OnlyFans stars Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips seem to be perpetually in the headlines. Phillips has certainly been the star of the news cycle this week after her tearful response to her recent content stunt of having sex with 101 men in 24 hours. Bonnie Blue? Well, she’s always making headlines thanks to her preferences for barely legal men. Both women, however, endure a tidal wave of hate and judgment in the comments of social media and news posts. Bryony Gordon recently published a piece in the Daily Mail calling out the hypocrisy of aiming so much vitriol at OnlyFans stars. Because guess what? They’re not the ones creating the demand for the work they do.
Spoiler alert: It’s men. It’s almost always men.
As a society, we love to throw shade at women when we don’t like how men respond to their existence. But why don’t we simply hold men to a higher standard? Men are the ones who lined up around the block for Phillips and Blue’s recent sex-capades—content they recorded for their OnlyFans channels. Yet, instead of holding the men accountable, we blame the women. Why aren’t we asking the men waiting in line for their turn with the porn star, “My guy? What are you doing?”
This treatment isn’t reserved for OnlyFans stars. Every woman who’s ever heard the phrase “Well, what were you wearing?” understands deeply that it wasn’t her actions that made some man make the choices he did. But somehow, she is held responsible for his decisions anyway. The madonna-to-whore pipeline is packed with women who gave up trying to be the madonna because men were going to make them the whore anyway. Why not capitalize on it?
When prominent media figures like Andrew Tate shape societal attitudes toward women, we all lose. We’re witnessing a pressure cooker where men see women as objects for their use and pleasure, and society blames women for their own objectification. Men like Tate—awaiting trial for human trafficking, by the way—praise control over women as though women aren’t capable of controlling their own lives. Then they turn around and attack women like Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips, who embrace autonomy by capitalizing on the illusion of control that men enjoy. It’s like being mad at someone for cleaning up the Cheerios a toddler dumped on the floor while ignoring the toddler smooshing Play-Doh into the rug. Not helpful.
This goes beyond reclaiming bodily autonomy. For many women, utilizing OnlyFans to perform sex work is the only way to earn as much as an underqualified (frequently) man in a traditional office job. The irony? Men largely drive the demand for sex work—and they frequently profit from it, too. OnlyFans is safer than most avenues of performing sex work, as the platform vets its users and pays creators directly. But behind the scenes, men often run the show: promoting models, booking clients, and doling out payment when they feel like it. With that lens, it’s hard to blame OnlyFans stars like Lily Phillips and Bonnie Blue for seizing control of their businesses and earnings. They didn’t create the demand—they’re just filling it.
Can we PLEASE stop vilifying women for profiting from a market they didn’t create? The adult entertainment industry is booming, but the content creators keeping the wheels turning aren’t the ones to blame. Next time you feel the urge to wag a finger at content creators like Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips, take a closer look at your hand. Remember, for every finger you point at sex workers, there are three more pointing back at you.
