Flexi(nse)curity in adult webcamming: Romanian women's experiences selling digital sex services under platform capitalism. Issue 5 (4th May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vlase, Ionela; Preoteasa, Ana Maria
• Is Part Of: Gender, place and culture. Volume 29:Issue 5(2022)
• Page Start: 603
• Page End: 624
• Publication Date: 2022-05-04
• Subjects: Adult webcamming -- flexi(nse)curity -- gender -- labour platform -- online sex work -- Romania -- webcam studio; Human geography -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Periodicals; Géographie féministe -- Périodiques; 305.305
• DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2021.1878114
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-369X

Abstract

Abstract: The global sex industry has undergone a tremendous transformation, and many different forms of commercial sex have emerged with the growth of digital media. The advent of 'platform work' in diverse fields, including sex work, has affected digital workers' experiences dramatically. Combining insights from literature on labour platforms' proliferation with online sex work that entails new forms of exploitation, this paper introduces the concept of flexi(nse)curity to describe the tension between work arrangements and insecurity narrated by Romanian women working as webcam models. In doing so, the article places webcammers' narratives in the structural and cultural context dominated by neoliberal post-socialist reforms and strong religious interference in both State affairs and people's private lives. Alongside the relevance of country scale, in which cultural and structural features shape the size and challenges of adult webcamming, our article examines how place-bound insecurity is narrated in online discussions as a multi-faceted and multi-layered experience co-produced through the intersection of online platforms and material spaces where webcammers perform (i.e., models' home bedrooms and webcam studios). Challenging the popular view of webcamming as autonomous and flexible work, this paper reveals sex workers' vulnerabilities by applying a feminist geographical lens to webcammers' narratives from an online discussion forum. The findings suggest that there are diverse flexi(nse)curity patterns that are contingent on the intricacies of platform capitalism and emerging work arrangements in online sex work marked by an upsurge in webcam studios in which webcam models occupy a vulnerable position in asymmetric staff power relations.