I sold pictures of my feet on the Internet, and it was far from easy money

Who hasn’t considered this option, or just pitched the idea as a joke? “ I will sell the photos of my feet, it will be fantastic and I will earn money effortlessly ”. A few years ago, when I was faced with a big overdraft that I didn’t know how to fill, I decided to take the plunge.

Sell ​​pictures of your feet on the Internet

At the time, I had no job or fixed income, and no short-term solution to wipe out the few hundred euros in my bank account. This is where I came up with the idea of ​​selling foot photos on the Internet, as a purely financial solution. I thought it would be easy, and that whatever happened could not have been worse than the situation I was in.

I am not a foot fetishist, I do not sexualize this part of the body and although I was well aware that my photos would be sexualized by the people who bought them, I didn’t see this practice as sex work.

I started doing research on social networks, observing how certain accounts worked, especially on Twitter (at the time there were no platforms like OnlyFans or MYM yet). When I felt I understood, I took the plunge and created my account, very anxious for people to recognize me or for loved ones to find out.

The first requests I received were scams (I had to fall into the trap a couple of times to figure it out), but slowly, I started finding clients willing to pay for my photos.

I received messages, often late at night, asking me for photos of my feet with specific requests: rather the top or bottom of my feet, with or without paint, with socks, with sandals… Everyone had their own little preference. Each order allowed me to create a stock of different photos, which I was able to send quickly.

When I realized it was sex work

I started by telling myself that I would take pictures of my feet, send them and customers would be happy: “ Hi, here are ten photos, thank you, goodbye “. I immediately understood the reality of this profession was quite different: people want to know who they are buying these photos from and take advantage of the purchase to chat with the person selling them. Sometimes they want videos where I wouldn’t have stayed static …

So obviously, even though there was nothing sexual to me about showing my feet, I was playing. Because I didn’t want to make fun of others’ wishes, because I didn’t want my customers to feel ridiculous (there is a real person behind the screen), but also because it’s a business and when we want to make people pay, we don’t have to send their stupid stuff.

It was then that I realized it my job was sex work.

Because I didn’t depend on this job for a living and I could afford to set my limits. I didn’t want to show my face or the rest of my body, and I wanted to be able to say enough outside of my work hours, to go and do something else.

But even if I have clearly indicated these limits, they have not always been respected. Often customers tried to put pressure on me, and to make sure I am always there for them.

Sometimes violent interactions and pressures

One day, for example, while I was with friends doing something else, one of my most loyal customers contacted me. I replied that I was doing something else, that I wasn’t working at the time, but that I would come back to him later. There, he freaked out, he got mad and blamed me. “It’s just a job for you, don’t you like talking to me at all ?!” ”

Yet I was sincere: if I told someone ” You are very cute “, I really meant it. But sure it was a job for me, sex work I would never have done if I didn’t need the money.

Interactions like this were regular and it was a constant pressure that had to be resisted. Mentally it was difficult, especially as it expressed itself in so many different ways.

There are guys who seem very nice at first and who, after a while, they start insulting you, imposing their sexual delusions on you without consent. There were clients who wanted to go further and further, who told me violent things that had nothing to do with the framework we had placed at the base, even if we had not signed a contract.

Fortunately for me, even though I was young, I was smart enough to handle problems. Because they often tried to manipulate me. First by telling me that I was an exceptional person, that they had never seen photos as beautiful as mine, then trying to convince me to go beyond my limits for them, that I accept things that I have rejected.

I felt alone in all of this. I haven’t told anyone about this job, I was very isolated in there: one might imagine that there is a kind of sisterhood among those who practice this profession, but not really. Conversely, everyone tries to keep their customers and one less person selling photos, that’s one more customer for them, even if it sometimes means taking low shots.

In this isolation, when I found a regular customer with whom things were going well and who paid me without cheating on me, I found myself wanting to accept almost everything. I thought “ It’s a rare gem, I have to keep it, I don’t want to do something he doesn’t like “or “ Normally I don’t, but for him … “. There remains a relationship of power, even if I had chosen this situation, and it is exhausting to manage.

That’s where it got complicated, and that’s what led me, among other things, to quit.

Because I stopped selling pictures of my feet

I started selling these photos, telling myself that I would only do it just enough to fill my overdraft. Then, seeing that things were starting to work and that I could make money this way while still being relatively safe, I asked myself the question: wasn’t it worth continuing?

Eventually, I did it for about a month and a half. I earned a little more than I needed to cover my overdraft, then I quit. First, because I was very afraid that anyone would know, or that someone would find me from my IP address. For months after, I regularly went to the foot sections of porn sites to see if my photos weren’t posted anywhereif anyone wouldn’t have stumbled upon it, luckily it didn’t, at least as far as I know.

There was also a question of principle. I told myself that this fetish around the feet was not mine, that I had “used” it to get what I needed, but that it was time to give way to those who shared it perverse… Or to those who needed money more than me.

Finally, the way in which men acted largely contributed. I was tired of constantly finding patterns to avoid scams, to impose my limits, to respond to negotiations …

A job that is not an easy solution

Everyone thinks selling photos of their feet is easy and effortless, from the people talking about them to the people buying the pictures.

But I found out very quickly it is a job that is not an easy solution. Prepare the feet, do the nails or, on the contrary, remove the nail polish, create a decoration, make the photo beautiful, retouch it, exchange it … All this is long and you do not realize the skills that it takes required.

Personally, I don’t regret this experience. This forged me to learn to set my limits, to make sure I respect them, and to make my way through an environment I did not know, while ensuring my safety as much as possible. I would not tell this experience to anyone, but I’m not even ashamed that I did.

Above all, I learned that this practice, very trivialized in a joking tone, was actually hard work, in a shark environment.

Featured photo credit: Lucrezia Carnelos / Unsplash