Bella Thorne’s OnlyFans Fiasco - An Essay

The backlash following Bella Thorne’s creation of an OnlyFans account was more or less immediate. I along with other sex work activists immediately took to social media to express my outrage over this clumsy experiment in privilege. Due to the closure of in-person sex work establishments such as strip clubs, massage parlors, and brothels due to Covid-19, there has been a mass migration from IRL to URL. The camming industry, and by extension OnlyFans, saw an unprecedented influx of new users. It is one of the few safe means to earn income in adult entertainment while social distancing; it is available for people to do remotely; and the overhead costs are relatively low. Between helping run a stripper union; a podcast devoted to creating an archive of interviews with sex workers paired with stories of heauxs throughout history; and creating content for my personal sex work page, I have spoken to a lot of sex workers. Every day I repost Venmo requests for displaced trans sex workers facing homelessness; mothers camming to stay above the poverty line; and the links to profiles of sex workers whose accounts have been deleted, who have been forced to start their businesses from scratch. It is an incredibly difficult time for everyone, but particularly sex workers.

While many people received support from the Care Act, many sex workers learned they were ineligible due to a “prurient business” exclusion clause. In many states where strippers are misclassified as independent contractors, dancers realized they would not receive PUA support whether it be because strip clubs failed to declare them to evade taxes or because adult entertainers simply did not qualify. And this is only addressing those of us in the legal lane of adult entertainment. Many sex work activist groups began mutual aid fundraising in lieu of governmental support. We dove into working to build online platforms, and for many people that meant joining OnlyFans.

OnlyFans is synonymous with personalized, independent adult content. Many pornstars have migrated from big budget companies to working an OnlyFans account because the cut is more fair and they have greater control over their content. The success and popularity of OnlyFans has come because of the sex work industry. But now, it is in the process of gentrifying. Much like Patreon, which, if we look back to a few years ago, was once primarily known for nudes and “lewds”. OnlyFans is trying to distance itself from sex work to rebrand as a platform for personal interactions with artists, celebrities and influencers. Patreon went from banking on adult content to banking on podcasters, fitness instructors, and lecturers, and subsequently began censoring the adult content that facilitated the platform’s success in the first place. OnlyFans hopes to mimic this 180° pivot from adult entertainment center to family friendly fitspo app.

Why is OnlyFans doing this? Well, while we could speculate that it’s a morality issue; however, I would argue that it’s a result of the crippling effects of SESTA/FOSTA creating penalties for hosting adult content. Websites are facing an increasing number of crackdowns due to laws like SESTA/FOSTA and perhaps soon additionally the EARN It Act and LAED Act. These policies use dog whistle language claiming to fight sex trafficking and child sex abuse, but which are in reality concerned with eliminating sex work content from all online platforms and curbing our freedom of speech. Websites like OnlyFans and Patreon are gentrifying to avoid future fines and sanctioning. The effect this has on the legal adult industry is simply considered to be collateral damage.

Now let’s circle back to the issue of Bella Thorne’s OnlyFans. This is a platform tens of thousands of people, primarily women, depend upon for income. When celebrities create profiles on OnlyFans, it disrupts the algorithm for everyone. When she promised to provide nude photos and did not follow through, violating a contract, she spawned a ripple effect which led to transaction limitations; an extended wait period for users to cash out their earnings; and a harmfully generous refund policy in which many sex workers have found that subscribers are getting refunded money even after accessing their private content. To add insult to injury, she claimed this experiment might lead to her creating a movie about her experience performing sex work on OnlyFans. She made $2 million in her first week while real sex workers are struggling to make ends meet, and she believes that her glamorous experience is somehow indicative of what our lives are like. It is not, and the notion that this exploitative research might lead to anything fruitful is insulting. Thorne is just the latest to perpetuate this cycle of celebrities dressing up as sex workers without truly engaging with the sex work community.

The response to my post was overwhelming. Largely those interacting were sex workers who were grateful that I was articulating the anger they were feeling; however the other half of interactions came from cishet men who saw no problem with Thorne’s activities. It’s a conversation civvies dismiss as not particularly important more often than not. Why are we picking on Thorne when we’re upset about systemic issues? I thought I would take a moment to address some of the common gripes brought to my attention by disgruntled men who can’t seem to see the problem:

1. We’re being petty or jealous.

I wish I was jealous, because then I could simply work on myself. But clearly my self-confidence is not the reason I have a dog in this fight. This is an issue of examining microaggressions, which in the past people have also dismissed as pettiness. Pointing out microaggressions is like pointing out a symptom of a larger medical problem. We scratch an itch and then suddenly realize we’re covered in hives. The itch comes from the media using our occupations as muse and metaphor without consulting us. The hives is the rampant criminalization of sex work and exclusion of our voices from the public sphere. From SESTA FOSTA; laws making carrying too many condoms a punishable offense; to the EARN IT and the LAED Acts currently being debated, a step away from approval. People are literally dying. Sex workers live in a state of constant precariousness. I don’t think it’s petty or jealous to use any and every venue available to speak up about these issues, even if it means weighing in on Bella Thorne’s foray into OnlyFans.

2. We should focus on the real issues rather than being concerned with something vapid.

If the fight for our lives, safety, and security involves taking petty detours, I’ll do it. I will go vapid and use all of the tactics that manipulate the algorithm in my favor. It is incredibly difficult for most sex workers to gain a sizeable platform because we are constantly deleted for promoting our work and using social media as a business tool. One of the key tactics driving new followers to my account is baiting controversy. It’s not highbrow or civil, but it works unlike all of my more academic discourse. It is what it is, and it is helping my message find the ears of people who I would not otherwise have contact with. I care about decrim. I care about abolishing prisons and defunding the police. All of these issues are interconnected and I can care about them all and fight for them in tandem.

3. Isn’t the presence of Bella Thorne on OnlyFans how we end stigma?

Isn’t Katy Perry dressing up as a Party Galaxy geisha helping end anti Asian racism? Isn’t allowing the Kardashians to wear box braids helping normalize traditional black hair styles for black people? Not one bit. Ya know what other white celeb wore braids? Bo Derek. And still black hair is considered unprofessional. I have watched a white woman cut the dreads of a black teenager with a pair of kitchen scissors because a white referee would not allow him to compete with his natural hair. Appropriation doesn’t help destigmatization. The dominant classes have always been able to play pretend with the ways and manners of the marginalized peoples. Did blackface make white people more sympathetic to black life? No, it further exacerbated the caricature they took to be our reality. They could project onto the caricature they painted all of their vitriol and hate. Pretending to be a sex worker is not new and it has done nothing for the movement. What will help is engaging with those of us shaping the cultural current, talking to real sex workers, realizing when your presence endangers sex workers’ livelihood, promoting our visibility, paying us for our labor, and allowing us to write and portray ourselves. None of this involves dressing up and playing pretend.

4. That’s just capitalism.

Yes, capitalism is a large part of the problem, but if that was the only problem, we wouldn’t be concerned with criminalizing sex work. Adult entertainment is a billion dollar industry employing tens to hundreds of thousands of people. If we were truly abiding by the “invisible hand” of pure profit motivation, sex work would have its own respected niche. But clearly this policing comes from a subjective moral center that believes that prurient enterprises have no place in society. And now even the digital frontier where we could once exist with some degree of freedom is losing ground. And that is the crux of this issue: since we are being pushed further and further into the periphery, where can we be? How can we work? When does it end?

5. Sex work does not have a culture.

It does. If you talk to any sex worker, they can confirm it for you. It’s divided by region, race, class, gender and orientation. Different forms have insider terminology, workplace mores and varieties of uniform. Each industry has niche workplace problems. We have elaborate communities where we share safety and legal information. The strong sense of community stems from being a marginalized group. And to be petty and quote that abuser Chris Brown, “I don't see how you can hate from outside of the club. You can't even get in. Ha ha ha, Leggo.”

6. Sex work is intrinsically immoral.

Sex isn’t bad. Working isn’t bad. It’s acceptable to have multiple sexual partners over a lifetime, even to hookup every now and then. However, many people draw the line when you start getting paid for it. Of course, lots of people argue this in spiritual terms which is inherently beyond fact and reasoning. It is faith. But that’s really missing the point. Sex work is happening. It is the reality and has been the reality since the dawn of human civilization. People want sex and there are many of us willing to sell it for the right price. It is how we feed and clothe our families. It’s how we avoid homelessness. When consensual, it is a victimless crime. In fact, it should not be a crime. What happens between two consenting adults is not for the government to decide.

7. We shouldn’t be encouraging our children, specifically our daughters to engage in sex work.

Well nobody was talking about your kids to be honest, and I don’t know why people feel the need to rope them into this conversation. Advocating for the rights and protections of a marginalized group of people doesn’t mean we’re starting a career track program. Just because I say we need to house homeless people doesn’t mean I’m saying the kids should be homeless. Just because I say trans lives matter doesn't mean I’m advocating for everybody to be trans (although what a dope idea). I am simply saying that people who decide to be in the industry deserve to be treated humanely and not criminalized or stigmatized for their work. They should have access to online platforms and should not fear that their voices will be silenced. And sidebar, watch out for your sons too. Plenty of men perform sex work too.

And so dear reader, maybe you still don’t give a fuck. My life may not matter to you. You may still believe this is trivial quibbling, but to those of use with stakes in this game, it is not. We are fighting across all terrains, using guerrilla tactics to regain lost ground, because this is a war and our lives are on the line.