OnlyFans Is Not An Empowerment Tool
It sells out women *and* the men who pay for it
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I bundled up my three littles and took them to the movies. Over a giant bucket of overly salted popcorn, wrapped in homemade afghans and kicking back in super-cozy Dream Lounger chairs, we watched Journey to Bethlehem, a musical about the nativity. There were highs (the music is addicting and the three wise men were the perfect level of goofy) and lows (the #girlboss-ification of Mary was well-intentioned but nauseating), but per usual, my children loved the villain best. Antonio Banderas plays a wicked, gleeful King Herrod, and his song “It’s Good to Be King”1 has been blasted nonstop over our speakers the past couple of weeks.
In the song, he sings about how he has power: power to “be the one to shout off with his head”, power to rule his people even though he doesn’t “have to be good”. It’s power in its rawest form: the power to cause harm.
I recently read an article about a popular website that reminded me of that very thing. Power: who has it, who gives it, and who takes it away.
The article was discussing OnlyFans, a social media platform where “content creators” (typically self-prostituted people) can upload their own images and videos and charge others a monthly fee for viewership. Its most frequent-yet-notorious use is for homemade pornography. The article described the platform as an “empowerment tool” for women—it was “allowing” teachers and waitresses and other women with low-paying occupations to break free from a life of drudgery and dance merrily off into the sunset.
Preferably naked.
But just because a choice can be made doesn’t mean that it’s empowering. And just because you’re free to do something doesn’t mean you hold any power in that situation.