I asked young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 how they would feel if their partner had an OnlyFans account. I can't say I expected the outcome.
A few days ago I posed a very simple question to a pool of 18-21-year-olds:
"Would you be comfortable if your significant other was involved in OnlyFans, or sex work in general? "
The responses I received reflect a very split mindset on a very new industry for young people.
*Now, being the mature adult that I am, I will be taking an unbiased view of these responses and try to break down how the majority of people responded to this question. I think I can break down the pool of responses into about 3 categories, one for yes and two for no. Without further ado, let’s take a deep dive into how young people view sex work.
The first group of people we’ll cover are the “yes” people.
Basically, they're those who wouldn’t mind if their partner was involved in sex work of some kind. Most of the individuals polled for this gave their responses anonymously, but for those that didn’t, including the ones I polled in person, they all basically said the same thing, something along the lines of “It’s their body, why should I tell them what to do with it?”
I will also note that the individuals that chose not to be anonymous and answered yes were all women. It is entirely possible that someone who answered anonymously was a male who said "yes," but, as of now, as far as I know, this mindset is reflected more so by the women I polled.
The reasoning behind their answer was fairly expected, and it reflects the mindset I figured I would hear when I set out to talk to people about this, but on the other side, I was surprised to hear two different main arguments from those that would not feel comfortable with their partner in sex work.
For those who said "no."
The first, and more prominent answer from the "no" people was something that I think most people would expect, it can be summed up as “No, I feel like that is an intimate part of a relationship that I wouldn’t be comfortable sharing with someone else.”
Much to my surprise, I found that this answer was shared by men and women alike. This was also the more common response from people I polled in person. Many of the yes people came from the anonymous people online.
The final category of "no" people have reasoning that I didn’t expect at all, especially because I heard it from both men and women.
A small percentage of people in the poll, but enough to mention here, said something along the lines of “No, because I don’t like the industry,” and “Because I’d fear for their safety.”
Those that cited an issue with the industry just weren’t fans of the idea of selling your body for money, and safety is another reflection of the distrust of the industry.
This answer, again, was shared by both men and women that I polled, and even though it was not a huge amount of people that had this mindset, I was still surprised to hear it.
So, what does all this mean? Who cares?
Well, it’s no secret that sites like OnlyFans have been on the rise recently. It seems like every minor internet celebrity has tried to up their income a little by shaking it for money.
However, something many people don’t talk about is that this phenomenon is spreading to people who have no internet clout, average people are starting to make OnlyFans accounts to get some extra cash nowadays.
This poll was simply to see how people would feel if their partners would jump on this trend. I set out to see how 18-24-year-olds, arguably the most progressive generation of Americans, would react to such a question.
It’s no secret that the majority of college-age people are very sex positive, and I wanted to see if that positivity would remain if it was their own partner involved in the sex work.
I feel like this question really makes people stop and think, “Is that really something I’d be ok with?” Framing the question in this way allowed people to really take a look at their own opinion on the subject and give an honest answer.
The responses really did surprise me, I expected a unanimous yes, I had generalized my own generation as sharing the same opinion on sex work, clearly, I was wrong.
With all of this in mind, I’ll spread the question to you dear viewer: