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In the era before Twitter and Facebook, it was possible for a woman to become famous just by broadcasting her life on camera. Known as a “camgirl,” she would share intimate moments of her daily routines in exchange for virtual currency called “tokens.” Among the most famous was Jennifer Wrigley, who was known as the first cam girl and was featured on tv shows, in magazines and even on the David Letterman Show. She was a misfit and, like many of her peers, she lived in a world of “suicide girls” that featured naked young women with tattoos and piercings.
Camming is a lucrative activity that has attracted tens of thousands of women from all over the globe, including students, single mothers and middle-aged housewives. In the West, they usually operate out of their homes, but in Eastern Europe studios offer camgirls equipped rooms and promotional tools in exchange for a share of the revenue. In addition, a number of men and transgender women are also embracing camming.
Despite the fact that the industry is highly profitable, there are still many controversies surrounding it, especially in the United States. In order to avoid legal repercussions, most camgirls stress that they do not have any physical contact with clients and that they can refuse to perform any act they are not comfortable with. Moreover, they also insist that their work is not sex trafficking and that they are not exploited.
The film follows a few camgirls as they go about their work and spend time with their friends outside of it. It also reflects on the camgirl phenomenon as a whole and examines how it relates to a current culture of ubiquitous self-exposure.
For example, in the video montage of a pint-sized MySpace hottie reciting her ID number to testify that she’s real (something all MySpace hotties have to do), Brad Troemel captures the uneasy feeling of being exposed to an audience whose reaction is unpredictable and potentially embarrassing.
Rose, a 21-year-old student from Oregon, is another camgirl who struggles with the balance between her professional life and personal life. She explains that she only started working as a camgirl to make some extra money and fund her massage school tuition, but soon realized she was addicted. In the beginning, she worked for small fees but as her skills improved she was able to increase her rates. Now she’s earning upwards of $1,000 per hour. When she isn’t on the screen, she’s spending her free time with her mother and a group of other camgirls who help her with her finances.