19 Oct Sex Work as a Pop Culture Prop
Posted
in Industry Knowledge
With season three of HBO’s Euphoria all wrapped up, audiences have had plenty of time to process the cheerful and chaotic storylines the show is known for. But the plot point that rightfully caught the most heat from the sex worker community was Sydney Sweeney’s OnlyFans arc. This isn’t the first time the show’s creator has used online sex work as a plot device; season one gave us Kat’s underage Pornhub side quest. As unrealistic and obnoxious as that portrayal was, the OnlyFans storyline managed to be worse by every metric. After the initial frustration settled, a lot of us were left asking why pop culture completely refuses to move past these tired, inaccurate tropes.
THE STIGMA NEVER CAUGHT UP
Let’s look at the actual reality here: internet porn has been around for just about as long as the internet itself. Amateur Hardcore launched all the way back in 1995 as one of the very first sites for amateur content. Today, data shows anywhere from 4% to 12% of all websites are pornographic, and between 13% and 25% of all search queries are looking for adult content. OnlyFans itself was founded in 2016, making it a decade old, which is practically ancient by internet standards. So why, after all this time, are the platform and the creators who use it still being farmed like low-hanging fruit for easy mainstream engagement?
THE CELEBRITY DOUBLE STANDARD
When you look at how the media spins these stories, it helps to remember that a lot of high-profile, mainstream entertainers have OnlyFans accounts themselves. Some of these celebrities pull in more cash in a single month than most people see in their entire lifetimes. Yet, you rarely ever hear them drop a quote defending the actual independent sex workers who built and populated the platform. Instead, their reasons for using the site range from “connecting with fans” to “finding autonomy,” but it always comes with a caveat along the lines of but I’M not going to show my pussy. Even when they aren’t explicitly shaming adult creators, they make sure to establish that they aren’t one of us.
CRITIZICING THE PLATFORM WHILE PROFITING FROM IT
After season three drew some well-deserved backlash, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson decided to double down. During an interview on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, he defended his writing by claiming the show takes a “fairly critical look” at the platform. He went on to argue that the lifestyle “hollows out the individual” and leaves creators “constantly just depending on the likes and external validation.” He didn’t stop there, also dismissing the entire profession by calling it a “fast cash appeal.” Honestly, it’s a wild thing to hear from a Hollywood nepo baby who literally just used OnlyFans to monetize his own content.
THE CELEBRITY EXCEPTION
To be fair, not every single thing mainstream personalities say about their time on the platform is totally negative. Denise Richards started hers to show genuine solidarity with her daughter after she caught a ton of public hate for having one, which is honestly peak cool mom. Then you have Bella Thorne, who claimed she wanted to break the stigma for women using the site, right before she single-handedly broke the platform’s tipping system and ruined transaction limits for the rest of us. The newest normie to jump in is 90s actress Shannon Elizabeth, who seemed open to the possibility of NSFW content on her profile. I subscribed just to check her out, only to open her $9 welcome message and find the “pie” she eluded to was just a few PG photos of her wearing an oversized t-shirt, followed by a steady stream of chatters pushing vague enough to avoid chargebacks PPV.
SEX WORK IS WORK
How long does online sex work have to be a normal part of our culture before people can just refer to it as a job? At the end of the day, all we’re doing is providing a product and a service that the vast majority of the population happily consumes. Looking at our bodies isn’t going to give you cavities or cancer, so why not treat us like any other human being just trying to make ends meet? Sure, some people will try to co-opt our gig to make a quick grift or try to stay relevant, but those are the actresses and Ponzi bros running agencies, not us. If you think sex workers are yucky, just leave it at that without making us out to be cartoonish vice peddlers. Let he who is without a cleared browser history cast the first stone and let us get back to work.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
With season three of HBO’s Euphoria all wrapped up, audiences have had plenty of time to process the cheerful and chaotic storylines the show is known for. But the plot point that rightfully caught the most heat from the sex worker community was Sydney Sweeney’s OnlyFans arc. This isn’t the first time the show’s creator has used online sex work as a plot device; season one gave us Kat’s underage Pornhub side quest. As unrealistic and obnoxious as that portrayal was, the OnlyFans storyline managed to be worse by every metric. After the initial frustration settled, a lot of us were left asking why pop culture completely refuses to move past these tired, inaccurate tropes.
THE STIGMA NEVER CAUGHT UP
Let’s look at the actual reality here: internet porn has been around for just about as long as the internet itself. Amateur Hardcore launched all the way back in 1995 as one of the very first sites for amateur content. Today, data shows anywhere from 4% to 12% of all websites are pornographic, and between 13% and 25% of all search queries are looking for adult content. OnlyFans itself was founded in 2016, making it a decade old, which is practically ancient by internet standards. So why, after all this time, are the platform and the creators who use it still being farmed like low-hanging fruit for easy mainstream engagement?
THE CELEBRITY DOUBLE STANDARD
When you look at how the media spins these stories, it helps to remember that a lot of high-profile, mainstream entertainers have OnlyFans accounts themselves. Some of these celebrities pull in more cash in a single month than most people see in their entire lifetimes. Yet, you rarely ever hear them drop a quote defending the actual independent sex workers who built and populated the platform. Instead, their reasons for using the site range from “connecting with fans” to “finding autonomy,” but it always comes with a caveat along the lines of but I’M not going to show my pussy. Even when they aren’t explicitly shaming adult creators, they make sure to establish that they aren’t one of us.
CRITIZICING THE PLATFORM WHILE PROFITING FROM IT
After season three drew some well-deserved backlash, Euphoria creator Sam Levinson decided to double down. During an interview on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, he defended his writing by claiming the show takes a “fairly critical look” at the platform. He went on to argue that the lifestyle “hollows out the individual” and leaves creators “constantly just depending on the likes and external validation.” He didn’t stop there, also dismissing the entire profession by calling it a “fast cash appeal.” Honestly, it’s a wild thing to hear from a Hollywood nepo baby who literally just used OnlyFans to monetize his own content.
THE CELEBRITY EXCEPTION
To be fair, not every single thing mainstream personalities say about their time on the platform is totally negative. Denise Richards started hers to show genuine solidarity with her daughter after she caught a ton of public hate for having one, which is honestly peak cool mom. Then you have Bella Thorne, who claimed she wanted to break the stigma for women using the site, right before she single-handedly broke the platform’s tipping system and ruined transaction limits for the rest of us. The newest normie to jump in is 90s actress Shannon Elizabeth, who seemed open to the possibility of NSFW content on her profile. I subscribed just to check her out, only to open her $9 welcome message and find the “pie” she eluded to was just a few PG photos of her wearing an oversized t-shirt, followed by a steady stream of chatters pushing vague enough to avoid chargebacks PPV.
SEX WORK IS WORK
How long does online sex work have to be a normal part of our culture before people can just refer to it as a job? At the end of the day, all we’re doing is providing a product and a service that the vast majority of the population happily consumes. Looking at our bodies isn’t going to give you cavities or cancer, so why not treat us like any other human being just trying to make ends meet? Sure, some people will try to co-opt our gig to make a quick grift or try to stay relevant, but those are the actresses and Ponzi bros running agencies, not us. If you think sex workers are yucky, just leave it at that without making us out to be cartoonish vice peddlers. Let he who is without a cleared browser history cast the first stone and let us get back to work.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
