Abstract
In Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry, Angela Jones draws on five years of research on the camming industry to develop an intersectional, feminist, and queer analysis of the benefits and pitfalls of this new sector in the sex work industry. Jones’ main theoretical contribution is the development of a sociological theory of pleasure as a motivator for peoples’ work choices. Jones defines pleasure as “infinitely different sets of gratifying social experiences. Pleasure is always subjective and contextual” (25). In her analysis of pleasure in the camming industry, Jones provides a holistic account that includes the voices of cam models from a variety of social locations and situates their decision to cam as a way of resisting, or “cracking,” the alienation of capitalism.
Given that cam models face privacy concerns, difficulties getting paid, having their content copied and posted without their consent, and harassment from internet trolls, one might wonder why people cam. Jones argues that these issues are tied to the structural constraints put on people by capitalism, racism, and ableism, and not sex work itself. Like other forms of work, camming has benefits. Mainly, it is lucrative and relatively autonomous. Working from home allows cam models to control their work conditions. Models control their workspace, the times they work, how much they charge, and who they work with. Additionally, Jones shows that the work can be pleasurable. By setting their own conditions and finding pleasure in their work, Jones argues that cam models “crack” capitalism’s dominating logic. However, as Camming documents, cam models still face social inequality as they negotiate the cam marketplace and try to position themselves within sexual fields that privilege whiteness, youth, bisexuality, and singleness.
In order to attract customers, cam models perform identities “that produce sexual capital within the hierarchy of desire present in this online sex market” (158). Jones identifies youthfulness, bisexuality, and singleness as three “manufactured invisible identities” that cam models manipulate in the creation of their cam personas. In this sexual field, youthfulness is performed by both women and men who advertise themselves as younger than they are. Importantly, men and masculinity critically shape this market regardless of the gender or sexual identity of the performers. For example, among the women in Jones’ study, bisexuality is performed in order to attract the modal customer: men. This means that for queer and lesbian women, bisexuality makes them attractive to men on the site. Even heterosexual women list themselves as bisexual, believing this makes them more desirable. But just as women perform bisexuality, men do, too. Heterosexual men also target the modal customer by listing themselves as bisexual. Finally, performing singleness generates sexual capital by seeming romantically available.
While sexual capital generates profit, so does the ability to convey “embodied authenticity.” Building on Elizabeth Bernstein’s work, Jones argues that clients enjoy witnessing the mutual enjoyment of sexual activity—the cam models’ and their own. Thus, cam models find the work pleasurable and convey that pleasure to clients in order to develop emotional connection. However, performing pleasure is gendered and embodied in ways that benefit some workers more than others. For example, since men’s sexual pleasure is ejaculatory focused, men’s shows tend to be shorter and less profitable.
Together, manufactured invisible identities and embodied authenticity suggest a reimagining of the false digital and real-world binary. Jones writes, “Our offline and online experiences share a symbiotic relationship—our lives are diffuse” (204). People exist offline, in hierarchical social structures that shape the desires they bring online in search of young and attractive cam models to act out those desires. This can include race play, BDSM, and more. But on the other side of the camera, there is a person, within their own social location, who must reconcile their own desires with those of their clients. While some sex acts allow for mutual pleasure, other desires may push cam models to do unsafe or unsavory acts. Even if consensual, sex scenes that involve racialized stereotypes of a black man’s penis or a Nazi dominatrix, it is worth interrogating the extent to which these performances reproduce racism or allow marginalized people to save face in a racist and patriarchal society.
Sex work and desire are complicated issues for a technologically mediated society. In Camming, Jones documents how pleasure is refracted through social structures that reproduce inequality, but also how pleasure and sex work may “crack” capitalism by resisting alienation and other forms of inequality.