‘This is an actual job’: the OnlyFans gig where your face is your fortune

A near-ban on porn by the widely popular subscriber platform OnlyFans sheds light on the world of content creators whose faces, and bodies, are their fortune, Nicole Meilak finds out

‘Stars’: porn actress Shyli Rose and gamer eye-candy Rachel Thake
‘Stars’: porn actress Shyli Rose and gamer eye-candy Rachel Thake

Content subscription services are becoming an increasingly popular way for digital creators to monetise their work and protect their copyright, but among the various subscription sites has emerged OnlyFans, a platform most associated with nudity and explicit content.

With its if-all-else-fails-become-a-porn-star mentality, the site has provided an easy avenue to pursue a career in self-propagated content.

But last week the company almost banned porn last week after it said it would no longer allow “explicit sexual content” in the future, before reversing the policy unexpectedly the next week. Sex workers had built OnlyFans into a multibillion-dollar subscription platform, before early reports speculated that a new set of Mastercard rules and banking regulations on what payments they process, had forced OnlyFans to rule out porn. OnlyFans founder and CEO Tim Stokely said three major banks had refused service because of “reputational risk” associated with its sexual material: Bank of New York Mellon, Metro Bank, and JPMorgan Chase. Still, OnlyFans’ decision to rule out porn has been reversed since then.

Maltese creators like porn star Shyli Rose and gamer Rachel Thake warn that the OnlyFans route can be quite the rocky road for content creators putting out their work to paying subscribers.

“I take a photo session and post new things every single day, apart from having to reply to the hundreds of subscribers on the daily,” Shyli Rose said in her run-down on this most unconventional of jobs.

Rachel Thake, who works full-time in the igaming industry, starting her OnlyFans account on a whim. “It was a random thought from one of my best friends. We kind of joked about it at first. I think I said jokingly that I’d start an account and see where that goes. It started off as a joke, and then I woke up one day and just did it. It was quite impulsive.”

Thake references Shyli Rose’s work as having kick-started the OnlyFans avenue for Malta, noting the sheer amount of money she was making when she first set up an account last July. “I wasn’t sure how big OnlyFans was in Malta or how many people knew about it. I may have come across it before but when Shyli shared her story it really came to the fore.”

For the most part, Shyli Rose says her experiences on OnlyFans have been quite positive. “My subscribers are very sweet people, they’re very kind and respectful towards me and my limits.”

Thake shares this sentiment: No weird requests since setting up her account. “I think my subscribers are very respectable and understanding, but there are people out there who look at you and think ‘I want to use you and that’s it’. Still, it’s nice to be able to speak to respectable people.”

OnlyFans is open to any sort of content, but it has become widely associated with nudity and explicit content. Shyli Rose disagrees with the connotation. “Having OnlyFans doesn’t mean you do sex work. It could be whatever type of content they like and they can choose their limits.”

Thake, despite not publishing nudity or explicit content on her account, is more embracing of the sex work label. “In Malta we’re very behind in terms of accepting sex work as an actual job – some people say the same thing about prostitution. They don’t understand that sometimes it’s a woman’s choice to do this. I might not have all the company benefits, but I pay my own taxes, I make a living, this money goes towards my daily needs and savings… this is my job!”

Yet both women seem to agree that that an OnlyFans ‘gig’ is actually a stressful commitment. “People think it’s really easy to do. Let me tell you, it’s not!” Thake warns. “It’s not easy whatsoever. You need a lot of time, your head needs to be screwed on in the right direction, and a lot of effort goes into it.”

She says running her OF account and a full-time career makes her feel like she’s working two jobs. “Almost all my free time is used to market myself on OnlyFans. I’ve read a lot of comments saying it’s easy, it’s not challenging, that they can do it tomorrow and become better than everyone else. Sure, maybe, but it’s not easy. It’s a tough job. I’m not going to compare it to running a country as president, but on different levels it’s very demanding and there are people who constantly want your attention. It’s tough to keep on top of, but I like to think I do the best I can.”

“You have to treat it as a job,” Shyli Rose says. “No matter how you wake up and in whatever mindset you’re in, you need to get up and start working on your content.”

Now that the platform is to start banning explicit content from its site, a development forced by money transaction institutions refusing to service pornographic platforms, life for particular content creators is getting harder. “This isn’t simply about OnlyFans changing its terms and conditions: people are joking about the lives of millions of women,” Thake says.

Shyli Rose warns that OnlyFans isn’t for everyone, and would avoid recommending it on a general level. “If you do come to the decision to open an OnlyFans account, all I’d say is don’t cross your limits because you’ll regret it later, and let no subscriber force you into doing things you don’t want to do. Know your limits and your worth.”

Thake suggests speaking to friends and family before going into this line of work. “For some guidance, maybe read about it and speak to other creators if you’re sceptical. If there’s anyone who wants to start but isn’t sure, they can speak to me and hear about my experiences.”

The rise of the subscriber site – and the sex workers at the core of its success

OnlyFans was founded in 2016, but quickly became the go-to for sex workers looking into alternative ways to promote their content. The platform has admitted that the OnlyFans community wouldn’t be what it is today without sex workers and vowed to come up with solutions to its recent ban on explicit content.

The company announced its ban on adult material on 19 August after mounting pressure from its payment processors. It said that it would allow some posts containing nudity, but any content containing “sexually-explicit conduct” would be banned

This decision was met with major controversy. Cathy Reisenwitz, an OnlyFans creator with bylines in VICE and Daily Beast, said that OnlyFans would not exist without sex workers, and that companies often generate a lot of profit and a huge audience on the back of sex workers, only to remove their content once they reach a certain level of success.

OnlyFans founder and CEO Tim Stokely says banks were behind the online fundraising platform’s recent ban on sexually explicit content, pressuring it into banning the promotion of sexually explicit material. The ‘ban’ would affect anything that “shows, promotes, advertises, or refers to” real or simulated sex, masturbation, and sex-related bodily fluids. It will still allow nudity, but an email to OnlyFans creators suggested that things like zooming too close to body parts could violate the rules.

And while many websites report on a few OnlyFans creators earning considerable cash, one website estimates that the average OnlyFans creator earns a measly $180 a month.