Sex, Lies and Credit Cards: Confessions of a Professional Webcam Model

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In today’s ever present, increasingly electronic life we now live, there is still one elephant sitting in the proverbial digital room… the sex industry. Many will claim that they wouldn’t be caught dead watching porn of any kind,we have standards and morals dammit!But the sex industry makes over $9 Billion annually, so somebody is watching and clicking those links.

Long gone are the days of a girl in every corner and traveling to the seedier parts of town; now getting off is as easy as signing on. I’m talking, of course, about webcam models. The internet’s red light district if you will—young men and women willing to sell themselves for a few dollars a minute. While documentaries like Hot Girls Wanted and Sex for Sale: American Escort explore the darker and more disturbing portions of the sex industry, I’ve often wondered, “What would it be like to talk to someone in a free-flowing, comfortable face to face level?” Well, for this piece, I had my chance.

I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes talking with a current webcam model, we’ll call her Jade for the purpose of this piece. Jade has only been working in the industry for eighteen months, and gave me an opportunity to get to know someone from the other side of the screen.

Q: How exactly did you get started with webcam modeling?

JADE: Well, I started stripping when I was 18; I had just turned 18 and I was stripping for a while at a local club next to my house. One of my really good friends actually got me into it, and I think I only worked there for maybe a month and I couldn’t do it anymore, it was too much.

I didn’t like the fact that I wasn’t in control of the situation, it was more the men that were in control.

And I had heard that web-camming was an easier way to make money, you were in control, you were able to supervise everything and when you’re uncomfortable, you can shut it down immediately.

It’s not like where you work at a club and you can’t shut it down and you’re forced to continue. So, I started talking to a couple of my friends who had gotten into this and they showed me the ropes and I’ve been doing it ever since. It’s decent money, and it’s safer. If someone makes me uncomfortable, I can block them and I don’t have to worry about them ever seeing me in person.

Q: How much do you typically make per day?

JADE: On an average day, I can make… it honestly depends. I’d say it’s usually around $200, and the majority of that comes from doing paid private and exclusive chats. Obviously, in the chat window you don’t make any profit from that unless someone tips you some coins, and I’m only on here for a couple hours a day.

Q: How do you get paid?

JADE: They can send you a paycheck in the mail or direct deposit, it depends on the site that you’re working for, whatever they provide is what you get, so you have options.

Q: What do they do for you, (performers), in terms of safety and anonymity?

JADE: I mean, we pretty much control everything, so what we want to put it is what is out there. They allow us to have the freedom of doing that, you can put your name out there if you want to or use a fake one, like I said earlier you have the option to block people to not allow them to message you, you can block certain states from viewing you, things like that. They help you be as private as you’d like to be, but they also let you be as open as you choose to be. So it all depends on you as a person.

Q: Has anyone out in public ever recognized you from webcamming?

JADE: Absolutely not. I feel like a lot of people, even if they were to recognize me, they probably wouldn’t say anything, because I know them on an intimate level that most people certainly wouldn’t want to be known.

I get to know the freaky and depraved sides of people. And I don’t think they would have the balls to come up to me and say “Hi, I jerked off to you the other day, nice to meet you.”

Q: What was the worst experience you’ve ever had with a customer, what happened and how was it ultimately handled?

JADE: I had a guy that would keep coming into my chats, and we would do exclusives and it got the point where he was crossing lines and I was uncomfortable, and I blocked his account. And he continued to excessively make different accounts under different names claiming to be other people, but it was him. It got to the point where I had to block all of those accounts and block the entire state that he was in. So now I’m losing money from that entire site because of him.

Q: What would you say is the biggest misconception of what you do?

JADE: I think the sex industry has a bad reputation in general. People view it as dirty or something that’s wrong, or that you don’t respect yourself as a human being for doing this. To me that’s kind of sad because even though a lot of the things we do are taboo to some people, we’re working just like everyone else.

We just have a different hustle when it comes to work.

I feel like that there are others out there that do take what we do to a level that it shouldn’t be and that’s given us a bad name. There is a reason why these jobs are out there; people are wanting them, but for some reason people are afraid to admit that this is something that is normal, and this is something that people do on a daily basis.

People are very prideful and high and mighty, and they don’t like to climb off their fucking horses and realize this is normal and this is okay. It’s funny though, because the people that bash these things the most are often the biggest participants.

Everyone has fetishes, everyone has kinks and fantasies, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.

You’d be surprised, I have married men that come in here, who’s wives treat them like shit and look down on them and bully them over the things that they’re into, and that’s the sad part.

Q: What do you like to do when you’re not performing?

JADE: I play a lot of video games, and I read a lot of books and go to concerts. I have a normal life outside of this, hang out with friends, drink beer and just chill.

Q: What is the one thing you wish that people understood about you and what you do?

JADE: I wish that customers would understand that we are here for you in a sense, but at the same time you do not own us and you don’t have the upper hand and you’re not entitled to me.

I think a lot of guys on here forget that I’m not a play toy; I am a human being that goes about my life when I turn the camera off.