OnlyFans Is Turning Its Back on the Sex Workers Who Made It a Success
This is the life cycle of every dirty little secret
Just when I was seriously contemplating starting an OnlyFans, news dropped that made me immediately change my mind.
I’ve been wanting to create hardcore content for a very long time, but three things kept me from posting them.
First, there’s the fact that I’m very self-conscious about my body. I’m getting more and more comfortable with it, but it still limits what I’m comfortable doing in front of the camera.
Then there’s the technical side of shooting porn.
I’ve actually been filming and editing solo content for months. It’s been a lot of fun, but the finished product is never quite as good as I want it to be.
Finding camera-friendly positions is difficult. Setting up shots and angles is incredibly tricky. And I haven’t learned how to stop looking at my phone while filming to make sure everything looks right.
And the motherfucking lighting! Even with two box lights and some photography workshops under my belt, I can never get the shot quality where I want it to be.
Finally, there’s the problem of finding the right place to host that kind of content.
I’ve been uploading nudes and audio porn to my Patreon. That’s been incredibly fun and validating. But Patreon explicitly prohibits visual depictions of sex or masturbation so that’s a no go.
Pornhub’s another obvious candidate, but it would mean being out in the open. I’m only comfortable putting my porn behind some kind of paywall.
So, I’ve been looking into OnlyFans. And it seemed like the perfect option.
Like Patreon, it requires paid access. That means I could upload my porn for anyone who wants to pay to watch me suck off my husband or get fucked by a thrusting dildo without letting people peep for free.
It also doesn’t have to be a subscription service. I could start a free OnlyFans and offer my videos as PPV content that my readers or podcast listeners could pay for individually. That means I could upload scenes whenever I felt like it instead of sticking to a regular release schedule.
And I love OnlyFans as a user. I’ve been enjoying it ever since I got heart eyes for Savannah Solo and haven’t stopped since.
It’s got a good interface. It’s easy to subscribe and unsubscribe. It lets me see some of the cutest girls get quirky and dirty.
I was almost ready to join the other side - to be one of the girls who does all the fun naked stuff.
Then the news dropped.
OnlyFans Is Going Clean
OnlyFans frames itself as a platform for influencers, but that’s not the first thing anyone thinks about when it comes up.
Fitness influencers use it, sure. Celebrities use it too. It’s open to any public figure who wants to create stronger parasocial relationships with their followers.
But it’s the porn that really drew people in.
The porn is what sets OnlyFans apart from platforms like Patreon. You can flash your tits on Patreon, but you can’t masturbate. You can’t take a cumshot, even if it’s somewhere classy like on your stomach. And you most certainly cannot post your anal vids.
But you can on OnlyFans, and that’s why it’s been such a success. People were drawn by the promise of seeing the cute girls from social media get naked. And the promise of seeing the naked girls on social media ride dildos and get off with vibrators is what got the rest of us through the door.
Porn performers made OnlyFans into the phenomenon it is. Without porn, most of us would have never heard of it. And a hell of a lot fewer of us would’ve bothered paying for a subscription.
Performers have been so good at using and promoting their OnlyFans accounts that it even replaced Pornhub as everyone’s shorthand for porn in general.
But sex workers have been suspicious of OnlyFans from the jump.
Lots of people have been shaking their tits, dropping their dicks, and showing off their dirtiest moves on the platform and raking in lots of subscribers. But OnlyFans has done its best to avoid acknowledging some of its most successful creators.
They’ve been profiting from porn while distancing themselves from it. Insisting that they were still a place for clothed influencers to do clothed things.
And when a platform refuses to wholeheartedly embrace sex workers, it’s only a matter of time before it turns on them.
It happened when Tumblr banned porn.
It happened when Instagram tightened its content restrictions.
It’s something I’ve been dealing with on Medium. My articles stopped being distributed a few months ago, along with any sex content that isn’t clean. Soon after, they updated the site’s rules to bar writers from linking to porn or “otherwise promoting pornographic images of videos,” which is worryingly vague.
And OnlyFans has already done something similar. Earlier this year, they stopped allowing adult content shot outdoors, along with a few other restrictions that were as vague as Medium’s - like a ban on “hardcore bondage” or “extreme fisting,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.
Now, we’ve got confirmation that this was just the first step.
Business Insider reported that OnlyFans is planning to raise new funding. According to an anonymous source, part of that strategy involves “mov[ing] away from its reputation for adult content.”
There are no clear details yet. But it’s already a direction OnlyFans had been leaning toward. They already spend all their time whistling innocently with their hands in their pockets, pretending they’re making most of their money from athletes instead of smut. The only way they can distance themselves even more is by tightening restrictions on the people creating adult content.
That could mean a few different things. They might no longer allow hardcore partnered videos. They might match Patreon’s guidelines and allow nudity but nothing involving any kind of genital contact.
Or they might just go ahead and ban anyone who wants to show some ass cheek, bare their tits, or heaven forbid, show full hole.
If they plan to aggressively court investors, they’re likely to do whatever it takes to keep those investors from getting cold feet. Even if that means fucking over the people who have made their platform a household name.
The Life Cycle of a Dirty Secret
Sex is the dirty little secret on so many mainstream platforms. And sadly, no one ever seems to feel any loyalty to their dirty little secrets.
There’s a life cycle to being someone’s dirty little secret.
They’ll have sex with you. They’ll take as much as you’re willing to give them. They’ll benefit from you.
But you don’t become the girlfriend. And you sure as hell never become the wife..
Nah. You have a bit of fun and then you get dumped as soon as people start talking.
At least porn performers are resourceful. They’re spunky and creative. They’re used to getting dropped, dusting themselves off, and finding a new way to keep going.
OnlyFans might discard sex workers but I know those sex workers will find ways to keep promoting and selling their content.
My hope is that the next popular porn platform is one that actually deserves the reputation. A platform that protects its performers, allows them to express themselves creatively, and gives them a way to earn a living from their hard work.
At the very least, I hope it’s a platform that embraces the people who make it successful.
As for me, I’ve already made up my mind. I’m not waiting for more news to drop. I’m tired of dealing with sex-negative platforms, sites that have terms of service updates that would make a SWERF giddy, and online spaces that put too many restrictions on their dirty girls.
When I’m ready to release my porn, it’s probably going to be on JustForFans or PocketStars. Because there are lots of places where I can be dirty, but at least there I wouldn’t be treated like an embarrassing secret.
If you’re bummed out about OnlyFans but still want to get access to great porn, I highly recommend checking out Adult Time! It’s my favorite porn site and I have a feeling it will be yours too! That’s an affiliate link, by the way. If you click on it and treat yourself to a membership, I earn a small commission and you’ll be supporting my work. Use the code LOVEEMMA when you sign up to get a free week!
And I might not have posted any hardcore vids anywhere yet, but I have shared a couple of shots of my bare tits on Patreon. If you become one of my Friends With Benefits, you not only get to see my boobs but you also get access to all the bonus episodes of my podcast and some audio porn scenes I’ve recorded (complete with real masturbation and orgasms)! See you there!
