As millions around the globe are out of work due to the healthcare and related economic crisis, with many struggling to earn their next rent or mortgage payment, an Oregon resident, an experienced stripper, has thought of a way to best shift to digital work, the Huffington Post reported.
In a piece for the newspaper, Elle Stanger, a sex worker, parent, and a certified sex educator, explains how she had to wake up to reality, for herself and her 8-year-old daughter to make ends meet. She says that in this raging COVID crunch, she relies heavily on digital work, “such as live webcam solo and partnered sex shows, selling fetish videos, and sexting for tips".
Dwelling on how she manages to combine her saucy work with childcare she explains that co-parenting gives her an opportunity to shoot porn when the daughter is at her dad’s house, “but the juggle is real when I’m answering emails and sexting for tips long into the night after tucking my kid into bed", she admits.
“Sometimes I’m able to send pics and chat with customers from the tub while she reads from her room", Ms Stanger adds, noting that it’s by far not an easy path.
She stresses that one must weigh whether their own families “will disown them upon learning that they masturbated on a webcam for money, or sold nudes.” She is certain that it also has to be carefully considered if they will be allowed to return to their “regular jobs” after, say, doing porn in order to survive now.
Another aspect is to be looked into as problematic is the legal one.
“Now threatening everyone’s privacy is a bill that would give law enforcement and police unfettered access to all our communications", Stanger recounts, adding that if the so-called Earn It Act is passed, it is sure to criminalise sex workers, journalists, activists etc. on “obscenity” censorship grounds.
She is certain that these laws and respective “societal attitudes” make it difficult for people like her to earn a living, “to receive and request money to host our own ads and to keep bigger percentages from platforms".
The whole world is currently grappling with the negative economic implications of the COVID-19 healthcare crisis, as many small- and medium-sized businesses that used to provide services are scrambling to survive amid ubiquitous lockdowns and quarantine measures.
Governments are increasingly promising financial aid to the business sector, to stave off bankruptcies and mass layoffs, which have already been registered in the air traffic sphere, as well as oil and gas industry just to name a few, due to severely shrinking demand.
