A catchy Instagram's such a great, simple way to gain notoriety—that's why when you see an account like Stephanie Sarley's, which capitalizes on a simple theme, it usually makes you wish you thought of it yourself. That might not actually be the case when you discover Sarley's account though, if you're more than a little bashful. It's a wonderful idea, but might induce a blush.
It's primarily Sarley's fingers, blasting away at fruit.
Sarley is an artist, and isn't in it for the notoriety, although it's brought her plenty—more than 62,000 followers and enough comments and likes for even the thirstiest 'grammar. In an interview with the Daily Dot, Sarley drops this incredible quote:
"I didn’t invent fingering fruit."
Then she elaborates:
It’s a natural thing to finger things, to play with your food. But, what I invented was a compelling video that meant something to people, about menstruation and virginity and sex and love.
If you find yourself giggling, that's OK too. Sarley acknowledges "[i]t’s okay to turn people on. I don’t want to be serious about my art 100 percent. Titillation is fun, and sexualization of fruit is great, and that makes me really happy."
Of course, with any Internet-fame comes Internet hate. "I get 'fruit rapist' a lot," she tells the Daily Dot. "One person hashtagged Stephanie Sarley on Twitter the other day and called me the Perverted Fruit Rapist."
The worst of it—besides the unfortunate requests for nudes and unsolicited dic picks that come as a tragic prerequisite for female Internet fame—seems to be people appropriating her art for their own memes, without attribution and often with obnoxious captions.
"The one that's popular has something to do with, 'When she's a freak...' I actually refuse to memorize the phrase because I don't even want to acknowledge it," she explains.
In addition to the usual "15-year-old boy who's super angry and doesn't understand copyright laws," she's also battled Instagram on their censorship of her account. She's never certain why Instagram deletes it, but they've removed her account more than once.
"Sarley is not only a finger porn auteur," writes the wordsmith over at Daily Dot. She's also authored Dick Dog & Friends Coloring Book, and two illustrated books called Orcunts and Crotch Monsters, "which replace vulvae with flowers and cartoon faces." (Actually NSFW image below.)
Is that surprising? No, not really. But here's something of hers that might change the way you see (or eat) strawberries forever.