Earlier this month, news that Bella Thorne had joined OnlyFans was met with great excitement by fans of the young actress.
Unfortunately, the situation turned ugly in a hurry.
In case you're unaware -- or pretending to be unaware as you read this with your significant other -- OnlyFans is a site where creators can provide exclusive content directly to their subscribers.
Naturally, this means it's mostly filled with "adult" material.
So yeah, it's not hard to see how the tens of millions of people who like Bella's bikini pics would be excited about the idea of her offering up even racier content for her subscribers.
Not surprisingly, in her first days on the site, Bella broke OnlyFans records, raking in more than $2 million in a single week.
At first, the situation appeared to be a win-win-win.
Bella would get even richer; fans would get to ogle her in various states of undress; and OnlyFans would receive its biggest PR boon to date.
But that's not how things worked out.
For starters, Bella's content on the site is no more risque than the stuff she posts on Instagram.
This left some of her subscribers -- who shell out 20 bucks a month to view her content -- feeling a little ripped off.
Worse, her involvement had a negative impact on the full-time sex workers who have been more dependent on the site than ever before as a result of the pandemic.
Not only are they now competing with a celebrity for subscribers, the site has limited the amount that can be charged for one-time pay-per-view content, as well as the amount that users can tip, seemingly as a direct result of Bella's account.
Earlier this week, the actress took to Instagram to explain that this was not her intention:
"PT1 Remove the stigma behind sex, sex work, and the negativity that surrounds the word SEX itself by bringing a mainstream face to it that's what I was trying to do, to help bring more faces to the site to create more revenue for content creators on the site," she wrote of her plan.
"I wanted to bring attention to the site, the more people on the site the more likely of a chance to normalize the stigmas, And in trying to do this I hurt you," she acknowledged.
"I have risked my career a few times to remove the stigma behind sex work, porn, and the natural hatred people spew behind anything sex-related," Thorne continued.
"I wrote and directed a porn against the high brows of my peers and managers because I WANTED to help with the stigma behind sex."
We're sure Bella's heart is in the right place and that she really didn't anticipate the problems her account would create.
That said, patting yourself on the back for your bravery in launching a venture that brought you $2 million in a week is some peak-privilege sh-t.
Bella engaged in a little more self-congratulating (there's a good chance she's not as much of a "mainstream" A-lister as she thinks she is) before finally asking fans what she can do to rectify the situation.
"I am a mainstream face and when you have a voice, a platform, you try to use you in helping others and advocate for something bigger than yourself. Again in this process I hurt you and for that I'm truly sorry," Thorne wrote.
"This is f--ked up and I'm sorry," she concluded.
"Comment any ideas or concerns you want brought up to OF!! and send me your links and a pic so I can promote you guys."
We're not experts, but it seems like at least temporarily deleting her account would be a good place to start.
