I first started camming when I was in my early twenties and wanted to start making money working from home. I was going through a divorce and needed a new job where I could support myself. Before I started camming, I spent months doing research and following the top cam girls to see how they ran their cam shows and built up their businesses. I finally decided to take the plunge and started camming on Chaturbate in 2016 and haven’t looked back since.
Today, I am a multi award-winning performer with five years of experience in the adult industry. Throughout my years working as a sex worker, I have always been passionate about using my platform to help others and help create positive change. On both my social channels and throughout my work, I am always trying to educate others on issues that are affecting sex workers and sex work in general. Through my work online and offline, I have learned some tricks and tips on how to balance self-promotion and activism.
Being open and vulnerable about issues that I care about to my audience helped me build a stronger connection with them and brought us closer.
Getting Into Activism as a Sex Worker
There is no right or wrong way to be an activist. I think it’s important to just try and educate yourself on issues that are important to you and help inform others. It can be overwhelming and scary to speak up about political or social issues online, especially with the current climate; however, the more voices the better. A huge part of my personal activism work is educating other sex workers and empowering them to be advocates for issues that affect our livelihood.
Activism can take many forms from calling Senators, posting educational tweets about new bills, having a one-on-one conversation with a friend or even reposting an educational tweet. Just getting involved and helping spread information about an issue is helpful, even if you aren’t a big-time performer. Being “small” does not mean you are not qualified to talk about issues that affect our industry. It’s important to just start somewhere, stumble through and ask questions along the way.
I first started getting into activism work when California passed Assembly Bill 5 (AB5), the controversial labor legislation designed to regulate the “gig economy” that directly impacted my income. I knew it was time for me to stop sitting on the sidelines and watch others decide how my body, work and income should be regulated. It’s also important for me to point out that I had the privilege to be at a place in my career where I could take time out of making money, making content and being on cam to devote to activism work.
Balance Activism and Self-Promotion
Social media is an extremely important tool for sex workers to engage with their audience, sell content and advertise to new audiences. It’s also a great tool to help raise awareness about issues pertaining to our industry and educate others on how they can help. One trick that has helped me balance both self-promotion and activism is consistently posting one photo or video of myself every day. It doesn’t have to be fancy and don’t worry about being a perfectionist. Just post something online that shows your face and personality. Then, you can post all the activism posts, call to actions and thoughts and feelings around those posts.
When posting sexy pictures or videos, don’t include a link in the caption, just a cute, funny, sexy or whatever caption to keep your followers entertained and wanting more. When you include a link or talk about your Chaturbate account or OnlyFans profile, the post comes across like you are trying to sell something. People do not want to be sold to. Post something sexy and fun and people will want to see more and find your link in your bio. Don’t push your sales too hard. You need to trick your followers into buying your content without overselling them.
I also joke with my fans and acknowledge when I’m posting a lot about my activism work. I will either tweet, “I know you are here for my boobs, but check out this as well.” Or when I jump on cam, I let my fans know I’m online and say “come look at my boobs and not my tweets.” I think it’s important to be open and transparent and it only helps me connect more with my fans.
Engaging in Conversation
When educating others about issues affecting the adult industry, or any issue for that matter, it’s important to enter the conversation with an open mind and with a calm attitude. I’m always there to educate and not argue. If you are angry, people will not want to listen to you and turn away. When I’m on cam, I keep the conversation educational and if anyone tries to start an argument or provoke others, I immediately ban them. Remember this is your cam room and your social platform. You ultimately make the decision on what you want to discuss and how you want to discuss it.
I haven’t always used my social media for activism; however, when I started, I found it only helped bring me closer to my fans and supporters. I definitely lost a few fans, but the people that really support me both financially and emotionally stuck around. Being open and vulnerable about issues that I care about to my audience helped me build a stronger connection with them and brought us closer. Some of my fans are even proud of my activism work and love to talk and engage with me about it.
For more information on how to build up your social media following while also posting about activism work, check out my interview on the podcast “Sex Tales.” I spoke with hosts Lana del Bae and Melody Kush about how I grew my following and how I was able to get to the place I am today in my career.
Mary Moody is a multi award-winning performer with five years of experience in the adult industry. She has always been passionate about using her platform and experience to help others, finding immense joy in the work she creates and in helping other performers succeed. Follow her at Chaturbate.com/marymoody and various other platforms listed on her site MaryMoody.tv.
