cam girls

Reading CamGirls has been my favorite reading this semester. I knew little about camgirls before reading this book. Honestly, I had the impression that most of them did it for attention and thought of themselves as some kind of “microcelebrity”. Early into reading, I realized this was not the case. A lot of the camgirl culture has more to do with the right to self-expression. It also has a lot to do with building a community even if this community is stuck somewhere in between the public and private spheres. In the conclusion of CamGirls, Senft states “On the Web, micropolitical tele-ethical acts might include, among other things, online dialogues, building communities, ‘outing’ oneself online, and even intervening when someone’s safety is at stake, as in my own story” (121). These micropolitical actions are similar to actions we may face in the “real world”. They are the kinds of actions that build solidarity in a community that does allow us to act on a macro-political level.

In Chapter Four Senft explains the controversy that surrounded Ana Voog posting pictures the LiveJournal Abuse Team and community members found inappropriate. Although, Ana and some readers fought to allow her to express herself there was more discussion about the “legalisms” than why she posted the pictures to start with. Senft goes on to say, “Earlier in this chapter, I explained how reading morphs a public into the public through the circulation of texts, as in the phrase ‘public opinion’” (88). After reading this, I realized that ‘public opinion’ can be very similar to ‘grabbing’ where the context of any action can get lost in translation. However, even at the risk of letting the meaning of an action getting lost I think it is sometimes important to grab someone’s attention. Something contraversal can start dialogue on an important issue and it’s what we do with that dialogue we need to pay close attention to.