The Nude Economy
July 12, 2016 9:35 AM Subscribe
"Brett knows all the top Chaturbate models and analyzes their shows with the intensity of a film critic. He’s even made a YouTube channel to share tips with potential cammers: Invest in studio lights, keep a consistent schedule and don’t text during a performance. Yet for all his professionalism, Brett is fairly new to the job." - How To Be A Cam Boy - Angelica Chapin profiles one of the most popular men in the online stripping business. (photos slightly NSFW)
I thought this was fascinating. Also, an exhausting job.
posted by Bella Donna at 10:31 AM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Bella Donna at 10:31 AM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ok I'll bite, I thought this was a great article. I've wandered through Chaturbate one or two times and am a bit bewildered at the personalities that are the consistent top performers on the site. It seems like emotionally exhausting work, especially to be one of the personalities that are a consistent top draw.
I'm also weirded out by straight guys who perform for gay men. I mean I'm certainly not surprised by it, and I'm a fan of fluid sexuality. But it still just seems sort of dissonant for me. Particularly the detail about Brett watching straight porn on his smartphone to maintain attention during his gay performance.
posted by Nelson at 1:31 PM on July 12, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm also weirded out by straight guys who perform for gay men. I mean I'm certainly not surprised by it, and I'm a fan of fluid sexuality. But it still just seems sort of dissonant for me. Particularly the detail about Brett watching straight porn on his smartphone to maintain attention during his gay performance.
posted by Nelson at 1:31 PM on July 12, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's interesting because Chaturbate itself created a transactional relationship between visitors and cammers: even the site's name is a misnomer, because it's gotten to the point that viewers expect to be dealing with performers who are there for money. There's a diminished sense of authentic play, or social "chat"; the smallest action has to be accompanied by or anticipatory of monetary reward. Show us your biceps? Mayyybe after a token… This explains why OhMiBod and related technology is so desirable, by creating a limited frame in which decision/power can be apparently ceded to consumers; that's why it is so popular and successful/enabling from the transactional point of view. Chaturbate's transactionality makes viewers and performers both highly jaded, creating the paradox that, if you go on there and perform for free (don't ask how I know this…), viewers will get that you're just there to have a bit of fun and they'll recognize that difference. You are untainted by money, desirably so.
There are other sites, for gay men, that are 100% consensual and free to have online sex. People meet random hot guys, from all over the world, and add each other on Skype. Chaturbate as a brand has, in a way, monetized this existing commons, but the effect and relationship is different. With this comparison, one has to ask, what class or demographic is buying these tokens? Etc. Know your audience.
posted by polymodus at 1:33 PM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
There are other sites, for gay men, that are 100% consensual and free to have online sex. People meet random hot guys, from all over the world, and add each other on Skype. Chaturbate as a brand has, in a way, monetized this existing commons, but the effect and relationship is different. With this comparison, one has to ask, what class or demographic is buying these tokens? Etc. Know your audience.
posted by polymodus at 1:33 PM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm also weirded out by straight guys who perform for gay men.
Why? In the heterosexual world, female cammers or strippers are not necessarily sexually attracted to their clientele either.
posted by splitpeasoup at 4:33 PM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
Why? In the heterosexual world, female cammers or strippers are not necessarily sexually attracted to their clientele either.
posted by splitpeasoup at 4:33 PM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
Fair enough. But there's at least the pretense of the possibility of compatibility with the usual cis-het female sex worker performing for straight guys. Also I'm not entirely comfortable with the way some gay men fetishize "straight" or "gay for pay". But I don't feel strongly, and it seldom pays to overthink what guys jerk off to. Get yer freak on.
posted by Nelson at 5:28 PM on July 12, 2016
posted by Nelson at 5:28 PM on July 12, 2016
There's at least the pretense of the possibility of compatibility with the usual cis-het female sex worker performing for straight guys.
That pretense, and the assumption that performers are cis-het, is just a deeper layer of straight guy fantasy.
posted by fritillary at 5:35 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
That pretense, and the assumption that performers are cis-het, is just a deeper layer of straight guy fantasy.
posted by fritillary at 5:35 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
I know snake people who do cam stuff. I end up with mixed feelings - I am super, super glad that they have the option; I am super glad that the internet makes it easier for sex workers to connect, share advice, make friends who have similar experiences, etc; and at the same time, honestly, a lot of the people in their audience are suuuuuuuupper creepy, and it's not like my friends are doing cam work because it's a vocation for them, and honestly I think there's something to this idea that in Whatever Stage Capitalism, ever more intimate, subtle and pervasive forms of commodification are coming into being. I'm certainly glad my friends are dealing with the super-creeps with the internet standing between them instead of in the flesh, but man, the snake people deserve way more options than they have.
posted by Frowner at 5:41 PM on July 12, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 5:41 PM on July 12, 2016 [4 favorites]
Slightly OT: Everytime they interview or profile anyone these days, an actor, a sports figure, a porn star or a camstripper, there is this aside where they talk about this person being nerdy because they like comics, or superheroes, or pokémon. Well, the world is nerdy then, because most everyone under 40 likes at least two of comics, videogames, superheroes and/or a fourth "nerdy" topic of your choice.
It's a false dichotomy. Brett likes Game of Thrones and videogames like most everyone who lives in the world, and his tastes in entertainment are quite independent of how he makes a living, and this "shy nerd" narrative irks me to no end.
posted by kandinski at 8:06 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's a false dichotomy. Brett likes Game of Thrones and videogames like most everyone who lives in the world, and his tastes in entertainment are quite independent of how he makes a living, and this "shy nerd" narrative irks me to no end.
posted by kandinski at 8:06 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
I have nothing to add other than that this was an amazing detail: "His mom, whom Brett calls very “open-minded,” suggested he try adult entertainment last April. “She was like, ‘You have a good body,’” Brett says. “‘You should look into being a stripper.’”"
His Mom suggested he get into the biz.
posted by selenized at 8:23 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
His Mom suggested he get into the biz.
posted by selenized at 8:23 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
I remember way back in the early 00s I knew someone who was doing what was basically early camgirl work and talked about how the most lucrative thing was anything where guys paid money to control a thing and I asked how does that work and she said ...it doesn't. They're not connected to anything, it's all acting.
Which makes me wonder about his remote controlled shocker thing that responds to payments* - does it not work and he's just acting or has technology gotten to the point that bad acting is no longer a barrier to the work cause it'll be real.
(And yes you can talk about the Straight Guy Fixation Problem, part of it is just numbers , there are more of them, and part of it is just arguing with elements in gay male culture going back a century.)
* easily the most ...whoa 21st century what the hell detail.
posted by The Whelk at 8:57 PM on July 12, 2016
Which makes me wonder about his remote controlled shocker thing that responds to payments* - does it not work and he's just acting or has technology gotten to the point that bad acting is no longer a barrier to the work cause it'll be real.
(And yes you can talk about the Straight Guy Fixation Problem, part of it is just numbers , there are more of them, and part of it is just arguing with elements in gay male culture going back a century.)
* easily the most ...whoa 21st century what the hell detail.
posted by The Whelk at 8:57 PM on July 12, 2016
I have several friends who perform on this site, some of whom use toys that respond to the sound the site makes when money comes in. That could be the mechanism for the author's device. It's not necessarily the teledildonic future promised by shadowy booths in the basement of E3 ten years ago, but it's not ... not that, either.
posted by Corinth at 10:14 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Corinth at 10:14 PM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm also weirded out by straight guys who perform for gay men. I mean I'm certainly not surprised by it, and I'm a fan of fluid sexuality. But it still just seems sort of dissonant for me. Particularly the detail about Brett watching straight porn on his smartphone to maintain attention during his gay performance.
You're weirded out that sex workers are in it for the money, not the personal sexual gratification??? Seems pretty standard.
posted by modernnomad at 12:47 AM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
You're weirded out that sex workers are in it for the money, not the personal sexual gratification??? Seems pretty standard.
posted by modernnomad at 12:47 AM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
No, I'm not weirded out by the sex workers. I get that sex work is mostly work, not pleasure. I'm weirded out by the customers, by gay men who pay for the idea that some straight guy is performing for them. I'm weirded out by the implicit homophobia in some of these gay men, that straight guys are somehow more desirable. I'm weirded out by the control fantasy for other gay men, that they can control a straight guy and make him do gay things he doesn't want to do, for money. I'm not hugely weirded out, mind you, it's just not my thing and I'm a little judgmental.
The gay-for-pay thing is a bit of a derail though, for me the most interesting thing about the article is the window into Chaturbate. The other thing that's a bit different about Brett and his colleagues is that Chaturbate is not entirely a sex worker space. A whole lot of the male channels seem to be guys who aren't doing it for tips. Some seem to be exhibitionists. Others are there for the community, social connection. The most popular performers mostly seem to be about getting paid, but most of the channels are guys with 0–3 viewers and no tips. The mixing of motivations is complicated.
posted by Nelson at 7:29 AM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
The gay-for-pay thing is a bit of a derail though, for me the most interesting thing about the article is the window into Chaturbate. The other thing that's a bit different about Brett and his colleagues is that Chaturbate is not entirely a sex worker space. A whole lot of the male channels seem to be guys who aren't doing it for tips. Some seem to be exhibitionists. Others are there for the community, social connection. The most popular performers mostly seem to be about getting paid, but most of the channels are guys with 0–3 viewers and no tips. The mixing of motivations is complicated.
posted by Nelson at 7:29 AM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
I've frequented Chaturbate and similar sites a few times - a mixture of voyeurism, exhibitionism and socializing. (I'm gay and hardly beautiful, but do get watchers most times I turn my cam on.) I almost always skip down a page or two to find the amateurs who, for the most part, don't take or at least don't seek tips. It can be a fun, sexual but undemanding way to spend some time, and it has, on occasion, led to my meeting people locally.
I can't condemn anyone who wants tips and who is willing to work to get them - straight or gay, and I've sometimes watched the paid performers for a while, but rarely for long. I don't really understand the tippers much - there's so much free porn to be had.
posted by Death and Gravity at 4:52 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
I can't condemn anyone who wants tips and who is willing to work to get them - straight or gay, and I've sometimes watched the paid performers for a while, but rarely for long. I don't really understand the tippers much - there's so much free porn to be had.
posted by Death and Gravity at 4:52 PM on July 13, 2016 [1 favorite]
Last August, Brett started selling sex tapes featuring his ex-girlfriend on the pay-per-download site Clips4Sale
This line jumped out at me. I certainly hope she was aware and willing that those tapes were sold. Unfortunate that the article doesn't specify that...
posted by randomnity at 8:26 PM on July 13, 2016
This line jumped out at me. I certainly hope she was aware and willing that those tapes were sold. Unfortunate that the article doesn't specify that...
posted by randomnity at 8:26 PM on July 13, 2016
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