well as perhaps a side-by-side comparison of nonsexual nude vs sexually-suggestive-but-clothed poses for a semi-satirical photoshoot, so I bought a handmaid’s costume off etsy. This kinda has to wait until it stops raining buckets every day, but this is definitely something I’d like to accomplish in the near future.
Arrange more themed photoshoots, especially mythical beast-themed body paint
Photo-manip more old photoshoot pictures for my “Feminine Fantasy” photo series
Start #normalizenudity TTRPG livestream
Awhile ago (pre-mom-dying) I launched the idea of starting a once-a-month #normalizenudity tabletop RPG livestream–basically exactly like you’d see in most any other TTRPG livestream, only without clothing. I’ve met a few people willing to DM, so it’s just a matter of actually putting it together. (Unfortunately, timing-wise most players and stream watchers would only be available during weekends, which once again sticks me with the problem of figuring out childcare, especially since I’ll get insta-banned if any of my kids burst on screen during a stream on any site that allows nudity–aka sex-sites)
Revisit and react to old videos
As part of my video reuploading project, I thought it might be a useful exercise (and source of new content) to record, possibly livestream, my reactions as I re-watch years-old videos of mine. The exercise would mainly be to see if and how my opinions might have changed, as well as maybe introduce newer viewers to old videos of mine they did not have the opportunity to see pre-ban.
Set up brand deals for products and organizations I can morally support
As anyone who has watched my content for any length of time has doubtless heard me say, the ten + years I’ve been producing Topless Topics content has been a complete time and money sink that I do because I’m passionate about it, not because there is any financial reward. Forget ad monetization–I can’t even find a free site that will let me post my heinous nonsexual female nipples, outside of actual porn sites (which I don’t want to do for a variety of reasons). Even when my content isn’t outright banned, it’s shadowbanned, aka won’t show up in search results or “recommended videos” and requires a logged-in 18+ account to see it even if you follow a direct link. (If you’d like to help me get around this insane level of banning, please look into joining the Promo Squad, which is an informal group of super-supporters who help Topless Topics grow past patriarchal constraints by actively engaging with social media posts like sharing and making reply videos, you can find out more here: www.toplesstopics.org/promosquad )
Anyway tl;dr given that I can’t monetize any of my content, the only way I can make any money to recoup the countless costs of video hosting, editing software subscriptions, daycare so I actually have time to work, etc is thru donations (which are hard to encourage, since my options are so limited on what I can actually offer as a perk), digital prints of artistic nude photoshoots (I hate exploiting the objectification of women’s bodies for profit, but as this very paragraph describes, my options for commodification are limited. Also, they really are intended to be “artistic”–if I was interested in creating explicit pornographic imagery, I would just do it. Psst I’m not), graphic design and/or illustration commissions (aka pay me to draw you stuff!), and hopefully someday branded merchandise (see above goal!).
Another avenue I’d like to explore, though I’m hesitant about it, is seeing if I can find any sponsors who are (A) willing to be associated with “heinous female nipples” like mine, and (B) are a company I can ethically support. This rules out ones I’ve seen many other creators form brand deals with, like BetterHelp (which is a total scam), any sort of Multi-Level-Marketing, plus various others. Given my long history of being sex-positive, especially sexual-education-positive, I’m not opposed to promoting brands such as sex toys (still won’t actually use any of them on camera, don’t get excited) but I would really like this to not be my ONLY kind of sponsor. If you know of any potential sponsors who might deign to go against the grain and be willing to work with a free the nipple feminist creator (like Adidas, apparently??) please let me know!
Smaller Goals
- Design and add custom emojis to Twitch and Discord
- tighten up rules on Discord server to cut down on trolls (we’ve been really lucky, but that might not last)
- Edit and upload all previously-recorded videos just currently sitting on my drive
- Upgrade computer and recording equipment (update wishlist)
- Organize Banned page by platform and topic, and update with most recent banned screenshots
- streamline readability and aesthetic appeal of website (basically, illustrate what I want the site to look like, then watch enough wordpress and html tutorials to try to mimic my design as best I can)