Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

BBC suggests Only Fans is 'empowering'

119 replies

ArabellaScott · 23/11/2024 12:53

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygdzn4dw4o

What a very depressing article.

Female singer promoting Only Fans:

'it's bit of a punk protest as a woman to take control of my body and sell it' - Kate Nash

'Musicians could follow a lead from people who earn a living from selling sexual content on sites like OnlyFans, she suggested.
...
"Where can we learn from the sex workers? Maybe we can learn something from this industry. How do we get empowered as artists and take a bit more control?"'

That link goes to another article pushing Only Fans as a great way for women to make money. Also mentioned is Lily Allen, selling foot pics on Only Fans.

Absolutely no comment on any potential issues with this. No counter balance.

What is going on?

Kate Nash singing on stage against an orange backdrop

Kate Nash says OnlyFans photos will earn more than tour

The singer is selling photos of her bottom on the platform because "touring makes losses not profits".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygdzn4dw4o

OP posts:
Disturbia81 · 16/12/2024 12:24

NotAScoobyDoo2 · 15/12/2024 23:10

I've read a couple of interesting articles and books recently which suggest that hypersexuality is linked to adhd, childhood trauma and bipolar disorder (The Body Keeps the Score if anyone is interested). The way I'm starting to see OF and a lot of women who participate in risky behaviour are that they are vulnerable to begin.

Men who participate by having sex with these women aren't usually the nicest people - they come with their own issues and exploit their vulnerability - it adds another layer of trauma to an already complex person.

It seems to be that in OF there's a common theme of "my choice" and "I'm in control" but the truth is different because actually she might not be as in control as she thinks.

Yes and all prostitutes have had past trauma, sexual abuse etc. The men who use them are scum.
Someone I know said the best sex he ever had was with a woman who was really fucked up mentally. Didn't talk to him after that

OliviaRodrighost · 16/12/2024 13:04

@Disturbia81 Oh my God I would feel sick if someone said that. Absolutely disgusting. It’s unbelievable how many men care about their own sexual desires over acting like a decent human being. The focus on women’s pleasure or even consent in sex is basically zero especially when it comes to porn.

Disturbia81 · 16/12/2024 19:39

OliviaRodrighost · 16/12/2024 13:04

@Disturbia81 Oh my God I would feel sick if someone said that. Absolutely disgusting. It’s unbelievable how many men care about their own sexual desires over acting like a decent human being. The focus on women’s pleasure or even consent in sex is basically zero especially when it comes to porn.

It's awful isn't it!

Lalgarh · 17/12/2024 12:43

Lily Allen was claiming flogging her feet pics on Only Fans was empowering.

But maybe not so good for her mental health

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/lily-allen-mental-health-eating-b2665591.html

ConstructionTime · 26/12/2024 17:24

Another article on the topic, and it seems the author will publish her research in the near future, too:
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-dark-underbelly-of-the-sex-industry/

She also points out that the more famous people on these sites are a small percentage overall.

"Perhaps one of the biggest problems that advocates ignore is that the global demand for sex far outstrips the supply. Think about it: would the demand for sex ever really be met with the individual rise of willing “workers”?"

ArabellaScott · 26/12/2024 17:35

Lalgarh · 17/12/2024 12:43

Lily Allen was claiming flogging her feet pics on Only Fans was empowering.

But maybe not so good for her mental health

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/lily-allen-mental-health-eating-b2665591.html

That's a great shame. Living in the public eye seems an awful pressure, especially for women.

'Allen explained she will go looking for negative press about herself if she’s feeling low due to struggles with self-hatred.. “I will do it because it proves to me what a piece of s* I am,” she said.'

Sounds a bit like self harm. I have to wonder if the OF has a similar motivation.

OP posts:
ConstructionTime · 30/12/2024 16:15

An investigation by Reuters into the business OF and its background; with special focus on the legal (or rather illegal) aspects:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/onlyfans-sex-origins/

UtopiaPlanitia · 30/12/2024 19:22

That article made for grim reading @ConstructionTime thank you for posting it.

OF has done a good job of getting the female creators to defend its pimping them out by getting them to claim they’re doing what they do for ‘empowerment’, that ever so useful to capitalism, faux-feminist buzzword that we see and hear everywhere these days.

ConstructionTime · 30/12/2024 19:43

I liked especially the part on moderators, too, that they claim everything is moderated, but the sheer amount of material makes that very unlikely, and that they outsorce the moderating. Additionally, that the more likely it is someone will make them money, the more lax the controls on banned content.
I see some crossover with the other thread here on BBC with the link to violence.

Plus at the beginning of the article, the quote from OF to make this more "socially acceptable", which is how this connects to the opening post here.

It is good that the background and motivations are under scrutiny; but also it's quite depressing to see how many aspects are socially engineered with a long-term plan (same as the Denton's topic).
I hope that much more light is shed on this and people see how many "developments" in society are carefully steered from interest groups.

ScrollingLeaves · 30/12/2024 20:41

ConstructionTime · 30/12/2024 16:15

An investigation by Reuters into the business OF and its background; with special focus on the legal (or rather illegal) aspects:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/onlyfans-sex-origins/

Thank you, that investigation into OnlyFans is very informative, as well as being devastating to hear about.

The law needs to catch up by establishing new crimes; and there should be no pay wall for the police needing to investigate them.

Was there ever a such a contradictory, repellent euphemism as ‘Adult’ in the way it is used by high-tech pimp CEOS?

iwishihadaname · 30/12/2024 20:43

It is for the people who own it

ScrollingLeaves · 30/12/2024 20:44

ArabellaScott · 26/12/2024 17:35

That's a great shame. Living in the public eye seems an awful pressure, especially for women.

'Allen explained she will go looking for negative press about herself if she’s feeling low due to struggles with self-hatred.. “I will do it because it proves to me what a piece of s* I am,” she said.'

Sounds a bit like self harm. I have to wonder if the OF has a similar motivation.

I am sure it is a form if self-harm. It is a vicious circle: looking for validation but it coming in a demeaning way.

ConstructionTime · 30/12/2024 21:36

@ScrollingLeaves
The information uncovered should be more than enough to shut down the network. Compare this to how police deal with drug markets in the dark web. In that case, the enabling and soliciting is part of the criminal responsibility of those who set it up; or how businesses are shut down when they are a front to illegal dealings.
But here, not much happens.
I understand that a) soon enough, someone else would build a similar network and b) there are legal activities, too, and shutting them down would take away the income for other people, too.

Laws need to be adapted and those that exist already need to be properly applied. A lot of topics are covered already, such as the illegal exploitation; I don't think it matters for justice which medium someone used, the method is the same across mediums.

And cases like the husband who spend all the money on OF is a mix of addiction, comparably to gambling, and plain betrayal, and the violence against the family is criminal. Laws already exist to deal with that.
But it shows again how so many aspects are connected and the trope "it has nothing to do with you" is not true again.

About their female, empowering CEO, someone in the article comments:
"In a recent LinkedIn post, Elly Hanson, a clinical psychologist who focuses on preventing sexual abuse, questioned whether a male CEO would “be regularly invited into societal forums to wax lyrical about ‘empowerment,’ ‘authenticity’ and ‘feminism’ without robust challenge and debate? Of course not.”"

UtopiaPlanitia · 31/12/2024 01:21

OF's female CEO reminds me of Sheryl Sandberg, both of these women hired to be Judas goats leading other women into the sexist reputation-abattoir that is social media. They give the nefarious behaviour of their company a harmless face to associate with the brand.

Very telling that the new Ukrainian owner of OF has only 6 photos of himself findable on the internet while he makes his living off the backs of women who maximally ruin their own chances at privacy, for life, on his platform.

UtopiaPlanitia · 31/12/2024 01:40

Currently watching a video by Sydney Watson discussing OF models:

Watson discusses the toll that being on OF takes on young women, and also the harms for young men, as well as the fierce competition to go viral among lots of OF creators to ensure big earnings,

Lalgarh · 31/12/2024 10:04

ConstructionTime · 30/12/2024 16:15

An investigation by Reuters into the business OF and its background; with special focus on the legal (or rather illegal) aspects:
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/onlyfans-sex-origins/

Oh wow this list is huge and meticulously sourced. OF claims it doesn't monitor how much of its stuff is adult content. Cute. There's also numerous examples of drug rape and nonconsensual porn. So a link to the Pelicot case

Lalgarh · 31/12/2024 10:13

This is one of the linked articles. Snapchat is also a gateway to lead to OF and the business of Romeo Pimps

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/onlyfans-sex-children/

ArabellaScott · 31/12/2024 10:25

ConstructionTime · 30/12/2024 21:36

@ScrollingLeaves
The information uncovered should be more than enough to shut down the network. Compare this to how police deal with drug markets in the dark web. In that case, the enabling and soliciting is part of the criminal responsibility of those who set it up; or how businesses are shut down when they are a front to illegal dealings.
But here, not much happens.
I understand that a) soon enough, someone else would build a similar network and b) there are legal activities, too, and shutting them down would take away the income for other people, too.

Laws need to be adapted and those that exist already need to be properly applied. A lot of topics are covered already, such as the illegal exploitation; I don't think it matters for justice which medium someone used, the method is the same across mediums.

And cases like the husband who spend all the money on OF is a mix of addiction, comparably to gambling, and plain betrayal, and the violence against the family is criminal. Laws already exist to deal with that.
But it shows again how so many aspects are connected and the trope "it has nothing to do with you" is not true again.

About their female, empowering CEO, someone in the article comments:
"In a recent LinkedIn post, Elly Hanson, a clinical psychologist who focuses on preventing sexual abuse, questioned whether a male CEO would “be regularly invited into societal forums to wax lyrical about ‘empowerment,’ ‘authenticity’ and ‘feminism’ without robust challenge and debate? Of course not.”"

They took down Pornhub in the end.

OP posts:
ConstructionTime · 31/12/2024 15:44

@ArabellaScott maybe there's hope then. I think right from the beginning, lawmakers didn't really understand social networks and their impact, neither did they understand companies like Google. Now they've grown so big and are part of a network that connects the world, they need anti-trust laws and breaking up like they did with the oil companies in the 19th century.
Now there are laws like the Digital Markets / Digital Services Act for the EU, but they are very late.

OF claims the same thing like other platform economies: we're just the marketplace, what happens is nothing to do with us (or just plain out don't tell the truth that the creators tell) and yeah, everything is monitored (not, or by people who will surely develop PTSD).

A company that rakes in this much money needs to invest a much higher percentage in safeguarding.

@UtopiaPlanitia The Sheryl Sandberg -"lean in" mantra always was dependent on other circumstances which most people could easily see, but for her it took a change in her own life to finally understand. You'd think that a manager this high up would know that there are different sets of circumstances in families. It was also in some way selling a fiction to claim this works for everyone.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-sheryl-sandberg-parts-of-lean-in-are-wrong/
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/12/6/18128838/michelle-obama-lean-in-sheryl-sandberg

New posts on this thread. Refresh page