OnlyFans and Traditional Pornography: Unpacking the Differences

• In Event: Critical Perspectives on Emergent and Current Issues

Abstract

The degree to which one displays rape myth acceptance (RMA) has been a topic of interest for many years. Of concern is how certain forms of pornography consumption may or may not be associated with greater RMA, with a primary focus on traditional forms of pornography. However, the online array of pornography has diversified in recent years, in particular with the growth of the OnlyFans platform. OnlyFans is a subscriber-based platform, with users paying a certain amount of money a month to subscribe to specific creators with the additional option to pay for exclusive content. While the website is not exclusively pornographic in nature, there has been a marked increase in explicit material on it beginning with the Covid-19 pandemic. As of late 2024, the website had over 300 million users and generated over $1.3 billion in revenue (Marshall, 2024). The purpose of this project is to assess the relationship between OnlyFans pornographic content consumption and rape myth acceptance. To answer this question, this study surveys users of OnlyFans in addition to traditional pornography (i.e. videos from popular websites such as PornHub) and strict users of traditional pornography and compares their degree of rape myth acceptance.

Author

• Sarah Silberman, University of Maryland, College Park