‘Sex influencers’: a survey of porn workers in the USA

Abstract

ABSTRACT There are relatively few survey data on the lives of porn workers. This article presents and analyzes broad-based data from a survey of 531 porn industry workers in the USA. The article provides key demographic, economic, and social insights into the lives of porn workers. According to the data, porn workers are not all young, can have long careers in the industry, have high levels of education, do not all come from poverty, are not exclusively cisgender women, and are disproportionately white. Analysis of the data also dispels binary notions of porn workers as either exploited or uniquely empowered – as sex workers have argued repeatedly. Instead, the data show that many porn workers are satisfied with their work yet economically precarious, and that there are notable inequalities within the industry. Crucially, the data add to current conversations in porn studies about porn work as either gig work or influencer work. The article concludes that the data from this survey support the latter framing and that porn workers are best thought of as ‘sex influencers’. By providing a data-driven, broad picture on porn workers, the author hopes that future reporting and research will be more empirically grounded and nuanced.