Mistress Vivian Grey, a downtown Chicago dominatrix, at her home on May 16, Like a lot of people in these months of quarantine, E. Cotenord is having a tough time making ends meet. She stopped seeing clients shortly after Gov. Pritzker announced the first stay-at-home order in March, switching her business model almost overnight to subscription video and phone sex.
The grind is a lot harder. While COVID has pummeled most industries, few have been battered as thoroughly as sex-related businesses. Strip clubs have shuttered , dominatrix dungeons have closed and even street prostitution has gone quiet: Chicago police, who normally make dozens of arrests each month, have made exactly two since March The sudden loss of business has left sex workers, who for the most part are ineligible for jobless benefits, scrambling to survive.
Mistress Vivian Grey is a Chicago dominatrix who considers her sessions, which do not include sex, to be a form of therapy for men and women who want to live out their fantasies. Another Chicago dominatrix, Mistress Mara, has given up in-person sessions altogether out of concern that someone might carry COVID without symptoms. She now focuses entirely on her online ventures, which include phone encounters, texting and video streaming.
She said that with 14 years of experience, she has established a brand that has held up in the highly competitive online scene, though she still prefers to work in person. I much prefer human contact and the conversations.
The video platform of choice for many sex workers and adult performers is OnlyFans, which allows them to charge viewers a subscription. While experienced sex workers say the service is less lucrative than their normal gigs, some newbies have found it to be a badly needed source of income.
