Stigma, Agency, and “Whorearchy”: a Post-feminism Neoliberal Discourse Analysis of Sex Work in the Era of OnlyFans

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting social isolation measures precipitated the rapid ascendance of OnlyFans, an online subscription platform for sex workers. OnlyFans revolutionized the sex work industry by elevating anonymity and safety, as well as granting sex workers autonomy over pricing and content creation. To explore the potential for destigmatization within the post-feminism neoliberal discourse that emphasizes individualism and autonomy, this thesis analyzes several primary sources. The sources include interviews with sex workers conducted by reputable news outlets such as GQ, The Morning News, and Medium, as well as memoirs from sex workers’ rights organizations like Mohojustice which scrutinizes the levels of agency and stigma experienced by sex workers in the OnlyFans era. This paper reveals that increased freedom, anonymity, and safety are double-edged: they enhance sex workers’ sense of control and reduce physical assault risks, fostering solidarity through building community. On the other hand, they may cause unauthorized leaks of exclusive content and personal information. The post-feminism neoliberal discourse, which champions free choice and personal responsibility while overlooking structural injustices, fosters a “whorearchy” that privileges private, non-contact sex work, and exacerbates marginalization for those unable to transition to online platforms like OnlyFans.

Keywords:
OnlyFans, sex work, post-feminism, neoliberalism, discourse, stigma, agency

I. Introduction

The demographics of sex work are undergoing a significant revolution with the rise of OnlyFans, an online subscription platform for sex workers to produce and distribute pornographic content. Established in 2016, it gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. The lockdown disproportionately impacted first-world women in low-wage jobs who lack job security compared to those in high-paying, white-collar jobs. Many of these women in retail and service sectors turned to OnlyFans for a livable income. Social distancing also created obstacles for in-person sex workers, such as strippers, escorts, and street workers. In fact, 71% of previous sex workers began doing more online work due to COVID-19, many likely using OnlyFans and other online platforms (Blunt et al., 2021). With the simultaneous increase of first-time and previous sex workers entering the digital realm, OnlyFans exceeded one million creators in 2020 (Jarvey, 2020).

OnlyFans revolutionizes sex work demographics by offering more “freedom” and less control to both content creators and consumers. Consumers can subscribe to a creator and chat with them directly, allowing control over received content. Furthermore, OnlyFans does not exert significant control over creators’ actions, except by requiring all sex workers to be consenting adults. Unlike traditional pornography, where most companies or agencies require a set and a pre-determined script, OnlyFans creators set their subscription prices and dictate their content. This autonomy and self-entrepreneurialism are valued in neoliberal discourse, a concept central to my analysis, which will be explained later.

To understand how the public perceptions of OnlyFans are formed, I draw on Foucaults’ view that everything about sex is “put into discourse” (Foucault, 1978). Discourse is a society’s system of knowledge constituting widely accepted ideas, such as the notion that public discussions of sexuality are inappropriate. Discourse is a product of higher social powers, such as political authority, and is woven into public policies. Contemporary society still imposes constraints on women’s sexuality due to neoliberal and postfeminist discourses, though many are unaware of the power of these discourses.

In post-feminism discourse, the feminine ideal—being young, slim, attractive, and sexually desirable to men—is achieved through self-surveillance, monitoring, and discipline, arising from individual choice and responsibility for “empowerment”. Post-feminism refers to ‘the simultaneous incorporation, revision, and depoliticization of many of the central goals of second- wave feminism’ (Stacey, 1987). It assumes feminism is outdated, as gender inequality and sexism are perceived as resolved. This notion paradoxically intertwines individualism, choice, and empowerment with restrictiveness.

Neoliberalism is a discourse primarily centered around the political and economic theory that shuns government intervention and values deinstitutionalization, free-market, privatization, and the withdrawal of any form of social safety net. It is different from post-feminism in its form but similar in its core. Built on the premise that all individuals are self-managing, autonomous, and enterprising, neoliberalism assumes that all individuals have free choice and should exercise them to ultimately be responsible for their conditions (Gill and Scharff, 2011). This results in overlooking structural inequalities, since megastructures of the society are deemed irrelevant. Thus, negative outcomes of gender and socioeconomic inequalities, like unwanted sex, are framed as personal failings, with the individual held fully responsible for her actions (Ringrose and Walkerdine, 2008). Ironically, although neoliberal discourse holds people accountable for engaging in unwanted sex, it is precisely the lack of a social security system that neoliberalism advocates that compels many women into sex work.

This paper explores the interconnections between these discourses because they are strongly related and intertwined. Both value individualism and autonomy while neglecting socio- economic context, and both discourses are strongly gendered, with women bearing the responsibility and unnecessary burden “to regulate every aspect of their conduct and to present all their actions as freely chosen” (Gill, 2008). These discourses remove the language that women need to attribute negative outcomes to systemic gender inequality and attribute these outcomes to a lack of self-surveillance and self-improvement.

This paper aims to provide a nuanced examination of online sex work platforms, considering both positive and negative aspects to foster a healthier, destigmatized environment for sex work. It draws on sex workers’ testimonies from interviews and blogs to dissect the stigma they face with the advent of digital platforms into three levels: interpersonal, institutionalized, and internal. As I would illustrate, the enhanced invisibility and anonymity of online sex work, particularly on OnlyFans, is a double-edged sword. While it reduces normative interpersonal stigma (e.g., from friends and family), it introduces new forms, such as doxxing (public revelation of private identity information) and capping (unauthorized distribution of exclusive content). Additionally, the constant need for discretion can lower self-esteem, increasing internal stigma. Furthermore, this study will examine the concept of agency, emphasized in post-feminism neoliberalism, within the context of OnlyFans. The study concludes that sex workers’ agency is enhanced by transforming past trauma into empowering, income-generating experiences, autonomously dictating their interactions with subscribers, and finding confidence through customer attraction without conforming to societal body ideals.

II. Literature Review

A. Sex Work to Feminists: From Dichotomy to Comprehensiveness

Prior to the establishment of OnlyFans in 2016, feminist scholars’ perceptions of the influence of sex work on sex workers were highly dichotomized. The oppression paradigm (Dworkin, 1982, 1997; MacKinnon, 1989), as suggested by sex-exclusionary radical feminists (SERFs), posits that any form of sex work is strongly correlated with substance use, violence, and depression, and hinders gender equality. SERFs equate sex work to sex trafficking, claiming it is mainly pursued by poor women seeking quick money. They believe the only solution to improve the conditions of these “survival sex workers” is to eliminate the sex work industry. In contrast, the sex-positive feminists’ empowerment paradigm (Ditmore & Thukral, 2012) views sex work as legitimate labor that should be free from stigma. It argues that sex work offers agency, and that sex workers are not necessarily coerced and should have the right to take pleasure in their work.

The opposing paradigms create a division of sex work being either a voluntary choice or a coercion of survival, rendering sex workers’ true voices of experiences unheard. This binary perception of sex work portrays a false, neoliberal, and dichotomous image of “disempowered low-end erotic laborers who are simply ‘surviving’, and empowered high-end erotic laborers who are seen as astute, capable businessfolk” (Suprihmbé, 2019). However, evidence shows that while many sex workers engage by choice and find empowerment, they still face sexual coercion and disrespect from customers due to stigma.

In response, Weitzer (2010) proposed the polymorphous paradigm, which includes exploitation, objectification, free will, empowerment, validation, and agency as parts of the sex work experience. After the advent of digital platforms, Jones (2016) applied this paradigm to webcamming, suggesting that the elevated safety of remote work reduces physical assault risks and enhances job satisfaction. Although the polymorphous paradigm adapts to online sex work, it remains incomplete, failing to account for new dangers like online harassment, capping, doxing, and job dismissal. Institutionalized stigma (e.g., policy targeting online sex work) and OnlyFan’s impact on traditional in-person sex workers are also neglected. This paper aims to bridge these research gaps.

B. Sex Work to Sex Workers: Stigma and Agency

As key concepts defined and redefined by scholars over decades, both stigma and agency are central to my examination of sex workers’ testimonies.

Stigma is defined as the “co-occurrence of labeling, stereotyping, separation, status loss, and discrimination in a context in which power is exercised” (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2013). Though primarily conceptualized as interpersonal, stigma operates on several socio-ecological levels: interpersonal, institutionalized, and internal. Interpersonal stigma involves social and psychological reactions to those perceived as having undesirable attributes, like excluding a friend after learning they are a sex worker or denying someone a job interview based on their involvement in sex work. Institutionalized stigma refers to institutional and ideological validation of stigmatization, such as government policies limiting job opportunities for sex workers. Internal stigma occurs when individuals internalize external stigma, leading to shame, low self-esteem, and fear of discrimination.

Agency is one’s independent capability to act on one’s will, implying free choice and the psychological ability to follow one’s desires. Agency is strongly related to feminism because it empowers sex workers to define their sexuality and attractiveness, taking power from institutions, capitalists, and men.

III. Methodology

This thesis draws on primary sources, including sex workers’ blogs and interviews. The paper examines four blogs collected by Mohojustice, “a growing coalition of sex workers, queer and trans folks, and allies” (MO Ho Justice, 2022), and interviews published by ABC News, GQ, and Medium. The blogs and interviews feature testimonies from a total of 12 sex workers.

This paper derives its results by fitting the sex workers’ narratives from the listed blogs and interviews into the framework of stigma versus agency. It summarizes the feelings expressed in those testimonies into keywords used as subheadings.

IV. Results

A. Interpersonal Stigma: Misunderstanding and Vulnerability

Before subscription-based online sex work platforms like OnlyFans, interpersonal stigma manifested through the misunderstanding and humiliation sex workers experienced in daily interactions. Consequently, sex workers often withdrew from social interactions, limiting their social circles to the sex worker community. Porn star Lorelei Lee wrote in her blog, “Sometimes when people asked me what I did and I told them, the conversation simply ended. Their faces changed and they couldn’t meet my eyes anymore,” she wrote. “I heard that all the time. ‘We’ve all got bills to pay,’ or, ‘You’ve got to make rent somehow,’ or, my favorite, ‘Well, we’re all whores in one way or another.’ That one made me angriest” (Lee, n.d.). People always assumed that she dabbled in sex work because she struggled to make ends meet and sex work was the “quick and easy” way to pay her bills, and they presumed sex work as inherently exploitative, unpleasant, and pitiful work to do, which is not the truth according to Lee. Misconceptions and stigma from non-sex workers devoured possibilities for genuine interaction, understanding, and empathy. Despite many sex workers being activists, their efforts to portray sex work as empowering are overshadowed by society’s deep-seated prejudices. For Lorelei Lee and others, the solution was to limit their social circles to the sex worker community, where they felt secure and understood. However, this withdrawal exacerbates their lack of representation and reinforces societal stereotypes, creating a vicious cycle.

Although online sex workers often keep their activities secret, exposure can lead to significant interpersonal stigma, and job dismissal is one of them. Kirsten Vaughn, a mechanic who engages in sex work part-time, said on the week of Valentine’s Day she was told to see her boss. “‘You’re a distraction… The guys have seen your page,’” her boss said, firing Vaughn while declaring “Kirsten Vaughn was terminated for ‘Violation of Policy/Procedure’” (Yang et al., 2021). Vaughn’s engagement in sex work did not affect her performance, yet she was blamed for being a “bewitching” female who distracted her male co-workers. In the male-dominated field of mechanics, Vaughn was expected to be an object of desire but was discouraged from expressing her sexuality boldly. This reflects a misogynistic attitude that both lures and fears female sexuality, blaming women for men’s inability to control their desires. If the stigma towards sex workers cannot cease, no matter how “safe” the platform seemingly is, the fear and shame will never dissipate.

Beyond the fear of exposure, OnlyFans sex workers frequently receive malicious or disrespectful comments since they often sext with customers and cater to personalized needs. Kirsten Vaughn mentioned that she received countless comments like “‘You’re just a stupid whore,’ ‘I bet your parents are proud,’ and ‘You’re so gross’” (Yang et al., 2021). These comments both show that female sex workers are disrespected and that male sexual fantasies can be violent. Sarvani, a 23-year-old tattoo artist and sex worker once posted an eye-catching tweet where she captioned a photo of herself posing proudly in the doorway of a two-story suburban house “Say whatcha want about OnlyFans but I just moved into my dream house at 22” (Sauers, 2021). As a result, Sarvani endured weeks of vile harassment and death threats, as though Sarvani’s financial success challenges the male fantasy of women always being in control.

What is more alarming is that when this disrespect evolves into a manipulative obsession, sex workers may face doxxing and stalking. Sarvani said her personal information was sought out by toxic fans because her Twitter account is under her real name. Evelyn Harlow, a Canadian sex worker who previously worked in retail, mentioned that one man “who think[s] that we’re in a relationship or in love” tried to find her in person, and admitted that “that’s a little bit scary” (Sauers, 2021).

The online world, where data can easily be recorded and stored, even opens the door for capping, and platforms can profit from this. In the context of online sex work, “consent” no longer means permission to subject one’s body to another’s intimate and sexual touch; it means permission to broadcast or circulate online content. In the face of the nonconsensual spread of content, Belle Grace said she turns to her subscribers to report these accounts when possible and inform her when doing so. She also mentioned that “There are businesses that you can pay to track down unapproved content, but websites and apps using our media for money (without permission) is still one of the top frustrations of OnlyFans models” (Conway, 2022).

Sex workers face these daily frustrations, while post-feminism neoliberalism normalizes and integrates as inherent to sex work. This discourse promotes a free market with no intervention, implying that if customers exploit creators’ content without paying, it’s acceptable, and regulations are unnecessary. According to the post-feminism neoliberalism discourse, people will automatically take advantage of the loopholes created by the internet, and all that sex workers should do is adapt themselves to this. If they get distressed by these frustrations, they should either get automatically eliminated from the industry or take full responsibility for their frustration. Here, post-feminism neoliberalism and misogynistic views converge: critics blame victims and normalize exploitation. This places an undue burden on sex workers who face societal disrespect and stigma.

However, OnlyFans’ influence on the interpersonal stigma confronted by sex workers is not purely negative. Stoya, a full-time business owner and a part-time content creator, offers her perspectives to look at the flip side of the coin. “I open up my inbox most mornings and it’s, like, a conversation with a fan about The Land of Laughs because he asked for a topless picture of me reading and that was the book I was reading at the time and he’s also read it,” she says. “It makes me wish we could do group threads on OnlyFans” (Sauers, 2021). She mentions that coming across genuine, heart-warming interactions with her subscribers not only made her find purpose in her work but also created a sense of belonging, all of which helped foster support and a sense of community for her as a sex worker.

B. Institutionalized Stigma: Exclusion and Uncertainty

In the era of in-person sex work, institutionalized stigma mostly takes the form of the exclusion of sex workers from the legally protected realm and the public health safety net. Many sex workers cannot get access to healthcare, body check-ups, and legal recourse because they are not considered legal workers in many countries.

Although internet-supported sex work allows sex workers to take another full-time job to secure a layer of public safety net, while simultaneously dabbing their feet in exotic labor, the U.S. Congress quickly reacted and made websites liable for sex trafficking and prostitution. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (2018), commonly known as FOSTA-SESTA, was passed in 2018. Although the primary intent of FOSTA-SESTA is to curb sex trafficking, the effects of FOSTA-SESTA on sex workers were far from protective. FOSTA- SESTA motivated platforms to greatly censor posts related to sex work. Popular online webcamming platforms including BongaCams, LiveJasmin, and Chaturbate tightened their restrictions and regulations, and other platforms such as Google and Craigslist began to remove or censor any commercialized sex content (Stegeman, 2021).

The censorship continues to pose obstacles to sex workers’ business and livelihood, including practices such as shadow banning. Shadow banning happens when a social media platform greatly limits the distribution of a user’s account based on their content. The reason why these platforms do not entirely delete sex workers’ accounts is that they still profit from selling sex workers’ data and offering paid promotion services for sex workers on their platforms. However, no online platform outwardly acknowledges shadow-banning sexual content.

Shadow banning is troublesome because social media serves as a vital channel for sex workers to attract customers to their OnlyFans pages. A 28-year-old OnlyFans sex worker Aella says, “Fan turnover is high, many people subscribe for a month, then drop off, so to be successful, a creator needs to consistently draw in new subscribers. A lot of sex workers do so through promoting themselves on Subreddit and Twitter” (Sauers, 2021). Because of the shadow banning, online sex workers invest significant unpaid labor in switching platforms, navigating the nuanced and varied Terms & Conditions for different social media platforms, and repeatedly rebuilding their subscriber base (Swords et al., 2023).

The backlash against sex workers’ rights highlights their financial insecurity and the unpredictability caused by societal disapproval. Recent policy changes can swiftly alter conditions, undermining their fanbase and leaving them vulnerable. Belle Grace, a U.K.-based OnlyFans model, fears further restrictive legislation that could marginalize sex workers, even on ostensibly inclusive platforms. The repeal of Roe v. Wade adds to these concerns, potentially restricting women’s access to contraception and affecting their participation in the sex industry (Conway, 2022). This uncertain future deeply unsettles sex workers.

Neoliberalism and post-feminism underpin shadow banning. FOSTA-SESTA operates on the premise that sex work platforms, rather than societal disrespect towards sex workers, cause sex trafficking. This post-feminist view overlooks the systematic stigma against female sexuality, treating it as if it no longer exists, and instead blames webcam platforms and sex workers’ choices for sex trafficking. In response to this policy, capitalists censor sex workers on social media while continuing to profit from them without acknowledging shadow banning. This neoliberal approach—emphasizing deinstitutionalization and non-intervention—intensifies the vulnerability of sex workers and exploits their surplus value. Shadow banning reveals the detrimental impact of the post-feminist neoliberal framework on sex workers, as it exacerbates their already precarious conditions by either ignoring policy intervention or implementing misguided policies based on post-feminist misconceptions of sex work.

C. Internal Stigma: Fear and Invisibility

Whether it is in the era of in-person sex work or online sex work, internal stigma has always been strongly correlated with the extent to which sex workers are concealing their careers from others. Escorts who hid their careers from others had less social support as a result, leading to lower job satisfaction than those who fully ‘came out’ as sex workers and were met with support (Koken, 2021).

The anonymity and flexibility of online sex work on platforms like OnlyFans appear to alleviate issues of stigma superficially. Sex workers who do sex work part-time can use pseudonyms and manage their workload independently. However, underlying shame and fear of identity disclosure persist. Evelyn Harlow, a 26-year-old OnlyFans model in Canada, keeps her sex work a secret to her family, except her sister, who’s her roommate. Gaining popularity through her posts scares her off sometimes: “I worry sometimes, where I’m making a post and part of me is like, ‘Oh, it would be so good for the business if this did really well,’” she says. “And then I’m like, ‘If this did really well, there’s a higher probability that someone I know will see it’” (Sauers, 2021). Every time they switch accounts to ensure their “work accounts” do not get exposed, and every time they meticulously make sure to shoot the footage required by clients in secret, this internal stigma intensifies.

D. Agency: Boundaries and Confidence

Agency, defined as the inner capability to make choices and exert control, is the only one in these four categories that experienced a resounding rise during the shift to online sex work. OnlyFans offer sex workers, to a decent extent, the right to say “no” to certain things that they feel forced to do and the autonomy to define the value of the time and effort they spend. Silvia Saige, a previous porn star and a current OnlyFans sex worker, said, “A big thing about studio work that you do is sometimes you just say, ‘I gotta grin and bear it.’ And you do a lotta things you don’t wanna do. OnlyFans allows me to be my own director, producer, booker, everything.” They make their own choice on how much they charge, what services to offer, and even sometimes set boundaries between clients and themselves. Saige explained that she sets guidelines for the fans. For example, if their clients send a picture of their penis, she asks that they also send a $20 tip. She does this because she wants an extra charge for “anything to make you feel like you’re spending more time with me than anybody else gets.” She goes on to add “My time is incredibly valuable, it’s nice for me to be able to put a price tag on that time” (Yang et al., 2021).

OnlyFans enables primarily women, often transitioning from low-paying jobs, to generate income, which inherently empowers them according to interview accounts. Aella, who was forced to leave college due to her inability to cover tuition, worked at a factory to assemble electrical components for $10 an hour, lived with five roommates in a cramped apartment where she slept on a mattress on the floor, and did not even have enough money for food. OnlyFans gave her the ability to support her own life—she now earns about $60,000 a month on OnlyFans (Sauers, 2021). Furthermore, the fact that OnlyFans takes away a relatively small portion of the profit is a big improvement over previous forms of sex work. “OnlyFans’ 20 percent cut offers much more advantageous financial terms to its creators than any cam site. The cut was surprisingly modest, especially given that adult websites pay higher fees to payment processors than other businesses,” Silvia Saige explains (Yang et al., 2021).

OnlyFans also empowers individuals who do not conform to modern beauty standards of being white and thin, offering them a sense of agency to be confident about their bodies. Wynter Mosely, an OnlyFans model since 2020, said people always criticize her body shape as fat in OnlyFans comments. For example, people say “‘Why can’t that Wynter chick just go be fat somewhere else,’ ‘She’s built like a damn appliance.’” However, OnlyFans gives her the courage to say “I don’t care.” “I’m fat but like I said, I make money so people love it,” she said (Yang et al., 2021). She cannot control how some perceive her body, yet the money she has earned on OnlyFans demonstrates how others admire her appearance. It highlights that beauty is not confined to a singular ideal, which gives her the confidence to not dwell on detractors’ opinions of her attractiveness. OnlyFans is also a big equalizer for black females in the sex industry.

Sinnamon Love, a 46-year-old veteran of the sex industry from Brooklyn and former porn actor, noted that companies producing pornography often allocate less effort and budget to projects involving black female actors due to a perceived mismatch with mainstream aesthetic standards that results in lower profitability. “The lighting is shitty, or the makeup is bad or whatever” she recalled (Sauers, 2021). However, as a black female herself, she is able to gain a steady fanbase and earn about $61,000 a year on OnlyFans, a fact reassuring and empowering enough.

Sex workers on OnlyFans describe their experiences as agentic, as it allows them to explore and embrace their sexuality without shame. Tattoo artist and sex worker Sarvani recalled that she suffered from eating disorders throughout her adolescence, college, and acting school in her 20s. In retrospect, she sees the shame she felt about her body as connected to the sexual shame that she had absorbed growing up in a “devout Catholic family where purity was emphasized and no one spoke openly about sex.” She mentioned that her engagement in online sex work is the journey of learning to enjoy herself sexually, which ultimately cured her illness. “I just got really hooked on the theory that if you’re ashamed of something, you should do the opposite of hiding it,” she said (Sauers, 2021). This way to find agency is not unique to online sex work, however—blogs of in-person sex workers also yield this result. From the blog archive of mohojustice, Suprihmbé, a full-time stripper and street worker, described: “As a bisexual woman who had been exploring her sexuality throughout childhood, I was eager to dabble in promiscuity and discover erotic pleasure, and my entrance into the idea of erotic labor was part of that.” She also added: “I didn’t feel exploited, and I wasn’t” (Suprihmbé, 2019). Suprihmbé views her experience as an escort as a pivotal, consensual step she chose to explore her sexuality and connect with her authentic self. The consensual sex work that readily became her passion should be celebrated, not stigmatized.

V. Discussion

A. “Whorearchy” and the Marginalization of In-Person Sex Workers

In terms of limitations, this paper analyzes four blogs from in-person sex workers and interviews with eight OnlyFans sex workers, but testimonies from in-person sex workers who continued after the advent of OnlyFans are missing. Despite the lack of direct testimonies, it can be inferred from existing research and reasoning that while the rise of online sex work has created new earning opportunities for traditional in-person sex workers, it has also deepened the stigma of those unable to transition successfully to online platforms. Post-feminism neoliberalism discourse plays a significant role in shaping this dynamic.

The advent of webcamming platforms like OnlyFans has reshaped the “whorearchy,” the hierarchical structure that differentiates levels of stigmatization among various forms of sex work (McClintock, 1991). At the pinnacle of the “whorearchy” are webcamming sex workers, who avoid direct contact with clients and often invest significantly in their appearance to maintain a feminine image. This type of sex work, deemed most acceptable by the media, aligns with affective states endorsed under neoliberalism, such as authentic engagement with the work, positivity, and resilience towards self-management. Conversely, prostitution occupies the lowest tier of the “whorearchy” due to its inherently in-person nature, explicit sexual focus, and the heightened physical risks associated with close client interactions. The media narratives perpetuated by the post-feminism neoliberal discourse frequently attribute violence against sex workers to their ‘risky lifestyle,’ reinforcing the notion that they are accountable for their own safety. The discourse suggests that sex workers should make ‘better’ (often equated with ‘safer’) choices about where and how they work.

However, urging in-person sex workers to make the ‘right’ choice in the digital age overlooks the fact that they have already made decisions based on their specific circumstances, considering various practical factors. The model that is deemed ideal is mainly accessible to sex workers who are already closer to social acceptance. These ‘false choices’ are dismissed as invalid and are portrayed as disempowering, dangerous, or problematic. Consequently, offline sex workers in the OnlyFans era face increased stigmatization, partly justified as punishment for not exhibiting ‘responsible self-management’ (Ringrose and Walkerdine, 2008: p. 229).

B. Double Standards and the Exploitation in Disguise

In many instances, the reasons people cite for discriminating against sex work are equally present in other normalized industries. For example, many believe that sex workers should not be respected because they “sell their bodies.” However, all workers exchange their labor for compensation, and working-class individuals are often coerced into choosing between accepting undervalued wages or facing economic hardship. Many industries commodify sexuality, and issues like desirability politics, racism, gendered violence, and ableism harm workers across various sectors. However, when these issues occur in the commercial sex industry, the solutions typically proposed display a distinct contempt for sex workers. Another common argument against sex work is that it lacks “dignity.” Yet, many jobs in the formal economy are inaccessible or openly hostile to caregivers; individuals with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or neurodivergence; undocumented individuals; people who use drugs; formerly incarcerated persons; gender and sexual minorities; those who are unhoused; and individuals without access to or interest in formal higher education.

Feminist debates about consent in sex work often centered around consent, and it falls into a dichotomy that sex workers are either consensually engaged or coerced. However, consent in sex work, like any job, is complex. This complexity is not a flaw of sex work but a broader issue under capitalism. Translators consent to long, stressful, last-minute hours due to the urgency of contracts; researchers consent to tackle less interesting or pertinent questions, still applying their skill set. However, when sex workers consensually engage in sexual activities they do not necessarily enjoy, it is viewed as more problematic. As a result, sex workers often feel compelled to defend their work by claiming they genuinely enjoy every sex act they perform, thereby asserting that no coercion or manipulation has occurred. However, this defense misses the point. Even if there are times when sex workers are less turned on by what they are doing, they should not have to love every second of every part of their job to assert that they consent to be there.

When placing sex work within the context of capitalism, we must also be cautious of overemphasizing agency, as no-intervention neoliberalism can lead to a gig economy that masks underlying inequalities and exploitation as freedom. Although sex workers in the interviews mentioned that OnlyFans makes it easier to earn money compared to other platforms, these workers are among the highly successful. In reality, half of OnlyFans’ over one million creators earn no more than $100 a month, with $750 placing a creator in the top 10% (Citrus, 2021). Due to the stigma against sex work, many individuals at the bottom of the OnlyFans income pyramid enter the precarious world of sex work for minimal financial reward and significant societal consequences. In contrast, celebrities like Bella Thorne and Iggy Azalea are among the most successful content creators on OnlyFans. Moreover, before digital sex work, large companies and agencies controlled sex workers and often required regular healthcare checkups. However, in the self-regulated era of digital sex work, healthcare and regular checkups may not be accessible to most sex workers, potentially harming their well-being.

C. Navigating a Feminist Sex Work Environment

After thoroughly interrogating the multifaceted and nuanced impacts of OnlyFans on the sex work industry, the most crucial aspect is to guide feminist actions, making them aware of previously overlooked gaps and inspiring efforts to fundamentally challenge the stigma towards sex work.

First, feminists should establish sex workers’ communities or rights organizations, ideally holding offline events. The mutual understanding fostered through community-building allows sex workers to release the external disrespect and internal invisibility they often navigate. Furthermore, drawing from Karl Marx, physical proximity can awaken consciousness among sex workers and empower them to collectively demand greater rights, countering power differentials between employers and employees (Marx, 1848). Further research could investigate whether offline communities differ significantly from more pervasive online communities in fostering resonance and resistance. Nonetheless, the effort to establish offline communities remains meaningful.

Secondly, given the intersectionality of feminist activism with movements for racial and other minority groups, efforts should be made to change discovery algorithms on online sex work platforms to ensure equitable representation, particularly for black and brown performers. Platforms should also prioritize creator safety by banning racial and identity slurs because by doing so, the platform generates more while simultaneously empowering creators of color.

Lastly, continuous advocacy is essential to secure the recognition of sex workers as legitimate workers in various regions, along with their rights to access healthcare and other vital social resources. This recognition is crucial for their acceptance into the public realm, allowing more sex workers to articulate their experiences of coercion, exploitation, solidarity, love, and strength in their own terms. Moreover, since women’s reproductive rights and legislation on birth control are closely intertwined with the legal rights of sex workers, advancements in women’s legal rights significantly impact the legal standing of sex workers.

VI. Conclusion

The rise of OnlyFans cannot be simply categorized as either empowering or stigmatizing for sex workers. As OnlyFans offers anonymity and relative invisibility, many sex workers treat it as supplementary income while maintaining full-time employment, which provides a layer of healthcare, legal safety, and a social circle with non-sex workers; However, hiding their identity from close individuals often results in fear and anxiety. The online nature of OnlyFans fosters harassment, privacy breaches, content distribution without consent, and shadow banning; yet it transcends geographical limits, allowing sex workers who do not conform to mainstream beauty standards to find appreciative clients, and the community aspect enables deep connections with clients and provides mechanisms to report and refuse disrespectful customers.

The dynamics of OnlyFans are largely shaped by the post-feminism neoliberalism discourse. This discourse creates a “whorearchy,” favoring socially acceptable forms of sex work and marginalizing those who have not transitioned from offline to online work. This hierarchy perpetuates stigma by marginalizing sex workers for not adhering to traditional female expectations and attributing their disadvantaged status to personal choices. Arising from the free market system championed by neoliberalism, institutionalized stigma, reinforced by mechanisms like shadow banning, exploits sex workers while profiting from them, exacerbating the unequal power dynamic.

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