4 ms·

OnlyFans Star Aella Talks Sex Work Economics

35 points by mhb 4y ago

StevePerkins 4y ago
> "I did a survey of a bunch of escorts and found that the amount of bad things they encountered, like sexual assault, or theft, or police, or whatever, was pretty strongly correlated with their price range. Basically, the more money you charge, you're pricing yourself out of more sketchy clientele." This makes a lot of sense. I mostly go to Target even though Walmart is closer, because it's worth the extra 5% or so for me to avoid the people who shop and work at Walmart. I imagine that sex work is the last field on earth where you would want price yourself in the bottom tier.
- toomuchtodo 4y ago
  I’m curious why this is the result though. I know very very kind wealthy people, but I also know wealthy psychopaths who you would be absolutely charmed by at a cocktail party. What causes how you treat others to be “better” (for lack of a better word) in transactions to skew towards improvement at higher dollar amounts? (edit: sociopaths-> psychopaths)
  - some_furry 4y ago
    What is the overlap of wealthy sociopaths that also would hire an escort instead of charming a victim?
  - Tarq0n 4y ago
    The downside of legal action or reputational damage is higher for wealthier people. Wealthy people also tend to come from higher class families which tend to socialize their children more strictly. That doesn't mean they can't misbehave, but they're more likely to do so in a socially acceptable or legally permissible way.
  - lliamander 4y ago
    I imagine it's a matter of having a lower time preference. Wealthier people tend not to act as much on impulse (or else they would lose their wealth).
  - MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > wealthy psychopaths who you would be absolutely charmed by at a cocktail party. If the psychopath can be superficially kind for a few minutes, to charm me at a cocktail party, then I don't mind being in a store with them. All they have to do is behave in a civil manner when I'm there and not cause a scene. The sort of psycho that bothers me in public is the sort that can't mask themselves. The kind that compulsively pick fights over imagined sleights, or generally cannot control their behavior and act on impulse.
  - xboxnolifes 4y ago
    I'd guess that the psychopaths more likely to do reputation damaging actions have been self filtered out of being wealthy.
- deleted 4y ago
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deleted 4y ago
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nestorD 4y ago
She also has a very good blog with further data analysis on the subject: https://knowingless.com/old-posts-full-archive/ https://knowingless.com/old-posts-full-archive/
renewiltord 4y ago
She's popular among the Si Valley Twitter crowd (in the sense that I follow many and they retweet her etc). She seems like a smart person but the tweets are quite standard - observations about customers being better at higher prices etc that are pretty non-novel. However, considering she was making some 2m/year on Only Fans, there must be something unique about her. I wish the article captured that instead. Instead it ended rather quickly. However, I'd guess that it has something to do with the mix of sex work and being articulate and intelligent. It's possible that itself is rare. Anyway, maybe more college students should do this sort of thing.
- tacet 4y ago
  >there must be something unique about her. Well, years ago she was doing sexy mime routines on cam, so that was pretty unusual. I have encountered her writtings time to time and they usually are interesting read.
Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago
The huge elephant in the room for those who are on the other side of the transaction of Aella (and other girls who escort) is that the standard flat fee is an absolute joke. It cannot be the same for a wrinkly 91 year old and a 19 year old. Escorts are great, you can land in whatever city in the world, knowing absolutely nobody and you'll get female companionship with dinner date and sex (or even just sex) that same night. The flat fee has to go though. The only way for the 19 year old not to get absolutely screwed by the flat fee is to befriend the escort and try and get in the "friends with benefit zone" with her.
- kennywinker 4y ago
  This is such a weird comment. Seems like you believe that it’s less work to spend an hour with a 19 year old than a 91 year old? A personal trainer doesn’t charge less for a young client vs an old one. A masseuse neither. You may be a great conversationalist, but your taxi driver is charging the same as if you’re dead silent the whole ride.
  - Teever 4y ago
    The implication of your comment is that you'd feel equally comfortable fucking a 19 yo as a 91 yo. I'm not sure that would be the case for everyone if they were presented with the option.
    - kennywinker 4y ago
      I’m in a different line of work, so what I’d do isn’t really relevant. But if I try to project myself into that situation, I think once I’m with someone I didn’t choose, how old or attractive they are doesn’t matter all that much. But that’s just me. Also i’m in my late 30s. I’d feel deeply uncomfortable being with a 19yr old under any circumstances, and in ways that wouldn’t kick in with a 91yr old.
      - Teever 4y ago
        I think the flaw in your line of thinking is that sex workers don't get to choose their clients.
MichaelCollins 4y ago
Is there any public data on the distribution of success on OnlyFans? I have the impression that it mirrors other social media; a very small number of people make a very large amount of money, while the vast majority of people earn scraps at best. I expected the article to mention something about this, but it only mentions the lopsided customer side of the equation, most of the money coming from a very small number of whales.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

35 points by mhb 4y ago

> "I did a survey of a bunch of escorts and found that the amount of bad things they encountered, like sexual assault, or theft, or police, or whatever, was pretty strongly correlated with their price range. Basically, the more money you charge, you're pricing yourself out of more sketchy clientele." This makes a lot of sense. I mostly go to Target even though Walmart is closer, because it's worth the extra 5% or so for me to avoid the people who shop and work at Walmart. I imagine that sex work is the last field on earth where you would want price yourself in the bottom tier.

toomuchtodo 4y ago
I’m curious why this is the result though. I know very very kind wealthy people, but I also know wealthy psychopaths who you would be absolutely charmed by at a cocktail party. What causes how you treat others to be “better” (for lack of a better word) in transactions to skew towards improvement at higher dollar amounts? (edit: sociopaths-> psychopaths)
- some_furry 4y ago
  What is the overlap of wealthy sociopaths that also would hire an escort instead of charming a victim?
- Tarq0n 4y ago
  The downside of legal action or reputational damage is higher for wealthier people. Wealthy people also tend to come from higher class families which tend to socialize their children more strictly. That doesn't mean they can't misbehave, but they're more likely to do so in a socially acceptable or legally permissible way.
- lliamander 4y ago
  I imagine it's a matter of having a lower time preference. Wealthier people tend not to act as much on impulse (or else they would lose their wealth).
- MichaelCollins 4y ago
  > wealthy psychopaths who you would be absolutely charmed by at a cocktail party. If the psychopath can be superficially kind for a few minutes, to charm me at a cocktail party, then I don't mind being in a store with them. All they have to do is behave in a civil manner when I'm there and not cause a scene. The sort of psycho that bothers me in public is the sort that can't mask themselves. The kind that compulsively pick fights over imagined sleights, or generally cannot control their behavior and act on impulse.
- xboxnolifes 4y ago
  I'd guess that the psychopaths more likely to do reputation damaging actions have been self filtered out of being wealthy.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

nestorD 4y ago

She also has a very good blog with further data analysis on the subject: https://knowingless.com/old-posts-full-archive/ https://knowingless.com/old-posts-full-archive/

renewiltord 4y ago

She's popular among the Si Valley Twitter crowd (in the sense that I follow many and they retweet her etc). She seems like a smart person but the tweets are quite standard - observations about customers being better at higher prices etc that are pretty non-novel. However, considering she was making some 2m/year on Only Fans, there must be something unique about her. I wish the article captured that instead. Instead it ended rather quickly. However, I'd guess that it has something to do with the mix of sex work and being articulate and intelligent. It's possible that itself is rare. Anyway, maybe more college students should do this sort of thing.

tacet 4y ago
>there must be something unique about her. Well, years ago she was doing sexy mime routines on cam, so that was pretty unusual. I have encountered her writtings time to time and they usually are interesting read.

Bubble_Pop_22 4y ago

The huge elephant in the room for those who are on the other side of the transaction of Aella (and other girls who escort) is that the standard flat fee is an absolute joke. It cannot be the same for a wrinkly 91 year old and a 19 year old. Escorts are great, you can land in whatever city in the world, knowing absolutely nobody and you'll get female companionship with dinner date and sex (or even just sex) that same night. The flat fee has to go though. The only way for the 19 year old not to get absolutely screwed by the flat fee is to befriend the escort and try and get in the "friends with benefit zone" with her.

kennywinker 4y ago
This is such a weird comment. Seems like you believe that it’s less work to spend an hour with a 19 year old than a 91 year old? A personal trainer doesn’t charge less for a young client vs an old one. A masseuse neither. You may be a great conversationalist, but your taxi driver is charging the same as if you’re dead silent the whole ride.
- Teever 4y ago
  The implication of your comment is that you'd feel equally comfortable fucking a 19 yo as a 91 yo. I'm not sure that would be the case for everyone if they were presented with the option.
  - kennywinker 4y ago
    I’m in a different line of work, so what I’d do isn’t really relevant. But if I try to project myself into that situation, I think once I’m with someone I didn’t choose, how old or attractive they are doesn’t matter all that much. But that’s just me. Also i’m in my late 30s. I’d feel deeply uncomfortable being with a 19yr old under any circumstances, and in ways that wouldn’t kick in with a 91yr old.
    - Teever 4y ago
      I think the flaw in your line of thinking is that sex workers don't get to choose their clients.

MichaelCollins 4y ago

Is there any public data on the distribution of success on OnlyFans? I have the impression that it mirrors other social media; a very small number of people make a very large amount of money, while the vast majority of people earn scraps at best. I expected the article to mention something about this, but it only mentions the lopsided customer side of the equation, most of the money coming from a very small number of whales.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]