Sex workers come in all forms. An Li is the kind where you’ll really hurt the next day. “I’m very grounded in physical sensations,” she said. “I like touching someone. I like hearing someone make noises. I like tying people up. I have one guy I’ve seen for many years who I literally just whip.”
An Li is a professional dominatrix in Los Angeles. She has been doing this work professionally, full-time, for six years. In-person appointments make up two-thirds of her income. She said that’s typical in her line of sex work.
“That’s the classic style of domination,” she said. “It requires going to a dungeon or some kind of play space and dominating something in person.”
But in the age of the coronavirus, all that income is gone.
When An Li had to cancel her in-person appointments, she wasn’t sure how to translate her particular form of artistry online.
“Bondage is something that could just literally never happen online,” she said. “It takes too much skill.”
The internet is flooded with a lot of sex workers in the same situation. In fact, that’s where I found Li: on Twitter. She linked to a blog post about having to adjust to a new reality, where she wrote: “Now don’t get me wrong — I haven’t played all week and have been absolutely itching to tear into flesh. But for the sake of our current climate, I will be abstaining until further notice.”
But that means working on the same platforms as sex workers who specialize in digital content.
“Now that everyone’s on it — I’m saying like everyone is on it — the competition is a lot higher,” she said. “A lot of my regulars haven’t been calling. Some of them just don’t want to have an internet trace at all.”
