During pandemic, sex workers find their fans on the Internet

By Michael Mistroff
Baltimore Watchdog staff writer

At a time when many Americans are faced with economic uncertainty amid the coronavirus pandemic, OnlyFans creators are thriving.

Baltimore OnlyFans creator Shan Nic, 26, said she never thought she would be able to make the kind of money she is just by creating content for the alternative social media platform.

“I was able to basically triple my income and buy my own house,” she said. “I would’ve never expected to be able to make over six figures from just working from home and doing what I love.”

Not only is OnlyFans serving as a successful lifeline for those seeking an alternate source of income during the pandemic, it’s also changing our societal notions of sex work and what it means to be a sex worker.

OnlyFans saw a meteoric rise in popularity in 2020, bringing online sex work into the mainstream as the platform averaged over 500,000 new users a day. The site allows its creators to connect directly with their subscribers as they distribute their own content and pocket 80% of the profits.

Towson University Assistant Professor Michaela Frischherz said the issue with current societal views on sex work is that the way we discuss sex in public is often associated with morality.

“When we moralize sex, we also make possible the objectification of the people doing sex work,” Frischherz said. “We moralize the profession because of its attachment to sex – and that creates ‘expected’ ways of orienting ourselves toward sex workers. Those expectations often create dangerous outcomes for sex workers.”

The conversation around OnlyFans was triggered in 2020 when former Disney star Bella Thorne became the first creator to gross over $1 million in a single day. Fans believed she was going to be posting nude photos, only for the actress to clarify she would not be after banking her record-breaking earnings.

“She basically scammed her fans into purchasing content which wasn’t what she claimed for a very high price,” Shan Nic said. “Due to her large fan base, this led to an overwhelming amount of fans asking for chargebacks from OnlyFans, and then ultimately led to OnlyFans putting a cap on all creators on the price we can charge for our content.”

Amid the backlash, Thorne took to Twitter to explain that she wanted to “remove the stigma” behind sex work by bringing a mainstream face to the site.

But Shan Nic said the problem with celebrities joining OnlyFans is that they misuse the concept of being a sex worker and the platform itself to profit without having to “deal with the negative repercussions” that sex work can have on their lives and careers.

While Frischherz said that celebrities’ involvement with the platform does help to make online sex work more visible, she said the notion of whether they could help remove the stigma surrounding sex work ignores important complexities.

“It depends who you ask,” Frischherz said. “The sex worker already on OnlyFans who now has less fans?  The sex worker who can’t dance at the strip club because it’s closed and creates a successful account?  Conservative groups difficult to convince sex work is work? The young adult exploring their sexuality online? The executives who profit off the OnlyFans platform? Folks who believe in purity culture? There are no easy answers here.”

Instead, Frischherz proposes the opposite.

“What if we started the conversation with human dignity, respect, and justice?” Frischherz said. “What if we listened to what sex workers needed? What if we empowered sex workers? What if we honored the human beings doing this labor rather than beginning with the morality of sex work in the first place?”

Shan Nic, who requested to be identified only by her Internet handle, has spent the last seven years working as a specialist in digital advertising on social media for the fitness niche. She said it’s given her an edge and allowed her to succeed in building her own brand, @Fitplanshan across platforms like Twitter and Instagram, as well as with her own website fitplanshan.com. It’s also helped to land her in the top 1% on OnlyFans.

In addition to Shan Nic, OnlyFans creator Phoenix Dinae has also found success on the platform. Dinae, 23, began using the site to supplement her income after the pandemic shut down Baltimore strip clubs last March. Dinae has not only been able to pay it forward, she was also able to buy her first home in Baltimore in February.

“Through OnlyFans, I’ve been able to pay back a lot of self-dues to my family,” Dinae said. “I’ve paid off debts, bought my mother a car, and bought myself a house which I hope has taken a lot of stress off the shoulders of the ones I love. Helping the community by donating to charities and volunteering where I can.”

Both Shan Nic and Dinae said part of their success on OnlyFans is that they have been able to develop personal connections with their subscribers.

“It’s personal because they have more access to you,” Dinae said. “Porn doesn’t offer that. For a lot of people, it’s a fantasy that they can virtually access.”

Shan Nic said she has even been able to help fans of hers who are battling depression and feelings of loneliness.

“I never would’ve realized I could have that impact on someone’s life,” Shan Nic said.

But Dinae said that maintaining the OnlyFans lifestyle and the pressure of maintaining a high level of engagement can be mentally exhausting. That level of total and constant access can be draining.

“Always selling a fantasy isn’t as easy as people think,” Dinae said. “People will eat you alive if you give them the chance.”

While Dinae said she believes that OnlyFans has been key to helping many people survive throughout the pandemic and that its rise in popularity will help normalize online sex work, she said it’s going to take time. She said that once people stop passing judgment and look past what they feel is right or wrong, they’ll understand it’s harder than it looks.

“It takes a strong person,” Dinae said. “You have to respect the hustle.”