Cosplay on Demand? Instagram, OnlyFans, and the Gendered Fantrepreneur

Abstract

Fan producers engaged in monetization, or what Suzanne Scott has termed “fantrepreneurs,” struggle with legal mechanisms for brand-building given the limitations of both copyright and platform moderation. These challenges have been amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has fundamentally changed the way that cosplayers, or fans who dress up as characters from their favorite television shows or movies, market themselves in an increasingly online space, as opposed to their initial public platforms of conventions. Restricted by digital platforms and their various moderation and monetization methods, cosplayer fantrepreneurs have developed new, multi-platform methods for sustaining their content and community connection. One prominent platform significant to this turn is OnlyFans, which is billed as a “peer-to-peer subscription app,” and allows users to “Sign up and interact with your fans!” Through a sample analysis of 50 cosplayers, this case study considers the approaches of cosplayers on integrating OnlyFans as part of a multiplatform struggle for economic viability. When we contextualize this platform labor in the history of cosplay, we note the hypersexualized labor that has always been central to monetization in this space, and the media franchise exploitation that profits from that labor at the expense of the fan producer, demonstrating the fundamental, gendered exploitation of the trend toward a patronage economy.

Multi-platform practices among digital patronage creators

“…Our findings corroborated the idea that creators take up multi-platform practices to preserve their autonomy and enhance their economic viability (Cunningham and Craig, 2019; Nieborg and Poell, 2018; Rouse and Salter, 2021; Scolere, 2019). In the case of Patreon, creators’ autonomy was threatened by a series of policy changes and crackdowns on adult content (Cole, 2018).…”

“…However, multi-platform practices disadvantage creators by intensifying their workload. Creators not only have to learn the particulars of each platform, but they also have to spend hours engaging with and tailoring content to each platform (Rouse and Salter, 2021; Scolere, 2019). A platform needs to offer exclusive and profitable features in order to earn a position within a creator’s personal media ecology.…”

”Jag är inte prostituerad, jag lever normalt”

“…Den tekniska utvecklingen har för det första lett till att nya områden av 104 sexuell handel sett dagens ljus. Ett relativt färskt exempel står att finna i fenomenet OnlyFans, där framför allt unga kvinnor och hbtq-män på den Instagram-liknande plattformen med samma namn producerar och publicerar ofta amatörpornografiskt material för betalande (manliga) prenumeranter (Rouse & Salter 2021;Wang 2021). Ett annat är appen Ohlala, i dag tillgänglig för användare i Tyskland, Österrike och USA, som förmedlar "betalda dejter" i gråzonen mellan dejting och konventionell prostitution (Ljungberg 2021).…”

"Nudes? Shouldn't I charge for these?" : Exploring What Motivates Content Creation on OnlyFans

“…Much like P2, prior to starting their OnlyFans, P4 "had people who showed interest in it [erotic cosplay content]" and therefore felt there could be financial potential of creating this material to sell on OnlyFans. Rouse and Salter note that cosplay was already highly sexualized and that cosplayers use a variety of monetization avenues, including OnlyFans [64].…”