Mistresses of Their Domain: How Female Entrepreneurs in Cyberporn Are Initiating a Gender Power Shift

Abstract

For women, the Internet has two faces: it has helped foster women's ownership of business and their entrepreneurial efforts, but has also increased the availability of pornography, often accused as contributing to the continued societal oppression and exploitation of women. Recognizing that some women are directing their entrepreneurial efforts to cyberporn, the seeming antithesis of women's equality and empowerment, this article considers the connection between and ramifications of these phenomena. Using a sample of 71 cyberporn sites, the gender of owners, operators, and performers was studied. Next, 37% of the female owners were interviewed regarding their motivations for operating cyberporn sites. Results demonstrate that women constitute a significant portion of cyberporn operators and are emigrating from the sex industries to cyberporn. Furthermore, these actions are motivated by the concerns of the traditional working woman: salary, control of work environment, flexibility of schedule. This article, thus, suggests that far from being complicitous in the oppression and exploitation of women, webmistresses may reflect a degree of emancipation from male-dominated female imagery and economic control.