Abstract
Digital technologies have played a pivotal role in facilitating emotional and erotic life, this has become more prevalent during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. This study will explore the ways in which the participation on OnlyFans has shaped women’s experiences around agency and intimacy. OnlyFans is a platform where content creators share their photos, videos, writing and even sex to their subscribers (fans) who are willing to pay. While OnlyFans remains an under researched phenomenon, existing studies on the use of OnlyFans foregrounds the platform as a site for survival. Additionally, OnlyFans is deemed as a site that contributes to the decay of morality. . Less is said about how the site has been integral to women reclaiming their agency, I argue that this results in the easy reading of women on OnlyFans as representatives of neo-liberal postfeminist cultures The post-feminist culture views women as mere commodities with market value. In the context of this research, this suggests that women on OnlyFans are portrayed as hypersexualized objects, consumed primarily by male subscribers, though women also engage with content on the platform. Thus, using a qualitative approach informed by a Black feminist epistemology, I intend to fill in this gap, by unearthing the subjectivities of women participating on OnlyFans, as historically women’s voices and experiences were marginalised. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six women, with the purpose of capturing their experiences on OnlyFans. Findings suggests that women’s response to heteropatriarchy and socio-economic issues such as unemployment exacerbated by the pandemic, manifest as agency, since they are able to gain a sense of control over their sexuality and personal lives. However, they are still subjected to stigma, as women on OnlyFans are regarded as prostitutes, while they have resorted to strategies to navigate stigma. This study calls for a further enquiry on the discrimination of women on OnlyFans and sex workers in South Africa, thus arguing for the recognition of sex work as work.