To be considering webcam work?

[AnneNonimous]

Haven't even name changed...eeeek

I am slowly trying to start my own business. Slowly because I don't have enough money, don't yet have enough equipment and am a lone parent.

I have seriously been considering taking up online webcam work to earn extra money to buy the equipment I need.

I have checked out a few websites, you can block certain countries from seeing you so nobody I know would have to find out! Getting undressed is not necessary and infact banned on some sites outside of 'private shows' and I could do it as and when I want (ie when DS is in bed)

Have I completely lost my mind or does it make sense?

Grennie, not Greenie, sorry.

Sunflower - No you didn't sorry. It was another woman on the thread who was arguing that webcam work just involved a flash of a boob.

Ah okay!I didn't think so , I don't really use the word 'boob' for a start :)
I suppose if you have massive ones,and/or your customers are very breast orientated, then that may be all men are interested in, It's feasible that that's what cam work can involve.

I only have small breasts so they're not something I really play up on cam, I get more out of fetish work.

Well, I will reserve my right to be judgemental. Sunflower clearly has other skills and qualifications, and could use those without resorting to being a sex worker, which in turn serves to reinforce to men that women are objects who can be ordered about and bought.

I don't much care if my sentiment doesn't get a round of applause.

Lol I appreciate your right-nobody's perfect , I'm certain I have been judgemental in the past regards certain things people do!

feministcurrent.com/1898/the-trouble-with-choosing-your-choice/

The comments on that blog!How she takes another woman's erotica and says because of her writing that, she isn't entitled to an opinion, basically....

libertarianism and lionisation of individual 'choice', commodification of women's bodies don't need any more support - it's what rules the world

Yes, patriarchy loves us to "choose" to commodify our bodies. It is fully owning our own bodies that is more chalenging.

Feminism on MN - "it's never OK to allow men to tell you what to do but women on here will happily pile in and tell you what to do." It doesn't seem that we've moved very fair, does it?!

I have not told any woman here what to do. I have simply disagreed with some of the views expressed here.

Feminism does not mean saying to a woman that anything she wants to do is fine.

Feminism is not telling women what to do. It's helping them understand that patriarchy is coercing them into the choices they are making! You wouldn't want to do this in a world where women and men are equal.

Sorry, I still struggle to understand why any woman would want to do this. It seems so degrading.

I second the post from Thants above.

Women do this because they need the money. Because they are taught and have low enough self esteem to believe that men psrving over their body is harmless or empowering

Where do you get off, Karen, on going on and on at Sunflower that she's a prostitute? Where do any of you get off, in fact, in criticising and blaming women for the choices they make? How about you all make your choices and leave other women the fuck alone to make theirs?

It made me how Laurie spouted all this stuff about all webcam girls being abused and oppressed, then disappeared when several women came on to say that er...no actually they were neither abused nor oppressed. But they must be statistical anomalies, right... just like the calm, confident and reasoned posts of Sunflower and ILet must be the deluded rantings of immoral prostitutes according to some of the posters here.

It's up to the individual what they choose to do with their body, as far as I'm concerned, and it's nobody's right to start labelling them prostitutes and traitors to the feminist cause just because they choose to show their body to someone for money.

Erm, just to be clear Crabby here is the definition of a prostitute:

noun
a person, typically a woman, who engages in sexual activity for payment.

Here's the link:
www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/prostitute

So I think that answers why KareninsGirl referred to this type of work as prostitution.

I'm judging, just stating that its an accurate definition of webcam work.

Factually it is prostitution. That's not an insult just a fact. It doesn't look like anyone is telling the op what to do just explaining to her that women are not simply objects of men's wank fantasy. We are people.

People that men like to wank over :-)

crabby, I am within my rights to state a fact: women who do this kind of work are prostitutes by definition. I think it's only fair to the OP as well, to make it very clear what she is potentially getting herself into. I only hope she does not.

Prostitutes, not "prostituted women"? That's... interesting.

My BIL sells his body - he is a professional sportsman.

I sell my brain - I'm an actuary. There are things I wouldn't sell my brain for - online gambling and the tobacco industry come to mind. However, I have a friend who is a web designer for a gambling site and another who is a statistician for British American tobacco and I don't judge them for doing so.

There Is a dark side to the sex industry - some - maybe many - sex workers are forced or exploited. Personally I am far more bothered about whether a 15 year old girl from Eastern Europe is forced to become a prostitute than if a 36 year old mother from Milton Keynes decide to become a Webcam girl.

I do it because It's a means of earning money that suits me and my life.
Generally, everyone needs money.
Crabby I think she just wants me to feel bad about myself -I've repeatedly said that the word 'prostitute' does not bother me, It's just a word and there are several meanings of it. If I am, I am! :)

I'm not going to cry about it, nor am I going to change my work unless at some point in the future I decide for whatever reason, it's not for me any longer.
I'm not abused, or oppressed. I'm not going to say I am superduper confident and camming makes me feel empowered or beautiful or whatever-that's not true!It's just a job to me. I'm content, in a relationship, friends, family-but I'm just a normal person who has their ups and downs like anybody else.

Ifad, I see you are a fully paid up member of the 'lets try and stir up a moral panic' club.

Jeeze what a load of judgmental irrational tosh you are spouting :o