• [ network ]
  • goatmatrix.net
  • gvid.tv
  • img.gvid.tv
  • speedy.gvid.tv
  • apps.gvid.tv
HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

OnlyFans Didn't Save Sex Workers, Sex Workers Saved Themselves.

Views:980
@ReasonVids

The web-camming site OnlyFans might have caught on during the COVID-19 quarantine, but sex workers started using the site years ago. It's the latest tool they use to ply their trade in safer and more autonomous ways.

------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------

"I thought it would honestly be really funny if I read my blog posts naked," says Cathy Reisenwitz, a former Reason staffer and freelance writer who joined the web-camming site OnlyFans during the COVID-19 quarantine. OnlyFans reports that with the world on lockdown, its traffic has grown at a rate of 150,000 new users daily.

OnlyFans is a social network like Instagram or YouTube, except that creators get to charge for their content, and they keep between 70 and 80 percent of the proceeds. Nudity is common. Reisenwitz says her goal is to break down stigmas around mixing sex and money. People assume that "you're either someone who makes money from their brain or their body," Reisenwitz told Reason. "And I think that's dumb."

OnlyFans is another milestone in the long fight for sex worker freedom, who have embraced peer-to-peer platforms as a way to eliminate middlemen, thwart the vice police, and ply their trade with more creativity and autonomy.

"So many more women are able to be their own producers now," Film Studies Professor Constance Penley told Reason. In the early 1990s, she and her colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara, were among the first academics to give pornography serious scholarly attention. Penley says that camming has birthed a new world in which performers are calling more of the shots, edging out studios and distributors. 

It's also turned sex work into a more common side hustle. "It's not the main part of their living," says Penley.

Professional sex worker and writer Siouxsie Q started in the industry after college, performing on stage and in live peep shows at San Francisco's Lusty Lady Theater. But she eventually migrated her career online, where it's possible to interface more directly with her customers.  Q has seen many camming sites come and go, but over time, platforms have shifted to giving performers more autonomy and the freedom to be creative. 

Siouxsie Q runs part of her webcam business through a website called Modelcentro, which owns Fancentro.

"Modelcentro really created essentially the adult industry's Squarespace and the ability to just plug and play your own site where you could feature your own content and then users can access that via their smartphones," she says. "That really changed the game,"

Before the commercial internet, sex work was done mostly on the street through pimps. It was a dangerous trade.  The internet has made the industry safer by integrating customer screening tools and reputation networks, which mitigate risk even when sex workers choose to meet their clients in person. OnlyFans and websites like it mean sex workers get to decide who they let into their world.

"It's funny, I've been on social media, I'm super active on Twitter. I have been for a really long time," says Reisenwitz. "OnlyFans is like the nicest place on the internet for me right now. Like, by a lot."

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
    Thumbnail for The Case for Gun Control Is Dead2:28
    The Case for Gun Control Is Dead
    ReasonVids
    1101 views
    Thumbnail for Atlas Arms | The Dagny Dagger4:37
    Atlas Arms | The Dagny Dagger
    3dpew
    929 views
    Thumbnail for The Swing Vote: Why Independents Will Decide the 2012 Election6:41
    The Swing Vote: Why Independents Will Decide the 2012 Election
    ReasonVids
    976 views
    Thumbnail for polite bear0:36
    polite bear
    bestofupgoat
    549 views
    Thumbnail for Germans singing "Germany for the Germans. Foreigners out" inside a tram0:26
    Germans singing "Germany for the Germans. Foreigners out" inside a tram
    bestofupgoat
    554 views
    Thumbnail for Before the Web: The 1980s Dream of a Free and Borderless Virtual World (Pt.1)11:27
    Before the Web: The 1980s Dream of a Free and Borderless Virtual World (Pt.1)
    ReasonVids
    1069 views
    Thumbnail for Burke, et al. v. City of Chicago press conference.18:29
    Burke, et al. v. City of Chicago press conference.
    IJvids
    906 views
    Thumbnail for Citizen Speech Press Conference 9-29-1015:29
    Citizen Speech Press Conference 9-29-10
    IJvids
    1017 views
    Thumbnail for Food delivery robot0:14
    Food delivery robot
    voatcatbox
    614 views
    Thumbnail for 'Cat-like reflexes'0:03
    'Cat-like reflexes'
    AOUisgay
    569 views
    Thumbnail for How the Conservative Supreme Court Is Changing America1:55:02
    How the Conservative Supreme Court Is Changing America
    ReasonVids
    855 views
    Thumbnail for Zoomcopter Kiosks2:07
    Zoomcopter Kiosks
    x0x7
    4035 views
    Thumbnail for One of the best pranks ever1:07
    One of the best pranks ever
    bestofupgoat
    451 views
    Thumbnail for juden Peterson master class0:35
    juden Peterson master class
    bestofvoatxyz
    981 views
    Thumbnail for This goes hard 0:40
    This goes hard
    bestofupgoat
    245 views
    Thumbnail for No Irish1:15
    No Irish
    bestofupgoat
    134 views
    Thumbnail for How the U.S. Covered Up the Murder of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi19:09
    How the U.S. Covered Up the Murder of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi
    ReasonVids
    1025 views
    Thumbnail for Fabulous street food1:11
    Fabulous street food
    bestofupgoat
    434 views
    Thumbnail for Corporate Entertainers1:23
    Corporate Entertainers
    bestofsaidit
    682 views
    Thumbnail for Backpack (Live) | AJJ - Topic4:27
    Backpack (Live) | AJJ - Topic
    invidious
    289 views
    Thumbnail for How Old Is The Water You Drink? | Vsauce0:59
    How Old Is The Water You Drink? | Vsauce
    invidious
    405 views
    Thumbnail for Friday Morning Jazz - Positive Energy with Jazz Relaxing Music & Happy Bossa Nova for Begin the day | Cafe Cozy Jazz1:00
    Friday Morning Jazz - Positive Energy with Jazz Relaxing Music & Happy Bossa Nova for Begin the day | Cafe Cozy Jazz
    invidious
    324 views
    Thumbnail for Lakers BEAT Knicks In Overtime! | Lakers Nation1:18:21
    Lakers BEAT Knicks In Overtime! | Lakers Nation
    invidious
    130 views
    Thumbnail for Why ONLY Men Watch My Videos | Lynn Everly5:46
    Why ONLY Men Watch My Videos | Lynn Everly
    invidious
    109 views
    Thumbnail for Rep. Justin Amash on Trump, Ryan, and the 'Stupidity' of How the Government Spends Your Money33:14
    Rep. Justin Amash on Trump, Ryan, and the 'Stupidity' of How the Government Spends Your Money
    ReasonVids
    1032 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle