"500 tokens to go private": camgirls, cybersex and feminist entrepreneurship

The adult entertainment industry has often been seen by feminist groups as antithetical to the women’s liberation movement, with the commercialisation of misogyny taking place under a patriarchal business model. The advent of live streaming video and webcam technology has forced a considerable paradigm shift in the power relationships involved in pornography; the burgeoning ‘camgirl’ genre— in which young women independently broadcast explicit material at the behest of an audience—essentially serves to return control over adult entertainment to the female participants that are involved in its creation. The interactive nature of the camgirl genre has resulted in the development of a unique transactional relationship between performer and consumer that transcends that which currently exists within the industry. The rise of the camgirl has significant implications for both the adult entertainment industry and internet culture on the whole, presenting innovative business opportunities for young performers to engage in entrepreneurial behaviour.

his is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Sexuality & Culture. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12119-014-9228-3