Millennials are gigging out their bodies on OnlyFans during lockdown

Photo from @MrTwitchet

You might have noticed your Instagram feed becoming a little raunchier over lockdown. Many have monetised their quarantine by using OnlyFans – the latest Instagram bolt-on – to sell nude photos of themselves to admirers on the internet.

Launched in 2016, OnlyFans gives social media performers the platform to charge ‘fans’ a monthly subscription fee to access extra content. It’s not limited to just porn – many fitness gurus, nutritionists and makeup artists have found their home on OnlyFans – but the monthly subscription model does lend itself to the adult industry.

OnlyFans is having a good pandemic. Its CEO Tim Stokely reported in May 2020; "the site is seeing about 200,000 new users every 24 hours and 7,000 to 8,000 new creators joining every day." Millennials – and they are mostly millennials – are looking to their phones to seek new and inventive ways to make money.

Welcome to sex work in the gig economy. Creators sell content and services to fans through OnlyFans’ easy-to-use platform. In the same way the Deliveroo rider monetises his bike to make his deliveries, the OnlyFans girl monetises her own body, selling content directly to her fans. Users can buy subscriptions from their favourite creators, paying extra if they want for a more personalised experience; unlocking messages, comments, and custom content.

Jay (not his real name), 31, a PR account executive, who gets his kicks from OnlyFans, described its content as ‘snackable’ porn.

“It’s a bit like receiving a nude in the middle of the day, it’s a little perk. You wouldn't log in to Pornhub on your morning coffee break, but you might glance at OF and enjoy a quick nude.

Unlike ‘traditional’ porn, it’s the personal nature that makes it such a kick for Jay.

“I love that I can find someone I really fancy and feel like they're sending me nudes regularly. I can totally see how it's booming. I've also ordered custom content, which is next-level personal - especially if you're into something quite specific that you don't always see without requesting it.”

“I tend to subscribe for a month and very rarely keep it recurring, partly because I don't enjoy them enough or they've tackled their account down t so I couldn't subscribe anymore.”

Lottie Windsor, 22, joined the platform as a creator to make a little extra money during lockdown after she was furloughed from her job as an events organiser. She said she’s made around £4,000 since she set up her page around 4 months ago.

“I downloaded it in lockdown after I got furloughed to give me something to do and give myself a little bit of extra money. I was already posting nude pictures of myself on my Fetlife so I thought ‘why not get paid to do it?’”

She said she makes the bulk of her money on OnlyFans through tips and making custom content for her 100 fans.

“My basic sub fee is $9 but people can unlock custom content for more, message me for more, comment on my pictures for more. I only make content I like, and it gives me the ability to choose what I make so I only make what I am comfortable with. OnlyFans has made it more accessible to be a part of the sex industry. There’re no managers to appease so you’re really 100% self-employed. I think OnlyFans is really empowering for girls.”

Lottie Windsor works a bubblegum pink latex pleasers and a fluffy bra for her fans on Instagram

A lot of creators share her view. Blue Harper, 27, (not her real name) said; “It’s great to see women reclaiming their sexuality though Onlyfans. It’s very empowering to have that control and freedom over what you’re posting for other people to see.

Despite being more submissive in her personal sex life, Blue spends much of her time on the app ‘cyber-domming’ her fans, since most of her subscribers are submissive men.

“I have to play up to that because that’s what they want, and I want them to pay me. I’ve had to ask doms I know for advice about what to say, because it isn’t really in my nature.”

OnlyFans allows creators control of their content, image and working hours, but it’s casual nature – something common across many gig economy jobs – can be exhausting when you’re in an open market of competitors and your revenue isn’t secure.

Blue said the money can be very inconsistent. “In my first month I made just under a grand but in my second I made only made £600. It can be difficult because if you have a break or don’t stick with it you lose out. I had a break for my birthday and found I’d lost a lot of followers when I came back.”

Blue said she can see how OnlyFans could challenge someone’s relationship.

“There’s been times where I’ve had to ask my partner to help me make a custom video with me, like; ‘oh can you help me film this thing because someone has requested a video’ and he goes along with it. But he doesn’t enjoy being on camera, so I don’t tend to do it too much.”

Mr Twitchet, 36, (not his real name) is a photographer who set up his OnlyFans after his work dried up during lockdown.

Twitchet, who said he makes around £300 a month from his POV content, said; “A lot of people think you sign up and people just give you money but it actually takes a lot of time and effort. It’s not just taking and uploading nudes it’s the admin stuff as well. You need to spend lot of time on Reddit or in Telegram groups trying to send people to your page. Then you need to make content and decide where it all goes. You need constantly review your pricing structure to know what’s selling best. Then you need to interact with your fans. For a lot of people it becomes too much work and it takes over their lives.”

But what’s the cost of renting out your nudes online? Annie, 30, (not her real name), says she plans to delete the OnlyFans that she made when she lost her job as a barrister as soon as her last cheque comes in.

“I started to feel like I was giving away too much of myself so I left.”

She said didn’t find being on OnlyFans empowering. “I’m not sure how much of a choice you end up having in the end. I felt pressured to make content all the time and keep it all going. OnlyFans is full of quite vulnerable women feeling like their self-worth is on the line.

“It’s all well saying ‘its so empowering’ but I’m not sure if it is because you’re still making the choice to be ogled at for your body. You’re still putting a price on that and deciding how much your worth is based on your body and your looks. I started to feel like I was giving away too much of myself so I left.”

Annie plans to leave OnlyFans when her final cheque comes in. (Photo from @whatyouwantsobadly)

Clary, who’s 23, (not her real name) set up her OnlyFans after she was furloughed from her job. She said; “Being on OnlyFans has helped my confidence, which has been something I’ve been lacking in sometimes.

“But sometimes it gets too much and is too intense. It can get too much if I don’t have the content to post and people are asking for it and I don’t have the time or emotional capacity to make it.”

“I want my sex to be mine. It’s no one else’s business.”

Annie’s partner, George, said he worried that OnlyFans is stopping people connecting when having sex because they're constantly trying to turn it into an opportunity to shoot content as opposed to being in the moment.

He said; “I want my sex to be mine. It's no one else's business. But people are so used to getting a cash reward from people that demand things from you. That’s how we work we’ve been hard-wired to think that’s okay. Now people are thinking; ‘why not do it everywhere?’ People say that they feel empowered by that. But it’s not empowering, it’s demeaning.”

We’re still yet to know the full repercussions of this pandemic. It’s likely to sink the economy deep into a recession that millennials are only just recovering from. OnlyFans is the latest in a long line of gig-economy jobs that tout flexibility as a worthy replacement of job security. Its quick rise during lockdown shows how loose our of attitudes towards nudity, porn and sex have become. But it also shows a willingness – some may even say desperation – to monetise every and all aspects of life, even those previously deemed deeply personal.

OnlyFans has cleverly marketed its app to young people as an empowering way to express body confidence and sex-positivity. But our idea of what’s empowering in 2020 is often too conflated with money. Maybe it’s because right now both of things are in short supply.