Juxtaposing Audacity and Stupidity

Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you? ~ Fanny Brice

The term cam-whoring has been coined as early as 2001 but I only learned of its existence last week, by accident. I was perplexed for a while but after putting two and two together, I figured cam-whoring means doing something sexually explicit in front of the camera for others to view and I wasn’t far from wrong. A quick google the next day confirmed this. And to my surprise, cam-whoring can actually carry different meanings:

1. The act of exposing oneself on the Net in exchange for goods.
2. The act of posting pictures or videos of oneself on the Internet to gain attention.
3. The act of taking pictures of oneself and/or with one’s friends excessively.

Well, I guess the meaning of cam-whoring has evolved over time. I can relate to meaning No. 1. I mean, it goes well with the meaning of whore, although a whore does not necessarily do it for goods. Which, in a way, correlates with meaning No. 2. There are milions of people out there who post pictures or videos of themselves on the Net via Facebook and what not, and these people do not do these to get attention. Some just want to share events with friends, or just plain lazy to email pics to their friends. Understandable. Pictures are memories kept alive, after all. But what kind of pictures do gain attention? Let’s not talk about those porn websites, okay. Or those narcissistic people who think posting pics and vids of them pouting their lips, putting on overly obsessive amounts of make-up and tight, revealing clothing are cool and savvy. These are clearly done to gain attention. Some people, however, out of self-fancy audacity, (I prefer to call it stupidity, though) post raunchy pictures or videos of themselves, with the narcissistic intention of getting attention of specific people, and live to regret it. So, rule of thumb is, unless it is your profession, and the society you live in simply couldn't be bothered with such pics and vids, don't do it. I can’t really agree with meaning No. 3, though. How can the act of taking pictures excessively be considered cam-whoring? Can’t it just simply be called taking pictures? I grimace a little bit when some people on the Net simply use this term to refer to the act of taking pictures. That would make every Tom, Dick and Harry or even Jane who takes pictures a cam whore. Come on, the word ‘whore’ itself should not be taken lightly or used blatantly. It is already derogatory and insulting to women, what more to humanity.
As a linguist (by training), I am fully aware that language evolves, that language is not static, but ‘whore’? This term still carries self-deprecating value, whichever way you look at it.