I wish I could say I’m shocked, but I’m just disappointed in OnlyFans. A good friend forwarded this to me this morning:
Well that sucks. OnlyFans doesn’t stand for inclusion, it stands for making money — tons and tons of money. A ban on pornography was going to be put in place because payment partners who handle things like credit card transactions in Europe were going to stop accepting payments from customers in line with certain new obscenity laws. The possibility of missing out on a big chunk of the $1 billion OnlyFans (based in the UK) made in 2020 is one of the reasons the company figured out a way around the no-porn rule.
I wrote all about the ruling when it came down less than a week ago. If you’d like to read the most popular article on this site right now, you can check it out HERE. It’s ironic since it’s now completely a moot point.
I’m not going to shame those who have pages. I’m not even going to judge them. If it’s between keeping a roof over your head and feeding your child or being homeless and losing them to foster care, and the only way you’re keeping things together is by showing the goods on OnlyFans, that’s probably the right choice. However, how many of the now 2 million creators fall into this category?
I felt like their stance last week was a good step. They were not going to ban artistic nudity, the kind you find in a modern photography exhibit. Depictions of sexual activity were going to be curtailed. There’s a difference between art and porn. A subtle photo of a woman or man shot in soft light standing by a lake nude is art. One of a person with some plastic or rubber object shoved inside one of their orifices is not.
OnlyFans made its choice, what do we do?
I’ve said it before, OnlyFans is a great platform for business. It’s Etsy meets Facebook in an easy-to-understand interface. Artists and musicians could do so well with it, but the company stinks of sex. I bet they could have evolved to make more money outside of porn, but I guess if you’re raking in a billion, why mess with a formula that could take years to redevelop to get to the same spot? Just figure a way around the bank rules. This could have been the biggest thing to happen to cryptocurrency in history if one of the most popular websites in the world started taking only Bitcoin as payment for porn of people you know.
The answer is education. It always has been, it always will be. We need people to know of the dangers of pornography before they start looking. The way that every person over 10 knows that picking up the first cigarette is dangerous, we need people to know that about pornography. We need people aware of the fact that between 18 and 25 percent of the population shows signs of pornography addiction.
I guess this is just a blip in time. Something good almost happened. But it didn’t. Onward.
You nailed it in your second sentence. Money. It overrules everything. Especially everything that’s addictive…
Like I always say, as a business model, it’s brilliant. As a model of humanity, there’s a lot left to be desired.
On a positive note, since neither the supply and the demand are both still going strong, at least OnlyFans offers greater control and safety for creators than most other forms of sex work. I agree with you about education. Putting obstacles in between supply and demand seems unlikely to do much other than perhaps create additional risks for those providing the supply. Real change will require decreasing demand, and education seems like the best way to do that.
Exactly. I know a lot of people were introduced to sex work through OnlyFans, but would they have stopped if OnlyFans stopped? I’m guessing some would, but many wouldn’t, and for all their issues, they have a decent security system. It’s hard to know what’s right in these complex situations.