Sorry I posted this awhile ago in the wrong place. A new article on camming, what do you guys think?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/te...business&_r=1&
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Sorry I posted this awhile ago in the wrong place. A new article on camming, what do you guys think?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/te...business&_r=1&
Not a bad story. I understand that "Lacey" is trying to make her money, but I'm a little confused as why she would brand herself so much if she was afraid of her parents finding out. Alas, she has her own reasoning I suppose. Also, I thought the writer could've reach out to a few more girls/guys who would expose other cam issues like the lower end of paying cam sites. I think if they brought up the fact that most of us get 20-40% it would've been more interesting. However, I understand that the writer was focusing more on "Lacey's" story. All in all I thought it was a pretty decent read. It still boggles my mind that camming is a multi billion dollar industry yet so many cam girls struggle to make ends meet.
Miss Lollipop/Lacey is an awesome model. This article is good but doesn't say anything most of us don't already know. Fantastic publicity for Lacey though :)
(Where do I get a Mr Lewis?)
Right? "I cant pay my rent/vet bill" and various but still pretty common emergency tweets/blogposts of firesales logically shouldnt exist & fuck didnt the parent company of Cams.com recently declare bankruptcy, I mean what's going on? but more seriously, Id love reading an article like this - that would be compelling read. As long as it focuses on this from just a survey, labor, or legal rights perspective -- or even a series of personal stories. Only thing is, despite how common it is, being low-earning or hell even moderate-earning is taboo within our own circles .... so Id be impressed by whoever steps forward to have that story told.
I liked it, I liked how it discussed safety and how being online the definition of "adult industry" safety can mean something else entirely. I think the risks involved with camming is usually an afterthought in these kinds of articles so I was impressed they discussed her name/personal info being leaked and meeting guys for "dates" and all of that. Also liked trafficking wasnt the focus of the article and the Urban Justice Center made commentary (theyre one of the few orgs that works with sex workers who are and are NOT coerced, like they work with all adult industry workers without dogma)... I was waiting for some Polaris Project hysteria and didnt see it bc the data just isnt there.
I was super impressed they were able to interview a "whale", that you never see. I think it was brave of her to do this + even discuss meeting a guy offline and describe their relationship as "business and a complicated friendship", that was bold on her part & brutally honest.
I did LOL about the article starting with her being late to get on cam, ouch the reality.
Interesting where they say that one man in 300 who visits a camsite (LJ at least) actually spends. Interesting statistics. Painful statistics.
"Unlike prerecorded pornography, cam shows, which happen in real time, are hard to pirate." Uh no, just check the tubes. We're all on it
Damn I missed that. 1 out of 300..... Why am I ugly laughing? lol that isnt funny at all but it speaks very loudly to when sites reach that point of oversaturation of models + declining traffic + unclear billing practices what the uh impact is. And why affiliates have to become so uhhhhhh creative to lure guys in.
Hey now, there are systems in place, ya know, things and stuff, that make it hard.
Hey, fact or fiction - Im glad the NYTimes said this, lol. Hell, they shouldve added "we're heard reports of INTERPOL jumping through people's windows with machetes to the very few who have tried to overcome this diffulty. Then the head is delivered to the cam performer they attempted to record. Numerous reports of the noses of those who view, download, or disseminate the recorded material being hacked off is also reported. Various human rights organizations are exploring several complaints but all reports are classified. We believe this is an urban myth but remain unsure"
HAHA thanks for linking that thread. Too funny.
According to the "pirates", SM did "fix" something that was allowing customers to easily record. But, as we've all seen, there's more than one way.
"Even those women who become cam models of their own free will take on serious risks associated with sex work, Ms. Griffin said. Those risks, she said, run from the low self-esteem that comes from working on the margins of society, to using drugs to cope with a job that can feel shameful, to getting into other activities, whether stripping in a club or prostitution."
“The longer they do it, the more vulnerable they become to going to the next stage and the next stage"
Who is this woman? I really don't agree with any of this. If you feel like this work is shameful and like it's "working on the margins of society" you are probably in the wrong profession.
She's talking about women who do it of their own free will, not women who believe they're in the right profession. There are lots of camgirls who continue to cam despite the negative effects to which she's referring. I happen to agree with what she's saying. I don't think the point of the quote was to say that camming is like a gateway "drug" to the rest of sex work, or causes all women who do it to turn to drugs & prostitution. However, I think it's a valid point that, if camming contributes to your low self-esteem, you might be more willing to do other things that you don't necessarily want to do. Not all camgirls are future drug users; not all camgirls are future prostitutes; not all camgirls who are also drug users and/or prostitutes have a problem. But I agree that doing something that causes you to feel bad about yourself can lead to some of these activities.
If you're unable to share your profession with family and friends, you're unable to tell your landlord what you do for fear of being kicked out of your apartment, etc., then in a lot of ways you are on the margins of society. It's not right, but the industry, despite its popularity, is still stigmatized. I envy those who can be completely open about what they do, but many of us can't, and that's not just for reasons of perceived judgement.
I'm going to contact them, or another high profile news outlet, so we can expose the OTHER side of camming.
I do find it interesting that not one single article I've read about camming has ever quoted some of the horrible things that customers say, the way they try to scam performers, the chargebacks, and pretty much every other nasty side of it... except for the real danger (stalkers, etc). Unfortunately, I think a lot of these articles cause more girls to flock to camming because they're not fully informed. I'm grateful that this article didn't make it seem like all glitz and glamour, but nothing I've read has been particularly "complete".
I did read that thinking exactly that. She makes it sound like camming is a gateway drug.
Just my opinion but if you have low self esteem I don't see how camming could work for you. So much of this job requires self confidence.
I just can't imagine sleeping at night worrying that if my landlord finds out I have to find another place to live. That is so much stress and pressure to be under. I couldn't handle it.
I'm not saying I would go and shout to the rooftops that I'm a cam girl. I've mentioned before how my mom doesn't know and I'd prefer to keep it that way but thinking that you're working on the margins of society just seems really harsh to me.
http://gawker.com/the-weirdest-thing...irl-1371183143
Weirdest thing? Come on.
You're right. I agree that if camming is detrimental to your self-esteem, then you should quit. Not everyone has the luxury of doing a job that makes them feel good about themselves though. I don't see camming as any different in that regard than any other job though. I worked retail for a while and cried on my breaks. I quit, but it put me in a real tough spot financially. Not everyone has the presence of mind to quit something that's hurting them either.
But if the article (and the "experts") only addressed perfectly happy, self-confident social butterflies, then it would be ignoring a huge portion of the camgirl demographic.
I highly suspect that people who study the sex industry have no idea at all about how we emotionally support each other here on Stripperweb. It is true that if you have no support system a job in this industry can be really hard on a person.
I know that I personally had no idea that women could be anything other than backstabbing bitches to each other that did anything else then tear each other down for the attention of men until I found Stripperweb.
Thank you so much for this place Pryce! May the Camgoddess smile down on you wherever your adventures ended up taking you next. ;D
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As an interesting side note, I actually came to this job out of desperation with the lowest of low self-esteem. I would of never in a million years had considered becoming a camgirl if it wasn't for the fact that I was broke and homeless.
Much to my surprise, camming has not only filled my bank account but it has also in a lot of ways filled my soul.
The mental health profession in over 20 years could not manage to teach me the importance of boundary-making and how to build my self esteem.
Camming taught these things to me in less than 2 years and I am still learning more everyday.
Absolutely to all points. It is a community and so many people yap yap yap about sex,pornography and have NO IDEA what they are talking about. Today on FB a friend who doesn't know what I do posted this article on her page. She went off into a rant and rave about how disgusting the couples in the article were. And I thought if only you knew? Now the article and the show is a joke in it's self. Take sex back from pornography? What a joke! They know damn well that they are only doing it for ratings. Just because there gonna be in a box doesnt make it any less pornographic. Dear Lord! Here is the article
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...rnography.html
Hi ladies!
If you're curious about my reaction to the article, as well as a few factual things I'd like to clear up you can read more here where I made a blog post about it
I appreciate that the response has been so positive. It was a very scary article to do. In some ways the article was very slanted, in others I felt like it was fair.
It's good to see your reaction to this and to know how much of a slant there was. I've been approached for a similar article...I came to notice because I am happily camming despite having had breast cancer. (Double mastectomy and reconstruction!). But I am so worried that I won't like how it's edited or what slant there will be.
Has anyone seen this article? I see a lot of women trying camming because they think this is 'easy fast money'.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/te...=business&_r=0
These always bother me just a bit...I feel like it touched on none of the real issues with camming, while playing up the trafficking (which I haven't heard is a huge issue) and made it seem like a goldmine of easy cash.