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Bella Thorne’s Only Fan
Actress Bella Thorne joined OnlyFans, promptly made $2M in about a week, and is now apologizing for her actions.
The Controversy: Thorne is being accused of being a ‘tourist’ on OnlyFans, joining the platform as a social experiment or, as one explanation has it, to research a role. She is being criticized for taking away income form sex workers who rely on the platform, and earning money from sex work without the stigma.
The Fallout: Thorne’s success on the platform may have long term repercussions for other performers. It is alleged, that she told fans she was selling a pay-per-view nude photo for $200 per user, the photo, it turned out, was not actually a nude. This resulted in customers asking the platform for refunds, which comes with processing costs.As a result of this OnlyFans has announced that they’re capping the pay per view any performer can charge at $50 and tips at $100.
The Apology: Bella Thorne took to twitter to apologize, saying she only intended to draw attention to the platform in order to support other creators. The apology falls flat with some who say she didn’t even offer to donate her windfall to sex workers who need it.
Arousal v. Pleasure
The difference between visual and audio porn isn’t just the moving pictures, according to sex educator Dr. Emily Nagoski, visual porn is more supportive of physical arousal while audio porn leads to more pleasure. As Dr. Nagoski breaks it down, the brain’s mechanisms which control sexual response have an accelerator and a break. The accelerator responds to positive stimuli, while the break to negative stimuli. Visual porn overwhelms the senses drowning out negative stimuli, hastening arousal. Whereas audio porn doesn’t overwhelm, allowing one to fill in the blanks with their own imagination, triggering more pleasurable experiences in the brain.
The Truth Behind Trafficking Hub
Vice News has taken a deep dive into Trafficking Hub, the group who is campaigning for the shutdown of Pornhub and has collected over two million signatures in support of their cause. The petition went viral hitting the internet at just the right time as social justice petitions were circulating all over and people were eager for change.
The truth, which has been reported on extensively in the past, is that Trafficking Hub is an extension of Exodus Cry, an explicitly anti-porn and sex work organization with ties to the anti-LGBT movement as well. Advocates of sex work and porn, are attempting to educate the public that Trafficking Hub’s campaign does more to hurt exploited people than help them.
Ron Jeremy Facing More Charges
Ron Jeremy, once the most recognizable face in porn, has been charged with an additional 20 counts of rape and sexual assault, bringing the total number of alleged victims to 17. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, if convicted he could face 250 years of jail time.
The Allegations:
Jeremy’s victims range from 14-54 at the time of the assaults.
The attacks are alleged to have occured over a 16 year period.
One of the charges alleges Jeremy attacked a 15 year old girl at a Los Angeles house party.
The other charges are linked to a West Hollywood bar the former porn star frequents.
Big Picture: The porn industry has had a slow moving reckoning with the Me Too movement, a complicated process where sex is the center of the industry, making allegations difficult to prove. In the case of Ron Jeremy, the alleged assaults occurred off set and after the performer was retired. But, given what we know now, his behaviour during performing days may be revisited.
German Sex Workers Back At Work
Sex workers in Germany, where prostitution is legal and regulated, are getting back to work as the coronavirus induced ban on their profession is being lifted.
Ban Times
Sex workers say the ban put them in financially precarious situations despite some government support. Financial concerns led many sex workers to continue to see clients despite the ban, but they say this put them in danger as clients have used the fines the sex worker could face, to extort extra services or prices from them.
On The Job
The ban was lifted in most of Germany last week, and sex workers returned to the job, while their advocates remained upset with the governments handling of their industry during the crisis. The return to work will be challenging with new hygiene measures in place, and just like the rest of the hospitality industry, which has suffered great losses, it’s touch and go moving forward.
Aaron Carter Makes Porn Debut
The younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, and child pop-star, is starting a new career by joining adult cam sites CamSoda and OnlyFans. One fan is quoted as saying “he was my first concert,now the first cam model I’ve tipped to watch their show.”
Campaign to Shut Down Sex Work Rating Site
Efforts are underway to shutdown sex work rating site Punternet. The issue, according to its opponents, is not the sex work itself, but that the ratings and profiles are not controlled by the workers themselves, but by clients who can say whatever they want without consequence.