Hello all!

I'm interested in the level of anonymity people put up around what they do, and the reasons they chose that level? I ask because I'm not particularly anonymous at all, there are pictures of my face all over my website and my various advertising profiles. Initially it was because I was doing cam work, where you can't really avoid your face being seen anyway, and then I sort of drifted towards escorting and just didn't change it.

Pretty much all of my friends are positive about sex work and a few are sex workers themselves of various kinds (though mostly pro dommes or spankers), the only family I really have to worry about is my big sister, if she found out I think she'd be worried about me but I feel like I could convince her it was ok (plus she couldn't really do much about it), plus my other job is as an artist, so that gives me the privilege of being expected to subvert cultural norms and push boundaries (that's what I tell myself anyway!). So really I don't feel a massive need for strict levels of privacy. However I do worry that I may be being na?ve, as I am new to this and I know there might be something I'm missing. On the other hand, I can use my privileged position of being able to be more open about escorting to help reduce stigma and get involved with the politics of it.

I do have some privacy things set in place, I don't use my legal name for my work and I keep pictures of my face off the front pages of things that might accidentally be stumbled upon by people who aren't looking for it.

What do other people think about this? Am I putting myself into some sort of danger without realising it? Or is it down to the individual and their situation?

Thanks,

Ron xxx

By your name I am guessing your male? I think things are slightly different for males, the same old, if a girl sleeps with 10 guys she's called a hoe and if a guy does, he is high fived . But saying that, where I worked in the past there was a gay colleague and he happily spread the news he had seen me selling myself on the internet. I could feel people whispering, but at the same time I come off VERY innocent so a lot of people didn't believe it, and thought I was set up lol.

Another thing that plays into it, is if you introvert or extrovert. If you extrovert, not ashamed to show people you love sex, if people find out they won't be shocked, but if you introvert and people find out, lord have mercy on you 

I think maybe on main pages that are public, if you take off your face picture, so that only members can see it in private . Making sure you have a work number that  none of your friends have, so if the personal number is googled, nothing comes up.

Also don't use pictures on personal accounts, that you use on your "work" accounts, because if someone googles the image, good chance it will show your "work" website / profile.

And becareful with things like facebook, cause some people have had horror stories where, a link from their work twitter or another work profile has linked with their personal facebook and posted their business all over their facebook. Best to make sure you logged out of social media websites, when doing work and make sure you know what your clicking on.

If people do find out, I find not caring and being proud, takes the power they would have over you being ashamed. I wouldn't do this job if you want to be a teacher, politician or want to be famous, cause they will rip you apart 

I don't do webcamming and never have, but I'm fairly out and proud in that I have face pictures in my ads and if somebody asks me what I do for a living I tell them. I live in a fairly small town and people don't really think anything of it, but then it's a seaside town and they tend to be tolerant places with far livelier histories than anything I could come up with .

Like most I don't use my legal name for work, and try to keep my personal information off the internet - I don't use the likes of Facebook and avoid identifying myself on 'mainstream' sites (if I Google my legal name literally nothing comes up, despite it being an unusual one). I think the thing to be wary of is people you may have vague contact with but are not really aware of knowing more about you than you would prefer, and I'd include neighbours as the most obvious - these are people who can potentially make your life a misery and even put you out of business if you work from home. I don't tell my legal name, even my first name, to punters no matter how long I've known them.

Other things to consider are other careers you may be pursuing or already engaged in; evidence of sex work will almost certainly get you dismissed from various positions including working for the NHS, social services or teaching - none of this applies to me, so I don't have to worry about it but I would be far more cagey if it did. Ditto if I had children, although I've known people outed whether they showed face pictures or not, and I think it's always a good idea to have a contingency plan for this even if it's purely to protect those around you who might be dragged into it.

As TVH says, there's an awful lot to be gained with a 'yes that's right - is there something you wanted to know?'. The more often those of us in a strong position to do so demonstrate that it's really just another job, the more people will remember that it is .

I have no face photos, phone numbers or my legal name anywhere online. My work coming out to my family would be a disaster of unprecedented proportions, I live way on the other side of the country to my family because of being at uni so altogether I should have a fair chance of it remaining private.

HOWEVER

- The agency I work for who took my photos will have my face on their computers somewhere

- 2 of my friends know what I do for a living, only 1 of whom knows the name of the agency and where etc (I didn't want to disappear one day god forbid and no one have a clue what might have happened) and the other 1 is my housemate (same reason, and also as she is close to home to act as my next of kin who understands the importance of not getting my family involved in an emergency)

- I have 1 friend who is also a WG and knows my real name