OnlyFans creators have criticised HBO's hit show Euphoria over what they describe as a 'cartoonish' and inaccurate portrayal of life as a sex worker on the platform. In the third and final season, Sydney Sweeney's character Cassie turns to OnlyFans to fund her wedding, depicted wearing costumes including a baby and a dog.
Creators speak out
Maitland Ward, a former Boy Meets World star turned OnlyFans creator, told Variety: '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.' She added: '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.'
Another creator, Sydney Leathers, pointed out factual inaccuracies: '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.'
Critical reception
The third season of Euphoria has divided critics. The Independent's Nick Hilton awarded it four stars, writing that Sweeney 'proves that pin-up fame is not incompatible with genuine acting chops.' He described the show as 'a generation-defining show... a vapid show about vapidity, a materialist show about materialism: Euphoria owns its contradictions, and, in this final season, shows it's mastered them.'
Ward's earnings
Last month, Ward revealed she earns significantly more on OnlyFans than she did as a sitcom star. 'On Boy Meets World, I think I made $20,000 or $25,000 an episode,' she told the documentary series Hollywood Demons. 'In porn or OnlyFans, I can get six figures a month. There is also my adult film sales and I am creating this brand. I can make it go for as long as I want it to go.'
