DUELING COLUMN: Premium Snaps Prove Sex Work Is Work

Gabriela Enamorado/Contributing Writer  

Some people work traditional jobs like customer service or office jobs to help pay for college. Others sell sexually explicit content on their premium Snapchat. Both are valid.

Premium Snapchats are private Snapchat accounts where you can pay to receive sexually explicit content — mostly from women. On other types of free pornographic websites, you never really know if the person being shown consented to posting the video online, if they’re of age or who they are. With premium Snapchat, the control is in the hands of the user.

Many girls who do this are college students who need the extra cash to get by. Unfortunately, college is expensive in the United States and many people do what they have to do to pay for tuition, including sex work.

When women take control of their bodies, college students and people on social media slut-shame them and put them down. Women are already overly sexualized, but if they take advantage of this to make some money for school, it’s a problem. I have trouble believing that people really care about the well-being of these girls; they mostly care that they’re taking control of their own bodies.

Usually, most of the criticism comes from men, but most of the people that pay and view sexual content are also men. So why is it alright for men to slut shame girls who use premium Snapchats to get by and continue to consume content like this? Is it because men feel like they shouldn’t have to pay for the sexual content and are entitled to women’s bodies for free? 

Women can be critical as well by claiming that premium Snapchats are degrading and girls shouldn’t resort to showing their bodies for money. Personally, I wouldn’t do it just because I am not comfortable with it. But who am I to tell someone else to do with their life? If no one is being shown without their consent, if they aren’t underage, and if this is how they express themselves, these accounts shouldn’t be a problem. 

If premium Snapchats are something you personally doesn’t agree with, then don’t do it. But let others express themselves how they want to. Sex work is work, and using it to pay for college should be treated with the same respect as someone working a traditional part-time job to get by. 

Featured photo by Stock Catalog on Flickr.

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