In Euphoria Season 3, Sydney Sweeney's character Cassie decides to put her body on display for the world to see by becoming an OnlyFans creator. It mimics the choices some young women make these days, as they look to find themselves an impressive income outside of the traditional means of work.
It might be a reflection of some people's lives, but real OnlyFans creators aren't happy with the way their 9-5 is depicted on-screen. Sydney Leathers, a content creator for the platform since 2017, told Variety that a lot of her woes with the representation come from certain disallowed content being shown. "There's just a lot that's ridiculous and cartoonish about it. There's so much that they have her doing that is not even allowed on OnlyFans, and that alone is infuriating: the age-play stuff where she's dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example. Credit card processors have very strict rules that you have to abide by, and the rules are getting stricter all the time," she explained.
Maitland Ward, another top OnlyFans model and adult content creator, shared a similar viewpoint: "In the climate we're in, that they dressed her up as a baby to make pornographic OnlyFans content was beyond troubling and again serves to perpetuate stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money. And there's always this untrue stigma that somehow sex work is synonymous with sex trafficking and abuse. And they just said, let's make a joke of it. That is so funny. I'm not laughing."
OnlyFans does not allow the depiction of actual or claimed "exploitation, abuse, or harm of individuals under the age of 18" on its platform, nor does it allow other taboo content to be performed. It's not just the type of content that Sweeney makes that draws the ire of real-life OnlyFans stars, though, as Ali Lynx explains it can be damaging to portray Cassie's style of instant success:
"When Cassie goes to the influencer's house to get video, coming from a marketing background myself, I thought, 'OK, that's fuckin' smart. That's a great formula. On the other hand, it's portrayed that if you just dress up and do crazy shit, you'll instantly make money, or you just have to be hot and have big boobs and you'll instantly cash out, and it doesn't work like that. You have to really grow and nurture a fan base," Lynx said.
What's your take on Cassie's new job?