Online Sex Work of Women on OnlyFans: Oppression or Empowerment?

(Online) Sex work is a hot topic in feminist literature which is mainly studied with respect to two perspectives towards sex work: oppression and empowerment. This study aims to understand “How online sex work of women on OnlyFans can be interpreted and try to understand if OnlyFans can be explained through the perspectives of victimization and empowerment. For this purpose, this paper will provide a theoretical discussion about two main debates (oppression and empowerment) in the literature; be analyzed by taking OnlyFans as a case. Study results show that women's online sex work experience cannot be explained purely by oppression or empowerment paradigms, instead coexistence of oppression or empowerment should be taken into account. Secondly, emphasizing only the oppression or empowerment paradigm underestimates women’s differences that directly affect women’s online sex work experiences. Thus, intersectional analyses that are taken into women’s age, race, and gender considerations are necessary in order to understand women’s OnlyFans experiences. Last but not least, women’s experiences of online sex work can change according to the motivation behind being a sex worker in OnlyFans.