Epistemic justice in webcam modeling research in Colombia: Exploring models’ experiences

This study focused on giving epistemic justice to webcam models in Bogotá, Colombia. It presents the knowledge of webcam models that are being unjustly silenced because of their belonging to the digital sex industry, therefore it highlights their voices and invited them to talk about what is important to them, positioned them as experts and values their knowledge and experiences, challenging the hegemonic discussions that are being held on the subject. In this way, through a qualitative methodology with an approach of epistemic responsibility and a feminist standpoint epistemology, the research look for how do the webcam models in Bogotá understand their work and what are their demands and aspirations. The main results showed how the webcam industry and social stigmatization by belonging to the sex industry, in combination with other social or identity categories, silence the immense diversity among the people working as webcammers and what is conditioning their experiences; evidencing the need for a polymorphous approach to contextualize the positive and negative experiences in this work. Additionally, their meanings, experiences, work conditions, needs, demands, aspirations, and proposals about how webcam modeling should be approached and regulated in the country. All the participants claimed epistemic justice without reproducing it, and demanded for flexible regulations that allow them to work according to their desires, needs and social categories.