Smile. Sip. Strip. Living of a Cal Poly university student working as a webcam version

College students often make ends meet having a part-time job in selling or food service. Others don’ t.

Cal Poly junior Julia strips for strangers on the internet. (Editor’ s note: Last name, age, major and online username have been omitted to protect the source from potential harassment and to not affect her future job chances. )

Julia started her career in the sex industry five yrs ago in Dallas, Texas. Sick and tired of the $6. 13 federal government minimum wage for waitressing, she began stripping for a club to generate extra cash. Now, the student works as a “ web model” on MyFreeCams. com, wherever she’ s paid to perform things like twerk, take her clothes off and take wine from a wine glass. Regardless of the social stigma bordering her work and the objectification she faces, Julia said her job is a passion of hers, one that the lady wants to stick with for a while.

A day in the existence
Because of the shortage of strip clubs close to San Luis Obispo, Julia shifted to webcamming when she transferred to Cal Poly in Fall 2016. It’ s an easier alternative than driving to the nearest strip club in Santa Karen, and it allows her to set her own work schedule. Once online, she may be asked to do anything from scrub her own feet to obtain sex on camera, nonetheless it’ s up to her to call the shots as to what she does.

“ Ever since I managed to get into the sex industry, I’ ve mostly sold my personality, ” Julia said.

She offers uplifting and “ great vibes” via chat, your woman said, “ because there are a good amount of men who are lonely, sad and just want that emotional connection. ”

Julia does carry out sexual acts for clients, although never without a price. Her host website, MyFreeCams. junto de, allows clients to hint web models using digital tokens, each of which will probably be worth 10 cents. Julia is regarded as an independent contractor for MyFreeCams. com, she’ s in order to decide how many tokens every act is worth.

“ So , for example , in 500 tokens, I’ ll take my top off. And you may change that any way you want, ” she stated. “ Like, for 65 tokens, I will take a beverage of my wine wine glass … 10 tokens, I’ ll flash you. A thing really quick. ”

Because Julia received a full scholarship to Cal Poly, webcamming pays for her groceries and other necessities. MyFreeCams. com takes 50 percent of each and every web model’ s earnings and the amount of money she earns per session varies, depending she’ s online and how many tips she gets. For a three-hour webcam treatment, she said her income can range between $30 to $300, but she typically earns $1, 000 biweekly.

“ I’ M MAKING MONEY DOING WHAT I WANT. I LOVE WORKING IN THE SEX INDUSTRY, ” JULIA SAID. “ AS LONG AS YOU DON’ T LET IT DEVOUR YOUR SOUL, YOU’ LL END UP BEING FINE. IT’ S ENJOYABLE. IT REALLY IS. ”

Sex and tech

Julia witnessed directly how technology has changed the size of the sex industry. Your woman said five years ago, it was easy to make $1, 500 in the club on a Sunday. Now, because the web makes sex widely available for anyone with an internet connection, sex on its own is cheaper.

Guard Magazine reported that in 2015 alone, more than some billion hours of adult movie were watched on Pornhub. com, the web’ s i9000 largest pornography site. What’ s more, it’ h estimated that porn occupies approximately 37 percent of the internet. With sex so easily accessible online, Julia stated, it’ s harder to create as much money in clubs, and web models are now prone to do more for less.

However , sex industry workers still can is to do use technology to their advantage. Utilizing social media platforms, web cam models and other sex market workers can easily attract and have interaction with customers. It also assists them earn a little money on the side, an opportunity that wasn’ t available five yrs ago.

Twitter and Snapchat are two of the main social media outlets webcam designs use to their advantage, relating to Julia. Web models primarily use Twitter to market themselves and charge consumers for access to their Snapchat username. Once a customer will pay, he or she will have access to all of the Snapchat content posted by that model, which includes anything from private chats to naked shower videos.

Some models decide to charge for Snapchat monthly; for others, it’ s a one-time deal. Julia explained Facebook isn’ t seeing that prevalent in her market anymore, though the social media platform definitely stirred up a lot of talk in 2011 when it was found that sex workers were using Facebook to recruit customers.

Jane Lehr, associate professor of ethnic studies and department chair of women’ s and gender research at Cal Poly, said there are both advantages and disadvantages to using technology in the intimacy industry.

“ In terms of camming, I think there is excitement about that as a choice because it does seem to lessen risks. It reduces hazards of bodily fluids, risks linked to being in physical conditions that you might not have control of, ” Lehr said. “ In spite of this, we know, even in web-based interactions, horrible things can still happen … there’ h still the opportunity for somebody to never have control, or to get their emotional or mental bounds violated. ”

While Julia’ s experience with webcamming is overall pleasant for her, she has experienced the web abuse and objectification that accompany working as a web style.

“Some customers are merely so blunt, like, ‘ Show us your pussy! ’ And if you say, ‘ No, you need to tip me personally, ’ they’ ll be like, ‘ I’ m never going to fucking tip for an ugly bitch like you, ’ ” she said. “ That’ s frustrating to handle and you get that a lot. Specifically more on webcamming. ”

Finding personal strength in the sex industry

Despite it being frustrating sometimes, working in the sex sector is fun for Julia. Even in the face of objectification and rude customers, she sees ways to keep herself satisfied.

“ I really like it when a customer only makes me mad. Mainly because then I’ m just going to fart on them after which leave. That is the most rewarding thing ever, ” the woman said.

In the academic world of women’ s and gender studies, Lehr said there’ s question about whether or not sex work can be truly empowering for women. However , she said there’ s no way to come to a general conclusion; each individual case must be analyzed contextually.

For Julia, working in the sex industry is equally empowering and safe. She explained she feels particularly safe doing work in the webcam modeling business, and though some of her co-models have encountered issues with stalkers, she said she’ t never had that sort of issue before.

While her work could possibly be empowering to her, other people oftentimes feel uncomfortable with her profession. She said because of the stigma surrounding sex individuals, it can be hard to start fresh relationships with people.

Olivia Proffit / Mustang News
“ Men are too insecure to handle a woman inside the sex industry sexy lesbian sex, let me tell you, ” she said. “ Until they’ re a pimp and then they’ re all for it. ”

In addition , Julia said her family doesn’ t find out about her part-time gig as being a web model. Though the girl plans on telling them at some point, she said her relatives has a don’ t-ask, don’ t-tell attitude, and it hasn’ t come up in conversation yet.

“ I just can’ big t break it to these people, ” she said. “ My poor grandma! ”

Still, Julia sees herself continuing to work in the industry, actually after she graduates out of Cal Poly.

“ I’ ll perhaps work at a club. It’ s just so fun and so empowering. Like, persons pay to go out and take in with their friends, ” the woman said. “ I get to go, all my drinks are paid for and I get to go home with some money in my pocket. I enjoy it. ”

Note: The age and on-line username of the student at first quoted in this story have already been omitted to protect the source via possible harassment.

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