What do you think of when you hear the word “prostitute?” Do you picture a seedy motel where shameful acts happen in the shadows for crumpled bills? Or do you envision a dazzling model type smiling on a beach in Greece with her companion conveniently cut out of the shot? While the first visual more closely aligns with how many people view prostitution, it has in fact pervaded the mainstream atmosphere far more than some might be aware. The visibility of social media platforms, such as Instagram, often provides assistance in creating a world of virtual prostitution that facilitates the ease in which sex work enters into the physical sphere.
To clarify a few points, I am in no way shaming sex workers. I believe that sex work is an occupation that has contended with more than its fair share of stigma, and what consenting adults choose to do with their bodies is not something that I feel the need to judge. In addition, I am not saying that all beautiful, beach-bound influencers are prostitutes. I’m referring to the minority of people, though the following is still a common enough occurrence that I find it to be worth exploration. While a number of influencers (the modern term for anyone with a sizable following) likely do pay their bills with endorsements and modeling campaigns, today we’re going to examine another group of social media personalities.
Do you know anyone who fits the following profile? Picture a beautiful person, maybe one who enjoyed a brief stint on reality television. For the sake of pronouns, and for this article in general, I will be discussing a female subject. Her social media page reflects a glamorous life. She is able to afford Balenciaga sneakers and a vintage Chanel backpack. She always appears to be on holiday or having dinner and drinks with friends at exclusive restaurants and clubs in L.A. When she’s not traveling or partying, she’s at the gym. In fact, you can’t really figure out what exactly it is she does for a living since she never seems to be working. Is she really funding her luxury lifestyle through fitness tea posts and Fashion Nova endorsements? Or are there other works at play behind the scenes?
A societally taboo path that some influencers choose to take is to supplement endorsements with escort money, the real source of their income. Now, it isn’t necessarily as seedy as you might think. It’s the oldest occupation known to man, given a digital twist. Enormously wealthy men browse social media and select which girls meet their eye. They offer them sizable paychecks and vacations in exchange for sexual favors . Perhaps things start off as a luxury dinner or a well-worded proposal. But I don’t really need to spell the rest out for you. In turn, some of the wealthy “gentlemen” might share more than just money. They can offer the most invaluable thing for anyone living a Hollywood lifestyle: clout. Once these men have established a degree of trust and familiarity with some of their favorite clients, they often start offering them outstanding paychecks as well as assistance in building their online following. And thus another Instagram model is made!
If you don’t believe that such transactions really occur, you can read model Sydney Lima’s essay for Vogue UK about her experience turning down a man who propositioned her for sex based off her Instagram. Her story helps shed light on the everyday sexism that many women experience, since this clearly unreciprocated proposition left her feeling rightfully harassed. However, not all view the idea of exchanging sexual encounters for money and fame to be a negative. “The Rise of Instagram Prostitution” does a detailed job of painting the image of the modern day Instagram escort. Referring to Instagram pages as “portfolios,” the author provides a chilling depiction of how johns view their potential clients. The personal social media profiles of models are filled almost exclusively with images of themselves, creating the perfect canvas for men to browse when deciding who they want to proposition. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m just saying it happens, and you’d be naive to think it doesn’t.
Have you heard the term “yacht girls?” Let’s explore a slightly more appropriate example of the term, focusing on the Cannes Film Festival’s prostitution scene. (For all of you already tainted minds, deep Google “Dubai yacht girl scene” at your own risk. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.) With credited celebrity publications such as Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair doing the deep digging, it’s become apparent that more than just cinema is being passed around at this famed film festival. These beautiful women, who you can see partying on yachts with wealthy men, can pull up to 40,000 a night. That’s my whole salary for a year, including my four side jobs. Apparently this whole orchestration is communicated with hand signals and cues, which doesn’t surprise me. There are many levels to communication, and those who engage in activities that are best kept secret often develop coded means of communication to filter out outsiders. These prostitution rings are more visible than you might think, oftentimes existing in plain sight, but not perceived to be what they truly are. These “yacht girls” really exist, not just in Cannes, but all over the world.
While I’m no Instagram model, I can confirm that I spent a summer in Cannes, and an elderly man in an outrageously expensive car stopped in the middle of the street while I was heading to the club with my friend, begging me to join him on his yacht. He offered me champagne and Chanel dresses and all the luxuries money could buy, as my friend and I hurried down the street to shake this old creep off and catch David Guetta at the discotheque. With this kind of casual propositioning for your average pretty blonde girl, imagine what kind of offers Instagram models are faced with simply for existing. There are rumors surrounding even household celebrity names, with Lindsay Lohan long since believed to be working as a professional escort and possibly even a madame. However, without concrete proof, speculation is hazy at best, so it’s best to keep other names behind closed lips. (You can do the Reddit and Blind Item searches if you’re so inclined.)
At the end of the day, I don’t think that prostitution is something people need to be ashamed of. As a writer, the furthest I would ever personally get would be prostitution of the soul (ha), but if beautiful people want to sell their bodies, who are we to stop them? However, and this is something I have previously touched upon, I do think that it would be enormously beneficial to legalize prostitution throughout America (and not just in Nevada). That way, better safety standards could be put in place so that the degree of risk and breach of safety could be lessened for this occupation. Plus, one aspect of escorting that does irk me is the fact that the income is undeclared. Why not legalize the practice, reap some more tax dollars for community development, and protect all parties involved?
Another though to consider is the damaging implications that these profiles provide. It’s no surprise that social media is all smoke and mirrors. People litter their profiles with plastered on Facetuned smiles and Photoshopped snippets of dream lives in posts designed to make others feel inadequate. It’s something that people of all walks of life and all follower counts can be found guilty of, so it comes across as blame-shifting to credit influencers with the full weight of creating unrealistic expectations. However, if people choose to represent themselves as a public figure and an influencer —which by its very definition means they seek to lead others— then perhaps they should be held to a higher degree of responsibility than the average person.
There’s nothing wrong with YouTube or Instagram fame. In fact, I think plenty of people would trade in their day jobs for a chance to be an influencer if they were presented the opportunity. But it’s worrisome the number of youth who idolize online personalities and truly buy into the lifestyles they present. It makes children these days more likely to forgo formal education in the hopes of following in the footsteps of their influencer idols, not realizing the falsity behind the lifestyles they covert. That’s why I find it beneficial to publicize that these lives are not as glamorous as one might think. (In other words, yes you can have this lifestyle, but please understand that you’re going to have to do more than just sell laxative tea and gummy hair vitamins. Maybe stay in school?)
As a parting thought, we, as a society, need to take better measures to delineate reality from fabrication in order to create more attainable realities for youth to aspire to. There’s nothing wrong with dreaming, but you must also contend with the ugly reality behind earning a beautiful life. At the very least, it requires far more elbow grease than Instagram would ever let on.