The American hit show Teen Mom has, for many of us, maintained a regular spot on our list of reality TV guilty pleasures. The popularity of this series is seemingly not isolated to the U.; many of us Brits continue to watch on, waiting for the next influx of inevitable drama.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
However, not all of the drama remains on screen... producers have, over the past few years, been struck by scandalous reports of favouritism and mistreatment. For example, original cast member Farrah Abraham has declared on numerous occasions that producers “bullied” her into leaving the show she helped create, solely because of her work in the adult entertainment industry.
The shocking nature of this claim has become increasingly pertinent over recent days, as fellow cast member Jenelle was shown threatening a driver with a gun, whilst she had her young son in the car. Seemingly, this behaviour is deemed acceptable by Teen Mom producers, as she hasn't been dismissed from the cast, whilst Farrah’s career as a cam girl warranted a dismissal.
Amber Kelly, a cam girl for elite website Off the Record shares her thoughts on this news.
Cam girls are entrepreneurs, cultivating a healthy and profitable career from web-camming; they are extremely passionate about what they do and are fighting to eliminate the stigma surrounding the adult entertainment industry. No woman should face negative backlash for embracing her sexuality.
Cam girls face an insane amount of backlash for choosing a career which, in reality, doesn’t actually adhere to the stereotype; this news surrounding Farrah Abraham and Teen Mom producers is just another example of unfair judgements surrounding the industry and it’s models. This is isn’t the dirty, low-level profession it’s often thought to be; I love what I do and find it to be incredibly empowering, as do all the cam girls I know.
I was introduced to camming by a friend who told me how amazing the pay is, and she wasn’t wrong. After six months of convincing me, I finally decided to give it ago and haven’t looked back! I earn in just a few hours what I would earn in a day at my old 9-5 office job; being a cam girl truly allows me to live a life of luxury, with the added bonus of being my own boss. I don’t see how anyone can blame Farrah, a single parent, for pursuing a profession which enables her to be her own boss and earn an impressive salary in half the time. As a result, she’s able to spend more time with her daughter and, ultimately, is happy with what she’s doing… who is anyone else to say she’s wrong?
I am the most content I’ve ever been being a cam girl, I have no one to answer to but myself which is extremely empowering. I now have the ability to cultivate a successful career on my own terms, and the only person standing in my way is myself. For Farrah to face backlash for such a choice is absurd and reflects the outdated and unjust presumptions still imposed on cam girls today.
Those who have never watched a cam girl often think that our viewers are sleazy men behind a computer screen with little to no respect for women, consequently making cam girls enablers for a patriarchal society. This is far from the truth; all of my clients are kind, open and incredibly respectful of my right to say no. If a request is made that I’m not 100% comfortable with, I simply won’t do it. It seems that the workplace in which Farrah has most unfairly been treated by male, and female, co-workers, is that of the Teen Mom production office as opposed to the adult entertainment industry.
Farrah has undoubtedly had a challenging few years, with the loss of her daughter’s father and rapid rise to fame. I have personally found that camming allowed my self-esteem and body-confidence to rocket; if Farrah has sustained enough confidence to cam in the face of media critique or found that this has reignited her sense of self-worth, then this is yet another reason she shouldn’t face negative backlash. We should do all we can to promote a woman’s right to embrace and celebrate her own body, however she pleases.
It seems to me that the Teen Mom producers need to reconsider their treatment of those working within the adult entertainment industry, especially if we are ever going to rid the world of negative and derogatory stereotypes surrounding driven, powerful cam girls.
For more information about Off the Record, please visit www.otrmodels.co.uk