Porn or Perish? The Social Impact of OnlyFans

The UK has been financially ravaged by Covid19. As we are faced with a swelling pustule of debt on the ugly face of an oncoming recession, it’s clear from recent research that young people are going to suffer greatly from this economic downturn. Youth unemployment in Britain is on course to more than triple to the highest levels since the early 1980s, according to a report warning that a “Covid generation” could be lost to long periods out of work.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected millions of people physically, emotionally, and financially. Redundancies have risen to 227,000 - the highest level since the 2009 major economic downturn – while research has shown that the “Covid generation” is going to suffer disproportionately from the incoming recession.

With so many people being out of work in March/April when the pandemic was in its infancy, the message became clear: Sink or swim. Adapt or die.

Porn or perish?

OnlyFans is a London based social media service available online and on mobile devices. Since its launch in 2011, the site has grown enormously popular both with content creators and with paying customers. Users pay to subscribe to exclusive content from different creators. Creators can also receive money from patrons through tips provided by the customer when they are particularly satisfied with the service, or through pay per view content (PPV).

OnlyFans has seen a 75% month on month increase in signups since March, with an average of 200,000 users signing up every day. The most successful creators have been recorded as earning upwards of $100,000 in a year whilst gaining incredible numbers of subscribers on the site since the pandemic began.

With censorship becoming a rampant issue in today’s political landscape, OnlyFans is the sex-positive antidote to the neutral net that many are striving for. Censorship breeds creativity, just as strict parenting breeds sneaky children. The recent passing of limiting legislature by the Conservative majority, claiming that porn is a ‘source of harm’, is our collective parent’s scolding and grounding us because we have abused the freedom we have been given.

OnlyFans is overtaking traditional porn sites due to its element of interactivity. Gone is the voyeuristic experience of passively watching someone online. The site offers people a chance to pay for personalised porn content. Writer and OnlyFans content creator Kevin Symes describes this proximity to the porn-makers as one of the site’s key strengths: “(Creators) are opening up a different side of themselves to people who want to invest their time and money into them”.

The opportunities to earn vast amounts of money through sites such as Only Fans are abundant. A recent example of the potential financial benefit to gain from this site comes from Kaylen Ward; a twenty-year-old model and California resident. She went viral on Twitter this year after she prompted her fans to donate ten dollars to the Australian bush fire relief cause in exchange for a personalised nude photo. She included a list of approved charities, such as the Australian Red Cross or WWF, and raised over $1million by January 6th; just three days after the original posting.

Porn or Person?

OnlyFans and platforms like it allow for more constructive and balanced forms of intimacy between the entertainer and the viewer. In addition, this formula for sex work improves the larger societal effects of watching pornography. The intimacy and communication on OnlyFans personify the person on screen. Viewers are now unable to ignore the humanity of the people they are being stimulated by. In the era of #MeToo, it is important to remember that, although it is not entirely responsible, violent pornography could influence people to enact violence in real life, particularly being violent towards women.

In 2010, a study entitled Aggression and Sexual Behaviour in Best-Selling Pornography Videos: A Content Analysis, examined fifty of the most popular pornography films at the time. Of the 304 scenes the movies contained, 88% contained physical violence and 49% contained verbal aggression. On average, only one scene in 10 did not contain any aggression, and the typical scene averaged 12 physical or verbal attacks. Sam Carr, a lecturer in Education and Psychology at the University of Bath, explained in an article written for The Conversation how the objectification in pornography can be damaging in real life: “In short, empathy and sexual objectification are incompatible,” wrote Carr. “Under a sexually objectifying gaze, women’s bodies momentarily become the ‘property’ of the observer—whether they have consented or not”.

That is the beauty of OnlyFans. The people engaging in sex work through OnlyFans are taken from one-dimensional images of a screen to be found on free porn sites to be anthropomorphized through a more intimate exchange. The monetary exchange instils mutual respect between paying customers as their relationship becomes an official transaction. As well as this, people using OnlyFans are also less likely to stumble upon images of violence against women by happenstance as they would on a traditional porn site; reducing their engagement with the supposedly “normalised” elements of sexual violence towards women.

It’s no wonder why people are flocking to become OnlyFans creators. The potential for financial gain is a tantalising prospect for many, offering an opportunity to supplement your main income or a potential financial lifeline for many. It's clear that online sex work is evolving and becoming more mainstream, bordering on a career move for many to casually consider. As Covid-19 continues to permeate deeper into our lives, our culture is shifting around this new postlapsarian pandemic. Now becoming a self-employed porn actor is slowly being normalised, we are left asking: what change is coming next?