A Conversation About Sex and Art

The Recess Media Blog is back — and we’re broadening our content! New stories up on Medium every Wednesday.

This week, we explore the parallels between the creative industry and the new age of sex work.

Quarantine has accumulated a unique blend of obstacle and opportunity for the creative and the sex worker. While the two industries have struggled with newfound limitations to their practices, time away from the busy routine we all once knew has redistributed time towards perfecting the crafts. Finding ways around these limitations can call for a certain creativity as well.

Simultaneously, many have turned to these outlets as means of generating income during this time of financial difficulty. Whether starting up a new clothing line or signing up for an account on OnlyFans, you probably know someone who has recently taken on a new pursuit of revenue. For both however, earning a sustainable living during the pandemic without a pre-existing following, identity, or platform can be challenging.

For our conversation on sex work, creativity, and student life in a pandemic, Recess Media met with Miranda* , a third year student at UW who started camming on Chaturbate in 2019.

How did you get into sex work and camming?

Miranda: ”I was working a lot that summer. I had two different service jobs and I was writing and also camming at the same time. I think I caught the capitalism bug and just started working a lot. [Camming] just kind of came into the picture.”

With COVID being around for a year now I think many of us have noticed the rise of OnlyFans and other similar platforms, as sex work — especially virtually, came into the picture for a lot of others. Have you seen any perspective changes, with your own work or with sex work in general, as a result of the pandemic?

M: “A lot of times people, especially young women, will make jokes about wanting to be a cam girl. They are probably well-intentioned and they probably do support sex workers, but I don’t think it’s really supportive to invalidate people’s hard work and act like it’s some cute accessory. I don’t think that’s productive.”

Do you think anyone can be a sex worker?

M: “Anyone can do anything. I don’t think there’s any limits on the gender of a person, the sexuality of a person, the race, the ability — what have you. But I don’t think sex work is as easy as ‘oh anyone can do it!’ The emotional labor involved in sex work is a lot more intense than people would think. It’s easy in a way, I sit on my bed in cute underwear and strip for men and that’s literally it, but it’s less ‘look how sexy I am’ and more fielding threats of rape. It’s less fun than you would think. It is fun, but I feel like [many women] fetishize sex workers but would never really do it because ‘ew, gross.’ I don’t think they understand the full scope of it.”

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The public’s failure to recognize the true breadth of sex work sheds light on the desire to reframe this work as labor. It’s a feeling that creatives can relate to as well, faced often with criticism and the belief that art remains a hobby rather than a career.

Despite this similarity, we should avoid conflating the struggles. The boom of consensual sex work first emerged from the hardships faced by those in the LGBTQ+ community, and continues in many ways to feed off the efforts of those struggling financially. Though many love what they do, others see this work as their only option.

M: “Sex work is definitely real work. And more than that it’s work that shouldn’t be the butt of a joke. I think for anyone who says sex work isn’t real work, their opinion doesn’t matter. They’re probably consuming sex work in some form.”

Touching on the intersection of sex and art, in what ways might you see yourself using your own creativity? And would you go so far as considering yourself a creative through your work?

M: “There’s kind of an art to appealing to the male gaze that I think I could give myself a little credit for. I’m not over here using mood lighting or using symbolism in my sex work, but there’s a level of performance artistry involved in it. There’s definitely a difference in how I act in a sexual situation in life versus on cam. My sex work personality is kind of ‘innocent girl-next-door’ which, is gross. There’s a level to it that makes me uncomfortable, and maybe in some way I’m feeding into something that is gross. But I think it’s a character, and if you think of performance art then I am a creative in a way.”

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As we spend more time in isolation, our need for intimacy grows. Art and sex can provide us this outlet by allowing us to explore the realms of this desire (amongst other concepts). Careers in these fields equally offer insight into the human experience, though often clouded by misunderstanding and undeserved social stigma.

Any advice for people interested in sex work or camming?

M: “Protect your identity. As someone who wants to have a career where my name is kind of important, it’s important to me that I’m keeping myself safe. Chaturbate has this function where you can block out certain regions, so unless you have a VPN or you have found a way to get around that, you can’t watch my stream if you live in Washington. I’ve had some scary experiences, like one time when I did get recognized and it was very uncomfortable. In that situation, lie. Have like eight fake names ready.”

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