Catherine Hakim, Minna Salami and Farha Khalidi debate whether OnlyFans is a means for women to reclaim and use their erotic power, or if such sites represent a step back for gender equality.
Does OnlyFans empower or exploit women?
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From Medusa, the Greek priestess punished for breaking her vow of celibacy, to Adam’s first wife Lilith, the Western tradition has taught us to fear erotic power and the unruly, dangerous women who embody it. In response, feminists have tried to break free from what they see as patriarchal control of sexuality. Sex work has been central to this, and is now undergoing a new revolution. With sites like OnlyFans allowing creators to keep 80% of their earnings and with some making upwards of $1 million a week, many claim women’s erotic power is being liberated. But for others, this new world contains new threats. Critics say OnlyFans is "exploitation masked as liberation", and point to studies into OnlyFans which suggest the platform is rife with underage content, deepfakes, impersonation, and blackmail.
Is the mobilisation of erotic power a vehicle or a threat to feminism? Do sites like OnlyFans and sex work empower women or undermine them? Or is the digitalisation of sex itself the problem, leading us to shun real-life intimacy and connection?
#sexuality #feminism #womensrights
Catherine Hakim is a social scientist and author specialising in women’s employment and gender issues, with over 100 papers and numerous books published. Minna Salami is a writer and thinker who blends feminism, philosophy, and politics, and is the author of Can Feminism Be African? Farha Khalidi is a feminist cultural commentator, TikToker and OnlyFans model with 1.7 million followers on TikTok.
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00:00 - Introduction
01:25 - Catherine Hakim: Women's erotic power has been belittled by men
04:15 - Minna Salami: Women are winning the war on erotic power waged by the patriarchy
05:26 - Farha Khalid: Financial envy is behind the criticism of female erotic power
08:11 - Farha Khalid: No correlation between whether women sexualise themselves and whether they're sexualised by men
10:35 - Minna Salami: The importance of choice within the discussion of sex work
12:13 - Catherine Hakim: These platforms put women in control of their sexualisation
15:33 - Minna Salami: We should apply the same questioning of choice to sex work as we do to marriage
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