Following in-depth interviews with users and my own experiences as an adult content creator, this study explores authenticity on Onlyfans. I develop the term negotiated authenticity to explain the process whereby subscribers and creators make active and passive choices and take on collaborative or solitary roles in negotiating a satisfying fantasy of authenticity. Understanding authenticity as a social construction, this work challenges the conventional understanding of sex work services and products. Moving beyond the real or fake binary in pornography, negotiated authenticity frames sex work as a relational and creative performance of the self.
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