LET’S TALK ABOUT ONLYFANS
By Meera Narendra
With the global pandemic wreaking havoc worldwide, many governments have ordered non-essential services to close, forcing businesses to shut down and leaving many workers unemployed and facing dire financial constraints.
With unemployment levels soaring, and workers being abruptly furloughed, thousands of people worldwide have turned to OnlyFans to supplement their income.
Set up in 2016, OnlyFans is a paid-for-subscription platform whereby users share content only accessible to paying subscribers. Many users sell workout routines, cooking tutorials, and beauty content. However, OnlyFans has gained notoriety for its adult content.
Adult content varies from hardcore sex scenes to solo sex scenes, to users posting images/videos of themselves, all for those wishing to indulge themselves in voyeurism. It should be noted that it’s not just sex workers flocking to the platform, but rather those who see OnlyFans as a viable option to earn quick money during the pandemic.
When asking my followers about what their thoughts were on the platform, one user responded: “OnlyFans is for whores,” whilst another described it as “a platform for talentless bitches.” Ironically, the majority of the derogatory and objectifying vocabulary utilised by these users were male…the same gender also subscribing and paying these so-called “whores” and “talentless bitches.”
Despite it being 2020 and the new wave of feminism encouraging women to exercise complete ownership of their own bodies – OnlyFans re-emphasises the deep rooted misogyny and stigma surrounding sex work within society.
Men are also on OnlyFans creating adult content too, but of course once women take agency of their bodies and benefit financially by commodifying it, they are slut-shamed and verbally abused. People’s true attitudes towards sex work and bodily autonomy is revealed.
On Urban Dictionary, OnlyFans is defined as “a website where one can sell their nudes in an attempt to escape their retail job.” This gross misconception as to what OnlyFans is extremely classicist, and clearly illustrates the relationship between online sex work and its social media reception.
Since February 29, OnlyFans has reported receiving 1.85 million new registrations, to which, between March 7 and March 17, the platform recorded an increase of 75% of people signing up.
Alexis, who signed up to OnlyFans two months ago told me: “I’m just selling nude photos of myself or videos of me shaking my ass, which I’d normally send to trash men for free anyway…so might as well. I need the money.”
In this current generation, many women, including myself, have posted provocative images of themselves on social media, thus the jump to OnlyFans doesn’t seem rather big.
However, as the platform gained popularity it inevitably received criticism. Cara Conte, author for The Mancunion, conducted a corpus analysis of tweets discussing OnlyFans, and discovered that the words “thot”, “hoe” and “bitch” significantly appeared more in the tweets about OnlyFans in comparison to the general online discussion.
“OnlyFans is being passed off as a glamorous lifestyle of choice but it isn’t. Sex work is my only option”
To some, it is concerning that many believe OnlyFans is a quick fix during these worrying times, but as 29-year-old veteran sex worker, Kiran, explained: “This is genuinely my life. It pays my bills and allows me to look after my family.”
For those who believe OnlyFans is a get rich quick scheme…think again. After reaching out to many users, it is evident that it is extremely hard work – and takes a lot of emotional and psychological strength.
“OnlyFans is being passed off as a glamorous lifestyle of choice but it isn’t. Sex work is my only option,” Kiran added.
By glamourising OnlyFans, sex work itself becomes discredited, and the sheer amount of work it takes to maintain the career becomes dismissed. The creators on there are not just sex workers, but are also entrepreneurs, their own producers, own assistants, own digital analysts, photographers and more.
Albeit, if you want to create an OnlyFans, fucking do it. You don’t owe it to anyone to explain or rationalise why you have an account. So post your nudes, post your lingerie pics, post a video of you shaking your ass. WE LOVE TO SEE IT.
Rather than tear those women down, it is important that we support those who do.