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Online Sex Work of Women on OnlyFans: Oppression or Empowerment?

Year 2024, Volume: 25 Issue: 1, 39 - 56, 07.10.2024

Abstract

(Online) Sex work is a hot topic in feminist literature which is mainly studied with respect to two perspectives towards sex work: oppression and empowerment. This study aims to understand “How online sex work of women on OnlyFans can be interpreted and try to understand if OnlyFans can be explained through the perspectives of victimization and empowerment. For this purpose, this paper will provide a theoretical discussion about two main debates (oppression and empowerment) in the literature; be analyzed by taking OnlyFans as a case. Study results show that women's online sex work experience cannot be explained purely by oppression or empowerment paradigms, instead coexistence of oppression or empowerment should be taken into account. Secondly, emphasizing only the oppression or empowerment paradigm underestimates women’s differences that directly affect women’s online sex work experiences. Thus, intersectional analyses that are taken into women’s age, race, and gender considerations are necessary in order to understand women’s OnlyFans experiences. Last but not least, women’s experiences of online sex work can change according to the motivation behind being a sex worker in OnlyFans.

References

  • Atkinson, T. C. (2022). Sex-e-Work: An Exploration on the Rise of OnlyFans as a Space for Sexually Explicit Content (Doctoral dissertation, Carleton University).
  • Augustine (2007) Agustín, L. M. (2008). Sex at the margins: Migration, labour markets and the rescue industry. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Barry, K. (1984). Female sexual slavery. NyU Press.
  • Barry, K. (1996). The prostitution of sexuality. NyU Press.
  • Boseley, M. (2020) ‘Everyone and their mum is on it’: OnlyFans booms in popularity during the pandemic. The Guardian, December 22. https://www.theguardian.com/
  • Cardoso, D., & Scarcelli, C. M. (2021). The bodies of the (digitized) body: Experiences of sexual (ised) work on OnlyFans.
  • Carmen, A., & Moody, H. (1985). Working women: The subterranean world of street prostitution. Harper & Row.
  • Cunningham, S., Sanders, T., Scoular, J., Campbell, R., Pitcher, J., Hill, K., ... & Hamer, R. (2018). Behind the screen: Commercial sex, digital spaces and working online. Technology in society, 53, 47-54.
  • Day, S. (2021). What counts as rape?: physical assault and broken contracts: contrasting views of rape among London sex workers. In Sex and violence (pp. 172-189). Routledge.
  • Döring, N., Bhana, D., & Albury, K. (2022). Digital sexual identities: Between empowerment and disempowerment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 101466. Vol 48, 1-7.
  • Eckert, S., & Metzger‐Riftkin, J. (2020). Doxxing. The international encyclopedia of gender, media, and communication, 1-5.
  • Evans, J. (2021). Link in bio: Exploring the emotional and relational labour of Black women rappers in sexual dance economies on OnlyFans. Global Hip Hop Studies, 2(2), 179-198.
  • Fabiyi, M. E. (2022). A Look at Sex Work and OnlyFans Through Self-Definition and Hegelian Dialectic.
  • Farley, M. (2004). “Bad for the body, bad for the heart”: Prostitution harms women even if legalized or decriminalized. Violence against women, 10(10), 1087-1125.
  • Farley, M., & Kelly, V. (2000). Prostitution: A critical review of the medical and social sciences literature. Women & Criminal Justice, 11(4), 29-64.
  • Flanagan, F. (2017). Symposium on work in the ‘gig’economy: Introduction. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), 378-381.
  • Ford, A. “I’d be Mortified if Someone Thought I was Putting my Bum Online for Some Fucking Gucci Sandals”: Liminality, Ownership and Identity–A Case-study of Sex Work on OnlyFans. (2022) DEARCADH, 27.
  • Gerassi, L. (2015). From exploitation to industry: Definitions, risks, and consequences of domestic sexual exploitation and sex work among women and girls. Journal of human behavior in the social environment, 25(6), 591-605.
  • Hamilton, V., Soneji, A., McDonald, A., & Redmiles, E. (2022). " Nudes? Shouldn't I charge for these?": Exploring What Motivates Content Creation on OnlyFans. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.10425.
  • Harcourt, C., & Donovan, B. (2005). The many faces of sex work. Sexually transmitted infections, 81(3), 201-206.
  • Hochschild, A. R. (2019). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California press.
  • Hoskin, R. A. (2019). Femmephobia: The role of anti-femininity and gender policing in LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of discrimination. Sex Roles, 81(11-12), 686-703.
  • Hunt, S. (2022). The Craft Club: Surveillance and Risk Within the OnlyFans Community. Critical Reflections: A Student Journal on Contemporary Sociological Issues.
  • Jones, A. (2015). For black models scroll down: Webcam modeling and the racialization of erotic labor. Sexuality & Culture, 19, 776-799.
  • Jones, A. (2015). Sex work in a digital era. Sociology Compass, 9(7), 558-570.
  • Karandikar, S., & Prospero, M. (2010). From client to pimp: male violence against female sex workers. Journal of interpersonal violence, 25(2), 257-273.
  • Kissil, K., & Davey, M. (2010). The prostitution debate in feminism: Current trends, policy and clinical issues facing an invisible population. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 22(1), 1-21.
  • Lippmann, M., Lawlor, N., & Leistner, C. E. (2023). Learning on OnlyFans: User Perspectives on Knowledge and Skills Acquired on the Platform. Sexuality & Culture, 1-21.
  • Litam, S. D. A., Speciale, M., & Balkin, R. S. (2022). Sexual attitudes and characteristics of OnlyFans users. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51(6), 3093-3103.
  • López, C. (2020, June 17). A wave of people turned to OnlyFans to earn money when they lost their jobs due to the pandemic.Insider. https://www.insider.com/people-are-creating-only-fans-accounts-after-losing-jobs-during-pandemic-2020-6
  • McKay, T., Lindquist, C. H., & Misra, S. (2019). Understanding (and acting on) 20 years of research on violence and LGBTQ+ communities. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 20(5), 665-678.
  • McLeod, E. (2022). Women working: Prostitution now. Taylor & Francis.
  • Monroe, J. (2005). Women in street prostitution: The result of poverty and the brunt of inequity. Journal of poverty, 9(3), 69-88.
  • Moorman, J. D., & Harrison, K. (2016). Gender, race, and risk: Intersectional risk management in the sale of sex online. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(7), 816-824.
  • Pateman, C. (2016). Sexual contract. The wiley blackwell encyclopedia of gender and sexuality studies, 1-3.
  • Prior, J., Hubbard, P., & Birch, P. (2013). Sex worker victimization, modes of working, and location in New South Wales, Australia: a geography of victimization. Journal of Sex Research, 50(6), 574-586.
  • Rodriguez, T. (2022). Taboo to Trendy: How Is Onlyfans Breaking Boundaries and Creating Narratives (Doctoral dissertation, Southeastern Louisiana University).
  • Safaee, A. (2021). Sex, Love, and OnlyFans: How the Gig Economy Is Transforming Online Sex Work (Doctoral dissertation, San Diego State University).
  • Sanchez, S. (2022). The World's Oldest Profession Gets a Makeover: Sex Work, OnlyFans, and Celebrity Participation. Women Leading Change: Case Studies on Women, Gender, and Feminism, 6 (1), 4-17.
  • Sanders, T. (2016). Inevitably violent? Dynamics of space, governance, and stigma in understanding violence against sex workers. In Special issue: Problematizing prostitution: critical research and scholarship (Vol. 71, pp. 93-114). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
  • Tran, D., Sullivan, C. T., & Nicholas, L. (2023). Lateral violence and microaggressions in the LGBTQ+ community: a scoping review. Journal of homosexuality, 70(7), 1310-1324.
  • Uttarapong, J., Bonifacio, R., Jereza, R., & Wohn, D. Y. (2022, April). Social support in digital patronage: Onlyfans adult content creators as an online community. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (pp. 1-7).
  • Van der Nagel, E. (2021). Competing platform imaginaries of NSFW content creation on OnlyFans. Porn Studies, 8(4), 394-410.
  • Weitzer, R. (2000). Deficiencies in the sociology of sex work. Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance, 2, 259-279.
  • Weitzer, R. (2009). Sociology of sex work. Annual review of Sociology, 35, 213-234.

OnlyFans Platformunda Kadınların Çevrimiçi Seks İşi: Baskı mı Güçlenme mi?

Year 2024, Volume: 25 Issue: 1, 39 - 56, 07.10.2024

Abstract

(Çevrimiçi) Seks işi, feminist literatürde genellikle iki perspektife dayalı olarak incelenen bir konudur: baskı ve güçlenme. Bu çalışma, "OnlyFans üzerindeki kadınların çevrimiçi seks işi nasıl yorumlanabilir ve OnlyFans'ın mağduriyet ve güçlenme perspektifleri aracılığıyla açıklanıp açıklanamayacağını anlamaya yöneliktir. Bu amaçla, bu makale, literatürdeki iki ana tartışma (baskı ve güçlenme) hakkında teorik bir tartışma sunacak ve bunu bir vaka olarak ele alarak analiz edecektir. Çalışma sonuçları, kadınların çevrimiçi seks işi deneyiminin sadece baskı veya güçlenme paradigmalarıyla açıklanamayacağını, bunun yerine baskı veya güçlenmenin bir arada var olduğunun göz önüne alınması gerektiğini göstermektedir. İkinci olarak, sadece baskı veya güçlenme paradigmasına vurgu yapmak, kadınların çevrimiçi seks işi deneyimlerini doğrudan etkileyen kadınların farklılıklarını küçümsemektedir. Bu nedenle, kadınların OnlyFans deneyimlerini anlamak için kadınların yaş, ırk ve cinsiyet gibi demografik değişkenleri içeren kesişimsel analizlere ihtiyaç vardır. Son olarak, kadınların çevrimiçi seks işi deneyimleri kadınların bu işi hangi motivasyonun ile yaptıklarına bağlı olarak değişkenlik göstermektedir.

References

  • Atkinson, T. C. (2022). Sex-e-Work: An Exploration on the Rise of OnlyFans as a Space for Sexually Explicit Content (Doctoral dissertation, Carleton University).
  • Augustine (2007) Agustín, L. M. (2008). Sex at the margins: Migration, labour markets and the rescue industry. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Barry, K. (1984). Female sexual slavery. NyU Press.
  • Barry, K. (1996). The prostitution of sexuality. NyU Press.
  • Boseley, M. (2020) ‘Everyone and their mum is on it’: OnlyFans booms in popularity during the pandemic. The Guardian, December 22. https://www.theguardian.com/
  • Cardoso, D., & Scarcelli, C. M. (2021). The bodies of the (digitized) body: Experiences of sexual (ised) work on OnlyFans.
  • Carmen, A., & Moody, H. (1985). Working women: The subterranean world of street prostitution. Harper & Row.
  • Cunningham, S., Sanders, T., Scoular, J., Campbell, R., Pitcher, J., Hill, K., ... & Hamer, R. (2018). Behind the screen: Commercial sex, digital spaces and working online. Technology in society, 53, 47-54.
  • Day, S. (2021). What counts as rape?: physical assault and broken contracts: contrasting views of rape among London sex workers. In Sex and violence (pp. 172-189). Routledge.
  • Döring, N., Bhana, D., & Albury, K. (2022). Digital sexual identities: Between empowerment and disempowerment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 101466. Vol 48, 1-7.
  • Eckert, S., & Metzger‐Riftkin, J. (2020). Doxxing. The international encyclopedia of gender, media, and communication, 1-5.
  • Evans, J. (2021). Link in bio: Exploring the emotional and relational labour of Black women rappers in sexual dance economies on OnlyFans. Global Hip Hop Studies, 2(2), 179-198.
  • Fabiyi, M. E. (2022). A Look at Sex Work and OnlyFans Through Self-Definition and Hegelian Dialectic.
  • Farley, M. (2004). “Bad for the body, bad for the heart”: Prostitution harms women even if legalized or decriminalized. Violence against women, 10(10), 1087-1125.
  • Farley, M., & Kelly, V. (2000). Prostitution: A critical review of the medical and social sciences literature. Women & Criminal Justice, 11(4), 29-64.
  • Flanagan, F. (2017). Symposium on work in the ‘gig’economy: Introduction. The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 28(3), 378-381.
  • Ford, A. “I’d be Mortified if Someone Thought I was Putting my Bum Online for Some Fucking Gucci Sandals”: Liminality, Ownership and Identity–A Case-study of Sex Work on OnlyFans. (2022) DEARCADH, 27.
  • Gerassi, L. (2015). From exploitation to industry: Definitions, risks, and consequences of domestic sexual exploitation and sex work among women and girls. Journal of human behavior in the social environment, 25(6), 591-605.
  • Hamilton, V., Soneji, A., McDonald, A., & Redmiles, E. (2022). " Nudes? Shouldn't I charge for these?": Exploring What Motivates Content Creation on OnlyFans. arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.10425.
  • Harcourt, C., & Donovan, B. (2005). The many faces of sex work. Sexually transmitted infections, 81(3), 201-206.
  • Hochschild, A. R. (2019). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California press.
  • Hoskin, R. A. (2019). Femmephobia: The role of anti-femininity and gender policing in LGBTQ+ people’s experiences of discrimination. Sex Roles, 81(11-12), 686-703.
  • Hunt, S. (2022). The Craft Club: Surveillance and Risk Within the OnlyFans Community. Critical Reflections: A Student Journal on Contemporary Sociological Issues.
  • Jones, A. (2015). For black models scroll down: Webcam modeling and the racialization of erotic labor. Sexuality & Culture, 19, 776-799.
  • Jones, A. (2015). Sex work in a digital era. Sociology Compass, 9(7), 558-570.
  • Karandikar, S., & Prospero, M. (2010). From client to pimp: male violence against female sex workers. Journal of interpersonal violence, 25(2), 257-273.
  • Kissil, K., & Davey, M. (2010). The prostitution debate in feminism: Current trends, policy and clinical issues facing an invisible population. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 22(1), 1-21.
  • Lippmann, M., Lawlor, N., & Leistner, C. E. (2023). Learning on OnlyFans: User Perspectives on Knowledge and Skills Acquired on the Platform. Sexuality & Culture, 1-21.
  • Litam, S. D. A., Speciale, M., & Balkin, R. S. (2022). Sexual attitudes and characteristics of OnlyFans users. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51(6), 3093-3103.
  • López, C. (2020, June 17). A wave of people turned to OnlyFans to earn money when they lost their jobs due to the pandemic.Insider. https://www.insider.com/people-are-creating-only-fans-accounts-after-losing-jobs-during-pandemic-2020-6
  • McKay, T., Lindquist, C. H., & Misra, S. (2019). Understanding (and acting on) 20 years of research on violence and LGBTQ+ communities. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 20(5), 665-678.
  • McLeod, E. (2022). Women working: Prostitution now. Taylor & Francis.
  • Monroe, J. (2005). Women in street prostitution: The result of poverty and the brunt of inequity. Journal of poverty, 9(3), 69-88.
  • Moorman, J. D., & Harrison, K. (2016). Gender, race, and risk: Intersectional risk management in the sale of sex online. The Journal of Sex Research, 53(7), 816-824.
  • Pateman, C. (2016). Sexual contract. The wiley blackwell encyclopedia of gender and sexuality studies, 1-3.
  • Prior, J., Hubbard, P., & Birch, P. (2013). Sex worker victimization, modes of working, and location in New South Wales, Australia: a geography of victimization. Journal of Sex Research, 50(6), 574-586.
  • Rodriguez, T. (2022). Taboo to Trendy: How Is Onlyfans Breaking Boundaries and Creating Narratives (Doctoral dissertation, Southeastern Louisiana University).
  • Safaee, A. (2021). Sex, Love, and OnlyFans: How the Gig Economy Is Transforming Online Sex Work (Doctoral dissertation, San Diego State University).
  • Sanchez, S. (2022). The World's Oldest Profession Gets a Makeover: Sex Work, OnlyFans, and Celebrity Participation. Women Leading Change: Case Studies on Women, Gender, and Feminism, 6 (1), 4-17.
  • Sanders, T. (2016). Inevitably violent? Dynamics of space, governance, and stigma in understanding violence against sex workers. In Special issue: Problematizing prostitution: critical research and scholarship (Vol. 71, pp. 93-114). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
  • Tran, D., Sullivan, C. T., & Nicholas, L. (2023). Lateral violence and microaggressions in the LGBTQ+ community: a scoping review. Journal of homosexuality, 70(7), 1310-1324.
  • Uttarapong, J., Bonifacio, R., Jereza, R., & Wohn, D. Y. (2022, April). Social support in digital patronage: Onlyfans adult content creators as an online community. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (pp. 1-7).
  • Van der Nagel, E. (2021). Competing platform imaginaries of NSFW content creation on OnlyFans. Porn Studies, 8(4), 394-410.
  • Weitzer, R. (2000). Deficiencies in the sociology of sex work. Sociology of Crime, Law, and Deviance, 2, 259-279.
  • Weitzer, R. (2009). Sociology of sex work. Annual review of Sociology, 35, 213-234.
There are 45 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Gender and Politics
Journal Section Research Article
Authors

Mediha Dilara Cılızoğlu

Publication Date October 7, 2024
Submission Date February 2, 2024
Acceptance Date July 8, 2024
Published in Issue Year 2024 Volume: 25 Issue: 1

Cite

APA Cılızoğlu, M. D. (2024). Online Sex Work of Women on OnlyFans: Oppression or Empowerment?. Kadın/Woman 2000, 25(1), 39-56.