Rarely have entitled scolds been so empowered to tattle on people doing stuff of which they disapprove. – J.D. Tuccille
Sex workers are always among the first targeted for deportation:
The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down strip clubs around the country, leaving workers without employment. Many strippers have migrated to online sex work, but this type of visibility puts undocumented and migrant sex workers at a higher risk of being deported, getting their green card application denied, or being refused entry into the United States. Without documentation…sex work is often the highest paid job available, and some clubs allow dancers to work without it. Stripping has provided Ruby…with a comfortable lifestyle in South Florida, something she would not have been able to accomplish working the other jobs, such as dishwashing, available to undocumented people…Since her club shuttered as a result of the pandemic, Ruby said she considered camming but is afraid that online sex work could hurt her chances of obtaining a green card…
Another example of sex worker ingenuity:
…unionised strippers in the UK…host[ed] a first-of-its-kind virtual strip club on Saturday, April 11th called CYBERTEASE…as a workers’ co-op, in response to the closure of strip clubs due to Covid-19…Dancers will be performing on Zoom, where the event will be DJed by Queer House Party…
…Justin LaBoy, 28, a former professional basketball player and a social media personality…ha[s] been hosting virtual pop-up strip clubs on Instagram Live…Many bars and strip clubs were forced to close nearly overnight around much of the world. Thousands of bartenders, bottle service girls and dancers have been left with no income…strip clubs have…sought to recreate the experience digitally…But Mr. LaBoy’s events have attracted a unique and fervent fandom. Music artists…top N.F.L. and N.B.A. players and [other celebrities]…have…joined the stream as special guests…LaBoy…pin[s] the dancer’s Cash App user names to the top of the feed, so that followers could send them money…[and] the “Respectfully Justin Show” was born. Several hours before the show, Mr. LaBoy begins hyping up the event on social media using the hashtag #respectfully. Because Instagram prohibits explicit content, Mr. LaBoy creates a new Instagram handle for each event. He announces this page’s name through Twitter, along with the date and time of the show…LaBoy brings in [P. Diddy’s son Justin Dior] Combs, then kicks back and begins streaming a glass of red wine, which has become a meme of its own…
Not for Any Reason Whatsoever (#1027)
Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw your neighbors outdoors”?
In the time of the pandemic the world’s snitches are in their glory, pointing fingers at “non-essential” businesses struggling to keep the lights on and at neighbors brazenly standing too closely together…Lockdown commandments hand them the opportunity not just to publicly shame violators…but to inform to the authorities, with all that entails…snitching seems to be competing with the virus itself in its spread…As always, informers are encouraged in their excess by many government officials. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti promised that “snitches get rewards,” and his sentiments are shared by [authoritarians] elsewhere. A certain segment of the public has eagerly embraced the role of social-distancing Stasi, recording perceived violations of safe practices and not just reprimanding the supposed violators for exercising independent judgment, but handing their details off to the [pigs]…
Abrogating freedom of religion and freedom of assembly at once:
As Maryville Baptist Church moved forward with its in-person Easter service Sunday morning, Kentucky State [pigs] were recording the license plates and placing notices on the roughly 50 cars parked outside…[after] Gov. Andy Beshear [issued a diktat] as part of ongoing efforts to keep Kentuckians [locked up and isolated. A spokespig oinked that]…most of the state’s [cop shops]…have responded to between two and five complaints about church services…but…found no violations of CDC guidelines…with Maryville apparently the exception. Most calls have been in reference to [drive-in] services…[which] “were specifically mentioned by the governor as being allowed”…
And guess who gets to declare that an “emergency” exists?
…New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio…really does want to [use state violence to] drag doctors and nurses from their jobs elsewhere to assigned positions in New York City [without their consent]…de Blasio isn’t alone as a government official who sees in the crisis an opportunity to go full commissar. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is stealing ventilators from upstate hospitals to give to facilities downstate. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is similarly snatching medical supplies from private firms and facilities to use as he sees fit. And President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to force medical equipment manufacturers to abandon customers beyond the borders — and even to sell to only the federal government. In context, de Blasio’s insistence that medical providers are playing pieces to be pushed around a game board at his whim is the next logical step down the path the political class has already chosen…
Cam work isn’t just a stopgap measure; it’s a specialization:
Many people who find themselves suddenly unemployed need cash quickly, and some might be considering a side gig in online sex work…However…even for experienced, full-time sex workers, “just making an OnlyFans” doesn’t always pay the bills. Online sex work requires an entirely different skill set than in-person work like escorting and stripping, and it can pose greater risks to privacy and anonymity…top-earning performers ha[ve] one thing in common: production value. If I wanted to earn anything close to sustainable income, I would at least need a webcam ($70 for a basic model, $250 for ultra HD), professional studio lights (at least $50), and a faster Wi-Fi connection (high-speed routers start around $150). If I was really serious, I would need more dildos, bigger dildos (body-safe silicone sex toys can range from $20 to almost $200), better lingerie ($100), and a teledildonic sex toy that allowed viewers to interact with me via Bluetooth ($125). Just being a sex worker costs much more than many people realize…it was months before I actually broke even…building a loyal, reliable one can take years. It was a full year before I started making a somewhat steady income, and despite working full-time hours some weeks, the money I make is only supplemental to my freelance writing work…
…the Fourteenth Amendment…states that all citizens…have equal protection and rights…no…part…states “unless you work in the adult entertainment industry” and yet that is precisely what is happening right now….disaster relief loan…[applications] specifically list…adult entertainment businesses…as a disqualification in receiving economic assistance…[sex workers a]re still required to pay taxes, thus contributing to the resources we are banned from receiving…The language in the application…lumps strippers in the same category as criminals and deadbeat parents. Ironically, without that assistance, a lot of [sex] workers…could become exactly that by being unable to support their families…