I might get a ton of pushback on this, but here goes.
Earlier today I was scrolling through Reddit. A post from a subreddit I'm not subscribed to came onto my feed and I happened to look at it. The majority of the posts were deleted, citing a rule that NSFW accounts/creators were not allowed to post or interact whatsoever in that subreddit. I went look at the subreddit's rules, and this rule is to avoid having people post just as a way to advertise their Onlyfans account.
This isn't something uncommon. Many subreddits, even ones that allow NSFW content, don't allow any accounts that have their OF account linked in some way, even through third party sites like linktree, to post on their subreddit.
It's obvious why. Before these rules were implemented, there would be creators who spam subreddits with posts unrelated to the subreddit in a way to advertise themselves.
However, seeing it again this morning got me thinking about a post I made here a few years back, about whether normalizing pornography is a good or bad thing. Here's the link to that post:
I think enough time has passed since that post, and not just that post but the pandemic and rise of Onlyfans to mainstream popularity, to make some objective conclusions as to whether or not the gains outweigh the costs.
Before I get into it, I will say that I do not have an Onlyfans account. I did, at one point, but I quickly realized that I do not like working on subscription sites and prefer posting only on clip sites. With that being said, my opinion may skew a bit from others in the industry who do actively post on OF and have it as their primary income.
Anyway, I truly believe that the mainstream success of Onlyfans has been a detriment to the adult industry as a whole.
The porn industry is under attack like never before.
Sure, the adult industry has been under attack before Onlyfans. The majority of society, even some of those who actively consume pornographic content, have never looked favorably upon the industry and those who work in it. Companies could legally fire current or previous adult workers, citing morality issues. Adult workers faced having their bank accounts shut down or their funds frozen, for simply creating porn online. Social media sites could shadowban adult workers. Payment apps could shut down and withhold your funds if you were an adult worker, even if you never used their sites for your adult work business.
And then there was FOSTA/SESTA. The government's way to further restrict the industry, while citing that the law was to "stop sex trafficking". Something that, after almost six years of having been implemented, this law catastrophically failed to do.
These problems predicated the pandemic and Onlyfans. However, not only have they persisted, but new issues have cropped up in the last few years.
Demands for porn bans are not new. Since online porn came into existence I am sure there has been people who have wanted it banned. It is also not new for conservative politicians to make promises of banning pornography, or even try to pass legislation doing so. But, I think it would be naive to say that these people have not only grown louder, but have even grown in number, as of the last couple years.
And it has become more than simple cries for a porn ban by a handful of constituents or empty promises made by politicians. Multiple states have now implemented laws where users must submit their legal ids as proof of age before being allowed to access porn sites.
But, Marci, surely this isn't a bad thing? It keeps minors from accessing adult content and it can easily be bypassed with a VPN.
If it were to remain at that, then yes, overall I don't think it's the worst thing ever. But, do you think those who passed those laws will want it to end there? Extremist laws are not going to be implemented all at once. If a total porn ban were to be instated with no build up, there would certainly be a large pushback. People like their porn, even if they don't like those who create it. So, the logical way to successfully ban porn, or make it to where it is incredibly hard to access, would be to do it in phases. Thus, the current laws we are seeing.
There is even now, what can only be called, a manifesto, Project 2025. An outline of what some conservatives would like to see happen if a Republican were to win this upcoming U.S. Presidential Election. Part of it outlines how pornography should not only be federally banned, but it should become a crime to even produce it. While surely that seems impossible to actually implement, after all, how do we unanimously decide on what is porn and what isn't, it is still worrying that a lot of people do agree with this sentiment.
Now, a lot of that is speculation and perhaps conspiracy theories. But, it isn't speculation that public opinion towards online porn has grown a lot more extreme and biased in recent years, and that it is more of a political hot topic than it used to be.
And why is that? I am of the opinion it is because of the mainstream popularity of OnlyFans. Because now, the adult industry is now more upfront and center than it has been in the past, when people would usually have to seek out porn sites to see it, rather than have it pop up when you're not even looking for it.
Before OnlyFans, the only widely known, or popular in the mainstream, porn site was PornHub. Certainly PornHub did it's fair share to hurt the industry, but that's a topic for another post. However, with PornHub, you didn't have the influx of people joining the industry to create content for PornHub like we've seen with OnlyFans. Simply because, the money making aspect, or the prospect of it, wasn't there.
When the pandemic hit and most of the world was in lockdown, people were losing their jobs, losing their incomes. There was a huge surge of people joining the adult industry, since a lot of people did not have many other options to make a sustainable income. That's when OnlyFans began it's upward climb to mainstream popularity.
With popular actresses and singers and celebrities joining OnlyFans, the site become a household name unlike any site before it. The prospect of making thousands of dollars overnight was a very alluring prospect for many people who would have otherwise never thought about entering the adult industry.
Fast forward to today. OnlyFans is still as popular than ever with millions of people having created profiles in an attempt to get rich quick. A lot of these people, inexperienced with the industry, advertise their accounts anywhere they believe they can get a subscriber. It's now not uncommon to be browsing a random social media site and see someone posting a suggestive photo with a link to their OnlyFans account. When adult content was something you used to have to purposefully seek out, it is now much more in the face of the public, especially those who may not even be looking for it.
It is my opinion, and perhaps one that won't be shared, that this exact phenomenon has altered the vast public's opinion more negatively towards the adult industry as a whole.
Adult work tourists, people who dabble in posting content but never take it very seriously like those who have made legitimate careers out of being in the industry, do much more harm to the industry than help it. If it wasn't for OnlyFans, I do believe we'd see a lot less sex work tourists.
A sad part about that is, you now have many young people waiting on the day they are old enough to enter the industry, with stars in their eyes and the thought of money on their mind. So, not only are we seeing an influx of people entering the industry, but much younger people as well. Something that has obviously caught the attention of the masses, furthering this notion that the industry is predatory and all around bad, which enhances their negative opinions of the industry.
Anyway, I'm sure there's more to be said, but this has become quite long. I'd like to know what others think.
Earlier today I was scrolling through Reddit. A post from a subreddit I'm not subscribed to came onto my feed and I happened to look at it. The majority of the posts were deleted, citing a rule that NSFW accounts/creators were not allowed to post or interact whatsoever in that subreddit. I went look at the subreddit's rules, and this rule is to avoid having people post just as a way to advertise their Onlyfans account.
This isn't something uncommon. Many subreddits, even ones that allow NSFW content, don't allow any accounts that have their OF account linked in some way, even through third party sites like linktree, to post on their subreddit.
It's obvious why. Before these rules were implemented, there would be creators who spam subreddits with posts unrelated to the subreddit in a way to advertise themselves.
However, seeing it again this morning got me thinking about a post I made here a few years back, about whether normalizing pornography is a good or bad thing. Here's the link to that post:
I think enough time has passed since that post, and not just that post but the pandemic and rise of Onlyfans to mainstream popularity, to make some objective conclusions as to whether or not the gains outweigh the costs.
Before I get into it, I will say that I do not have an Onlyfans account. I did, at one point, but I quickly realized that I do not like working on subscription sites and prefer posting only on clip sites. With that being said, my opinion may skew a bit from others in the industry who do actively post on OF and have it as their primary income.
Anyway, I truly believe that the mainstream success of Onlyfans has been a detriment to the adult industry as a whole.
The porn industry is under attack like never before.
Sure, the adult industry has been under attack before Onlyfans. The majority of society, even some of those who actively consume pornographic content, have never looked favorably upon the industry and those who work in it. Companies could legally fire current or previous adult workers, citing morality issues. Adult workers faced having their bank accounts shut down or their funds frozen, for simply creating porn online. Social media sites could shadowban adult workers. Payment apps could shut down and withhold your funds if you were an adult worker, even if you never used their sites for your adult work business.
And then there was FOSTA/SESTA. The government's way to further restrict the industry, while citing that the law was to "stop sex trafficking". Something that, after almost six years of having been implemented, this law catastrophically failed to do.
These problems predicated the pandemic and Onlyfans. However, not only have they persisted, but new issues have cropped up in the last few years.
Demands for porn bans are not new. Since online porn came into existence I am sure there has been people who have wanted it banned. It is also not new for conservative politicians to make promises of banning pornography, or even try to pass legislation doing so. But, I think it would be naive to say that these people have not only grown louder, but have even grown in number, as of the last couple years.
And it has become more than simple cries for a porn ban by a handful of constituents or empty promises made by politicians. Multiple states have now implemented laws where users must submit their legal ids as proof of age before being allowed to access porn sites.
But, Marci, surely this isn't a bad thing? It keeps minors from accessing adult content and it can easily be bypassed with a VPN.
If it were to remain at that, then yes, overall I don't think it's the worst thing ever. But, do you think those who passed those laws will want it to end there? Extremist laws are not going to be implemented all at once. If a total porn ban were to be instated with no build up, there would certainly be a large pushback. People like their porn, even if they don't like those who create it. So, the logical way to successfully ban porn, or make it to where it is incredibly hard to access, would be to do it in phases. Thus, the current laws we are seeing.
There is even now, what can only be called, a manifesto, Project 2025. An outline of what some conservatives would like to see happen if a Republican were to win this upcoming U.S. Presidential Election. Part of it outlines how pornography should not only be federally banned, but it should become a crime to even produce it. While surely that seems impossible to actually implement, after all, how do we unanimously decide on what is porn and what isn't, it is still worrying that a lot of people do agree with this sentiment.
Now, a lot of that is speculation and perhaps conspiracy theories. But, it isn't speculation that public opinion towards online porn has grown a lot more extreme and biased in recent years, and that it is more of a political hot topic than it used to be.
And why is that? I am of the opinion it is because of the mainstream popularity of OnlyFans. Because now, the adult industry is now more upfront and center than it has been in the past, when people would usually have to seek out porn sites to see it, rather than have it pop up when you're not even looking for it.
Before OnlyFans, the only widely known, or popular in the mainstream, porn site was PornHub. Certainly PornHub did it's fair share to hurt the industry, but that's a topic for another post. However, with PornHub, you didn't have the influx of people joining the industry to create content for PornHub like we've seen with OnlyFans. Simply because, the money making aspect, or the prospect of it, wasn't there.
When the pandemic hit and most of the world was in lockdown, people were losing their jobs, losing their incomes. There was a huge surge of people joining the adult industry, since a lot of people did not have many other options to make a sustainable income. That's when OnlyFans began it's upward climb to mainstream popularity.
With popular actresses and singers and celebrities joining OnlyFans, the site become a household name unlike any site before it. The prospect of making thousands of dollars overnight was a very alluring prospect for many people who would have otherwise never thought about entering the adult industry.
Fast forward to today. OnlyFans is still as popular than ever with millions of people having created profiles in an attempt to get rich quick. A lot of these people, inexperienced with the industry, advertise their accounts anywhere they believe they can get a subscriber. It's now not uncommon to be browsing a random social media site and see someone posting a suggestive photo with a link to their OnlyFans account. When adult content was something you used to have to purposefully seek out, it is now much more in the face of the public, especially those who may not even be looking for it.
It is my opinion, and perhaps one that won't be shared, that this exact phenomenon has altered the vast public's opinion more negatively towards the adult industry as a whole.
Adult work tourists, people who dabble in posting content but never take it very seriously like those who have made legitimate careers out of being in the industry, do much more harm to the industry than help it. If it wasn't for OnlyFans, I do believe we'd see a lot less sex work tourists.
A sad part about that is, you now have many young people waiting on the day they are old enough to enter the industry, with stars in their eyes and the thought of money on their mind. So, not only are we seeing an influx of people entering the industry, but much younger people as well. Something that has obviously caught the attention of the masses, furthering this notion that the industry is predatory and all around bad, which enhances their negative opinions of the industry.
Anyway, I'm sure there's more to be said, but this has become quite long. I'd like to know what others think.
