Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article looks at two forms of online self-broadcasting: webcam modeling and video game live streaming. Though these practices have much in common, the parallels between them have gone largely unacknowledged, in part because the discriminatory cultures surrounding video games have rendered connections between streaming and sex work unspeakable. Drawing from an analysis of “tips and tricks” YouTube videos created by women webcam models and men live streamers, this research maps the relationship between camming and streaming as forms of labor. It illustrates the many overlaps between the two practices, challenging notions that camming is inferior to or even separate from streaming.

Keywords

Sex work webcam modeling video games live streaming labor

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arcy

(2016) Emotion work: considering gender in digital labor. Feminist Media Studies 16(2): 365–368.

Banet-Weiser

(2012) Authentic TM: Politics and Ambivalence in a Brand Culture. New York: New York University Press.

Bishop

(2019) Who Is Paying $30 for ‘gamer Girl’ Belle Delphine’s Bath Water? The Guardian. 12 July. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jul/12/belle-delphine-gamer-girl-instagram-selling-bath-wate

Catá

(2019) Convergence of rhetoric, labour, and play in the construction of inactive discourses on Twitch. Digital Culture & Society 5(2): 133–148.

Consalvo

(2012) Confronting toxic gamer culture: a challenge for feminist game studies scholars. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology 1(1).

Consalvo

(2019) Kaceytron and transgressive play on Twitch.Tv. In: Jørgensen

Karlsen

(eds) Transgression in Games and Play. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 83–98.

D’Anastasio

(2020) Twitch Streamers Make Thousands Literally by Just Sleeping. Wired. 6 March. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/twitch-streamers-make-thousands-sleeping/

Gray

(2016) “They’re just too urban”: black gamers streaming on Twitch. In: Daniels

Gregory

Cottom

(eds) Digital Sociologies. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Grayson

(2018) Women on Twitch Go without Makeup to Support a Fellow Streamer. Kotaku. 24 October. Available at: https://kotaku.com/women-on-twitch-go-without-makeup-to-support-a-fellow-s-1829980845

10.

Hernandez

(2018) The Twitch Streamers Who Spend Years Broadcasting to No One. The Verge. 16 July. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/16/17569520/twitch-streamers-zero-viewers-motivation-community

11.

Iqbal

(2021) Twitch Revenue and Usage Statistics. Business of Apps. 9 March. Available at: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/twitch-statistics/

12.

Johnson

(2021) Behind the streams: The off-camera labour of game live streaming. Games and Culture 16(8): 1001–1020.

13.

Johnson

Woodcock

(2019) “And today’s top donator is”: how live streamers on Twitch.Tv monetize and gamify their broadcasts. Social Media + Society. Epub ahead of print 12 June 2011. DOI: 10.1177/2056305119881694.

14.

Jones

(2019) Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry. New York: New York University Press.

15.

Jones

(2015) For black models scroll down: webcam modeling and the racialization of erotic labor. Sexuality & Culture 19(4): 776–799.

16.

Kennedy

(2020) “If the rise of the TikTok dance and e-Girl aesthetic has taught us anything, it’s that teenage girls rule the internet right now”: TikTok celebrity, girls and the coronavirus crisis. European Journal of Cultural Studies 23 (6): 1069–1076.

17.

Lee

Sullivan

(2016) Porn and labour: the labour of porn studies. Porn Studies 3(2): 104–106.

18.

Lorenz

Browning

(2020) Dozens of Women in Gaming Speak Out about Sexism and Harassment.” The New York Times (online). 23 June. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/style/women-gaming-streaming-harassment-sexism-twitch.html

19.

Nguyen

(2016) Performing as video game players in let’s plays. Transformative Works and Cultures 22.

20.

Ruberg

Cullen

ALL

(2019) Feeling for an audience: the gendered emotional labor of video game live streaming. Digital Culture & Society 5(2): 85–102.

21.

Ruberg

Cullen

ALL

Brewster

(2019) Nothing but a ‘titty streamer’: legitimacy, labor, and the debate over women’s breasts in video game live streaming. Critical Studies in Media Communication 36(5): 466–481.

22.

Ruberg

(2020) “Obscene, pornographic, or otherwise objectionable”: biased definitions of sexual content in video game live streaming”. New Media & Society. Epub ahead of print 11 May 2020. DOI: 10.1177/1461444820920759.

23.

Ruberg

(2019) Representing sex workers in video games: feminisms, fantasies of exceptionalism, and the value of erotic labor. Feminist Media Studies 19(3): 313–330.

24.

Ruberg

Lark

(2020) Livestreaming from the bedroom: performing intimacy through domestic space on Twitch. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 27(3): 679–695.

25.

Senft

(2008) Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks. New York: Lang.

26.

Stephen

(2020) The Lockdown Live-Streaming Numbers are Out, and They’re Huge. The Verge. 13 May. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/13/21257227/coronavirus-streamelements-arsenalgg-twitch-youtube-livestream-numbers

27.

Stokel-Walker

(2018) Twitch Streamers are Breaking Their Bodies for Clicks and Views. Wired. 19 December. Available at: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitch-streamer-health-breaks-back-pain

28.

Taylor

(2018) Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming. Princeton Studies in Culture and Technology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

29.

Taylor

(2012) Raising the Stakes: E-Sports and the Professionalization of Computer Gaming. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

30.

Tran

(2022) Never battle alone”: E-girls & the gender(ed) war on video game live streaming as ‘real’ work. Television & New Media. Epub ahead of print 24 March 2022. DOI: 10.1177/15274764221080930.

31.

Walker

(2014) Watching us play: postures and platforms of live streaming. Surveillance & Society 12(3): 437–442.

32.

Woodcock

Johnson

(2019) The affective labor and performance of live streaming on Twitch.Tv. Television & New Media 20(8): 813–823.

Live play,live sex: The parallel labors of video game live streaming and webcam modeling

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References