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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 5, 2022

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Christ almighty, I had no idea that there are so many statistically literate whores around just waiting to tell you your survey is bad.

To drive the point home, these women affect being really anal about methodology – despite being, like you note, often unable to parse the trivial study design. I wouldn't scoff at that merely because of their occupation, escorts aren't street workers and may well be above average in intelligence (though Aella is of course still an outlier) – it's more of a conflict of interest, Upton Sinclair moment, and as is common, it's misguided territorial instinct – they won't get more clients nor higher incomes by making the conclusion of the study or Aella personally lower-status on Twitter.

Crucially, they have strong guild/cabal ethics with their talk about «community» and how she's «new», and a weird idea of the purpose of ethical research guidelines. Or... maybe their idea is the correct one in the current climate?

I've collected their responses (not up to date) because it was just such a perfect example of motivated reasoning and middlebrow dismissal, it reminded me of mainstream skepticism directed at politically incorrect findings we discuss here more frequently, namely HBD. See also: artists and AI, audiophiles and double blind testing, {your own example}.

I don't include links because my goal isn't to bash their looks (by the way, it's not like she got dogpiled by conventionally overweight hookers).



dunno if you have the research qualifications for something with such heavy implications; SW solidarity is something I'd be researching too, but that's just my opinion and I could be wrong.

guessing you are pretty new; also it's <19 not >19 if you wanna get fatphobia correct


You should re-do this with a bigger sample size and more accurate earnings. I would separate full-time and part-time maybe. Fssw and kink etc.

You’re not very connected to the community bc you disregard valid criticisms and emotional reactions (yes emotions matter, ppl aren’t robots) from a wide array of its members

You think you’re right bc you make a lot of money but most of us know better than to equate those things

I don’t think she should be doing it at all unless she herself has a genuine and broad community connection which she doesn’t.

The world doesn’t need another privileged white swer sharing their uninformed opinion on the industry for attention.


Soooo many things wrong with this. A sample size of 30?!?! Mo. income is estimated (by the researcher, not the respondent)? Only using online escorts when many SWs work exclusively in person creates additional bias. Additionally,BMI is outdated & <19 is unhealthy for most people


I have always been a big girl, and if I was making that small amount of money, I would not be a veteran, and still be working in this industry. I am also a older provider well over 40. I actually make more money when I am bigger then when I am smaller. You data is skewed.

If we are speaking of averages, then it would be a very excellent idea to enlarge your focus group. What joke.


This is flawed. Income in this industry is highly dependent on the providers location and touring (if they are available to). Then how much they are willing to place into their marketing (pics, websites, etc).


Calling this “data science” with a sample size of 30. Lol.

She said herself the sample size was “still kinda low”. Her own words. Also implies she is still collecting data and released her unfinished “study” anyway, Mr blank profile.

Also does not check out in my experience. I know big gals making way more than I do. She has even admitted to not being able to get good data because she’s not connected in the industry.


Wildly inaccurate.


Anyone who knows anything about statistics will know how laughable this is. Stop this embarrassment of our community.

"If your sample isn't representative of your population, then you can't make valid statistical inferences or generalize. " where is your sample size? Where is your scientific methods and statistical evidence. You're not proving anything you're making wild inferences in a...

She put out this graph without any context or background, it's just not appropriate method. This is what causes an uproar and when it is found to be false results are swept under the rug because its not as interesting. Graphs are misinterpreted all the time why are you so upset

I’m not giving my data to a woman who thinks she knows better than those of us who have been at it for years. She thinks lawyers and doctor who pay 1k an hour won’t hurt workers and her “advice” is gonna put people in unsafe situations. Also tracking BMI is not a useful metric.


You just love being loud and wrong, huh? I’m honestly impressed at the way you manage to make every tweet worse than the last


I'm fat and make 6 figures.

You couldn't be more wrong.

Stop the lies and perpetuating stigma.

You're a stain on this industry.


“BMI (body mass index), which is based on the height and weight of a person, is an inaccurate measure of body fat content and does not take into account muscle mass, bone density, overall body composition, and racial and sex differences, say researchers from the Perelman School”


As a researcher myself, this is straight up terrible research design and thus garbage findings. Maybe sit down and think about research design and ethics before you go around 'doing research' ie confirming your own biases.


I’m no statistician, but the holes in this methodology are truly incredible. Not to mention the use of BMI, which is a hugely stigmatising metric that fat people have asked people to stop using FOREVER. There are better uses of your time than whatever this is.


I had to read the comments because i couldnt believe someone would do something like this about body mass index. Theres so much fatphobia, classism and whorephobia in one graph. Also as a data scientist why are you using n=30 and no standard dev or error matrix? Bro


This is ridiculous. Look at my photos. They’re accurate. My BMI is 28.6, I make 30k on my worst month.


Y i k e s

Stop it.


Girl... just stop


It’s men in the comments thinking it’s accurate smh


Lol where did you pull this fluff from. Highly inaccurate


This is really stupid lol


this is disgusting, useless and inane. but good that you manage to stay busy i guess.


Why are you doing something this offensive to a community that u just became a part of??

Your provingmy point -your new to this. Only fans hasn’t been around long & is already known to be problematic by far. Content is only a aspect of SW & more removed newer aspect. Please be respectful-your behavior almost reads like your intentionally trying to rile your community

Flipping through your TL your online poles, interviews, etc are incredibly problematic. Maybe pay close attention to the backlash your getting from everyone

She’s not an escort -she’s an O F girl -she’s just promoting not accurate tires tropes that the general public like to push & she’s arguing, blocking & getting a offended that actual real escorts are telling her she’s wrong. It’s obvious

/images/16706208352051287.webp

I’m no statistician, but the holes in this methodology are truly incredible. Not to mention the use of BMI, which is a hugely stigmatising metric that fat people have asked people to stop using FOREVER.

This was my favorite comment. It implies that either

  1. BMI does not correctly measure obesity, in which case it wouldn't be stigmatizing toward fat people because it isn't correctly identifying them

  2. BMI stigmatizes fat people, which means it correctly identifies them, but having a high BMI somehow brings some additional stigma that merely being fat doesn't

What I don't understand is why they're so enraged by it.

If we live in a society that's fatphobic and unfairly discriminates against fat people, should we be surprised if fatter sex workers get paid less? Or is it that the Johns are unique in their tolerance and fat acceptance, standing above the rest of us in their empathy towards women? Or maybe fatphobia is a rare and marginal viewpoint, except for the occasional bad person like Aella?

Right -- and I'd expect Johns to be more extreme, since they are essentially paying for appearance only (vs a relationship, where you're going to have a whole bunch of other factors influencing your choices).

I think part of the rage is that the woke belief system can't hold up to any scrutiny, so it needs to be extremely aggressive to any questioning of it. That's why in addition to calling people racist and sexist for very small thing, you also get meta-attacks on trying to get to truth, e.g. being devil's advocate, "just asking questions", sea-lioning, or providing nuance/accuracy ("Well Akshuallly,").

What I find weird though is that the survey isn't contradictory of the belief system: the obvious response to it should be "Aella has uncovered evidence that society is still biased against fat women and we've got a lot of work left to do." If someone does a mediocre study showing that white people or men make more money than black people or women, you don't see a woke dogpile of people jumping on it saying that it's wrong because nonwhite women can make just as much money as white men.

Something about Aella's identity or presentation triggers an extreme immune response. Perhaps it's because her (very successful) schtick is "I'm a hot but borderline autistic nerdy sex worker who likes nerdy guys and nerdy things," and that's a relatively difficult market to get into with a disliked clientele and so they want to bring her down a peg. Or perhaps the kvetching about sample size is a (badly executed) attempt to peel off some of her customers.

I guess the pile on isn't even bad for her, as it improves her brand among her target market: she commits social faux pas and loss of reputation among her community because of her intellectual meanderings and thought experiments, which is very on-brand. But I don't get how this is even a social faux pas in the first place.

It’s mostly jealousy I think based on the source. Aella is thin and has made a ton of money, they view this as her relationally bullying her fat female peers. What I’ve observed online, women really, really hate other women that put women down in regards to their weight/appearance. It’s probably the worst thing you could do, it appears, especially if you yourself are higher status (pretty/thin). Most women sense this intuitively and behave accordingly, but Aella is… a special case. I think she lacks this sorts of social awareness.

What I’ve observed online, women really, really hate other women that put women down in regards to their weight/appearance.

Surely this is contingent on the environment. I think plenty of women diss other women for being fat and ugly (usually behind their back, but sometimes not). Just depends on what gains social cachet in their immediate circle.

I wouldn't scoff at that merely because of their occupation, escorts aren't street workers and may well be above average in intelligence

Yeah, it was sort of an attempt at humor. Looking at the data, it appears that more than half have a bachelor degree or higher. I don't know how much that that can be trusted, though, since it appears that of those who hold a PhD, half has obtained it before the age of 21. Quite impressive. Furthermore, 9 has obtained a graduate degree before age 23. I hope she has at least removed the most obvious lizardman answers.

these women affect being really anal about methodology

I'm grinning and wincing simultaneously. I suppose it's one of those shots you just have to take.

And how is Aella a newby? I thought she was an expert, writing guides for others on how to camwhore? Are camwhores looked down upon by sex workers, 'all show and no go'? Has she not slept with hundreds of men? At least there are no formal qualifications for sex work, that could only make the whole area even more toxic. I'm sure that innovation is coming, though.

They imply she is new to the “community”. That probably implies some forums and WhatsApp groups or leftist advocacy groups or whatever

If anything, the "newbie" accusation is probably grounds to dismiss the rest of their criticism; Aella's been in sex work since before Tumblr banned porn.

I was about to say "bitch that was like last year," but it really has been a long time, especially measured in hooker years.

I guess I should have added "(pre-Covid)" to that.