On International Womenโs Day, there are countless causes for celebration and conditions to lament. But really, whether youโre looking to honor womenโs accomplishments or address the wrongs that have yet to be made right, thereโs only so much your thoughts, prayers, and Twitter posts can do. So, some men who want to make their commitment to the day known choose to make a material impact: by giving money to random women on the Internet.
Among the women who receive money from strangers and the strangers who send it, International Womenโs Day (IWD) represents an opportunity. For the women, itโs an obvious chance to bank on their womanhood. What good is the day if you arenโt being paid a bit extra for it? For the men, it might be an innocent means of showing appreciationโor, in many cases, a good excuse to flex their desire to be financially dominated. (Names in this story have been changed to protect their privacy.)
Adam, 28, in Chicago, uses IWD to seek out women who might be amenable to receiving his cash. He indulges in this practice year-round, but IWD makes a bigger dent in his checking account. โAnytime women post that theyโre accepting money, for whatever reason, gives me a chance to send,โ he says. On IWD, he often sees women tweet about their desire to receive money in a semi-joking way. โCelebrate by sending me a real life woman all of your money,โ one recent tweet says, for example. Adam approaches these women asking for their CashApp information, then sends $10 or so to โgauge interest.โ If theyโre responsive, he often sends $150 to $200. He budgets around $1,000 for the day.
โAnytime women post that theyโre accepting money, for whatever reason, gives me a chance to send.โ โAdam
Chris, 52, in NYC, tries to set a budget of around $300. He expects to send to 2-5 women, ranging from $30 to $150 each. Like Adam, he chooses who to send to based on their tweets. โI like the ones who tailor their persona to lightly degrade men and talk about how itโs only the natural order of things for men to spoil women, especially on IWD,โ he says. โItโs almost as an act of reparations for the oppression of women.โ
While he hopes to stick to his limit, he hasnโt been quite so disciplined on previous International Womenโs Days. โI once gave my credit card info to a woman for IWD, and she maxed it out,โ he says. โI think the credit limit on that card was around $5,000. I recall seeing bags, shoes, and lingerie charged to the card. She also bought menโs shoes for her boyfriend, which was crazy, but later I knew it made sense for someone like me to fund a hot womanโs boyfriend too.โ
Naturally, with men looking to be financially dominated, plenty of sex workers and financial dominatrixes make IWD a serious part of their calendar. Victoria Silver, a professional findomme and editor in NYC, expects a $100 tribute from each of her submissives for the day. โIt gives another reason outside of the regular findom relationship for the tribute, tying in โfemale superiorityโ as a fetish,โ she says. โA lot of finsubs believe theyโre inferior to their female dominant, and this is an added reason to celebrate.โ
Some men with no sexualized interest in giving women money choose to do so on IWD, too, employing a similar mentality. As Ben, 35, in Los Angeles, explains, he has sent women he actually knows money on IWD because: โOne, the wage gap/oppression of women. Two, itโs fun to give gifts and make people happy. And three, itโs less intense to do it on a specific day rather than for no particular reason.โ
โIWD presents a unique opportunity to give to other women who may be outside the findom community.โ โBrian
But even among those finsubs, some believe it is their obligation to give women money on IWD, whether itโs sexualized or not. โI like the idea that there is a specific day dedicated to women and everything theyโve accomplished, and if I can support them in any way, then itโs the least I can do,โ says Brian, 24, from the southeastern US, who regularly gives women money as part of an interest in financial domination. โIWD presents a unique opportunity to give to other women who may be outside the findom community, since there are more women asking for money, even in a joking way.โ
And with that, many womenโboth financial dominatrixes and notโmake use of the one day a year dedicated to the causes of their gender. While a specific Google illustration or a note on the calendar about the holiday might be nice, nothing impacts womenโs day-to-day lives quite like an injection of cash.
โI guess in this material world, money is the answer for us all,โ says Mistress Isha, a dominatrix in France. Like Victoria, she expects at least $100 each from her submissives for IWD. โI really do think women getting paid for nothing in return, just their identity, is a small but effective way to fill the social gap between the genders.โ
Whether itโs from a friend who wants to better support women or a random guy online who might be eroticizing the whole dynamic, plenty of cash is being digitally exchanged on International Womenโs Day. On Twitter, in particular, the path to being on the receiving end as a woman seems as simple as making your interest known. Go ahead and buy yourself flowersโsomeone on the Internet will probably want to pay for them.
Follow Magdalene Taylor on Twitter.