Last April, FOSTA/SESTA was signed into law. On January 1st, the law went into effect (this is why your posts started getting taken down from social media a few weeks ago). FOSTA, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, is the House bill and SESTA, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, is the Senate bill. While President Bad Man signed both of these, there is now a bipartisan split between the House and Senate, meaning that both sides are standing together in this decision. This is no longer a "Democrats will fix it" or "Republicans are to blame" scenario—as is usually the case, the strip club industry (and legit sex work as a whole) is being targeted by all sides.
Another pattern we’ve seen—inside and outside of this industry—is the "intentions vs. practice" conundrum. While FOSTA/SESTA are, by definition, supposedly laws designed to "help fight sex trafficking" (which conjures up images of teenage prostitutes being shipped overseas in boxes), in practice, it basically means that your favorite stripper is no longer allowed on Instagram, because half of a nipple was visible in her post about donating all of her shift’s earnings to charity. Or, perhaps, you’re me and you were removed from Facebook for actually defending sex workers (apparently, saying "men who report strippers are trash" is hatespeech). This is happening, because large social media accounts are, according to FOSTA/SESTA, now responsible for anything posted on their platform, as well as any consequences. Facebook is simply protecting their own evil, soulless, profit-seeking ass— as any major corporation would. So, on the 1% chance that someone like, say, Elle Stanger—an independent dancer, whose career extends to podcasting, political activism and internet modeling— is being forced into said lifestyle by an anonymous, invisible pimp, then that is seen as a "risk" in regards to promoting "sex trafficking" by Facebook and Instagram. This is equivalent to, say, a cannabis dispensary being held accountable for selling weed to someone who recorded shitty music, which inspired another person to drop out of college, start a band and go on tour. Then, when that person eventually overdoses on heroin, the cannabis dispensary is held responsible. In fact, there is more of a causality between weed stores and the death of Kurt Cobain, than there is between strippers taking selfies and child prostitution.
If FOSTA/SESTA isn’t enough to cause nightmares for sex workers, another ugly meme of last year was #ThotAudit. In short, a non-stripper, basic Becky, regular- ass, hot-girl-on-the-internet, decided to make a joke post on Facebook, asking which one of her followers reported her Snapchat Premium to the I.R.S. In response, incels, misogynists and trolls decided to say, "Hey, this is a great way to attack these chicks" and found out that the I.R.S. actually offers a financial incentive to report tax dodgers. Well, who do you think it ended up affecting the most? That’s right—pornstars, strippers and professional sex workers.
Do I support the snitching on of dancers? Fuck. No. But, I’m not gonna front— most gamers cannot stand "Twitch titty streamers" as they’re called—hot, sheltered, preppy bitches from the suburbs who are using video game streaming as a front to show off cleavage in exchange for tips. These are the white rappers of the sex work world (and not in the Eminem or ICP variety—we’re talking Post Malone). So, any argument that #ThotAudit was strictly an attack on "sex workers" is on par with my white ass claiming to be the target of "racism," because I was told not to drop N-bombs during freestyle raps. And, along that same analogy, the effect of banning all N-bombs from freestyle raps everywhere would mean that actual members of hip hop and/or black culture would be restricted from using their own slang. Basically, Snapchat Premium thots have put actual sex workers on Front Street, so they can be snitched on and exploited by neckbeards and sexists. In short, lowest-common-denominator theory insists that the worst of the group dictates the rules for the best—take a look at any "-ism," good or bad, for proof.
So, before I go any further—I am against 98% of the taxes being forced on small businesses and independent contractors. Tax someone with a health plan and 401K, please. However, I also don’t support the co-opting of our industry, from either angle—notice how both the "protect sex workers" and "snitch on sex workers" crowds are promoting the exact same thing, when it comes to the real- life consequences. And, as usual, neither FOSTA Fred or Snapchat Stacy are active members of our industry—their cause or meme-of-the-week is our fucking lifestyle. We’ve watched rap music be stolen by honkies who dabble in rhyming between banjos and cowbells, transgender struggles stolen by narcissistic college kids playing dress-up, weed culture get stolen by vape bros and Star Wars get stolen by social justice hacks. For the love of all things naked and profitable, I will not stand by and watch the sex industry get stolen by puritans and misogynists.
In response to the blatant bootlicking on behalf of social media companies like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Tumblr, I encourage all dancers, models and sex workers of any kind, to explore other avenues for promotion and social media. Be warned, however, that many of the "alternative" and/or "free speech" platforms seem to be festering with, well, Nazis and all that shit. So, it’s worth your time to carve out your own niche now, before it gets filled up with 4Chan or fauxmenism. MeWe is a great alternative to Facebook. Porn sites, as dark as they may be, are fantastic places to host adult-friendly image galleries. Hell, building your own website is also easy and profitable. Delete your fucking Facebook account, though, unless you absolutely have to use it.
In response to #ThotAudit trolls targeting dancers and cammers with the tax snitching, say it with me here (and, yes, it hurts—I’m a Libertarian at heart)...Pay. Your. Fucking. Taxes. You don’t have to be 100% accurate about shit and you’re entitled to a huge array of write-offs. Every nickel you spend on makeup, transport to the club, webcam equipment, outfits, etc., can be written off. For instance, I have an LLC that covers this very column, my DJ work and all that. While I took in over $45,000 last year, a non-shady accountant brought my net income down to $18,000 or so—running a business is expensive. Still, I paid like $150 in taxes and I’m in the clear. Hell, in theory, you may have even gone into the red. I’m pretty sure that the camera Hypnox uses costs more than my car. Miss Exotic Oregon went through at least $10,000 in plastic beads. The point is, fucking report your taxes and just write off as much as you can. Yes, misogynist neckbeards may be responsible for the snitching. However, non-stripper, basic bitch Becky, with her Snapchat Premium and Twitch channel, is the reason the trolls and neckbeards got the idea in the first place. Two things in life are certain: death and taxes. And, although Elon Musk is probably going to make the whole "dying" thing a choice, he’s still gotta cough up profits to the tax man.
The bottom line is, let’s not put a target on our back. We need to stand up for our right to exist in our own sphere—outside of the mainstream. I went off about this very thing in this month’s Tales From The DJ Booth, so you can turn to page 30 for more on this sentiment. But, the main thing I want everyone to take home is clear: this is not a basic, two-sided, left-versus- right, 4Chan-versus-Tumblr debate. Our industry is extremely complex and hard to pigeonhole. We need to take ownership of it, before it goes the way of punk rock, stand-up comedy, feminism, weed culture or anything else that was once dangerously fantastic and a threat to the mainstream, but has since been stolen and co-opted by culture vultures.
