Only fans

A few weeks ago I read that Lily Allen generates more income from selling pictures of her feet on OnlyFans than from her Spotify streaming revenues. As tempting as that may sound, I think I’ll pass. But it does beg the question - must we get naked or engage with bizarre fetishes to stay relevant?

As a female artist, it is increasingly challenging to play a show or present ones work without the pressure of selling sex. It is simply not enough these days to master your craft as a selector, producer, performer, engineer, content creator, chief marketing officer, creative director, stylist, graphic designer, HR manager, accountant, social butterfly and fighter of the patriarchy - you must do all of this AND get ya tits out for the lads too.

There is certainly a constant and growing need for self-expression, artistic freedom, protest, being naked if you want to be, sexual exploration and various means of anarchy - I’m just not sure women being encouraged to sell pictures of their feet, or to compete with each other in the public domain by literally fucking thousands of men in one-go, is the route to actually fucking-the-system.

A great deal of work has been done by many brilliant women over the years to afford us the freedoms we enjoy today, though in 2025, it seems we have chosen to amplify the voices and antics of those who shout the loudest, yet appear to do the most harm to gender equality.

Thanks to some recent brain-rot TikTok scrolling, my algorithm has unfortunately landed me in a place somewhere between smug OnlyFans aficionados, cute dogs, one-tray Sunday roasts and ear-wax removal videos - the latter I’m not exactly sure how, though admittedly quite satisfying to watch.

Fundamentally, the internet is a bleak, toxic, dystopian space that feeds the patriarchy - surely we can be incredible, sexy and powerful women without succumbing to this nonsense? Express ourselves most authentically without sacrificing the art in everything? After all, the female of the species is supposedly more deadly than the male...

Whilst I continue to find the way, I’ll be keeping my feet to myself.