It’s unfortunately not surprising that in 2023, women are still reduced to the sum of their caregiver role. Brianna Coppage, a 28-year-old teacher in Missouri, has just been put on administrative leave, due to the high school she works at finding out she had an OnlyFans account. Despite no evidence of her profile containing illegal content, she is being punished as if her side hustle is worthy of condemnation.
Despite the role of the sex worker being a long held position across society, often fetishised and glamorised by certain sections of the media – and online sex work being an accessible side hustle for many today – learning that someone chooses sex work still leaves a bitter taste in people’s mouths.
This is especially the case, when – like Brianna – your public role is one deemed respectable and even maternal.
When people discover that a woman is more than the “good” role that they have cast them in, the realisation often comes with disgust. Society still cannot accept – despite many seeking out sex work for their own entertainment – that a woman can be capable of sexualising herself and maintain her professional career. Women are pressured to be either the Madonna or the whore, we cannot contain multitudes.
Brianna’s job being affected by her side hustle – which would not be under scrutiny if, say, it was an Etsy shop – shows that no matter how much sex work becomes an open conversation, it is no longer an “open secret” (OnlyFans even has billboards). Women are still seen differently by their peers once their sex work is known.
Alongside repulsion on the discovery that someone is a sex worker, there also comes an assumption of perversion. So much of the discussion around sex work becomes too often a discussion on child trafficking and illegal pornography.
OnlyFans has often been brought up in discussions of illicit child trafficking, despite the site working hard to ensure the content sold online is a safe transaction between consenting adults. When we conflate sex work with any form of illegal sexually violating actions, we lump in sex workers with those who actually seek to do harm – and prevent the job from receiving the safety benefits of legalisation.
Administrators at Brianna’s High School deemed her online activity as “inappropriate media” despite her insisting her online persona and teaching work are separate. There seems to be an expectation that someone who chooses this line of work has no morality.
Th e expectation is impossible and unreal: that an educator cannot also be a sexual person in her private life; that one must somehow affect the other.
But sex workers understand much more explicitly than most the importance of consent. Take it from me – I worked for OnlyFans. And having to assert your boundaries and ensure your own safety and privacy on a daily basis reminds sex workers like me just how blurry the lines can be.
While sex work is, in many ways, just like any other job (and by that, I mean it is not your entire personality) it is also an extremely intimate role to undertake. Sex workers understand this better than anyone. To question Brianna’s morality ignores the fact that she understands the risk of her experience better than those who judge her for it.
Brianna is facing what too many sex workers face: the fear that our work will be discovered and that the ensuing judgement and discrimination from those around us will impact our everyday lives.
“It was kind of always like this cloud hanging over my head, like I never knew when I would be discovered,” she told the St Louis Post-Dispatch . “Then, about two weeks ago, my husband and I were told that people were finding out about it. So I knew this day was coming.”
She said she began the site to “help support her household” over the summer months – but is now being shamed for it. Yet all she was doing was taking on a second job for taking on another job. Shouldn’t we be more ashamed that a teacher like her should have to take on extra work (of any kind) in order to keep her home life afloat?
Isn’t it more damning to be living in a society that pays teachers so little, and demands so much of them? How can we demand so much of caregivers and not give them financial stability?
Brianna does not feel shame or regret – and good for her! It’s time for the rest of us to stop judging – and start subscribing.
