United Kingdom-based variety streamer Poopernoodle, or Lou, wasn’t exactly sure whether or not being a human adult with a Twitch channel qualified her as an “online adult entertainer” until she described herself as such on a bank application and was swiftly denied.
“A few months ago, I applied to a very popular bank that allows you to use your card overseas,” she said during a recent stream. “It asked me what my occupation was, and nothing really fit the bill apart from [...] ‘adult online entertainer,’ and I ticked that.”
She starts laughing at the memory. “I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s what I am. I’m an adult, and I entertain people online, and then it immediately rejected me.”
She tells me over Twitter DM that she didn’t realize “adult entertainer” was a euphemism for “sex worker” until talking about the situation with her mom, who pointed it out to her.
“I was mad, because if they meant sex worker, then why didn’t they just write ‘sex worker!’” she said. “I’m not a sex worker myself, but it opened my eyes to how it sucks for sex workers to get a bank account.”
It also reinforced how, after a decade of online influencers breaching mainstream culture through brand deals and Disney Channel, the bureaucratic powers that be still don’t really know what the hell “influencing” is.
“It’s pretty awkward explaining the job to people,” Lou said. “[The bank application] gave me a drop down list of job options to choose from, and they were all very like socially accepted jobs, like ‘dentist assistant’. There was no option for ‘streamer,’ or ‘broadcaster,’ or anything like that.”
Other members of the unconventional job field related to Lou’s confusion.
“I tried to explain to people that I streamed in the past in a way which sounded almost identical [to calling myself an ‘adult entertainer’],” said one Twitter user. “It was always really awkward when their response/tone made it clear they misunderstood.”
When in doubt, go for “self-employed,” or even better, “an accountant.”