In 2016, Tim Stokely and his brother Thomas created the digital platform OnlyFans, so that content creators around the world could share and sell their original material. Admittedly, I had not heard of it until 2021, when OnlyFans became a mecca for legions of hussies making the digital pilgrimage in the hope of earning a few extra dollars.
In a calendar year, the porn industry amassed one hundred billion dollars. That figure is about to grow since your favourite cocktail waitress can rake in one hundred thousand dollars a month, by showing you her butthole for a subscription plus another fee.
Many are asking who or what is driving hordes of women to the website, where they post content of themselves engaged in all sorts of explicit sexual acts. Turns out there are three main driving factors. First, loneliness during the pandemic lockdown is to blame for the ubiquity of orifices you find on OnlyFans. Secondly, there are people who lost their income during the pandemic and had no other means to pay their bills. Which is understandable; desperate times call for naked videos. And then there’s greed, the main driving force. Sex sells, and the proof is in the bank accounts. Armed with nothing more than a smartphone camera, some of these women are making tens of thousands of dollars a month.
Surely there cannot be so many people eager to pay for customized images and videos of women, when there’s a ton of free porn on the internet? As of now, almost one hundred and fifty million people are paying “content creators” for everything from reasonably innocent photos of their breasts to things that’ll be the reason you never look at carrots the same way again, if stories are to be believed.
Opinions about OnlyFans and what it means for women empowerment vary. One group feels that because women willingly sign up and choose the content they upload to OnlyFans, they are empowering themselves. Failing to put enough distance between prostitution and being a content creator on the website, some purple-haired feminists feel success on OnlyFans is no achievement worth lauding over.
But, for as long as needs are met and people make money, I don’t see it ending anytime soon. Nor do I think it should end. It isn’t a crime and there definitely is no victim, except perhaps for the violated carrot. Performing lewd acts and making customizable content for voyeurs is degrading, but consider that this is one of those instances where the horse led itself to the water.
Arguing against the narrative that they’re merely prostitutes, OnlyFans members defend themselves by illustrating that the site does allow for sex workers to advertise their services. That much is true. And I think that contributors can repudiate criticism by distinguishing it from prostitution is another reason the website is immensely popular with scores of women; the driver of a getaway car seems less culpable than the men who storm a bank.
In August this year, OnlyFans released a statement stipulating that from October 2021, all sexual content would be banned. But why would a business butcher the goose laying the golden egg? Without pornography and explicit content on their platform, OnlyFans’ best option would be harikiri. Turns out, the reason for the prohibition was supposedly because banks and payment processors were not comfortable with all the adult content. Which I found to be somewhat amusing. Banks have no problem holding your hand, leading you into debt-drowning water, but they draw the moral line at a bit of nudity?
Six days later OnlyFans announced that banks had given assurance that adult content wouldn’t be penalized. After crunching the numbers and seeing how much money all will make, I think OnlyFans along with banks and payment processors agreed nudity isn’t such a bad thing after all.
Since it has been established that content sellers stand to make a lot of money – far more than they would serving drinks and living off tips – is it worth pursuing as a career? That depends entirely on if you care what people think about you. Or if you don’t mind that it’ll drive your nan into an early grave. Consider also that you’re likely to remain traditionally unemployed for as long as humanity uses the internet. The reputational stink will stay with you a lot longer than whatever venereal disease you may contract as an occupational hazard.
Office jobs are not for everyone, and if you earn your money in an honest fashion, what business is that of anyone else? Even if that job requires you to unleash your inner Mary Boleyn. For what it is worth, you haven’t hit the nadir of societal shame until you’re one of those women who only marry for money.
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