Legal Commercial Sex Workers’ Occupational Trends in the U.S. in Light of Industry Platformization

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 1: Technology and Platform Work

Abstract

The technologically facilitated shift towards the new economy and the implications on labor markets, occupations and industries are widely studied. Despite data showing that various labor markets drastically changed in terms of labor flexibility, legibility and associated risk, there has been less discussion and research about how low-status and high occupational stigma occupations, and specifically legal commercial sexual labor, are being performed and reshaped in the new economy. This paper is based on a mixed methods study that examines how legal commercial sex workers from three occupational groups (content creators, cam workers, and strippers) in the U.S. adopt and implement digital platforms within their work, and how that adoption reshapes their work and the adult entertainment labor market. Based on 14 months of data collection that included a survey of 181 workers, in-depth interviews with 27 workers, and observational data that was collected during the pandemic, I examine workers’ labor market trends by analyzing utilization patterns of digital platforms according to workers’ occupations. The findings indicate that legal commercial sex work in the U.S. is characterized by workers who engage in multiple occupations and by a growing number of new and returning workers. Both of these trends are sustained and supported by a variety of digitals tools and platforms that also facilitate new ways to create and sell intimacy. The data also suggest that these two trends are highly associated with reduction in compensation rates for workers. I conclude the paper by highlighting how these structural changes to the adult entertainment labor market effect workers as the findings reveal that in order to make a living wage workers must “branch out” into several occupations within the industry. A requirement that leads workers to engage in career and income “piecemealing” processes through the utilization of digital tools and platforms.

Author

• Liza Shifrin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign