If you’ve been missing irony in your life, I’ve got a hearty dose of it for you right here. Imagine, if you will, a young woman sharing pictures of herself in a bikini on a mainstream social media platform. The internet loses its collective mind over said young woman daring to display her body in a perfectly appropriate and acceptable way, and shames her right off her platform. “Shame” is a mild word for it, because this young woman was receiving death threats for her bikini posts, and she didn’t just abandon her platform. Her content was so mass reported by trolls that Instagram shut it down, so she took her content to OnlyFans. Ironic? Very, but if you’re going to get punished for existing in a swimsuit, you might as well make sure you’re getting paid for it.
Maddie Joy is a California-based creator whose original platform of choice was YouTube. Her brand early on was built on family friendly content with nothing but wholesome vibes, which made sense when she was a younger creator. She later transitioned to content that was more grown-up. Think things like… lifestyle content that was framed by bikini pictures that she shared on Instagram. Her followers didn’t exactly handle it well. They mass reported her posts, and even sent death threats. After so many reports, her Instagram account was taken down, and she lost that revenue stream. Her audience loved her, but only as long as she stayed “safe.” The moment she showed up as an adult women— not even sharing that kind of adult content— they attacked her with the kind of outrage that is usually reserved for Nickelback.
The bikini that broke the internet wasn’t even anything explicit or salacious. It was just a bikini. No one was throwing a fit over explicit images, it was just bikini pics. Her pearl clutching followers decided that she’d “changed,” and decided to engage in some light mass reporting. Social media is perpetually flooded with images of influencers in swimwear, yet her audience reacted like she was wearing the bikini specifically to an animal shelter to kick kittens. The other influencers are still thriving on Instagram, but Maddie Joy’s profile was removed.
With the loss of one monetized platform, Maddie Joy turned to another one with a reputation for the exact thing the angry mob was accusing her of. She joined the adults-only website in 2020, and still uses it daily as her primary platform and income source. According to her, she’s gained financial independence, a better sense of control over her image, and the kind of creative freedom that only comes when there’s no algorithm to panic over. And in case I haven’t driven home this point just yet: the same crowd that was flipping their brain pancakes over her bikini pics pushed her directly to a platform that was built for her to be able to take the bikini off on camera, if she so chooses. If the ultimate goal of the mass reporting campaign was to get her to back down from sexualization… boy howdy did that ever backfire.
Maddie Joy’s journey from YouTube to OnlyFans isn’t an isolated event. There are plenty of YouTuber OnlyFans creators showing up to share content on a more easily monetizable platform. Tana Mongeau? YouTuber turned OnlyFans creator. Corinna Kopf? YouTuber who makes bank on OnlyFans. Creators leaving ad dependent platforms for subscriber-funded ones shouldn’t really be that big of a shock, since on OnlyFans the relationship they build with their audience is what determines their paycheck, not how many ads get exposed on a viewer’s journey to their channel. It may look like OnlyFans is the backup plan if your mainstream fans revolt, or you get de-monetized, but let’s be real: it’s an upgrade.
Social media has a habit of encouraging young women to be attractive at all moments, but then punishes them the moment they acknowledge that they know they’re hot. Audiences love family friendly content until they find themselves sexually attracted to someone they watched grow up, but then rather than deal with their own internal sticky feelings, they attack the creator who was just… showing up. You have to be confident, but they’ll cut you down if you get too confident. Sexy, but only if it’s approved by your advertisers. On OnlyFans, none of that exists.
Prior to OnlyFans, Maddie Joy was studying dentistry, working, and dealing with a hefty amount of financial stress (and no small amount of anxiety trying to please the audience that drove her monetization on mainstream socials). She’s not exactly flaunting a private jet or anything now, but she’s working consistently and she’s financially independent. Cash isn’t the only appeal, though that’s mighty nice. There’s no brand-safe babysitting, no tiptoeing around an audience that will turn on a dime if they catch themselves feeling all hot and bothered at images of you by the pool, and creators have the kind of direct-to-fan control that other platforms refuse to allow. Imagine the psychological shift alone that comes from not having to appease strangers in order to live off of scraps thrown to you by the algorithm.
If your bikini breaks your fanbase’s brain, maybe the problem wasn’t the bikini: it was the fanbase. If they’re going to call you names for the way you choose to show up— especially when you’re showing up in a manner that is appropriate for non-age-restricted platforms— at least make sure you can send them a bill with an extra surcharge for kink exploration.
