Is Sex Work Truly Empowering?

Sex work. Seen as one of the oldest professions throughout history, we all have our feelings towards the trade. Whether our feelings are good or bad, we are seeing a rise in the acceptance and promotion of the industry. An industry more disturbing than we may realise.

I’m sure by now, you’ve heard of OnlyFans – a platform allowing you to share content under a subscription. We’ve seen the headlines: ‘single mum fired during covid is set to become an OnlyFans millionaire.’

The platform is used widely to post explicit images / videos, the new, trendy place for distributing pornography. Many use social media to document the success seen from OnlyFans, further encouraging the promotion of the trade, allowing more to join the platform. Around 70% of the content posted is considered ‘NSFW’.

An average of 500,000 new users sign up to the OnlyFans per day, further showing how prominent the platform is, but many are unaware of the truth behind the developing industry.

Now what is worth considering, is whether this endorsement of sex work is truly as positive as it’s made out to be.

There’s no denying that as the younger generation, the majority of us lean towards leftist policies.

We see the negatives within the world, wanting to do whatever we can to spark change. Social media is becoming a place to share and discuss these liberal philosophies, further inspiring a sense of acceptance and empowerment. This means that we are subconsciously associating these online views with a positive, inspired feeling, doing whatever we can to continue ‘liberalising’ ourselves.

With the rise of liberal feminism, we are seeing growth and acceptance towards careers like OnlyFans and sex work. The idea that women have the right to do what they wish with their body becoming increasingly popular. Freedom of choice is a crucial element within the feminist movement, hence the predominantly positive outlook regarding the industry.

As a country, the UK is seen as one of the most socially liberal, this evident in the general feelings towards sex work. The UK being the fifth-most likely country to see prostitution as justifiable.

But how ‘feminist’ is sex work?

What is often overlooked, is how harmful the trade is to begin with. Society focuses on the positive ideas surrounding empowerment and the reclaiming of patriarchal agendas, dismissing the harsh truth. If anything, you could argue the monetising of the female body is instead feeding these patriarchal desires, re-labelling it as so-called ‘liberation’.

The media is selling a false narrative of sensationalised stories. In reality, the top 10% of accounts make almost ¾ of overall profit.

We are sold an overly positive portrayal of sex work, promised financial fortunes and self-liberation. Not only is this notion untruthful, but the continuous endorsing of a glamorised trade has harmful consequences. To say the industry is abusive and exploitative would be an understatement. If more knew about the harsh reality behind sex work, perhaps the online world wouldn’t encourage it so much.

I used Instagram to ask young women if they had considered sex work, over 60% saying yes. A pattern shown within the reasoning was due to the monetary elements.

Whilst many individuals can gain financially from OnlyFans, these creators who succeed are usually those with some already established popularity – whether this be actors or models. It is estimated that the average revenue is around $180 a month. This far from the fortune we seem to be promised.

Sex work not only puts the individual in danger, but also all women within society. OnlyFans is used similarly to that of any other social media, portraying the content as disposable. You can swipe and click as you please, an endless supply of bodies there for your pleasure.

Considering the rise in violence towards women, we should be prohibiting the perception of women as disposable and inferior.

When the female body is consistently profited from, are we not subconsciously sharing the idea that women are able to be purchased?

I remember posting a selfie where a man commented asking for the link to my OnlyFans. Whether this a joke or not, I was 15 and the over sexualisation of women meant a man felt it acceptable to send me such a message.

Many argue that OnlyFans allows people to partake in sex work, all whilst being their own boss, something that can be seen as liberating. It’s safer, removing the physical element that can often put people in danger. It also rids of any ‘middlemen’, meaning there is no need for pimps and bosses to manage and profit from people’s bodies. This being said, the platform does take 20% of profit from the creator.

Whilst OnlyFans requires no physical contact between the worker and client, there is very little keeping individuals safe. A 21-year-old Australian woman was doxxed, after turning down sexual advances. The woman referred to as ‘Becky’ was subject to a man leaking her pornographic videos on social media, sending her death threats as well as exposing her real name, age, phone number and location. He put out fake prostitution adverts with her information, leaving the woman scared to leave her house. She described herself as ‘destroyed mentally, physically and emotionally.’

“You might spend a whole week sending takedown requests only to have content resurface six months later. Victims will have to look over their shoulder for the rest of their lives.” – Honza Cervenka, a lawyer specialising in non-consensual pornography cases.

Despite the ability to offer services behind a paywall, platforms like Reddit have forums dedicated to ‘leaking’ OnlyFans content. This not only disrespects the creator, but maintains the culture within seeing women as disposable. Simple boundaries aren’t even respected when there’s an opportunity for male pleasure. And let’s be realistic, men are largely the ones gaining from this.

These platforms ultimately perpetuate gender oppressive situations, refusing to prevent the harassment seen by creators.

This links to the idea of the ‘male gaze’. A theory relating to the patriarchal associations towards women. The more we continue to present women as an object for male desire, the more we inflict society with harmful stereotypes.

Alexandra, a former stripper clarified how harmful the business is, “It encourages men to view women as commodities and to judge and value women solely for their looks… It makes women obsessive about their appearance and not to value themselves for more than their appeal to men.”

The online increase in popularity regarding sex work is incentivising underage individuals to join. It’s inevitable when young, impressionable people are sold the promise of financial prosperity and liberation from the patriarchy, something they so often seek. This encourages these people to join the unhealthily idealised field, doing whatever it takes to achieve the self-proclaimed empowerment.

Whilst society’s attitudes towards sex work are partly to blame, OnlyFans itself is doing very little to protect minors from creating sexual content. The platform requires creators to verify their identity and age, yet there have been countless incidents of underage individuals falling through the cracks.

- A 17-year-old used a fake ID to set up an account and had been posting sexual content, making around £5000, until her bank froze her account.

- Schools found children as young as 12 were using the platform to contact adult creators and ‘meet up’.

- Childline reported a girl stating she had used the site since she was 13.

Considering the amount of time young people spend online, we must understand that they are ultimately going to be influenced by what they see. It happens to all of us.

The youth are a community of individuals, susceptible to ideas promoted online. Predominantly, young, impressionable women at a fundamental stage in their life. The age where they feel somewhat lost, vulnerable to society’s opinions, duped into believing they can make millions from self-exploitation.

I know when I was 15, I told my mum that the day I turned 18, I’d be making an OnlyFans. Looking back, this is concerning – to say the least. When social media glorifies sex work, we are only harming society, encouraging vulnerable individuals to join an abusive field.

In a society that teaches women from young that their value lies within physical appearance, the idea of sexual validation may seem appealing. Feeding into the idea of being ‘desirable’ only pushes us further backwards.

Prejudiced stereotypes put individuals at risk of abuse. In fact, POC sex workers experience a greater risk of sexual violence / assault, treated in different ways to their white counterparts.

One ‘sex buyer’ further clarified this with his fantasies surrounding Chinese women, “I view them as dirty.” The ethnic profiling seen within the industry further proves that sex work is only ‘empowering’ to those with privilege. Black women are hyper-sexualised, seen as sexual deviants. The business profits from inherently racist exploitation and harmful fetishes rooted within society.

Whilst acknowledging the slight benefits for the creators themselves, the growth in OnlyFans is further creating a dangerous world for all women. When we put the female body behind a paywall, we are further implying that we are products, capable of purchasing and dismissing. This is subconsciously affecting the perception of women towards some men, enhancing systemic sexism.

Marcie, an 18-year-old woman, spoke to me about her views surrounding sex work, “I think it inherently fuels the exploitation of women, even when girls do it for empowerment.”

Workers aren’t even safe within video games. Grand Theft Auto aids to the sexist, dehumanising agenda towards sex workers, giving the option to brutalise strippers. This continues to feed the stigma, subconsciously contributing to the hostile culture.

The University of Kent has determined a direct link between the sexual objectification of women and violence towards them. So even if as women don’t create the content, we are still at risk of the abusive behaviour seen in relation to it.

‘The findings showed that the objectification-aggression link manifests itself at least as early as the teenage years, leading to the suggestion that the detrimental effects of perceiving females as objects begin at an early stage of development.’ – University of Kent’s hypothesis.

Reviews show that globally, sex workers have up to a 75% chance of experiencing sexual violence. Realistically, the industry isn’t going anywhere. It has been and will be significant within society forever. In a way, OnlyFans is a positive, offering a safer option for sex workers who are prone to violence.

- Sex workers are often abused by police, yet the officers rarely face consequences. In countries where prostitution is illegal, authorities take advantage of the individuals, extorting them with the threat of arrest.

- When reporting crimes, sex workers are in fear of further abuse / not being taken seriously.

- Clients can rob, abuse and even murder sex workers, getting away with it due to the risk of arrest towards prostitutes.

- LGBTQ+ sex workers are most impacted by criminalisation laws.

Whilst the industry is systemically flawed, the least we can do is ensure those working within it are protected. Everyone deserves to be taken seriously and heard, regardless of their career. Whether this be creating laws that guarantee safety for the individuals or de-criminalising elements of the trade.

New Zealand saw success after they decriminalised sex work in 2003. Over 90% of sex workers explaining that they had better employment, legal, health and safety rights. 70% said they were more likely to report violence to the police, further showing how safety for sex workers is beneficial.

Some organisations that support the decriminalisation of sex work include: The Royal College of Nursing and Women Against Rape in the UK and internationally Amnesty International, the World Health Organization, Human Rights Watch, UNAIDS, Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.

As well as this, we must rid of the glorification seen towards sex work. This over time will ensure less impressionable young people are influenced to join the abusive field, further prohibiting the sexist stereotypes that harm women. The industry is intricately harmful in ways we so often forget to consider.

Is sex work truly empowering?