The bodies of the (digitized) body : experiences of sexual(ised) work on OnlyFans

Abstract

OnlyFans has enjoyed increasing attention from media and from users and consumers, especially since the start of the covid-19 pandemic, and particularly amongst internet- savy emerging adults. We used semi-structured interviews to collect testimonies from young Italian women (N=20) who sell their own sexual(ised) content on OnlyFans and processed them through Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke 2006). Through this process, we sought to explore how different bodies are conceptualized in relation to content production, and how labour takes somatic existence in multiple ways. We looked at (1) how the body is prepared to be presented and mediatized, (2) how its presentation is conceptualized and actualized, and (3) how that work of re-presentation, as a work of networking and therefore where bodily energy is invested and expended. Through this, we show how there are multiple, concurrent and at times contradictory, narratives about corporality, and that potency and healing coexist alongside exhaustion.