Pay For Your Porn!
OnlyFans and the Shift Towards a More Ethical Pornscape
OnlyFans has taken the world by storm in recent months. The company reported 15 million new users a month as of December 2020 and is estimated to have paid out around $2 billion total to creators. A London-based ‘content subscription service’, “OnlyFans has changed how we think about porn and sex work, and what we consider to be porn” says sex educator and host of the Glow West podcast, Dr. Caroline West, “it has also changed working structures and pay structures. It means that money can go directly to the performer after the OnlyFans fee so it has changed how performers get paid. After free porn and piracy, this is a huge change.” This rise in popularity of paid porn raises important questions about creators and consumers of porn. However, almost all of the conversation around OnlyFans has been creator based. With the rise in popularity of OnlyFans, the question arises: why would consumers pay for porn when free sites like Pornhub exist?
“I think a valid criticism of porn is that it creates unrealistic expectations for what everyday sex should look like” Alysh (her first name) is someone who recently switched from consuming free porn to paying on OnlyFans. She thanks TikTok for the motivation behind her switch. “Not only did I learn more about the unethical, toxic and harmful practices of much of the mainstream porn industry, TikTok connected me to porn creators who were creating content that felt more in line with what I wanted to see in terms of aesthetic, power dynamics and consent.”
Pornhub (the largest online hub for adult content) has had a rough year. In December, they purged all unverified content from their site when it was found that they were hosting content that one could not describe as ‘legal’ or ‘ethical’. Many who are familiar with the industry we’re not surprised by these findings, as free porn sites often lack the regulation and oversight to keep illegal and unethical content from being uploaded. On top of this, free porn ‘tube sites’ like Pornhub don’t have any way of guaranteeing that their performers and creators are being fairly compensated in concerns to their content. “Tube sites are not ethical. They host a lot of pirated content, therefore taking money from sex workers,” says Dr. West
@dragcoeff (his OnlyFans username) is a 32-year-old from the United States. He subscribes to four people on OnlyFans, “two women, a trans man, and a trans woman.” He states that he likes OnlyFans for its more intimate connection with creators, “the enthusiasm that someone puts into recording themselves getting off and then sharing it is just as exciting to me as the recording itself” he also added that “famous porn stars are kind of scary looking” and that he looks for creators who “genuinely enjoy it. That’s what I’m personally interested in, and that’s why I use OnlyFans as much as I do.”
Dr. West believes this intimacy is a big draw for OnlyFans consumers, “performers are often pictured in more ‘normal’ settings such as bedrooms or homes, which makes the performer appear more accessible and less of an unattainable fantasy. Customers can also pay to chat to performers and ask for customized porn, which is also appealing as the customer can control the scenario, and it feels like it is exclusively for them, which is a turn-on for many.”
OnlyFans Creator Maizy (@cringyygirl on OnlyFans) agrees that OnlyFans content is better because of the intimacy between creator and consumer. “Many of my subscribers draw pride from buying directly from a creator, it creates a certain intimacy between the client and myself, which wouldn’t exist on a free porn site. You are more able to cater the experience to your desires, seek out specific kinks, request customs, which is an incentive as well. Subs who have supported multiple only fans accounts or are more well-versed tend to be more educated and prone to promoting ethical content versus those who may be exploring small creators for the first time.”
A non-binary OnlyFans content creator (who chose to be anonymous in this piece) said that their “‘regulars’ and most loyal customers are much more concerned with consuming porn ethically” than the general consumer. They believe OnlyFans is good in the sense that it “helps performers to make money for the hard work they do while also protecting minors from being uploaded.” However, they believe that for the industry to really change, it needs to be “much harder to get access to free porn. This is our livelihood and we need to get paid. No one goes to a restaurant and demands an entire plate of free samples, but they think this is okay to do to sex workers.” They also state that “in general, there is still a lot of homophobia, sexism, racism, fatphobia, slut-shaming, and entitlement on the consumer end of this industry. It still shows that they want to consume porn, but see the performers as objects for free orgasms, and not as the business-driven, intelligent people we are. They want to hate us for who we are, call us whores, but still masturbate to us (for free). Yet our jobs (which are REAL JOBS) wouldn’t exist without their need to consume us.”
Alysh is currently subscribed to “a couple” OnlyFans accounts “I think it’s really positive that there’s a platform for creators to connect directly with their audience and reap the profits of their labor directly. I also appreciate the range of content that can be created on OnlyFans depending on the creator’s niche and comfort level.” Once Alysh has a greater financial ability, however, she would like to subscribe to more sites that are women and queer-led. “Ethical porn consumption is important to me. If I’m wanting to have a pleasurable sexual experience, I want the actors and creators who I’m viewing to also be having a pleasurable experience where they have agency and power. I think porn is a valuable and important form of media when it comes to exploring sexuality and intimacy, and I think the conversation can often be reduced to a good or bad binary that isn’t reflective of the nuances that come with the industry.”
Written January 2021