The Very Online Show 04: OnlyFans Sexodus

Timely.

puhhhnnn

Only Tams

Edit: Sexodus is also very good

Even though OnlyFans has backtracked, their language is very non-committal and they could absolutely reverse direction again.

The site rebranded as OnlyJeffs is putting out a video about OnlyFans.

If you missed it in the show description this one is free because of the timeliness!

OnlyTams

Jeff Bakalar with the call about the backtrack!

puhrn.

OnlyFans without porn would be like MTV without music videos!

In all the finger pointing at Visa & Mastercard, it's weird to see American Express never even warrant a mention, anywhere. And that is precisely because they've instituted a blanket ban on payments to adult services so very long ago, it's almost lost to the haze of history, and as such were never an option in the Pornhub/OnlyFans era. Amex must be having quite the laugh now, "haha, you guys getting all the bad PR now, guess you must be wishing you were fucking over sex workers since time eternal, too." They deserve your scorn every bit as much, and even more, than Visa/Mc.

With OnlyFans, especially in hindsight of how swiftly they did their about-face on their rule changes, it's looking pretty clear pointing fingers at banks or payment processors was only a "would you kindly hate on them, not us" scapegoat bullshitting this time. It was all about sweet talking those investors.

Tam: Sasha Grey retired from porn over a decade ago. If we are to namecheck pornstars doing Twitch, there are plenty still active in the industry. Just kinda rubs me a bit the wrong way for someone who has changed their careers that long ago to forever be associated with their past.

Disclaimer: I currently subscribe to two creators on OnlyFans via Mastercard.

What’s up with the random dial-up sounds throughout?

Big L, Rest In Peace! *cue DJ Premier*

I would like to know what's going on with that Blinking White Guy meme.

@haneybd87: they mark edits or transitions. its funny you should ask because i scrolled down here to ask that they be used less sparingly, or that a different part of the modem handshake be used once in a while. it's a really cool touch, just wish it had some variation!

Wasn't expecting this topic to be covered, but you did an awesome job! Even though OnlyFans has backtracked, I don't trust them. All the people I followed/subbed to there (both porn and non-porn folks) have already moved en-mass to fansly and I'm not going back either.

Great episode!

I think it might be one of my favorites new shows (with Guilty Treasures). When it was announced, was scared that this The Very Online Show would be only a kind of "let's see Jeff reacts to memes" show, but you guys really cover a broad array of "Internet culture" subjects, be it silly or serious and do a great in-depth dive on them.

Can't wait for the next episode!

Jeff's window being named bakal.rar is sending me right now

It's nothing short of incredible that we can go from Old Beach and the origins of emojis to the treatment of sex workers without really changing the show at all. The format work and the tone can shift to suit it. Really great work and I'm glad to see it on this site.

FOSTA-SESTA

I think they underplayed how influential FOSTA-SESTA was on this whole process. The payment processors stepped in because of FOSTA-SESTA. All if this started around 2018 when that law passed. I feel that without FOSTA-SESTA Mastercard probably could care less. If you potentially have liability related to the law then you aren't going to want to take the chance.

Also they are coming for sex work since it's clearly called out in the law. Unfortunately that's not the case with racism and sexism.

Also not a defense of the policy. It sucks and it doesn't do what it sets out to do.

that was a great and informative video! thanks :)

@rlatham: Along those same lines, it's also worth noting that a lot of religious groups push government and corporations to support these policies under the guise that it's purely intended to shutdown awful illegal stuff like child porn and sex trafficking, but it is in fact the religious groups' true intent to indiscriminately shut down all sex work in totality.

@birdsoul: Ahh, I’m listening to the podcast so had no idea this was a video transition.

*clap**clap**clap**clap*

y'all are good eggs, thank you for this

As Killer Mike says, "I'm moral in my perverseness, that's why I support all of the sex workers unionizing their services."

If you had told me in 2011 that a blatantly pro-sex work podcast would be produced by Giant Bomb, I would've laughed. That's not a condemnation of 2011 Giant Bomb so much as it is an acknowledgement and appreciation of the growth and responsible use a huge platform.

Yeah, some cursory reading on the topic suggests the religious lobby in America really likes to support legislation like this. Ostensibly a targeted attack on exploitative sex work, but it conveniently becomes a drive-by shooting that impacts all sex work.

If the final product is so broad or the punishments so harsh that legitimate business/finance has to distance themselves entirely from sex work, it just drives the industry further underground where there is less protection for the workers.

Good stuff!

Abe's Sexodus

I was worried this show would just be a meme-of-the-week type format. Glad to see how cool and versatile it actuallt is. Gradually, all my worries about the new shows have transitioned to really enjoying all of them.

This is one of my new favorite shows, not just on Giant Bomb but anywhere. This week the trio (quartet with VoidBurger!) did a tricky dance through a loaded topic.

What gets me most is (yep) the hypocrisy of these policies. Greed propels content providers to take action, and that action has a scorched earth effect that leaves countless legal workers without a livelihood. These are the people who built their brand.

As for show recommendations, It would be cool to see Tamoor or Lucy to take on with the weird world of artifically-generated video content. You know: those bizarre YouTube or TikTok videos with the computerized voice talking over some video clip, sometimes with bizarre captions. I'm kind of in the Bakalar camp on this one: I don't understand what's going on there.

Are links to the articles provided any where? If not it would be cool to be able to go read the sources.

Love this show

Genuinely live in hope that we can get rid of the 'legitimate' qualifier for sex work in my lifetime. There should be no criminalisation of sex-work - pushing it to the shadows doesn't get rid of it, it only makes it as unsafe as possible and provides power for abusers, black market forces and trafficking. Lift that stigma already - it's GOT to happen in our lifetime. Feels as if we're more aware than ever of the nature of these things and the place they can occupy in our society.

Anals of history such as Mr. Hands, tub girl, meat spin, pain olympics...?

Think it's great you all are tackling this topic, and more serious topics as they are important and this is a great use of new shows to explore. This feels a little more serious in a way that GB things aren't necessarily always, and the implications of this topic are something that maybe the average online person isn't really thinking about, so I think it's good that you might spark some more critical thought (or prompt them further researching) when maybe they wouldn't have thought past the twitter jokes about it. Keep up the great work.

peoorrrrn

This is kinda like Waypoint podcast, but more organized.

I prefer this type of hard hitting topic.

It's ironic how many of the people who were angered by this form of censorship are the same people who want to censor fanservice videogames.

As a consumer and ex-creator (because of banks) of porn, I approve of this message.

I think Bakalar hit the nail on the head when he mentioned the payment providers not wanting to take on any risk. Most of the time it seemed like Tam and Lucy were trying to portray these companies as having some sort of agenda when really, I imagine, their only agenda is to make more money.

If there was nothing in the way of these payment providers taking their cut of online porn sales; I'm sure they would be all on board.

Anti-sex policies always end up hitting LGBTQ+ creators for just saying they exist. Always.

This was easily your best episode. I know the show is supposed to be about silly stuff found on the internet, however, this episode proves that if this show is going to last, both silly and serious topics dealing with online stuff need to be discussed. After all, its called the 'Very' Online Show.

As far as the topic, this is nothing new. Whenever people find a nitch that makes them a lot of money outside of the powers that be, the laws and bans start to come in. This happened with alcohol, until it was controlled. It happened with gambling, until it was controlled. And when they saw a lot of women were willingly getting into prostitution and you had brothels and the like, it wasn't a problem, until a lot of men of color started to get rich off of it, then it became outlawed. So its no surprise, that sex work on the internet is getting targeted, because the bottom line is about money and if the powers that be isn't getting their cut, then it becomes a crime. And I won't even start with the so called War on Drugs...

Can you expand on this? Who are these people and what are they calling for to be censored?

@byron_orpheus: I totally agree with your sentiment. I can't know their intent obviously, but I think it's possible by "legitimate" in this case they mean sex workers who have real skin in the game and are pushed into more dangerous work when a platform like this gets jeopardized (as opposed to celebrities who came to OF to sell bikini pictures to supplement their income after sex workers built the platform). I have sex worker friends who bemoan that phenomenon regularly.

The risk of making a very current show about the internet, it could flip at any time. Still watched and enjoyed the episode, hope you don't shy away from volatile topics like this just because things might change in a single day.

This episode is fantastic.

Please do more stuff like this

Great episode guys. I was already aware of everything talked about in this episode thanks to other podcast creators that have already dug into this. I thought your take on it was very respectful. Sex is a normal human thing and marginalizing sex workers is just as terrible as marginalizing people because of race, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Great episode, I think this is actually my favorite of the new shows. Lucy, Tam, and Jeff make a great combination and I'm really glad you guys are making this!

@haneybd87: It drives me insane listening to it, I hope they get the hint and remove it for the audio version

@janman: That's cool and good. I posted on the YouTube comment section but do you know why its not appearing in the Giantbomb youtube page timeline? It's not unlisted so I can't understand why its not being surfaced anywhere, the only way to get to it is through the direct YouTube link. I dont even think it shows up in searches.