When writing for a certain cam model lifestyle blog, sometimes you need to do some heavy research on the industry. During one recent skim through Cam Girl Wiki, a platform created by cam models for cam models, I came across a particularly interesting (and surprising) page on inter-model conflicts. Mostly, this statement really stuck out:
It isn’t completely out of the ordinary, considering the competitiveness between cam girls and the atmosphere on many of the cam sites, to run into a fellow cam girl who has a bad attitude.
“Competitiveness” was not a word I would immediately imagine associating with cam models. The practice of being a cam model is so incredibly solitary. Sure, some models will work for larger groups or companies. But an overwhelming volume of cam models working today operate with just themselves, their cameras and their props.
So does inter-model conflict occur that often?
“During streams, lmfao, no way,” said Mitsy. “On Twitter, 1000% yes and not in a sexy exciting way.”
“On twitter, yes, that place is full of drama,” said a model who asked that their identity be kept confidential. “But on forums models help each other. I received a lot of advice and help from models and it was given freely and friendly, and these are successful models too, some of them so definitely competitive by nature but still love to share info with others. I think it depends on [the] model.”
“Not so much on the camsites but I have for a fact seen twitter drama between girls,” said another model that also requested confidentiality.
If you’ve ever been on Twitter, this isn’t all that surprising — regardless of whatever industry is involved, cam modeling or not. Twitter is well known for (most of the time) being a dystopia of randoms and professionals alike using their accounts to argue with one another. It’s no surprise that the occasional dispute would occur between cam models on that platform and who really cares if they do?
This issue at hand is whether or not cam modeling is ideal for people who want to work from home, online, without the kind of aggressive conflicts one would have to deal with in a traditional workplace like an office.
“Most cam sites now allow models to block other models from during their streams, so this cuts down on the cattiness during cam,” said Jaye Lovely, “However, the site I work on does not have that option. I had a model pop in my room and try to advertise herself to my customers because her room was dead AF. I wanted to beat her a**. So I completely understand this sentiment. A lot of models are jealous of others’ success and try to cause drama among your members to make them leave. It’s ridiculous.”
To some degree, this tactic in the camming community makes sense. If one room is getting a lot of traction, why not step into their chat section and advertise yourself? It’s backhanded, of course. And it’s worth noting that if there were set social rules in the cam modeling industry, this kind of behavior would be at the top.
“I’ve seen this happen once but I don’t think it’s super common,” said a third model, also requesting confidentiality. “I work for a small studio and a user realized that two of our models know each other, so he began going back and forth between the two saying the other was talking sh*t. It sounds stupid but he did succeed in causing some drama between the two.”
This is even more tenuous to think about than intentional conflict between models. How bored (or worse, invested) would a viewer have to be to insight some kind of stage rivalry between models who are just minding their own business, but happen to be going live at the same time? It’s safe to say that this certainly doesn’t seem very common.
“Not really, no,” said AssOfSteel, the model formerly known as Veggiebabyy, when asked if she has experienced negative model interactions. “Yes, there are occasional girls who are catty and mean, but the vast majority of the models that I’ve interacted with are perfectly nice and lovely and just want to support other sex workers.”
👩🏻🎓 pic.twitter.com/hRDqIy3OVC
— $3 ONLYFANS (@veggiebabyy) June 5, 2020
This particular answer rang extremely true. Cam models know as well as anyone involved in the sex industry how valuable support is, both emotionally and politically. Part of why it struck me as strange that “cattiness” between cam models existed was because in my experience, no one supports each other quite the way that sex workers do.
Talking with these models gave me a better view of what it’s like to be in the industry and how the idea that sex workers are often catty or competitive with one another is more or less quite false. This is just one of many reasons why working as a cam model has some excellent perks and can be a genuinely rewarding career. Why not take a shot at it?
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Em Casalena is a queer sex positive writer and professional protective mom friend. Email them at em@ynotcam.com.
Background header image by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels.
