Hi there! I’m Tyler. I’m a new contributor to thesword.com and I can hardly tell you how pleased I am to be here. I’ve been writing about sex and sexuality for the better part of the last decade. I have had some jobs that have given me perspective at age 31 that I could never have predicted at age 21.
I’m really excited to share my thoughts, answer some questions, and offer some insight that might be slightly different than what you’re used to finding on The Sword. There have been some changes and upheavals over the last few years that are dramatically changing the ways that adult entertainers (from gogo boys to porn performers to escorts) do their work and earn their living.
Most notable and profound amongst those changes are the pair of federal laws, signed into existence last April, known as FOSTA/SESTA. You might know this dastardly duo’s work already from their hits like “We’ve detected adult content on your Tumblr,” “Where’d my Google Drive porn go?” or “WTF happened to Criagslist M4M?” But you might not yet know that these laws are also behind recent TOS changes at Facebook too (where self-identifying as a bottom can is now grounds for account suspension) and will fuel other changes to online platforms in the months ahead.
For better or worse (depending on which anti-gay, anti-woman tinfoil hat organization you check with), these laws are changing the ways even your grandparents interact with social media. But their impact is not felt more profoundly than it is in already-marginalized groups like sex workers, people of color, and those who identify as LGBTQI+. Censorship and the loss of low-cost or free platforms disproportionally affects those groups in every regard.
But legal changes aren’t all that’s disrupted the way people watch porn in 2019. Cam sites, tube sites, fan-focused subscriptions, and sites like ManyVids (which has managed to amalgamate all three things into one super monster money grab) have created new and lucrative opportunities for performers while introducing fresh and troubling hurdles for mainstream adult content creators.
We’re also at an interesting place in time when the wall separating “adult” and vanilla brands and content has never felt more permeable or poorly defined. Monster-dicked porn pros design couture, all of 2019’s best-actor nominees have been naked on film, and a pornstar (and former escort) might be the lynchpin that brings down the president of the United States.
In my weekly column for The Sword, I’ll highlight issues faced by adult entertainers and their fans, including things like censorship, shadowbanning, and banking restrictions. We’ll talk about porn’s relationship to mainstream culture and how moralizing about it has lead only to the omnipresence of porn in modern society. But I also want to leave room to talk about minutiae. At least once per month, I’ll dedicate this space to answering questions about whatever you wanna share. Relationship troubles? Afraid to hire an escort? Want to know if CBT is “normal” or not? Need a support group because you can’t stop masturbating to Ryan Rose even though he’s “retired?” I got you. Send ‘em my way and I’ll pull the best of the bunch each month to share what I know and solicit reader replies.
And to make sure things aren’t too serious around here, I’ll do my best to include any special insider deals, discounts, or coupon codes that might float across my desk. Nothing improves slutty solo hand-penis fun (SSHPF) like saving some bucks (or getting it for free!) in the process. Trust me: I know from things that improve SSHPF.
I’m so looking forward to being a part of this community and the cockhungry hoard that keeps it a top site, year after year.
And I’m very pleased to meet you.
-t
Hey there, from someone who also has unpredicted perspectives from the ages of 21 to 31 and then unfortunately damn near another decade on top of that I’m really begining to wonder how all this remains working. I know that we are far into an enviroment where subscriptions have become more a way to support your prefered studio rather than a means to access their content; but even in my case where I was camming before it was called camming and way before there were platforms supporting it. Indeed as a twenty year old jerking off at probably 480p paid for my flight school… and then some!
I can’t see anything close to that Opportunity happening or being even available now?
(Oh and sorry for crumbling away all your preconceptions about the gays only working down the back, although many of them are very distracting these days and anyway I’m constantly told that we have to call it a flight deck now.)
Welcome aboard The Sword Tyler.