Sex Work and Stigma
As online sex work emerges, so do negative opinions towards sex workers
By Jemma Keleher
Whether exotic dancing, escorting, or starring in pornographic films, women in the past were bound to physical spaces and often exploitative middle men in order to do sex work. In recent years, however, a new space has emerged where women can embrace their bodies, interact with people, and make a profit from the comfort of their homes: online sex work.
Sites like OnlyFans and Reddit, which are known for online sex work, have soared in creators and subscribers alike. These communities allow women to facilitate and control their businesses easily and safely, which has led to a rise in the number of women who work in the sex industry. For example, in less than a year (from 2019 to 2020), the number of creators on OnlyFans quadrupled from 50,000 to 200,000.
Sex work was commonly thought to only include escorting, but Merriam-Webster has expanded the definition to include anyone, “whose work involves sexually explicit behavior.” While women constitute the majority of sex workers, a 2018 study found that almost one in five sex workers are men. The experiences of male sex workers are important; however, female sex workers often face the pressure of sexism in their work. In addition, March is National Womens’ History Month, so at this time, the perspectives of women should be emphasized.
Even with the increased number of creators in online spaces, the stigma against sex workers remains. “I feel like a lot of times, people are like, ‘Oh, I’m scared for your safety,’ but they’re using that as a cop-out excuse,” said Meagan Jones, a creator on OnlyFans who has sold nude photos and videos since December 2019. “You’re not actually worried for my safety, you’re judging me.” Jones started her career with exotic dancing, yet the stigma of sex work followed her into her marriage. After divorcing her husband, who didn’t approve of the industry, she moved to only working online.
Encounters between sex workers and those who shame them can be frighteningly personal. “I’ve had people message me my parents’ address or the names of my siblings,” said Feryal Bouayed, a student at the University of Minnesota. “I’ve had people, my own friends, turn on me and threaten to send my parents my stuff.” Bouayed sells her content on the side while pursuing a degree in global studies at the University of Minnesota. Her sex work career began with a Snapchat account after her nude photos were leaked without her consent. “It went really viral, so I was getting a lot of followers, and all of these followers were asking me if I sold stuff.” Bouayed made the switch to using OnlyFans in 2017 and continues to work on the platform.
A misconception of the sex industry is that women who sell their bodies for men’s pleasure contradict the basic principles of feminism. “I’m a queer person and a feminist, and consider myself politically plugged in and active,” said Cece, who operates her sex selling business through Reddit and asked to be referred to by her online persona. “At the same time, my job is taking my clothes off and making men feel good. There definitely are disparities that I have to reckon with sometimes.”
While the guiding principle of sex work may be to sexually please others, feminism is built on the idea of autonomy. Creators choose to put their content on the Internet and make the decision to let others gain pleasure from it. “At the end of the day, sure, maybe a man [is] using my body. But I got to decide that he can,” Cece said.
Intersectionality, the idea that feminisim doesn’t only include one type of woman, but every type, has had an impact on how the public views sex work. “Especially with intersectionality and newer feminism, I think it’s because of that that [sex work] is becoming so normalized,” Bouayed said. The task at hand is to support women, regardless of what they choose to do with their bodies. “Women do this as a job. It’s the responsibility of other women to help each other grow and be safe,” said Cece.
In addition to supporting those who do sex work, those who choose not to should also be considered. “I think it’s important to stress that as we empower women that are fine with being body positive and making a profit off of it, it’s also important to empower women who don’t choose to do that,” Bouayed said. “They can empower each other, and that’s the beauty of intersectionality.”
The outside world assumes people who sell sex must be societal outcasts, said Cece. “There’s this general idea that there’s the normal people who go on PornHub and watch porn and have sex with their girlfriends,” said Cece. “Then there’s like, the cam girls, and the men cheating on their wives, and they’re all this big group of crazy sex freaks. That’s just not true.” Sex workers make their livelihood from selling sex, but behind the nude photos and videos, they are real people who lead normal lives outside of their work. Just like any other employed person, they don’t see their identity as being defined by their job. “I think people are always just sort of shocked to find out that regular people go on the internet for this kind of stuff,” Cece said. “But like, so many regular people do.” According to HuffPost, thirty percent of all data transferred on the Internet is porn.
The world of online sex selling isn’t as foreign as it may seem. Sites like OnlyFans are equivalent to PornHub or xVideos, the main difference being that workers are profiting from the porn they produce. “This has been the first wave of internet media we’ve had associated with self-production of porn. It’s something we’ve never had. Women’s bodies have literally been in the hands of porn producers for hundreds of years,” Cece said. With the surge of women doing online sex work, an opportunity has been born for women to profit from their bodies, rather than leaving it in the hands of a porn production company. “You’re actually directly supporting that person, not just the porn industry.”
In addition to supporting women, clients who frequent self-producing sellers also get the benefit of a more personalized interaction. “You can be into so many things, and when you have someone to do that with live, you can get exactly what you want,” Cece said. Being able to request things that adhere to your kinks is an valuable benefit to some, and it’s a draw to buy content from sex workers themselves. Rather than using free porn sites, they pay for an individualized experience. “People who go on PornHub and watch porn are doing the same thing that my clients are doing, except it’s live,” Cece said.
When you boil it down, sex work is just that: work. Women who sell sex online are doing so to make a profit, and that’s what they get. “People don’t see it [like a business] a lot of the time, but that’s what it is,” said Meagan. “If people try to tell me it’s not a real job, I’m like, ‘Fuck you, I pay taxes.’” It comes with the positives and negatives of any job.
One of the positives is that many sex workers report feeling more confident in their skin because of their work. “I really don’t think that I would feel as confident and sexy as I do now if I hadn’t done this,” Cece said. “I grew up with this ingrained shame about my body. My body was supposed to belong to one man when I married him. I think sex work really helped me shed that.” Sex workers feel that they are overthrowing the idea that their bodies belong to other people and are reclaiming what is theirs.
“I know this isn’t the most conventional way to make money, but it’s 2020. People are going to do what they want to do, regardless of your opinions,” Meagan said. Whether you choose to uplift women as they move to autonomous forms of sex work or to stigmatize them, sex work is a profession that women have done and will continue to do in the future. Selling sexual experiences is an act of profit and confidence that allows women to support themselves. “These are the opinions of sheep, and I’m over here being a lion. Y’all sheep can stay the fuck over there in your herd, and I’ll be over here making my money,” Meagan said.