Credit: Mehaniq/Shutterstock OnlyFans has a new CEO.  After nearly two and a half years in the position, Ami Gan announced on Tuesday morning that she is stepping down. In the same thread, she announced her successor as chief strategy and operations officer Keily Blair.  I’d love to tout how passing the leadership baton to another woman is “feminist,” but I have my hesitations.  In theory, OnlyFans is great: creators can personalize and monetize their content as they see fit and engage with their fans in a 1:1 setting that traditional studio pornography never fostered. Fans can ..read more

Credit: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock In 2019, Japanese pop idol Ena Matsuoka was assaulted by a stalker who followed her home from a train station. He reportedly identified by comparing the scenery reflected in Matsuoka’s eyes in her selfies to Google Street View images. He later told police he’d tried to determine the floor and location of Matsuoka’s apartment by studying the angle at which light entered her apartment windows on her Instagram.  Threats, Harassment, Risks, and Reward As someone who earns a living as an online content creator, this case has stuck with me. It’s an extreme ..read more

Credit: Elnur/Shutterstock In the summer of 2022, Marcus* was invited by a German art institution to perform his queer, sex-positive work at an avant-garde festival in rural Canada. Excited by the prospect of international travel, he reached out to a few friends in New York and planned a trip to see them afterward, making arrangements to sleep on their couch. After the festival was over, Marcus excitedly took the Greyhound bus to New York as planned. Hours later, he found himself detained in what he describes as a traumatic, five-hour experience at the Canadian border. Escorting is legal in Ma ..read more

Credit: Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock Maitland Ward was overjoyed when she got the call from Fleshlight back in 2019. It’s not hard to see why. For more than two decades, Fleshlights –– the stretchy, fleshy masturbation sleeves that gave the company its moniker –– have dominated the sex toy industry. The Dawn of The Pocket Pussy These handy sleeves have spawned entire legions of “pocket-pussy” replicas, but their beginnings can be traced back to the late ‘90s in Los Angeles. Steve Shubin, a self-described “mean-faced ex-cop,” had just received the doctor’s order that he wasn’t allowed to have se ..read more

Credit: Branislav Nenin/Shutterstock It is late Saturday afternoon and I am still in bed. If I am being honest, I have spent the better part of this week in my bed. Sure, I got coffee, met with my therapist, and even managed to spend an hour or two with friends, but as soon as I walk through the front door of my apartment I always end up back here. This is a pattern that I know all too well by now. It always happens quickly and unexpectedly.  Sex Work Is Work… And Sometimes, Working Isn’t Easy Being a full-time sex worker, a financial dominatrix at that, is not always as glamorous and eff ..read more

Credit: andrey_l/Shutterstock The plot of the 2014 film Her seemed whimsical, if a little far-fetched, when it was released. The film, about a lonely divorced heterosexual man played by Joaquin Phoenix seeking companionship via an A.I. chatbot, was widely praised by critics. However, ten years later this scenario seems more and more likely. In a world surrounded by smart speakers like Amazon’s Alexa, dating apps, and the growing popularity of online sex work, are we that far off? Sex, Loneliness, and the Age of The Internet Researchers have identified that 61% of young people aged 18-25 experi ..read more

Credit: fizkes/Shutterstock I’m not proud of it but I Google my name on the internet. Not as compulsively as before but definitely more than is a mildly curious, somewhat defensible as healthy, amount. About two and a half years ago, I told my therapist that I didn’t think I had PTSD. Cyberstalking wasn’t a catastrophic event in my life. I wasn’t suffering physical consequences from the situation. At that time, C-PTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) wasn’t in common use beyond academic circles. Professionals weren’t even sure the internet could cause trauma.  Trauma, the internet ..read more

Credit: Ivanchik/Shutterstock My name is Lotte Latham. I’m a sex worker and an artist – for me, these are closely linked. Sex work, a so-called unskilled labor, hinges largely on communication, empathy, and problem-solving. These attributes are key in my creative practice, but so is the income I derive from sex work. I use escorting as a means to support and fund my projects. I am constantly juggling this balance of creation and labor in order to stay afloat, much like other working artists. My perspective is formed from a place of privilege. I’ve been lucky enough to have a career in the arts ..read more

Credit: Oleg Elkov/ShutterstockInternet Modeling Isn’t Easy Money. It’s Hard Work.  When we think of models who pose nude on the internet, we often think of how much money they earn. When OnlyFans makes the news, it’s usually because a celebrity made a zillion dollars overnight. Alternately, we hear about when an everyday woman is fired and chooses the platform over her career because of how much more money she makes creating adult content. For some, it’s an excellent financial decision, allowing them to pay off debt and earn far more than they were earning at “straight” jobs. Success sto ..read more