The U.S. is beginning to acknowledge porn as a respectable form of media. Recently, Bella Thorne, an artist who began her acting career on Disney Channel’s Shake it Up (2010-2013), has muddled the boundaries of hard-core sex films and mainstream media. Thorne is a curious case study as she not only transitioned from Hollywood into the porn industry but was a childhood star. Usually, porn stars move from porn into mainstream entertainment, not the inverse. Sasha Grey is a prime example of a porn star turned movie star. Grey brought the style of Gonzo to her performances in pornos like Razördolls (2006). She has been credited for making artistic porn (Saunders, 2018). After earning acclaim in the porn industry, Grey appeared in several Entourage (2004-2011) episodes in 2010. She also received a starring role in the narrative film, Open Windows (2014). Thorne, on the other hand, is famous for her childhood performances and in 2019 she directed the adult feature, Her & Him.

Thorne’s most discussed contribution to the sex industry thus far has been her participation in OnlyFans. OnlyFans is a website (1) where content creators sell exclusive media directly to their followers. Users can pay to watch workout routines or cooking tutorials. But the site is known for adult-content creators sharing media that is too explicit for social media sites like Instagram.

After Thorne stated that she would sell nude photos on OnlyFans, she “immediately set a record, becoming the first creator to make more than $1 million in 24 hours, and then topping $2 million by the end of the week.” Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, OnlyFans has seen a “75 percent increase in sign-ups in recent weeks and garnering 170,000 new users per day.”

Many of Thorne’s fans demanded reimbursements because her content was not as explicit as she said it would be. In response to the scamming accusations OnlyFans “issued a $50 cap on pay-per-view messages…and a $100 cap on tips.”

Thorne is showing the mainstream that celebrities can participate in pornography, thus blurring the lines between sex work and Hollywood. But she is also gentrifying online sex labor. The controversy generated by OnlyFans’ change in policy raises the question as to whether celebrities should participate in subscription-based media websites where workers depend on their followers to pay their salaries.

Thorne issued an apology via Twitter, stating that she meant to bring positive attention to OnlyFans and to the topic of sex. She did not intend to take advantage of the sex industry. Given Thorne’s Hollywood stardom and her influence on the adult industry, her talents may be better suited for the studio productions.

Confining Thorne to the upper echelons of the adult entertainment industry appears to be an accommodating resolution. Yet, this may further divide OnlyFans content creators from the mainstream as they are shunning Hollywood celebrities who work within the porn industry. The OnlyFans content creators are isolating themselves.

To mainstream sex media, communication between the underground and Hollywood has been key. Thorne gained prominence primarily by acting in mainstream TV and cinema. Grey became known for being an artistic porn star, but her entrance into pop culture became evident when she began appearing in shows like Entourage. OnlyFans stars may be able to forego the traditional “transition to Hollywood,” because platforms like TikTok and other social sites provide considerable reach. However, these companies are also purging sex workers from their apps.

Thorne and Grey are able to work in Hollywood and in the porn industry. Further analytical study is required to examine how (and if) OnlyFans stars can do the same. It may be that they don’t want to work for Hollywood. OnlyFans is allowing sex workers to earn a living. They may only want this and not the notoriety. Is OnlyFans mainstreaming sex then? Or is the platform solely working to monetize it? Is this private exchange between the viewer and the content creator tied to the larger question of what form of media can mainstream sex? At the beginning of this essay, we stated that, “The U.S. is beginning to acknowledge porn as a respectable form of media.” Our argument has been based on the theory that Hollywood celebrities like Thorne and Grey are positively representing sex in mainstream culture. Our contention is further grounded on the idea that our society looks to Hollywood to show us what is acceptable behavior. Has OnlyFans become our new Hollywood? Maybe OnlyFans will be our contemporary window into sexual normality, our allowed arousal from watching curated videos. But we will have to pay a content creator to show us this, and we might not tell anyone that we did.

Works Cited:

Saunders, Rebecca. 2018. “Grey, Gonzo and the Grotesque: The Legacy of Porn Star Sasha Grey.” Porn Studies (Abingdon, UK) 5, no. 4: 363–379.

Works Consulted:

Attwood, Feona and Smith, Clarissa. 2014. “Anti/Pro/Critical Porn Studies.” Porn Studies, 1:1-2, 7-23.

Attwood, Feona and Smith, Clarissa. 2014. “Porn Studies: An Introduction.” Porn Studies (Abingdon, UK) 1, no. 1-2: 1–6.

Endnotes:

1. We refer to OnlyFans as a website because it is solely a website. OnlyFans does not have an app because “The platform as it exists now likely runs afoul of Apple’s restrictions on ‘overtly sexual or pornographic material.’ And even if Apple did allow an OnlyFans app, the fees–30 percent– would certainly be a problem, Mr. Stokely said. He would have to pass along those expenses to performers.”