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On #Onlyfans:Selling Sexy, the new @abcnews doc, overall it was good but not at all without its problems... I’m happy when I see better than average news coverage of sex industries but alas the bar ain’t all the high.....a 
Let me begin with the good news....1/23
Let me begin with the good news....1/23
When I first started watching, I admittedly went in very skeptical and while some of my fears did play out, there was also a lot of good work done here. 2/23
While I think Wynter could have been centered even more (and in fact get Thorne off the promo ad, and put Wynter there), I was glad to see that from the outset a Black woman was centered in the story. 3/23
I really appreciated the voices of sex educator, Shan Boodram and sex therapist, Chris Donahue. These 2 brought rigor and critical analysis to the table, which was often disrupted by some of the comedians toxic commentary. We are making news here, right? More on that later. 4/23
I appreciated the attention to saturated markets and that both Boodram and Donahue continually reminded people that this is work. This is labor. This a job. 5/23
While I could’ve done with far less of Thorne, I mean hasn’t she already taken up enough space, I was worried they wouldn’t capture the perspective of sex workers, and why such celebrity presence harmed (not helped) sex workers but they most certainly did. Good news there. 6/23
They also did a relatively good job acknowledging that sex workers have been using the Internet to sell porn since it’s inception. So, some of this story is old hat. 7/23
However, what seems to appeal to the media in general and their obsession with onlyfans is that people who wouldn’t have necessarily done sex work are now increasingly becoming open to doing sex work. Ok, I’m cool with that. Get that $$$ 8/23
Finally, I appreciated the attention to stigma and how misplaced and fucked up it is that the state and so many ppl really seem to hate sex workers....9/23
That for example, a model holding an another job got fired from that job because she also worked on onlyfans. I loved that one reporter EJ Dickinson and Boodram really stuck it to and explicitly called out patriarchy on this! 10/23
Now, my biggest gripes. Remember, I began with Wynter. Well, the media bar is so low in coverage of online sex industries that I’m rushing to celebrate what in the end, also felt tokenizing. 11/23
Not only was she the only visibly bipoc person; she was also the only person who’s embodiment didn’t conform to normative ideals in porn and broader US culture. 12/23
While I can’t be sure how ppl identify, there didn’t appear to be any trans or non-binary people in the doc. And if we know anything about sex industries, to exclude trans ppl is negligible. 13/23
They also seemed to focus on and center straight ppl here, save for Wynter’s brief encounter with a poly woman for a lucrative shooting. And further spoiler, we don’t see any clips of it. So get over to onlyfans and subscribe to Wynter’s account. 14/23
Lawd, I think featuring a comedian telling sex workers concerned about their livelihoods that they are being petty (about Thorne) and to STFU and that “everyone can eat” on onlyfans is as offensive as it is inaccurate. Everyone most certainly cannot and does not eat here! 15/23
Enter one of the two problems I anticipated that did in fact play out. In the end, the doc still centered ppl making huge bank. Thus contributing to the misnomer that everyone eats here. Yes, ppl with existing brands, such as the featured porn stars make huge bank. 16/23
While Donahue emphasized the importance of understanding what happens to wages in saturated markets, this critical point was overshadowed by the stories centering of ppl making huge amounts of money there. 17/23
The issue of low wages and high competition in a saturated market is also exacerbated for ppl experiencing intersectional forms of disadvantage. 18/23
The second problematic theme was the narrative around how the economic benefits of online sex work leads people who may have began as non-nude models to do more—to be more sexually explicit. I don’t disagree that this is true for some. 19/23
However, how is that different than ppl in other industries who perform labor they’d rather not or hadn’t intended because it’s lucrative? What makes this choice so controversial—SEX! 20/23
Also, the tone, to me, was negative and the focus on economic motivation is important but glosses over the sexual agency, affirmation, and empowerment that many (even if not all) ppl find in sex industries. 21/23
Again this was a point that Dickinson and Boodram were making but to me again may have been drowned out by the overarching story arch. Like, they connect the negatives of sex work such as stigma to these ppl doing more sexually explicit work. 22/23
Last, I disliked comparisons btw playboy and onlyfans. These are different mediums w/different market structures. Despite exploitative payment structures, the autonomy and control over ones labor is far greater in independent online platform sex work than it ever was @ PB 23/23
