It should come as no surprise that there are so many people in Romania and all over the world who aren’t aware that what they refer to as “webcam chatting,” or more commonly, “webcam modeling,” is actually a deceptive and modern form of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. That’s a major aspect of the important mission driving the 9 Months In Romania project forward, teaching the facts. Over the course of this series, Debunking The Myths, we will present you with some of the most common myths surrounding this human rights atrocity and then debunk them by providing you with the facts. So, please, come along with us on this journey toward the truth!
It All Depends On What You Consider “A Great Income” And What You’re Willing To Pay For It, But Overall…IT’S NOT!
Now, of course the studios, and their recruiters, and the websites say that webcam sex chatting is a great way to earn a very good income, but they would, because they are the ones who are doing a majority of the earning. For example, one of the popular websites for webcam sex chatting skims around 70% off the top, and then passes off the remainder to performer, unless she is working in a studio. If she is, then the studio takes its cut, which we’ve discovered can be 50% or more of the remaining amount.
Let’s put that into prospective. Let’s pretend that a very popular performer, one who spends a lot of time in paid chat (most often charged at a per-minute rate), works extra hard and brings in $1,000 over the course of her shift. That’s a very large sum to earn in the course of a single work shift. Right? But now, the website takes its 70% ($700), leaving her with only $300. Still impressive? Sure, especially if the performer lives in a nation whose economy isn’t doing so well. But wait, this performer works in a studio that takes 50% of that remaining amount for itself ($150). That leaves the performer with only $150. Granted, in many instances, that amount is still really great, but one must also consider what the performer had to do to get that $150.
Counting The Cost Of Webcam Sex Chatting
As we’ve indicated before, since webcam sex chatting is a form of pornography, performers are subjected to activities and treatment that desensitizes them to genuine intimacy, and devalue and dehumanize them. In an effort to protect themselves, these individuals tend to lose themselves more and more in the fantasy world they’ve created. Freud did extensive research into emotional/psychological defense mechanisms, and these performers present all of the textbook symptoms/behaviors. In time, especially if left untreated, these issues can become more permanent and can result in sociopathic and psychotic behavior exhibiting from the performer, as well as the possibility of severe depression and/or bipolar disorder. Does that $150 still sound like a great income?
Then again, we didn’t even get into the damage such work does to one’s reputation, or the other possibilities of physical harm that may occur. Oh, and then there’s the fact that realistically bringing in $1,000 every shift is next to impossible, yet the website operator is still going to take its 70% from whatever is earned, and the studio is still going to take its 50%. So, even if the performer only earns $500, the studio will take $350 (leaving $150) and the studio will still take $75, which leaves the performer with only $75 for a long shift in which she was exploited, objectified, dehumanized, and possibly sustained emotional and psychological damages.
Supply And Demand: It’s The Law Of Economics
We’ve already noted that it is highly unlikely that a performer will consistently bring in $1,000 over the course of a shift, but it is such an important aspect of the income debate, since the performers seem to be overlooking this elementary law of economics–supply and demand.
The greed of the website operators, the studios, and its recruiters is so insatiable that they have gone to great lengths to exploit the regions of the world where women are the most desperate to earn a decent wage, which includes Eastern Europe and, of course, Romania. In doing so, they’ve managed to deceive so many women into doing webcam sex chat work that they have over-saturated the websites with performers. And when supply is too high, what are the results? Not enough demand, or, as it is in this case, not enough paying website users to justify their fallacious claims of more money and a life of luxury. Yet, as long as everyone they’ve deceived is earning even 5% more than their peers who don’t work in webcam sex chat work, the studios can continue deceiving the performers into believe that the work they are doing is well worth it. Moreover, if a studio can minimally earn $75 from 10 performers its trafficking and exploiting, that’s $750 for the studio, so they still get theirs.
Up Next…
In the next installment of Debunking The Myths, we’ll consider the claim that webcam sex chatting is discreet. Thank you for indulging us with your time and attention, and we’ll see you next time!
