Monetising homophobic discourse: hate speech, derogatory language, and the hetero-masculine male body on OnlyFans.

Since the creation of the OnlyFans platform in 2016, there has
been an emergence of male-identifying content creators
monetising hate speech and derogatory language to
commodify the body for gay and queer consumption. Through
the performance of hetero-masculinity and use of
homophobia, the male body can dismiss homosexual
behaviours and maintain an 'authentic' heterosexuality.
Previous research into the performance of hetero-masculinity
concludes that offline spaces permit male-on-male sexual
interactions without using homophobic discourse to (re)assert
heterosexuality. However, there is an absence of research
exploring how the monetisation of hate speech and heteromasculinity
interplay to negotiate the tensions and exchanges
aligned to male-on-male online sexual encounters. The study
will conduct 20 oral history testimonies with male-identifying
OnlyFans creators to qualitatively understand how the
relationship between hate speech, derogatory language and
hetero-masculinity becomes capitalised to provoke arousal for
gay and queer consumers and gain economic capital. Also,
critical discourse analysis of 1,000 posts from OnlyFans
profiles, X-Rated Twitter sites and profile advertisements will
be completed to evaluate how sexually explicit material and
homophobic discourse (re)assert heterosexual desires and an
'authentic' heterosexuality online. Findings from the oral
history and discourse analysis will be compared to understand
how male content creators remodel heterosexual desires for
queer consumption both online and offline. The hetero-body
and homophobic discourse become fetishized and exchanged
as a queer commodity when OnlyFans operates as a site for
the remodelling of heterosexual desires. Future research
could explore the motives of gay male and queer-identifying
OnlyFans users who subscribe to hetero-masculine creators.