A Real Person is Not Horny 24/7: Women Online Sex Workers Managing Emotional Labor, Agency, and Well-Being in Türkiye

Abstract

Subscription-based digital platforms such as OnlyFans have expanded online sex work globally. Although research has documented their affordances mostly in Western countries with neo-liberal systems, what risks and challenges women experience and navigate on these platforms have not been adequately understood. The present study adopts a critical feminist perspective to address this gap by exploring women online sex workers' agency and well-being in T & uuml;rkiye, a conservative and patriarchal gender order that increasingly criminalizes online sex work. Six women who were working or formerly worked on subscription-based digital platforms participated in individual interviews for this study. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed women's efforts to protect their safety and voice within the bounds of possibility in four themes: a) withstanding fear, stigmatization, and objectification, b) pretending in the service of the male gaze, c) exerting digital boundaries, and d) setting priorities. Our findings contribute to previous research by uncovering diverse expressions of women's agency and emotional labor on digital platforms. The findings also pointed to the shaping impact of the T & uuml;rkiye context in exacerbating this labor due to an insecure political climate and marginalization. We shared recommendations for feminist, empowerment-based research and practices for sex worker women's well-being.