Actress Bella Thorne joined the subscription service OnlyFans and immediately caused a slew of headlines and controversy. Over the course of her 17-year career, Bella Thorne has proven to be an unexpected risk-taker. Having gotten her start as a child actor at the tender age of six, Thorne landed bit-part and supporting roles in a variety of films and TV series, including HBO's Big Love and ABC's Dirty Sexy Money. In 2010, she joined the Disney Channel crew and starred in three seasons of Shake It Up, a sitcom about two best friends who become back-up dancers on a local TV series.
As Thorne evolved into more adult roles, she took on some conventional mainstream fare, such as Amityville: The Awakening and the Freeform series Famous in Love, but she became better known for her more esoteric professional choices as well as her personal life. She starred in movies like Assassination Nation, appeared as the Swan in the third season of The Masked Singer, and made her directorial debut with a short erotic drama made exclusively for Pornhub. Suffice to say that Thorne is not a traditional star. So, when it was revealed that she had created an OnlyFans account, it seemed to be the least surprising step for her to take as a celebrity.
What is OnlyFans?
OnlyFans is a subscription service wherein content creators can earn money from fans who pay a monthly fee to access it. The model is similar to websites like Patreon but with one key difference: OnlyFans allows pornographic content. This has made the site very popular with sex workers and those in the adult entertainment industry. While it is not exclusively a porn website - OnlyFans encourages creators like chefs, fitness trainers, and musicians to also use the service - it is heavily defined by its status as the go-to site for the sex industry. This is especially notable in the current climate where many websites deny access to sex workers, ban nudity, or censor "adult content."
Why Bella Thorne’s OnlyFans is Controversial
Thorne’s Instagram announcement that she was launching an OnlyFans page became major trade news, and within 24 hours of its launch, she earned over $1 million. Thorne then told the Los Angeles Times that she was using OnlyFans as a means of researching a film she planned to make with Sean Baker, the director of The Florida Project. She also said that she would use the money made from OnlyFans to fund her production company as well as to make extensive charitable donations.
Now, Thorne is the subject of controversy for allegedly promising her subscribers nudes for $200 a pop (via Out). In a screenshot being shared around Twitter, Thorne seems to go back and forth with a subscriber over the content she is offering, and claims she will be fully naked for that cost. This came after she had already announced that she would not be nude on her page. What followed was reportedly a slew of subscribers issuing charge-backs to get their $200 back. In the hours to follow OnlyFans handed down new guidelines limiting the amount creators can charge fans moving forward. Many OnlyFans users, especially sex workers, have criticized this decision as it will likely impact their primary source of income, with many already dealing with dropped payments and delays. Thorne has not responded to these claims.
Even before this event, Thorne’s presence on OnlyFans caused some contention among its primary user base. There are very few sites online that not only welcome the sex industry but have them as their primary user base. Thanks to legislation like FOSTA-SESTA, which made websites culpable for allowing or hosting anything related to sex trafficking, places like PayPal and Patreon made it impossible for sex workers to operate safely. OnlyFans has already faced accusations that it is rejecting sex workers from its platform. According to a report by Rolling Stone, multiple people said they had been inexplicably or unjustifiably locked out of their accounts. Many fear a bleak fate for the site in the coming months, between its sudden rise in mainstream popularity, the invasion of celebrities like Thorne and Cardi B, and the smothering constraints put upon them by vague U.S. law. As Mistress Eva, a professional dominatrix told InsideHook, “It’s a common reality that sex workers popularize platforms only to then be forced out when the platforms reach a level of mass popularity."
Thorne has demonstrated some real business-savvy with her move to OnlyFans, but many remain concerned the site’s status as a rare safe zone for sex workers online trying to make a living is at risk of being overshadowed or actively maligned in exchange for mainstream celebrity. Ultimately, her livelihood is not the one on the line following this controversy, but the sex workers who are dependent on OnlyFans may feel the sting much longer.