Some days, she’s a dominatrix in a catsuit; other days, she’s a 50-year-old woman in an open relationship
Esquire
By Holly Elizabeth Stephens
I recently met a woman named Tanya* who makes $1,200 a month working part-time as a fetish chat room operator. No phone calls, cameras, or meet-ups necessary — she simply gets paid to chat anonymously with male clients about fetishes and sex through the company’s pay-by-the-minute email-and-messaging service.
It all began in her early 20s, when Tanya was struggling to make ends meet shortly after college. She happened across a friend working in the fetish industry who put her in touch with his boss. After a quick interview, the boss proposed an offer she couldn’t pass up: As long as she had a reliable source of Wi-Fi and was willing to role-play with men about their extreme fetishes through fictional, self-made profiles, she’d be compensated with $18 an hour. Not bad for work you can do from the comfort of your couch.
The gig proved to be a success. Five years later, Tanya still routinely logs hours into the chat when money is tight. Eager to share her NSFW life behind the screen, she agreed to describe a typical day in the life of a fetish chat room operator, all from experiences she’s actually had.
10:00 a.m.
Wake up: Tanya turns on her laptop while brewing a pot of coffee and preparing breakfast. With tired eyes, she opens an email from a regular. An image of his scrotum is attached, bound tightly with string and three suspended weights. It’s much too early to reply to such a jarring image, so she hops in the shower instead.
11:00 a.m.
BDSM and at-home dungeons: After slipping back into her PJs, Tanya checks in with a coworker nearing the end of the previous shift to see what’s trending in the chat. Clients are feeling particularly submissive, so she logs into one of her most successful profiles: a thirtysomething dominatrix sporting a skintight red latex catsuit. One client asks her to torture him in his at-home dungeon with whips, ropes, and ball-gags. Another shares images of his homemade dildos, torture devices, and anal beads. Since dominant profiles are her favorite to portray, she considers this a good start to the morning. …