NEW YORK — Mainstream fashion bible Elle Magazine published an article exploring the explosion of interest in the OnlyFans platform by both adult entertainers and “civilians” curious about sex work during the current pandemic situation.
Titled “OnlyFans, Influencers and The Politics Of Selling Nudes During a Pandemic,” the Elle article is penned by Claire Downs and interviews sex workers who have been active as clip artists and cam performers.
The article also goes into some depth in the emergence of controversial Instagram influencer — and urban millennial icon — Caroline Calloway as an OnlyFans content creator over the last month.
“It’s safe to say that OnlyFans has gone mainstream,” the Elle article begins. “Beyonce name-checked the adult content subscription platform in the ‘Savage Remix,’ rapping, ‘On that Demon Time, she might start an OnlyFans.’ Makeup artist James Charles joked that launching an account might cure his quarantine boredom. Last month, a tweet by a 22-year-old who bragged that she moved into her “dream house” thanks to OnlyFans earnings became an instant meme.”
Downs sees OnlyFans’s “quarantine blowup” as inevitable.
”We’re clawing at the walls, looking for new ways to earn money — and new ways to masturbate,” she wrote. “22 million Americans have lost their original revenue streams due to the virus, and any work-from-home situation is attractive due to its perceived stability and low-risk. This includes sex workers, strippers, go-go dancers, sugar babies and escorts who have had to move IRL operations digital — and who are ineligible for stimulus checks. On the flip side, those still with jobs have money to burn and nowhere to spend it. To top it off, there’s a reason terms like ‘quarniness,’ ‘horny on main,’ and ‘skin hunger,’ are trending topics — our carnal desires just aren’t being fulfilled.”
The article presents a pointed critique of “OnlyFans tourists,” or people formerly known for things other than sex work coming to the platform to compete with established adult performers.
Downs zeroes into “cringey Instagrammer” Caroline Calloway, who is criticized for the braggadocio with which she took her first steps into sex work as if she had been a pioneer or, worse, a Columbus-like “discoverer.”
“Online sex workers asked Calloway to shout out full-time sex workers who are struggling to make ends meet,” Downs explained. “They hoped she would acknowledge that her privilege and fame allowed her to experiment with OnlyFans in ways most workers don’t. Instead, Calloway sent an ignorant clapback, daring the internet to show her competitors. ‘Ok. Who else has a brand like mine and is charging $49.99? You can’t just claim I’m competing with no evidence. Show me my competition? For someone offering emotionally poignant, softcore cerebral porn I’m basically unchallenged.’ The sex worker community was enraged at Caroline’s outright condescension and ratio’d the living hell out of the tweet.”
Today, Calloway tweeted back at Elle protesting that “the argument that I am not ‘allowed’ to do sex work is crazy.”
“If I decided to open a bakery, would you tell me to stop being a ‘tourist’ in the baking industry?” Calloway continued. “Would you ask me to close up shop because I shouldn’t be competing with “actual bakers” who “need the income more?”
To read “OnlyFans, Influencers and The Politics Of Selling Nudes During a Pandemic,” click here.
