CLARE FOGES: How humiliating that these three pop stars I once respected are selling their photos on Only Fans. This is why I despair

As far as marketing approaches go, it’s not the most subtle. Above a close-up image of a butt dressed in a thong and fishnet stockings appears the invitation: “Buy a piece of my ass.”

Who owns the mysterious fund? Katie Price? No, Kate Nash, the respected British singer-songwriter, who made the surprising decision to open an Onlyfans account to finance her latest tour.

Announcing the move on Instagram, Nash laments that “touring makes a loss, not a profit” (tell that to Taylor Swift) and pleads with her followers to “help me stay on tour, pay big salaries, and put on a show of high quality buying a piece of my ass’.

Oh dear. Oh Kate. How incredibly discouraging.

When he burst onto the music scene in 2007 with his hit Foundations, Nash was a breath of punky cockney air. She was the kind of rock chick you imagine opening a bottle of Stella with your teeth and drinking the night away with her roadies. Cool rather than sexy, dressed in retro 1950s clothing instead of skimming skirts. An innovative, non-sexualized product dreamed up by middle-aged male marketing executives.

So hearing that Nash has signed up for Onlyfans (the controversial ‘content subscription’ website where sex workers and Z-list celebrities sell all sorts of tacky digital services) is as disheartening as finding out that Debbie Harry has been walking around half-naked on top of her. Living room floor to win £10 from Gary in Northampton. It’s like hearing that Joan Jett earned a few extra pounds by showing off her thrupenny bits.

Nash, of course, is not the first famous lady to monetize at least part of her anatomy in this way. This summer, Lily Allen started an Onlyfans account, where for £8 a month subscribers can access photos of her feet, and I don’t imagine most of them are podiatry students.

Onlyfans might promote itself as a site where ‘fans’ can interact with ‘stars’, but it’s actually a porn site. Most of the content is what we might sheepishly describe as “not safe for work.” Punters sign up to accounts that pay between £5 and £50 a month. If they pay a little more, they can send direct messages to ‘content creators’ and request custom photos or videos.

Fans can request that an OnlyFans star drive around in their underwear, for example, or engage in group sex on camera. In a time where pornography is freely available to anyone with an internet connection, the creators of Onlyfans have to continue upping the ante.

Writhing on your living room rug in a set of Ann Summers suspenders isn’t, for most of us, the stuff of dreams, but celebrities who create Onlyfans accounts often make it look like a career masterstroke. . They are in control, right? They are turning the old exploitative porn industry upside down! Let’s eliminate the pimps and the middlemen! And making squeaks!

Kerry Katona, briefly singer of Atomic Kitten, has boasted incessantly about the fortune he has made on the site. Kate Nash has framed her capitulation to the male gaze as a “punk protest.” Former Hollyoaks actress Sarah Kayne Dunn described her decision to join the site as “taking back control” and “having full power over my choices”. Meanwhile, Lily Allen has claimed that being on Onlyfans is “actually quite empowering”.

Excuse me, as my eyes roll 360 degrees at the mention of the word “empowerment,” the catchphrase for every vapid, sexy Instagram influencer who strips off her gear for money. Getting a message asking you to “bend over a little more” or raise your leg is not empowering, it’s downright humiliating. If I received a request like that from a complete stranger, the only part of my anatomy I would be willing to lift is my middle finger.

The tragedy is that prominent OnlyFan members like Kate Nash are normalizing online prostitution for women who are far more desperate for money than they are, and therefore far more vulnerable.

Yes, yes, it is a ‘free choice’ for women to register and sell themselves. But how free is that choice when you’re a single mom with three mouths to feed and Christmas is coming up? Or what if you’re a student with mounting debt and persistent anxiety about how you’re going to pay it off?

If a man wants to ‘talk’ to you live while moaning on the other end of the line, could you just smile and hold out for a few minutes to make money? And then you might feel dirt that no shower could remove?

On Onlyfans, the money may come quickly, but the psychological repercussions will likely come later. A 2022 study in Sexuality and Culture found that sex workers tended to have low levels of mental well-being. Don’t say it!

Being on OnlyFans may not be as dangerous, dehumanizing, and depressing as standing on a corner waiting for punters, but make no mistake: this is sex work, with all the psychological dangers that come with selling your body for cash.

Horrifyingly, there is even evidence that children are using Onlyfans accounts to make money. Although it is intended to be an 18+ site, Childline has received calls from younger children who see it as an easier way to make money than sweeping McDonald’s floors.

As a mother of three young daughters, I despair at the way girls’ aspirations are distorted. A century on from the Suffragettes and here we are, with seemingly intelligent women like Kate Nash offering online titillation as a legitimate ‘side hustle’, something to aspire to. No! It’s a dirty sale. Engaging thousands of gasping followers on Onlyfans is something to be pitied, not praised.

Then there’s the reality that Onlyfans, along with the rest of the porn industry, is hardening the sexual appetite of a generation of young men, leading them to believe that slapping, choking and anal sex are vanilla activities that could be expected. on the second date. .

In some ways, OnlyFans is even more dangerous when it comes to warping sexual perceptions, because the women are not necessarily ultra-glamorous porn stars but girls next door. Therein lies the appeal, and also the danger.

So Kate, go after the dosh if you have to. But don’t act as an ambassador for this tacky brand. And please don’t tell us the old lie that taking off your clothes for money is always rebellious or empowering.

Gio turns lemons into limoncello

Giovanni Pernice and his dance partner on the Italian version of Strictly have rumba-ed their way into each other’s hearts. After the vilification Gio was subjected to in the UK, it’s nice to see him turning lemons into lemonade. Or should it be limoncello?

Adele appeared to spend half of her Swansong concert in Las Vegas sobbing. Again. The woman is a burst water pipe.

At the Grammys, at the London Coliseum, at An Audience With Adele, hugging Celine Dion, chatting with Oprah; Whatever the occasion, the singer becomes overstressed.

Most recently, it was to mark the end of his residency at Caesars Palace. Maybe I should release a line of scarves next, in their signature black color, of course.

Who would want to go to a Goop party?

Watching Gwyneth Paltrow leave the Goop Christmas party in New York beaming, we can only conclude that it wasn’t a wild event. A picture of the Goop girls toasting glasses of kombucha and talking about their latest macrobiotic cleanse.

Ladies, if there isn’t a mass singalong of the Band Aid single and at least one tequila victim, it’s not a Christmas party.

Diet tips that any idiot can understand.

Calorie labels on menus don’t work because apparently people don’t understand them.

Oh, for God’s sake. Eating healthy is not rocket science. If understanding numbers up to hundreds is too complicated, here’s a general rule of thumb. Bad fries and burgers, good salad and water. There. You can now save your calculators.

Jenni Murray is absent.