Content creation and gig-work in the platform economy: What contemporary sex work can teach us about the futures of digital labor

To come to a closer understanding of platforms' control and normative influences over the gig-economy, in this study I focus on gig-workers laboring under extreme societal, economic, and algorithmic marginalization in a multi-billion-dollar global media industry: adult entertainers working on direct-to-consumer content creation platforms. Digital sex work problematizes accepted definitions of gig-work, because adult entertainers' professional identities are not limited to singular platforms, because building community is fundamental, and because all dispersed professional performances cumulatively constitute content creators' personas. Laborers across creative industries would do well to take note of how adult entertainers survive, work, and thrive in such a hostile environment.