The same day I quit the retail job someone told me that they thought doing online sex work is "exploiting myself." The work isn't exploitative, especially when compared with these low-wage positions where they overwork and mistreat employees.

https://www.businessinsider.com/great-resignation-teacher-onlyfans-bbw-model-money-jobs-work-careers-2022-1

  • TrudeauCastroson [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Early education is important and all these jobs treating people shitty sucks. Good for her getting out of it and not dealing with the boss's shit.

    This reminds me of all the STEM people wasted in finance and software engineer jobs. Or doing actual engineering but working for Raytheon.

    The next Newton is probably working in one of those two fields and it's all a massive waste of education under capitalism. Good teachers/nurses leave the field because of how badly they're treated. Everything is a massive waste of skill and education because of how capital decides to allocate money for stupid shit that doesn't help people.

    This is good for her under capitalism but also depressing (not for anti-sex work puritanism but just for how skilled people can't use their skills in a way that's useful to society even when they want to because of bad working conditions)

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Good for her getting out of it and not dealing with the boss’s shit.

      I hate these articles that continuously juxtapose public sector work with sex work, as it chronically suggests these are the only two things women are good at.

      This reminds me of all the STEM people wasted in finance and software engineer jobs.

      It's not the same, because you're not paying to objectify a guy doing DBA work at a bank. Even hiding behind "Sex Work Is Work" doesn't get you away from the hard fact that all her accrued education and experience is getting flushed so some slob can tip her and extra $20 to see her tits.

      This is good for her under capitalism but also depressing (not for anti-sex work puritanism but just for how skilled people can’t use their skills in a way that’s useful to society even when they want to because of bad working conditions)

      It's frustrating for a host of reasons. But given how disposable sex-workers are treated, it just feels like Business Insider is suggesting "Get out of that frying pan and into this fire".

      Being a CamGirl is basically just piece-work for sex workers. And its a dead-end career for the same reason doing Uber Eats or Fivr is a dead end. This isn't even "good for her" good. It's just a road to further economic pain, now that we've closed off career paths that are sustainable past the point of your first few wrinkles.

      • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        It’s not the same, because you’re not paying to objectify a guy doing DBA work at a bank. Even hiding behind “Sex Work Is Work” doesn’t get you away from the hard fact that all her accrued education and experience is getting flushed so some slob can tip her and extra $20 to see her tits.

        This doesn't bother her and it shouldn't bother you. What she does with her body is her choice. Also, most people don't use their education/degree in their jobs. That sucks, but is a problem with capitalism and not sex work.

        Being a CamGirl is basically just piece-work for sex workers. And its a dead-end career for the same reason doing Uber Eats or Fivr is a dead end.

        Or being a retail worker. Or a preschool teacher. Or a waiter. Or a (lists off every job besides trades and some white collar work).

        It's all dead end work, that's capitalism.

        now that we’ve closed off career paths that are sustainable past the point of your first few wrinkles

        No career paths are closed off to her and most sex workers understand it's something that you only do for a decade or so. It's extremely similar to a sports career in that way now that I think about it.

          • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
            ·
            edit-2
            3 years ago

            No such thing in a capitalist society.

            bruh that is an extremely fucked response to "women have bodily autonomy"

            She’s not doing this for love of the game. She’s doing it for scratch.

            So is literally everyone else who gets up in the morning and works for a living lolol no one does their job for "love of the game". So confused by why your fixated on this. 😂

            You’re not going to lose your job as a preschool teacher because your tits are sagging.

            No you'll just lose it because your trans or too sick to come in or because your boss sucks or a thousand other reasons.

            It’s not that simple nor is it apparent. Getting into the job market with a ten year gap on your resume is non-trivial, just for starters.

            "I raised my kids and was a stay at home mom." Boom. You've just used sexism against them. Also most "entry level" jobs dgaf.

    • KermitTheFraud [they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Isaac Newton, but instead of establishing classical mechanics he’s swearing at his IDE because he can’t remember how to center a div

      • Neckbeard_Prime [they/them,he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Nikola Tesla writing a billing system SOAP webservice in Java and on the verge of a mental breakdown because Eclipse corrupted his workspace again and now basic copy/paste functionality doesn't work FOR THE FIFTEENTH FUCKING TIME THIS FUCKING WEEK OH MY GOD WHY ARE THESE DEVELOPMENT WORKSTATIONS SO GODDAMNED SHITTY

      • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        I feel that everytime I clock-in. I got my CS degree to be a cool cyberpunk hacker who uses their technomagic for good. But alas, I am the one of the codedrones of the MEGACORPS. It Fuckin' sucks ass.

        :rage-cry:

    • Sphere [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This reminds me of all the STEM people wasted in finance and software engineer jobs.

      I get that you're mostly talking about science, engineering, and math students, but you do realize that the T stands for Technology (often a shorthand for computer science and IT), right? Also, I think it's shitty to lump software engineering in with finance as if they're equally worthless fields.

      (Side note: I do want to get out of software and into engineering, but what's holding me back is the necessity of getting into grad school to pursue that, not a lack of financial means.)

      • TrudeauCastroson [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        My perception of the software industry is that you make more money wasting time on stupid bullshit like being the guy building up the metaverse for facebook, or working on tools to more effectively advertise online than doing cool necessary stuff. Or working on ways to integrate twitter on a smart fridge. Or most of IoT.

        The tech behind Alexa is cool but also it's depressing that it only exists to get the advertisers into your home.

        I'm not lumping in things together based on being equally as bad/useless, because in my mind working for raytheon is by far the worst but is useful in actually making something. And software engineering would still need to exist a lot more than finance under communism (but everything open source) so it definitely has its use. But the applications that actual useful/cool tech is used for is stupid. And it's stupid all the time/energy that parallel development wastes, basically everyone trying to develop a self-driving car which would be a great feat of engineering, but wasted because it would just cement the car further over funding functional public transit.

        I just think everyone working at facebook and some (not all) working at google is a waste of manpower.

        EDIT: also in my mind tech includes technicians and machinists and those types of people who are skilled labour but not with 4 year degrees, and computer science is under science because it is a sort of research.

        • StellarTabi [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          People keep saying "walk with your feet" but 99% of my job opportunities are basically just inventing new unnecessary and useless ways to be a middleman or a gate keeper.

        • Sphere [he/him, they/them]
          ·
          3 years ago

          My perception of the software industry is that you make more money wasting time on stupid bullshit like being the guy building up the metaverse for facebook, or working on tools to more effectively advertise online than doing cool necessary stuff. Or working on ways to integrate twitter on a smart fridge. Or most of IoT.

          Yes and no, really. There are software engineers doing high-end GPU computing stuff for things like drug design, which are genuinely valuable (or at least should be--drug companies often chase drugs of questionable value to society) that get paid better than do the people working on any of the stuff you mentioned. At the same time, though, you're right that a ton of the money in software goes to work that is not actually valuable (my own job, working on health-care related software, is focused on the billing side of things, so I would classify it in the latter category, sadly).

          In general, though, I agree with what you're saying here; I think it was just a bit inelegantly expressed in your original comment.

          • thisismyrealname [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            obviously software engineers aren't the "most" important labor (if it even makes sense to rank most jobs by importance), but imagine what we could do as a species if 80% of them weren't working on the next bluetooth dildo or blockchain-enabled smart faucet

        • steve5487 [none/use name]
          ·
          3 years ago

          the worst but is useful in actually making something

          depends how long a view you take as the thing you made will be used to destroy something make you net destructive rather than productive

    • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This reminds me of all the STEM people wasted in finance and software engineer jobs. Or doing actual engineering but working for Raytheon.

      Honestly she's even better than they are because she's doing something useful for society instead of figuring out how to build adtrackers or drone bombs.

  • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    I know people who say socialism is flawed because in Cuba a taxi driver can make more money than a doctor.

    Ok, cool. Normal great free market capitalism has decided children require zero education.

    • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Yugopnik said in a Deprogram episode that he thinks looking at and judging labor hierarchically based on how difficult it is or it’s importance is a really entitled and ungrateful way to view labor which is varied in its forms and usefulnesses and I tend to agree. Seems like a very capitalism brained way of seeing things, I just can’t find it to give a shit what others are making as long as both our needs are met and we’re happy.

      Obv there’s something to be said for extreme outliers of contributions to society but that argument always just assumes too much of the way we do things now is a natural order to me

      • axont [she/her, comrade/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Yeah I didn't quite know how to phrase how I meant and thought I might have sounded like I was looking down on sex workers and taxi drivers. I don't like discouraging barriers from doing certain jobs. Surely there's something to be said about capitalism currently discouraging people from becoming teachers.

        • viva_la_juche [they/them, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Nah i think you did a good job, I wasn’t really commenting on your take itself as much as expanding on it with something that was on my mind recently
          :stalin-approval:

      • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        looking at and judging labor hierarchically based on how difficult it is or it’s importance is a really entitled and ungrateful way to view labor which is varied in its forms and usefulnesses

        Completely agree. Love thia take.

    • blight [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      If anything, the taxi drivers operate according to capitalism, often black market too (the freest of markets). Tourists are willing to spend big money to get a ride in an old muscle car, and their money weighs 20 times as heavily because of imperialism.

  • blight [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Kind of weird to specify "BBW" :volcel-judge:

          • blight [he/him]
            ·
            3 years ago

            Very interesting, but their other article that they reference, while basically true, felt like beating around a few iffy bushes. Not that this invalidates the PR article, but it's frustrating when people are so close to getting it. Maybe a few of these is me being paranoid as I don't know who this is and it was written in 2004. There's also a follow up with a dedicated disappointing section on socialism and entrepreneurs.

            By the time you get to social questions, many changes are just fashion. The age of consent fluctuates like hemlines.

            What counts as pornography and violence? And what, exactly, is "hate speech?" This sounds like a phrase out of 1984.

            We often like to think of World War II as a triumph of freedom over totalitarianism. We conveniently forget that the Soviet Union was also one of the winners.

            Take a label — "sexist", for example — and try to think of some ideas that would be called that. Then for each ask, might this be true?

            To launch a taboo, a group has to be poised halfway between weakness and power. A confident group doesn't need taboos to protect it.

            Great work tends to grow out of ideas that others have overlooked, and no idea is so overlooked as one that's unthinkable. Natural selection, for example.

            • KSOFM [they/them]
              ·
              3 years ago

              The age of consent fluctuates like hemlines.

              :what-the-hell:

          • StellarTabi [none/use name]
            ·
            3 years ago

            This article was written to increase supply of a heavily demanded product, thereby crashing prices.

  • fanbois [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    The usage of the phrase "career move" infuriates me so much. What fucking career. People switching jobs so they get exploited a little less isn't a fucking career move you dumb fucks.

    • LilComrade [comrade/them]
      ·
      3 years ago

      yeah, she makes more for easier work now, but in 10 years she won't be able to and won't have any experience, skills, benefits, or pension built up or anything. she's going to lose 10 years in career progression in teaching because it is so brutal that short term money as a cam girl is better. shit is fucked either way.

      there's going to be a lot of gig workers killing themselves as they get older and have no safety net or stability.

  • ultraviolet [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Viewing sex work as exploitative but not any other kind of work means your view on labour is clouded by reductive moral thinking.

    • Phish [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I would much rather "exploit myself" for good money and more free time than let somebody else do it for scraps and a full schedule.

      • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        :this:

        Anyone who thinks otherwise is a fucking bootlicker who is too cucked to even get paid to do it on camera.

  • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    Sex work is real work. The only reason some people hate it is because:

    1. Women and Queer people do most of the trade.

    2. Men are raised to believe they are entitled to sexual attention from women and resent being confronted with a scenario whrre they might have to pay for it.

    SWERFs are just TERFs trying to hurt a different group of marginalized people.

  • LGOrcStreetSamurai [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    I'm not anti-sex work (I'm more anti-work in the general abstract to be honest) but these sorts of stories to me just highlights the failure to properly compensate workers. If she wants to do her BBW work, that's rad! However, any time I hear "Person does X job and makes more money and has more free time than Y job" just makes me think we need to address the issues with Y job.

    I'm not hatin' on her sex work choice at all, I'm just sayin' preschool teachers should be secure in their compensation, every job should be of course. Preschool teachers, I think, are uniquely important in that they (ideally) help the kiddos to start to socialize and figure the basics of being a person, which like super important for society. That to me is a job that should be highly respected, and with that respect should come compensation and the resources to do the essential work (in the non-gross "essential worker" way that MEGACORPS use) well and sustainably.

    All that said, I still think if her sex-work work is a better fit for her and her situation, she should be able to do that as well. She should do that and do it safely, and make fat stacks.

    My point is, I think workers of all kinds should be properly cared for and venerated.

    I hate how the "work/labor discourse" is about pinning one type of work against another in some sort of suffering coliseum.

    • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      However, any time I hear “Person does X job and makes more money and has more free time than Y job” just makes me think we need to address the issues with Y job.

      Yeah, until this is resolved it's not really a free choice; it's a choice compelled by the market.

  • FidelCashflow [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    You ever findom someone into writing an article for you as an advertisement? She cute though

        • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
          ·
          edit-2
          3 years ago

          Which of these would you rather do during a global plague?

          Option 1: 40-60 hours a week trying to teach a class of 30+ unvaccinated toddlers without masks for mininum wage with no health insurance as your coworkers quit and/or die of covid around you.

          Option 2: 20 hours a week where you perform in front of a webcam and do cool tricks with your butt. You make 150% of your previous salary and don't have to leave your house.

          Just saying, it's good work.

              • chiefecula [none/use name]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                I worked non union minimum wage construction, it was plenty shitty.

                Working from home is pretty amazing, I'll give you that. No commuting, your own work hours, and all that. But even online sex work implies you have to interact with your customers. Horny, desperate removed and incels who have never talked to a real woman. Sure, physically it's easier than working in an amazon warehouse, but from a mental perspective it's pretty fucking draining.

            • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
              ·
              edit-2
              3 years ago

              Ah okay, cool. Sorry if I was intense, I've got friends who are sex workers and SWERF stuff makes me get my claws out. lol

              • Grownbravy [they/them]
                ·
                3 years ago

                Yeah, I know a few SWs too. Get that bag, but someone is always taking some off the top somewhere.

              • Grownbravy [they/them]
                ·
                edit-2
                3 years ago

                Also should note, it’s not a job a lot of people can do. There’s more to it than just “cool tricks with your butt”

                • BolsheWitch [she/her, they/them]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  3 years ago

                  Abso-fucking-lutely. I'm admitedly repeating a joke one of my friends makes regularly.

                  Similar joke: "don't call me a dancer. I don't get paid to dance. I get paid to strip and twerk. I'm proud that I'm a stripper."