Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 5, 2026
06:45
Loneliness Assuaged: Eye-Tracking an Audience Watching Barrage Videos
Published on: May 29, 2020
Beyond the Gig: Selling Intimacy as Labour on OnlyFans
1Centre de recherche METICES (équipes STRIGES et TRANSFO), Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
The British Journal of Sociology
|August 1, 2026
Summary
This study introduces total self-commodification to explain how OnlyFans creators extract value from their intimate selves. The platform exploits creators
Area of Science:
- Sociology of platform work
- Digital labor studies
- Economic sociology
Background:
- Platform labor is increasingly reliant on intimate self-disclosure.
- Adult content platforms like OnlyFans present unique governance challenges.
- Existing scholarship on relational labor and platform economies provides a foundation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop the concept of total self-commodification for platform labor.
- To analyze OnlyFans as a case study of intimate self-extraction.
- To contribute to the sociology of platform work by examining value-forms, governance, and the entrepreneurial self.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative analysis of 45 in-depth interviews with OnlyFans creators in France, Belgium, and Switzerland (September 2024 - March 2025).
- Documentary analysis of 14 versions of OnlyFans' terms of service (2019-2025).
Main Results:
- Identified a value-form where subscriber dynamics, self-presentation, and earnings are indistinguishable within a platform-mediated feedback loop.
- Reframed structural vulnerability as a platform governance mechanism, linked to precarity and payment-processor regimes.
- Demonstrated how the entrepreneurial self ideal becomes indistinguishable from the labor process, with creators' recognition of work being exploited by the platform's economic model.
Conclusions:
- OnlyFans exemplifies total self-commodification, where the creator's intimate self is the unit of extraction.
- Structural vulnerability is a key governance tool on adult content platforms.
- The platform's economic model actively exploits the incomplete recognition of labor by creators.
Related Concept Videos
01:20Virtual Work
The principle of virtual work states that if a body is in static and dynamic equilibrium, then the sum of all the virtual work done by all external forces and couple moments for any given virtual displacement must be zero.
In static equilibrium, a body can experience an imaginary or virtual movement, such as displacement or rotation. The virtual work done by a force is equal to the dot product of force and virtual displacement in the direction of the force. When it comes to virtually rotating a...
In static equilibrium, a body can experience an imaginary or virtual movement, such as displacement or rotation. The virtual work done by a force is equal to the dot product of force and virtual displacement in the direction of the force. When it comes to virtually rotating a...
01:30Social Foundations of Self IV: Self in Digital Communication
Since the early 2000s, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has grown rapidly, playing a crucial role in self-development. A key distinction between CMC and real-life interactions is the lack of a physically present partner. This absence makes non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, body language, and paralinguistic signals unavailable in CMC platforms like email, instant messaging, or social media. The lack of these cues can create ambiguity and complicate how feedback is interpreted.The...
01:37Social Loafing
Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated, individuals become less...
01:26Passionate Love
Passionate love is a powerful emotional and physiological state that plays a significant role in human relationships. It is characterized by an intense longing for connection with another person and is often considered the foundation of romantic attraction. Psychological research identifies three fundamental components of passionate love: cognition, emotion, and behavior.Cognitive AspectsCognition in passionate love involves idealization and persistent thoughts about the loved one. Individuals...
01:10Instantaneous Velocity - II
Instantaneous velocity is the quantity that measures how fast an object is moving along its path. In other words, the instantaneous velocity of an object is the limit of the average velocity as the elapsed time approaches zero, or the derivative of displacement with respect to time. Like average velocity, the instantaneous velocity is a vector with the dimensions of length per unit time. Instantaneous velocity can have both positive and negative values. The instantaneous velocity can be...
01:28Capillary Exchange
The cardiovascular system's chief role is to disseminate gases, nutrients, waste, and other substances to the body's cells. Small molecules like gases, lipids, and lipid-soluble substances directly diffuse through capillary wall endothelial cell membranes. Glucose, amino acids, and ions, including sodium, potassium, calcium, and chloride, use transporters for facilitated diffusion via membrane-specific channels. Glucose, ions, and bigger molecules may also pass through intercellular clefts.