The OnlyFans Enigma

We enter the new decade with a renewed sense of purpose, a feverish enthusiasm to begin ‘living our best lives’. Whether this entails bagging a new job, travelling to new places or getting fitter, in our consumerist world its highly likely that it involves making and spending as much money as possible. 

Someone once told me (rightly or wrongly) that in order to be successful in life, you need to reflect on what services you can deliver well and sell them. For some people, their assets are their skills; they are ardent organisers, gifted artists or good with children. They possess a particularly logical brain or a natural talent for sport. One thing every single one of us have ownership over, though, is our own body.

I blithely consider myself a millennial snowflake, I really do, and I’d love for the underlying message of this post to be ‘do what you want, it’s your body’… But I just can’t shake my anxiety as I wait at the photocopier at work and overhear students (it’s an FE college so they’re 16-18) talking about posting nudes for money.

I think OnlyFans and similar platforms are the latest manifestations of a dangerous message: that human value is, above all else, youth, physicality and sexuality. In a social media obsessed generation, I find myself saddened by the poisonous effects of these sites on our self-esteems. The benchmark is becoming smoother, thinner, taller, curvier, more muscular, more tanned…

In this vein, OnlyFans represents yet another way for insecure young people to seek validation and an illusion of self-worth. I use the word ‘illusion’ because I saw one young woman offering a ‘January sale’ price of £2.50 a month… That’s not empowering, it is downright degrading. I know you want me to soften that statement to make this post more PC, but I just can’t. I find it frankly alarming that you could slap a price tag of £2.50 on pictures of your vagina.

Think about that. I just heard COLLEGE KIDS talking about doing this kind of thing. Perpetuating the ‘do what you want, it’s your body’ mindset is insidious. It is literally true – as I said, we should ALL have sole ownership over our own bodies – but do these kids really know what is best for them or how they’ll feel about this in later life? Some do, granted, but not all. Even worse than that, some know these things but do it anyway because they’re from working class families and they want more money for an iPhone 11 or a PLT order so that they’ll be admired by their peers.

Whether you care to acknowledge it or not, young female (and LGBT+) sexuality is still very much a paradox. We are obsessed with it, but it is held firmly by the hand of shame. This is what everyone knows in their hearts but doesn’t want to come out and say online – people would be horrified. Your hairdresser, your cousin’s girlfriend, your old school mates. Or worse, your parents. 

I’ll be brutally honest, there are times I think the positives and negatives of OnlyFans even out. I mean, people are out here making my annual salary in a month from selling nudes. I work ridiculously hard for a modest amount of money. I want a house, a new car, to travel the world.

Personally, the only factor which overrides the financial benefits is the social cost. I couldn’t have my grandad thinking of me like that. My friends. My colleagues. It wouldn’t matter if I told them ‘I can do what I want, it’s my body’. They’d lose their minds. Grandad would break down and cry. 

 

Of course, that’s worst-case scenario, but when you post intimate content on a public platform it does engender a risk of people in your ‘real life’ seeing it. It might be ‘OnlyFans’ on your subscribers list, but don’t tell me your psycho ex or your brother’s mates couldn’t make a fake account, obtain your nudes and show people or even use them to blackmail you. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, I piss people off now and again. OnlyFans gives rise to a blindspot that could have grave consequences.