Bella Thorne is being accused of harming sex workers after joining 'OnlyFans'

When Beyoncé mused that she might “start an OnlyFans” account in the remix of Megan Thee Stallion’s ‘Savage,’ we readied our credit cards. The pay-per-view content subscription service hosts creators from the worlds of music, fitness, and food. Mostly, however, it’s a platform for adult entertainment performers and Bey is extremely unlikely to need the extra cash flow an account could bring in. Actor Bella Thorne, however, has decided that she does — and some say her presence there could hurt the platform’s adult entertainers who rely on it for their living.Thorne announced that she would be joining OnlyFans in an Instagram post earlier this month. In it, the former Disney Channel star hinted at a level of content that promised to be spicier than what Instagram — where even breastfeeding mothers are censored — allows.

 

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ONLY FANS ^^^^

A post shared by BELLA (@bellathorne) on Aug 19, 2020 at 12:11pm PDT

Just one day after her account made its debut, Thorne had raked in a million dollars in OnlyFans earnings by charging $20 a head (twice what the average account holder charges) to share exclusive content and, say her reps, personally responding to every last DM she receives. Just don’t expect to see her without clothes on. “Also nooooo I’m not doing nudity!!!” she tweeted on Tuesday.Thorne claims that her OnlyFans experiment is tied to a film project she’s working on, telling the LA Times, "It's a feature we are researching as I'm living it currently," she said. "What are the ins and outs? What does a platform like this do to its users? What's the connective material between your life and your life inside the world of OnlyFans? ... How can it change your life for the worse and the better? How far are you willing to go, and how far do you WANT to go? You can be me, or this talented girl from Montana, and OnlyFans could change your life — if you want it to, of course."[video_embed id='2018721']RELATED: Influencers and celebrities are flocking to OnlyFans – but is that a good thing?[/video_embed]But both fans and sex industry workers say that Thorne’s presence on the platform is problematic (though she isn’t the only celebrity on there — Cardi B, Drag Race star Shea Coulee, and model Blac Chyna also have accounts). While Thorne is being celebrated for her record-setting earnings (now totalling $2 million), sex workers who’ve used the platform since its inception, charging much lower rates that Thorne, continue to be condemned for the work they do. The way Thorne is using OnlyFans, tweeted one critic, looks a lot like cosplay. Another called out the media’s celebration of Thorne’s big payday as a kind of erasure of the contributions made by the low-paid sex workers who’ve turned the platform into the profitable success it currently is.

we're like a month away from onlyfans changing so much about media in general and headlines like "bella thorne and kylie jenner: innovators of the year" completely erasing the primarily black sex workers who were harrassed and attacked while making it popular/profitable https://t.co/3CKcKOmNDS

— mustafa (@whocaresmanlmao) August 25, 2020

A remedy, as suggested by more than one of Thorne’s critics, advises the actor to use the proceeds from her OnlyFans account to fund activism that aims to decriminalize sex work and create a safer environment for the people so precariously employed in that industry — and to perhaps use her platform and voice to speak out on behalf of sex workers herself.[video_embed id='2008125']Before you go: FKA Twigs launches pandemic fundraiser for sex workers[/video_embed]