A celebrity sex tape is typically an amateur pornographic video recording involving one or more famous people which has, intentionally or unintentionally, been made available publicly. Such videos have often been released without the consent of their subjects and have damaged (or enhanced) celebrities' careers. In 1988, for example, a sex tape caused significant damage to Rob Lowe's career.[1]
The surfacing of sex tapes has become so common that some are "leaked" as a marketing tool to advance or establish a media career.[1] A celebrity can fight the release in court to maintain deniability while still enjoying the career benefits. Alternatively, a celebrity may take the route of openly releasing the tape and benefitting directly from royalties as well as indirectly from the publicity. The current public acceptance of celebrities with sex tapes is speculated by Joe Levy, executive editor of Rolling Stone, to be due to the easy availability of pornography, as well as couples more commonly making their own tapes due to the prevalence of video cameras.[1]
The following is an alphabetical list by surname of individuals known to have their sexual acts recorded and distributed:
...investigates the reality star Farrah Abraham who dabbles in acting, writing, singing, and cooking, but is best known for appearing in the MTV reality series Teen Mom and then scandalously starring in the pornographic video Backdoor Teen Mom produced by Vivid Entertainment. Abraham participates in a phenomenon that I refer to as "the aesthetics of violation" which is evident in media genres such as celebrity sex tapes and upskirt photography wherein a significant part of the appeal is that the images may have been produced or released without permission of the women involved.