Global Motivations to Cam

This chapter explores the motivations for selling sex online. A desire to earn decent wages motivates workers to become cam models. The social conditions that create these economic urgencies are vital for understanding their choice to cam. Context conditions the costs of the resources we need to survive, and our identities and social positioning in various overlapping systems of oppression shape our access to those resources. Cam performers are not engaged in a political struggle to overthrow capitalist labor. They are capitalists. However, their work does have the potential to crack capitalism and the various systems of oppression that cause people unbearable pain. Cam workers’ performances challenge systems of oppression designed to deprive women, people of color, trans and genderqueer folks, and people with disabilities a public space in which to live, work, and find joy. Performers publicly disrupt acceptable modes of sexuality and pleasure every day. Even though camming will never deliver Marxist liberation to workers, the camming industry is a new alternative mode of labor in which workers seek to reconcile work with dignity and pleasure. Work sucks, and cam performers, like so many workers, want to escape alienation and lead pleasurable lives.

Conclusion

The conclusion examines critical issues regarding the growth of online sex work and how since the introduction of the Internet laws have not been adequately updated. It raises several essential questions about the future of online sex work and the law. Additionally, the current anti–sex work climate in the United States and the fear of litigation created by policies such as FOSTA are beginning to reverberate throughout the global network of sex work industries. Perhaps the conditions created by FOSTA, alongside the existing exploitation, discrimination, and harassment cam models regularly face, will be the catalyst for political mobilization. At this point, there are no indications that among cam models any movement toward unionization or collective struggle to challenge capitalist exploitation is afoot. Another critical question emerges, If cam models do organize, what would resolve their experiences of exploitation, discrimination, doxing, harassment, and privacy violations? The conclusion uses the case of the movement to decriminalize prostitution to explore how many sex workers survive state-sponsored violence by politically drawing on neoliberal ideologies about individual freedom and liberties.

Performing in a Sexual Field

This chapter considers how the online context shapes display work, the economic outcomes of display work, and the experiences of display workers. Echoing Mears and Connell’s research, data from the present study shows that in camming female cam models outearn their male counterparts. The structure of desire in the camming field privileges women—albeit in uneven ways—because even though both trans women and cis women outpace men in earnings, trans and cis women’s bodies are valued differently and they have qualitatively different experiences of work. Using the sexual fields framework, this chapter examines how performers develop sexual capital by crafting “manufactured identities” and designing performances in ways that adhere to the logic of the camming field. In order to make money, performers must deliver performances of sex that are valued by participants within this sexual field. While many performers are hesitant to be dishonest about their identities because they know authenticity and realness are crucial in camming, many also change aspects of their identities on their profiles to enhance their marketability through the normative performance of sex. Using an intersectional framework, this chapter examines how cam models strategically perform femininities and masculinities in ways that adhere to the logic of the camming field.

The Pleasure Deficit

Pleasure has been a focal point of both theoretical and empirical work across a wide range of disciplines for millennia. Surprisingly, however, sociology has had very little to say about the importance of pleasure in shaping social action, the ways that society constructs what pleasure is, and how we experience pleasure. We desperately need a sociological theory of pleasure to unpack the ways that pleasure both motivates human behavior and mediates social interactions. Pleasure refers to infinitely different sets of gratifying social experiences. Pleasure is a social experience controlled by regulatory forces, and the routine sacrifice of pleasure is a hallmark of social life. The sacrifices of pleasure provide structure and order to society and its institutions; yet the sacrifice of pleasure is embedded with power, and in this process, human freedom is limited and people are subjugated. This chapter raises the question, What would it look like for sociologists, generalists, and those individuals in various sociological subfields to place pleasure at the center of their analyses? This chapter offers readers a distinctively sociological theory of pleasure, which lays the groundwork for an entirely new subfield in sociology—the sociology of pleasure.

Introduction

Camming is the first book devoted solely to the erotic webcam industry, that empirically documents the history of the camming industry, the industry’s current size, the profitability of the camming industry, and that analyzes the motivations and the experiences of a relatively diverse sample of cam models. This chapter provides a brief background on the camming industry and discusses clients’ desire for embodied authenticity, and how interactive cam shows differ from traditional pornography. Given that many people view the consumption of virtual embodiment differently than they see the consumption of physical embodiment, and that these sexual interactions occur online, camming appeals to a wide range of workers and consumers. Importantly, these contextual elements create the conditions under which people open themselves up to experiencing new forms of pleasure, and in which workers can recapture pleasure as a fundamental part of their work. In addition to providing an overview of the industry, this chapter also outlines the analytical frameworks used throughout the book, which include the polymorphous paradigm of sex work and intersectionality. Finally, the critical pedagogies used in the book are described, which include progressive stacking, autoethnography, and a pornographic imagination.

“I Get Paid to Have Orgasms”

This chapter explores how both pleasure and danger condition participation in camming. Cam models discuss the joys of camming, the pleasure of sharing intimacy, the pleasure of self-exploration, the pleasures of feeling free, and sexual pleasure. While cam models do not face the regular threat of physical harm, there are still many dangers. There are the physical tolls of sex work, and cam models are regularly subjected to stigma, capping, doxing, and harassment. These dangers can produce various forms of harm: physical, economic, social, and physiological harm. The striking theoretical point is that the presence of danger or risk, and the accompanying affectual states those risks cause, condition and shape the individuals’ experience of pleasure. Despite the dangers that exist, this chapter shows that the many pleasures of camming produce high levels of job satisfaction. Pleasure is not only a motivation for camming, it is also often the reason why people continue in the industry. The pleasure they experience allows them to deliver embodied authenticity to clients, which increases wages. This case study suggests that employee satisfaction is directly tied to pleasure. Future lines of inquiry should explore the role of pleasure in work.

Introduction to Camming

This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the historical development of the erotic webcam industry. The camming industry emerged in 1996 because of two converging social phenomena: the introduction of the Internet and the popularity of non-erotic camgirls in the United States. Additionally, the explosion of amateur pornography on the Internet has led to the demystification of porn. As a result, clients, who are disproportionately cis men, have come to value embodied authenticity and realness. The chapter examines the emergence of erotic cam sites and various technological developments that furthered the growth of the industry such as Skype, social media, smartphones, and teledildonics. The inequality generated by global capitalism means that for many people around the world, the costs associated with becoming a cam model are prohibitive and access to the technologies described in this chapter are not available. While the camming industry can thus be lauded for creating an opportunity for safe and legal sex work, this opportunity is not open to the most economically vulnerable people around the world.

Getting Kinky Online

“Kink” is an umbrella term used to describe a range of non-normative sexual practices. Performing kink and catering to taboo sexual desires can be quite lucrative. In the camming industry, performers argue that in their kinky interactions with clients, they explore their sexual desires, better understand their sexual subjectivity, and, in the process, find empowerment and pleasure. Cam models who perform kink shows and do fetish work see their work as having positive effects on their lives and the lives of their clients. It is crucial that, in camming, customers can have pleasurable experiences exploring kink that they feel they cannot have offline. These kinky encounters online affect individuals’ lives offline, as well. Our offline and online experiences share a symbiotic relationship—our lives are diffuse. This chapter explores a range of kink work, which includes BDSM shows such as age play, incest play, foot fetish, blasphemy play, cuckolding, small penis humiliation, and race play. BDSM play on or offline can feel like an escape from the social systems that confine our desires and restrict our bodies, which does produce pleasure. However, various forms of BDSM play also reinforce existing systems of oppression such as White supremacy, patriarchy, cissexism, and transphobia.

For Black Models Scroll Down

This chapter focuses on one popular webcam site, MyFreeCams, as a case study, and demonstrates the intricate ways that race-, class-, and gender-based inequities are perpetuated in the camming industry. White supremacy is embedded within the camming field. This chapter explores how sexual racism shapes the structure of desire in the camming field—the structure of cam sites, the cultural scripts deployed in the field, and interactions between performers and customers. The presence of sexual racism in the camming field means that bodies of color have lower exchange values and that women of color earn less than White women for performing the same labor. Sexual racism and colorism ensures different experiences and different financial outcomes for cam models based on race and nationality. The benefits of camming presented in this book are thus highly racialized and not even felt by some workers. These findings empirically demonstrate that Whiteness increases erotic/sexual capital, and thus wages for many White models. Race should never be separated from analyses of sexuality, and more empirical work is needed to investigate sexual racism, recognizing that race and sexuality are always intertwined in the social world.

We Are Camily

A vibrant community of webcam performers has developed in tandem with the camming industry. The “camily,” as many performers refer to it, is a loosely tied network of performers who provide one another with various forms of support and friendship. Cam models use web forums, social media, and conferences and events to interact with one another in a loosely structured social network that has been designed by cam performers for cam performers. Those who find community can build social capital and acquire benefits as a result. Models’ degrees of embeddedness in the camily influence their ability to mobilize social capital within the camming industry. This chapter also examines exclusionary practices within the community. Community norms and powerful gatekeepers restrict access to social capital. The boundaries some camgirls create exclude trans women, cis men, and low-wage part-time performers, who are disproportionally people of color and non-English-speaking people. This systematic exclusion from the community can adversely affect economic outcomes.