Be it Girlbosses or Happy Housewives, “effortless chic,” “no makeup makeup” or The Rules, the message to women has always been to serve exceptional while appearing like you’re doing nothing at all.
Hashtag gratitude.
Countless big businesses have been built to shore up that illusion, but help always comes at a cost. And success comes with a backlash.
The badgirl half-sister of influencing, OnlyFans’ shows the bind of other female hustles. So often a woman’s success has a high dose of performative work, of disproportionately selling ourselves to be likable and available. But it better be real!
As one piece stated, it’s not necessarily pornography but, “it’s not not porn.”
98% adult content with 2 million creators platformed, if not active.
71% of the creators (often “models”) are female, though trans folks are growing at a rapid pace
Just under 50% of the audience is USA-based
Majority of users are white married heterosexual men—89% are married
Of the LGBTQ contingent, 30% identify as bi
Women are growing as users, nearing 40%
Current revenue: $6.6B with a B
The average creator makes $180 a month. The founder makes over $1M per day.
Founder: Ukrainian-born, UK based Leonid Radvinsky, worth $3.8B from OnlyFans
There are success stories. Here’s the teacher who made $5000 a month then $2M a year while teaching high school English (salary: $42,000). Until she got outed, suspended and then resigned. (there’s a teacher theme, stay tuned)
Like most other content platforms - Substack, for one - the easiest way to build a fan base is to come in with one, whether you come in from gaming, porn, acting, comedy, etc.
The other way? Dance, monkey. Dance. Performative feminity.
Has anyone noticed female entrepreneurs are often dancing on social media? Pointing at random things? Excessively self-disclosing? Building platforms on multiple memoirs?
I just read a piece about an author influencer urged by followers to “dance more” and try on outfits on-camera. Is anyone asking this of Jordan Peterson? Ryan Holiday? Ezra Klein?
The term “butthurt” is physically and intellectually painful, but it fit when I read about a group of angry men suing OnlyFans. They’re mad to run OF’s cash engine of constant DMs and 1:1 chats, some creators use “chatters.”
Creators are expected to sext, flatter, listen to the guy’s woes, and upsell like hell for subscriptions, “exclusive” photo and video access, etc. So at scale, it’s outsourced to chatters. Like affiliate marketers, chatters often earn 20% on anything they sell.
Well, the boys didn’t care for that. They’re suing chatter agencies and OnlyFans for fraud for many billions. Apparently the claim starts “Romance scams have existed for a long time…”
Romance. OK.
Fans often tip creators or pay for items on Amazon wishlists - classic sugar baby or financial dominatrix moves.
But unlike the “pay pigs” who gladly line those Domme$ corsets, these guys feel robbed. Often, the final insult is the specter of a MALE answering the texts. Likely in the Philippines (!!) OnlyFans is working hard to keep AI off the platform but the chatters are a thing. Says one of the plaintiffs:
“I’m not an idiot. I never thought I was in a relationship with these girls or they cared about me… I’ve been to strip clubs many times… It’s not real.”
OK, so why sue?
A sharp rebuttal came from an adult industry lobbyist, Mike Stabile of the Free Speech Coalition: 1
“<They> are not real people because they’re fictional.. portraying a character. This is entertainment. You’re paying to role play that you’re talking to this person. You don’t go to Universal Studios and say ‘I’m not in Hogwarts?!"‘
She Works Hard for It Honey
Like all girlbosses, the OF gig is a lot of work. And for years, activists have said, sex work is work.
Like cam girl-guys before them, these users want a lot of interaction. Call it a girlfriend experience, edging, foreplay or the Lonely Hearts Club, these guys wanna chat. Not only the sexting most online dating has been reduced to.
Yet despite this, only 5% of creators reportedly use chatters
If you DIY, you can use a subscription SAAS platform called Supercreator, an OnlyFans-only command center holding cut-and-paste phrases, “custom” photos and clips, plus detailed subscriber CRM and analytics. $65/month to start.
Freelance chatters have extensive Upwork profiles with KPIs and screenshots listed. Maybe $9/hour for offshore plus 20% of anything they sell.
Agencies are next level and often take 40% of earnings, These agencies are predatory, locking people into year-long contracts and holding their content and log-in credentials hostage if they try to break them. They are known for violating boundaries of the creators, engaging in chats with acts like “race play” according to Alex Guizzetii, CEO of the anti-chat, pro phone platform SextPanther.2
Add costs and time for costumes, makeup, extensions, tanning, waxing, props, sets and content editing - these women are fueling several industries. I’d be surprised if the busiest ones clear 30% of gross. These women deserve to use AI, before AI simply eradicates them.
I Actually Know a Chatter
A straight male friend of mine is a chatter for several creators and has been for over a year. He describes the work as relentless, stressful and grueling - and the creators as wonderful.
His other admission: working as a chatter with these men has “killed my sex drive” and made him detest and scorn men.
His words, not mine.
Would the customers be horrified if they saw my old buddy typing sweet nothings and discussing why their kids aren’t talking to them? 100%.
Are they getting off with the screen off? The $100 tips, $29.99 exclusives and $89.95 voicemails they sell say YES.
so many ways men can make $ off these (mostly) women
OnlyFans As Retirement Strategy & Third Act Career Pivot
OnlyFans is increasingly becoming a necessary income stream in a battered and ageist Hollywood/America.
Denise Richards is reportedly clearing $2M a month on the site. She was inspired by her daughter who joined at 18, much to the chagrin of her famously prostitute-loving dad Charlie Sheen.
Sami Sheen & Denise Richards. OF daughter + mom
Drea de Matteo says she’s earning more a month than she did per Sopranos’ episode, a necessary pivot after she says Hollywood cancelled her over a refusal to Covid vax.
“OnlyFans saved my life, 100 percent. I can't believe I'm saying that, but it really did save us. Anybody that wants to condemn me and put me down, go for it. I just hope you never find yourself in the position I was in to take care of two little kids. It saved my home of many years that was very important to us.”
Drea, via Daily Mail via OF
She’s gone on record saying her 13 year-old son edits her photos, though not explicit content like her girl-on-girl with Carmen Electra.
Fan fav Carmen offers $10 over text or $85 to perform one of the platform’s most popular asks: Asking creators to rate men’s genitals. It’s been trending for a while.
Survey says… ZERO
Celebs Aren’t The Only Olds On the Platform
An unrepentant 50 year old teacher whose OnlyFans got outed then resigned from her teaching gig. She quoted Shakespeare then added, “Regardless of what I do in my private life for the sake of keeping a roof over my family’s head and a car parked in the garage, I remain one of the greatest English teachers ever to serve in the… district.”
OnlyFans boasts women of all types, including many “average” looking women. My chatter friend corroborates this, and the diversity of content from depraved to banal.
2023 data - Gee OF is doing OK in the Bible Belt though.
Influencers but make it naked
Meanwhile, the tradmoms are fake-churning butter and female founders just keep dancing, girl. All with an outsourced Filipino assistant found on Upwork answering texts and DMs to keep the parasocial flowing.
According to a 2023 Morning Consult survey, 57% of Gen Z wants to be influencers, as do 41% of adults overall.
Brands WILL be here. Fly by Jing has advertising Hot Noods on the site. Rebecca Minkoff streamed a runway show here. Because…..
Or not nude: OnlyFansTV
It’s not all porn, rating testicles and male ennui. There are cooking shows, dog trainers and incrasingly a platform for comedians: the no-nudes OnlyFansTV.
Post-cancellation Dave Chappell and Louie CK both started independent comedy empires on their own. Women are often less capitalized, so OF makes sense and has wooed them. Whitney Cummings released a special on OFTV.
Jialying Summers did the same and has made $1M by pre-releasing her podcasts on OFTV (Podcast name: Tiger MILF) and making Cameo-style roast vids for fans.
Now OF is her preferred platform to IG: “My superafns will tip me $100 on Only Fans to say hi to me.”
She’s now selling bikini pics too. “I love my body. If they want to pay $50, I don’t mind.”
Victoria’s Secret Forgot the Fun
VS is trying to pull an Abercrombie and revive itself. Last night’s runway show was a bit of a bumpy indicator.
It was the first VS fashion show in 6 years and very hyped. Yet possibly not focus grouped.
Kate Moss, Barbara Palvin, Tyra, Carla Bruna, Candace, Andrea and yet
VS is supposedly making headway with GenZ but fan commentary on the show was unimpressed, even sad. While the casting was packed with OG models, they lost the big hair tossing, kiss blowing, laughing, banter and don’t take it all seriously3 FUN that Heidi Klum embodies. Notably, she wasn’t there.
The brand was pilloried for male gaze and disgusting, Epstein-adjacent management, but reviews made me realize they don’t even get their customer or brand equity.
It’s said women really dress for other women. Fans made it clear VS fashion show was always for girls, or the girl in the woman. The Barbie girl, specifically. It was about the fun, fabulous gorgeous freedom of reveling in the fantasy of performative female-ness. Not the high fashion stomp fest apparently they think younger women want. Why would they think that?
Followers had a clear, project-manager-ready punch lists of classic trademarks that were missing: specific color stories (pink), themes, actions, beats, wings, million dollar bras, etc.
HIRE YOUR FANS NOT AN ATELIER. YOU ARE A MALL STORE.
So even though the VS metrocard was THE accessory of 4.5 minutes and the Empire State was briefly lit pink, they haven’t quite gotten there yet.
The Stripper Index
You’ve maybe heard of the lipstick index, but did you know about the Stripper Index as economic indicator? When no one’s making it rain, we’re in a down economy.
Yeah, my publishing schedule has been a bit off because I only want to publish when I have something worthy to say. But, spoiler alert, see you Sunday!
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To be fair. I learned all this from social sleuthing I’ve never watched one of these in my life as the Barbie fantasy is not my thing even if I did go through the VS phase.
