Behind the webcam:Contested visibility in online sex work in the Netherlands, Romania and the United Kingdom

Abstract

In webcamming online sex workers can make money through tips and per-minute fees for livestreamed digital sexual acts and interactions. Like other work that takes place on the internet, websites which host webcam performers have considerable influence over how performers make a living. At the same time webcamming also differs from other digital labour in that it is heavily stigmatized. In many places around the world sex work, including webcamming, is considered socially unacceptable and looked down upon. Drawing on interviews with 67 webcam performers and 13 other industry insiders in the Netherlands, Romania and the UK, this thesis makes sense of how workers deal with these competing forces, and the question how do webcam performers in The Netherlands, Romania and the United Kingdom conduct their labour within platform structures?To answer this question, it presents an analysis which explicitly recognises webcamming as work rather than as sex. This thesis draws on a Marxist-feminist perspective which is critical of the exploitative labour conditions webcam platforms and sex work stigma create, while also acknowledging that workers still have agency even in unfavourable circumstances. The problems it identifies with online sex work have much more to do with the context of contemporary labour, in which increasing amounts of workers need to ensure they are visible online to generate an income, which platforms then profit from. It is this visibility that becomes central to the above research question is answered. <br/