OnlyFans — Liberation or Long-term Entrapment?
A cautionary analysis
--
If you spend enough time on TikTok, you’ll soon know what can pay the rent. There are quite a few girls sharing what they sell on the internet — from nudes to used q-tips.
When you think about it, it’s easy money (if you’ve already built a fan base or have a list of potential buyers). Instead of going out there and working ten-hour shifts just to pay your bills, one can just ship a pair of socks or flip-flops while studying for a law degree or launching an online business.
Couldn’t be easier.
Besides the money aspect of it, some also find it quite empowering. Men took so much from women. It’s time to take it back — by charging hundreds for a booty pic or used shoes.
But is something like OnlyFans all butterflies and rainbows?
A moment on OnlyFans, forever on the Internet
It’s already common knowledge that whatever pictures you’ve posted when social media was just starting to become a thing and uploading fifty pictures from last night was the norm are still somewhere in the dark depths of the Internet.
But pictures from someone’s thirteen birthday are not exactly on the same level as someone's nudes, right?
As much as we wish it was otherwise, someone’s pictures of their naked body may compromise their career and become the hottest topic during an aunties’ brunch.
While not all pictures may accidentally resurface on the Internet after some years, there are agents that can help them see the light of the day faster.
Men love leaking stuff. Pictures that someone sent them voluntarily? Sure. Pictures they paid for? Hell yeah.
Even though it’s illegal to leak content from OnlyFans, there are numerous websites where people share what they’ve managed to gather.
It’s not as easy at it looks
OnlyFans is widely advertised by influencers and other people with big following on TikTok or Instagram. There are countless blog posts and YouTube videos on how to make it big there.
Essentially, it’s similar to any other platform where people share their work. There will be a few, or a few hundred people, who make it and then claim to have cracked the code to ultimate success. Truth is, nobody is that kind to just give the key that opens all doors to new creators. People who tell their stories on how they made it and share their tips, generate revenue from the hungry beginners who think that they’ll watch few videos and become an overnight sensation.
In reality, the market is saturated and there are reasons why big influencers earn thousands of dollars on OnlyFans. First of all, they already have a number of fans. Naturally, when one has a big fan base, there will be people willing to pay to see more. Secondly, their substantial following on TikTok or Instagram gives them a platform to market their OnlyFans account.
OnlyFans is a legit platform to pay not only your rent but also for your degree or a brand new car, but very few make it to that level. And social media big-shots chanting their 100% effective way to become popular on OnlyFans know it.
Where there is demand, there is supply
There’s a catch. The work may be voluntary, and a person can control how they work in OnlyFans, but they have almost no control in deciding what sells.
OnlyFans is, of course, is a lot more flexible than some other types of sex work but there will always be fans who are bored to see the usual stuff and will be asking for something more interesting. While workers are free to draw any boundary, there’s a possibility of being lured into something they are not completely comfortable with just because it pays better.
Market decides, if you let it.
Is it a way to empower women or to objectify them?
We are witnessing an interesting time in the history of feminism and women empowerment. More women than ever before can be whatever they want to be. Society is also breaking from the expectations that were once core of the woman’s identity: feminine, soft, submissive, beautiful. None of that is necessary to claim one’s spot in the world as a woman.
Women are also reclaiming authority over their body and sexuality. It’s their business what they post on social media and what clothes they wear in public.
But even after sharing seats with men in the top positions in society, women are still heavily objectified. They suffer everything from men sending inappropriate DM’s on social media to sexually assaulting them.
Is OnlyFans then helpul or harmful for women?
From one point of view, it’s the women holding rights to their body in their hands. Men are going to check them out and send offers to have sex anyway, why not charge money for that?
On the other hand, it’s just making coin out of male desire. Essentially, that’s what they want: woman’s body exposed for their pleasure.
Julie Bindle claimed that there’s nothing empowering about OnlyFans and she was met with a storm of comments from girls on Twitter. Some say, that it doesn’t have to be empowering as long as it pays the bills and others tell that it’s not Julie’s place to even talk about this, since she’s not in a business herself.
It’s a controversial topic and there’s probably no short answer whether women are breaking free from patriarchy selling their pictures and videos on OnlyFans or is it just a step backwards in women empowerment.
While everyone is free to have an opinion about whether OnlyFans goes along with values of feminism, one thing must be clear — women are free to do what they want with their bodies and no one can tell otherwise.
As one of the girls on Twitter mentioned, OnlyFans is work. Sex work is work. The sooner we realize it, the better. Not every job has to be meaningful or bring tremendous value to the society. Some of us work with a grand purpose and some just to pay bills. And that’s okay.
But it is still important to discuss what effect sex work has on people.
And just as important right now, for anyone working with OnlyFans, is to reflect if they are conscious about what consequences they may face, what safer options to pay the bills there are and whether they are at all prepared for the long-term effects this may have on their lives — before blindly gulping down influencer advice telling that it’s the easiest way to earn money, ever.
