keeping it real

This gay OnlyFans star is exposing viewers to another side of sex work

By · 18 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024
Muscular man with spiked blonde hair and a beard leaning on his knees in a red tank top.

On the surface, Joel Michael Anderson appears to be living the gay party boy’s dream. A former structural engineer, Anderson now spends his days at the gym and his nights at the club.

“I figured out how to make a living off of being hot and partying and f****** all the time,” he says in his new short film, DOXY. “I’m living the f****** dream.”

But there is a dark side beneath the intoxicating hedonism and bacchanalia. Anderson, whose stage name is “Johnny Ford”, is also using his platform to spread awareness about the danger and uncertainty that sex workers and OnlyFans creators face on a daily basis.

At the end of the DOXY trailer, the fun-loving, confident stud seen dancing in a jockstrap in the opening scenes is suddenly reduced to tears. “I’m not good at anything else,” he laments. “There’s always another night.”

Watch the DOXY trailer below:

OnlyFans’ popularity surged during the pandemic, spiking from 7.5 million users in November 2019 to 85 million users by December 2020. But as those numbers indicate, there is now a massive surplus of creators vying for the same customer base. We’ve all read stories about how OnlyFans stars can earn tens of thousands of dollars per month–if not more.

But they are the vast minority, Anderson says. For many, the personal cost of having nude photos and sex videos online indefinitely far outweighs any monetary gains.

That’s one of the messages Anderson hammers home in DOXY, in which he stars as a scripted version of his adult film alter-ego Johnny Ford.

“We’ve all watched adult content creators and influences try to be reality stars blogging to the camera to brag about how awesome they are,” he tells PinkNews. “I’ve always thought it’s so often a missed opportunity to tell a story, to move the audience, to create an entertaining experience and a cathartic message that helps people.”

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The 20-minute film, which is seemingly shot on a camera phone, shows Ford caught in some threatening situations, such as when a customer on meth refuses to pay for sex.

“As you see in DOXY, when a client threatens to call the police, a sex worker can’t very well face the police and demand their due payment,” he says to the outlet. “People think they can take advantage of sex workers for that reason. It’s easier for crime to happen to them when their vocation is a crime.”

Of course, decriminalizing sex work would go a long way towards removing some of the dangers of the job. As a new Yale study shows, the criminalization of sex work disproportionality impacts our most vulnerable populations, including transgender and gender nonconforming people.

But decriminalizing sex work wouldn’t serve as a panacea. The industry is highly competitive and exploitative. Every performer has a shelf life.

“Workers can feel stuck in the industry without a better option for income,” Anderson says. “Once that bridge is crossed, it’s pretty much burned down. Don’t start it without an exit strategy.”

It would be easy for Anderson to hide behind the vail of his fun-loving alter-ego, “Johnny Ford,” who boasts nearly 89,500 followers on Twitter, 32,000 on Instagram and 26,300 on TikTok. He deserves kudos for being vulnerable and exposing the shady underbelly of the OnlyFans lifestyle.

Anderson is in the middle of it now, and fortunate enough to enjoy some success. But as his film indicates, he has an exit strategy, and is eager to tell his story in the meantime. You can check out DOXY here.

Scroll down for some pics and videos of Anderson working out in the gym and living his life in LA as an OnlyFans star…

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