It’s been just about a year since Dan Benson, best known for playing Zeke on the Disney Channel sitcom Wizards of Waverly Place, officially shed his Disney image and started an OnlyFans. On his TikTok, the 35-year-old shared how his journey into adult entertainment has been so far.
“I expected a lot more hate, and instead people have just been like, ‘Go you!’” Benson said. “Mental health wise, I feel good. I don’t feel bad about myself. I feel kind of like a badass, a little bit.”
Benson’s career in adult entertainment had a rocky start. He was catfished, and his nudes were leaked on the internet.
“Boy, I was bad at taking nudes back then. I’m good at it now,” Benson recently admitted on the podcast Vulnerable, hosted by fellow Disney Channel star Christy Carlson Romano. “I’m not even upset that they’re out there. I’m upset that those are the ones that are out there,” he continued.
He decided to turn lemons into lemonade and start an OnlyFans, and the rest is history. Some fans have had crushes since his Disney days, but others only discovered Benson through his new line of work. Benson says he gets recognized in public more now than he did when he was on Wizard of Waverly Place.
“It’s a really weird experience now to be kind of way more famous than I was before just because I made this extreme choice into doing more, like, sex work,” Benson said.
Being an OnlyFans model isn’t without its struggles, Benson shared: “There are plenty of people on a daily basis asking me and demanding I do things that I don’t feel comfortable doing. But I’ve kind of just been in position to be like, ‘No, you’re gonna get what you’re gonna get. You’re gonna get what I’m comfortable with sharing with the world, which now is quite a bit.’”
Though he himself isn’t queer, he loves creating content with gay men in mind.
“It is kind of interesting to be a straight man who creates content for gay men,” Benson shared on Vulnerable. “I’ve always been very open and honest with all of my followers and everyone who watches my content about my sexuality, and I get asked all the time, ‘Are you gay? Are you bi?’ And I’m not sexually attracted to men, but I have fun creating content, and I get enjoyment out of creating content specifically for gay men.”
Good news, Dan: we’re having fun too!
mateo
Well, he obviously has a big schlong and he enjoys showing it off (even though I’ll never really know, since I don’t have an Instagram account, nor have I subscribed to any OnlyFans). But here’s what I kind of don’t get: He says he’s neither gay nor bi, but nevertheless he enjoys showing off to gay fans. I assume that means beating off, presumably to climax? Never in my wildest dreams when I was 35 (nor if I were 35 now) would it have ever occured to me to strut my stuff for WOMEN to see! It just wouldn’t have interested me, and in fact it would have turned me off in a way. So I wonder how this guy, who self-identifies as straight, has no problems at all with performing for a gay audience. Does he maybe think that there are women who are watching as well as gay men, or is it just the power of $$$?
Kangol2
Human sexuality and sexual desires are more complex than your understanding of both. He very well could be straight (hetero) but have exhibitionist tendencies (a paraphilia), and enjoy showing off his nude body to women and men, i.e., people of whatever gender, and of whatever sexual orientation. On Twitter there are large numbers of apparently straight (hetero) cis men who post nudes and while they may claim they are for women, they do not shut down the large number of men, mostly gay and bi, who comment favorably on them. Some even welcome the positive comments. And they aren’t directly getting paid either, though they may be boosting subscriptions for their OF /JFF, etc. sites.
Donston
Kangol, people do tend to forget that exhibitionism is a thing. Wanting to receive validation from your nudity or wanting to shock people with your nudity and sexual behaviors is a major part of a lot of sex workers’ psychology. That’s why they get into sex work to begin with. From my experience, most exhibitionists do tend to have some type of queer dynamics, hyper-sexuality, fluidity. But I don’t know where we started connecting guys getting naked or thirst trapping on the internet to queerness. Thirst trapping is perhaps the easiest way to boost clicks, likes, followers on social media. And he is getting paid for his vids. Never mind that he talked about setting up another OF just for just semi nudes. So, yes, he is very much focused on the money.
I don’t have an issue with the idea of OnlyFans. But I don’t see myself ever subscribing to any of these guys. There’s way too much scamming. Too many people exploiting their followers and fan bases. Way too many guys who only care about “gays” and queer issues when they’re looking to get validation and money from queers. Too many guys who use identities (gay, straight, bi, whatever) as a marketing tool. Too many insecure queers who connect their queer-dom only to sex and getting validation from others. This dude in particular strictly uses trans women in his vids yet barely acknowledges trans people on his other socials. He also keeps teasing the “I might be into guys”/“I might do a vid with a guy” narrative. No matter his sexual dimensions or where he is in the gender, sexual, affection, romantic, emotion, commitment spectrum- he’s being exploitative and leeching off of unabashed queers. I don’t know why places like this feel the need to celebrate every decent looking white guy who gets naked and acknowledges queers. And you know they would not continue writing article after article about this dude if he was unabashedly queer. There’s still clearly a lot of insecurities and superiority/inferiority complexes in our “community”.
Donston
I will say that though being a male exhibitionist isn’t inherently queer, us still strictly using “sexual attractions” to define “sexuality” is becoming problematic. There’s still a ton of men who regularly sexually engage with other men or they may have a decent amount of affections, romantic feelings, emotional longing, relationship/commitment desires towards their sex. But because they feel as if they have little to no “sexual attractions” to men that makes them “straight”. There’s a lot of guys who sexually engage with their homeboys and have relationships with their male friends but still present themselves to the world as “straight” because they don’t feel as if they have inherent sexual attractions to men and/or they have tons of sex with women. Just like there are plenty of men who claim “gay” identities, but when you really really break it down they’re not legit homosexual and/or women are somewhere in their orientation. We are still way too caught up in “sexual attractions” and “gay” and “straight” and “bi”. And it keeps a lot of dudes from being completely real. However, as I said, no matter the dimensions of this dude, he’s exploitative as hell and he wouldn’t be getting nearly the press coverage he continues to get if he were unabashedly queer. I’m sure that he knows that.
Matthewnow
Google his name and the word sex and you’ll get a video. i used think these are people to lazy to get a real job. Not anymore. As long as children don’t see it. But that’s a parental issue. He’s hung. Totally straight, NOT. Or maybe a straight grifter to gay people. Then he’s a scumbag whore.
Donston
Most of his vids with other people are with trans women. And he’s “jokingly” expressed being interested in making vids with men. Whatever his dimensions or experiences are, whatever fluidity or questioning he’s experienced, wherever he is in the gender, sexual, affection, romantic, emotion, commitment spectrum- he’s clearly not conventionally heterosexual. He’s another guy who wants to be publicly queer adjacent or wants to support queer causes once he started looking to get validation and money from queers. For me, those type of guys are always gonna come off exploitative and like they’re using people. It doesn’t matter what their dimensions or identities are. But a lot of folks only care about the “decent looking white guy is getting naked” part. And this site continues to promote and placate those dudes.
Fahd
Glad he’s enjoying himself and I hope it lasts a while longer…But 35 and Onlyfans model?….I hope he has a plan B, something with benefits and a pension. But maybe the onlyfans thing is a side gig.
Openminded
My thoughts exactly. You must be a pessimist, like me.