Is this really news? Only Fans

[Youngatheart00]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57491149

On the BBC top read section. Should we really be encouraging this level of vacuousness and as a viable employment route - selling your body online for bored Middle Aged men? Appalled if I’m honest that the BBC seem to be promoting this.

It is a porn site in thin disguise. Don't try to normalise it.

The sooner the government introduce the so-called 'porn passport' the better. Porn is not a victimless activity.

@gwenneh

Cardi B, Jordyn Woods and Tyga are all on the platform and use it to show behind the scenes images of photo shoots or backstage footage, which is the route Demi Rose wants to go down.

So...where is she selling her body for bored middle-aged men?

In Dubai, and on a variety of exotically located yachts... allegedly.

OF has provided many sex workers with control and autonomy over their work. There's layers to this. It's much more nuanced than 'All Sex Work Is Bad'.

@newnortherner111 if a woman is willingly doing OF and a man is paying to see what she’s providing, then who is the victim?

When she looks back in twenty years with shame that she sold intimate images for £3.99 a month

“Empowering” my arse.

@Youngatheart00 It’s worth considering that she might not look back with regret. She might look back and think “fuck I was hot”

Even so though, £4 a month for access to someone’s fanjo. grim.

@MolyHolyGuacamole

I did know why a consenting woman choosing to make money off of her own body bothers people that much. It's 'my body, my choice' but only if it's done according to you?

This.

It bothers me because it creates a sexualized and reductive environment for my kids to have to go and work in.

It doesn't take place in a vacuum it leaks into the rest of society. It reduces young women to sexual body parts.

Would all the people who are saying it's fine be advising their daughter to do it?

@Youngatheart00 I’m sure there’s stuff you’ve done that people wouldn’t think was acceptable

@kateclarke
Would I advise my daughter to do it? No.
If she was an adult and did it anyway, you’d have to respect her decision.
It also depends on what she was doing.
I sell pictures of my feet. No face and nothing else which I think is entirely different from being fully visible personally.

I'm so surprised by the responses here.
Op yanbu. There are children on that site selling their images to bored middle aged men. BBC normalising the use of the site, on news beat, aimed at teens and young people, is pretty shit in my opinion.

Even so though, £4 a month for access to someone’s fanjo. grim.

Even if it were £4 at however many subscribers a pop that adds up. A lot of the time the subs are a lot more than that.

Women really can be their own worst enemies at times. I have a good friend who does OF. I work in a more 'professional' environment. One of us drives a Range. It's not me. If it weren't for the industry I work in and regulatory body, my baps would currently be somewhere on the web.

@RedLemon

It bothers people because it promotes the objectification and commodification of women’s bodies. It magnifies the impression in society that women are primarily for men to look at and act upon rather than, in fact, being thinking and feeling human beings who deserve respect and to be valued in their own right. “My body, my choice” doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it exists as a “choice” in a quite deeply misogynistic society.

Quite. If it's such a brilliant career choice, why aren't more men doing it?

The BBC aren't promoting Only Fans are they though. Mentioning a platform that actually exists isn't promotion - god you lot are dim.

@Demelza82

The BBC aren't promoting Only Fans are they though. Mentioning a platform that actually exists isn't promotion - god you lot are dim.

😂 Nice. I think the article is pretty positive though. And ends with a quote of 'it makes me feel empowered'.

@Ihopeyourcakeisshit

' Better than an MLM' I think I'd probably try selling cosmetics before I'd get me baps out while playing my clarinet.

Whatever floats your boat, but clearly there are women who are happy to earn money this way. Get some cash to pay off debts, rather then get into debt (as commonly happens in an MLM scheme)

@ScreamingMeMe has hit the nail on the head.

I don’t see an equal split of men and women on only fans accounts desperately showing off their bodies for a few quid…

This thread is depressing.

There’s so many judgemental people on this thread it’s ridiculous.

If they are earning a living and can pay their bills, then it is ok as an employment choice. Reliable and long-lasting? Maybe not. But better than an MLM

I f'ing despair.
Those are the only two options? Let's aim higher.

I hate the objectification of women, and the seeming default to using their body not their brains to make a living.
Grr

In the 90's I was a really liberal feminist.
I'm sure I would have seen OF as enabling women to make money in a way that suited them that was low risk.

20 years child protection and post sex abuse work with children has made me much less liberal.

I pay a lot more attention to the social constructs these things exist in rather than seeing them as stand alone actions.

I'm more aware of impact on society as whole rather than just two individuals in a transaction.

I'm much more cynical about who really benefits, where the serious money goes and who ends up paying the price in society.

The fact it’s being written about in such pseudo-neutral terms on the BBC is testament to the complete normalisation of several (connected) things -

1. pornography
2. the belief that women are consumables
3. the belief that prostituting oneself or one’s image is empowering
4. the belief that a woman’s true power lies in how much (and how many) men desire to have sex with her

I am against the normalization of all of these things because I think they are bad for women. For the women in the sex industry as well as for all women.

Those posters who think it’s all fine and good and liberal and great, have you ever lived somewhere with a legalised sex trade? Have you been hassled every time you leave the house by men? Hey, if it’s legal, they’re just asking for use of a service, right? If any woman can be a sex worker, all women are potential sex workers. Would you be happy with unemployment benefits being withheld from women who did not want to work in brothels?

Well said @lakesummer