Highlighting a shift in how Americans are investing in “connection,” OnlyFans model Sophie Rain recently announced she has earned $100 million in revenue since 2024. Instead of investing in a lifelong relationship and the unification of two souls, it is becoming glaringly obvious that the once-revered institution of marriage is no longer the finish line for a generation choosing temporary transactions over permanent foundations.
This retreat from tradition is something that has been on a steady decline, and marriage has become an issue of partisan ideology, with marriage rates reaching all-time lows. A widening “marriage gap” has emerged in the United States, as new polls given to us by Gallup show an 18% difference in marriage rates between Republicans and Democrats, one that seems to be fueled by differing views on pornography and bodily autonomy. Yet, this gap has not always existed. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that the gap dramatically widened.
With the rise of third-wave feminism and progressive ideals, women focus on a movement built upon intersectionality, bodily autonomy, gender expression, and much more. This caused a shift in priorities for women looking to fulfill their desire for further empowerment. Marriage was seen as the finish line, it was a distraction. For a new generation of women, the goal was no longer to share a life, but to build one on their own terms. This is one of the main contributors to the decline, with the Democratic Party reaching a low of 49%, this number hadn’t been seen in 20 years. The Republican Party dipped down to 60% at its lowest point, but is now on the rise at 67% in 2024.
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This pursuit of autonomy eventually converged with the digital creator economy. In 2016, OnlyFans was created, a subscription-based platform, and with a monthly fee, you could gain access to a single creator’s content and much more. It started out much like how Patreon works, a place where “influencers or creators” could monetize their content without the constant use of advertising and sponsors. The problem was that the platform had very few restrictions on explicit content. After its launch, it shifted from a general social media platform to one dominated by adult content. In 2019, the number of users sat around 13 million, but most recently, those numbers have increased to a staggering 377 million in 2024. This number shows a detrimental shift representing more than just a change in “entertainment”; it constitutes a pivot from traditional monogamy and an emphasis on marriage. This platform is made readily available to millions; polls show that 80–87% of users are male, frequently between the ages of 18 and 34. OnlyFans offers much more than just “visual satisfaction”; it mimics that of a reciprocal relationship through payment.
Nevertheless, the feeling of loneliness that was once satisfied by a meaningful relationship can now be artificially satisfied by a sex worker who takes your request for a price. Though there are large amounts of free porn offered on the internet, OnlyFans offers something more personal to users looking to satisfy their specific cravings. Because the platform is subscription-based, requiring a monthly payment to access the ‘creator’s content,’ users can request certain explicit content especially catered to their liking. This approach gives users exactly what they’re looking for, offering more than what normal porn can provide; it’s personalized to the user, making it all the more enticing. This fact accounts for the $7.2 billion that users spent on OnlyFans in 2024, a 9.1% increase from 2023.
This presents a real problem. With the detrimental effect that pornography has on the human brain, it is no wonder that it now holds a tight grip on the young minds of this generation. In a recent study by two professors, Colin Hesse & Kory Floyd, conducted at Oregon State University, have shown “People use pornography as a substitute for close relational communication such as affection that fulfills the need to belong.” They also found that, “The relationship between affection deprivation and depression actually became stronger as people viewed more pornography. This finding means that, while people might view pornography to manage affection deprivation, that strategy might not actually be helpful.” The study shows us that while users might think they’re substituting “affection deprivation,” they’re really just causing depressive behavior to take over their life, causing them to be less likely to seek a meaningful relationship.
For OnlyFans, unfortunately, it’s everywhere and more accessible than ever, as OnlyFans “creators” take to social media platforms to advertise their “businesses.” These sex workers promote bodily autonomy and echo the feminist ideology that has been pushed forward by the progressive Left for many years, explaining that they don’t “need a man,” and further suggesting to the young women of this generation that they are even better off without one.
It is a vicious cycle where empowerment for the few means loneliness and depression for many.
While Democrats have long emphasized bodily autonomy and Republicans have stressed tradition, the gap between those worldviews has widened in the digital age. Recent polling and research suggest that marriage has become deeply tied to partisan identity. Among people ages 30 to 50, about 67% of Republicans are married compared with 49% of Democrats. That disparity reflects not just lifestyle differences but diverging beliefs about the institution itself. One study found that 59% of Democrats say couples are better off not marrying, while only 30% of Republicans share that view.
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What has changed in recent years is the commercialization of this cultural divide. Attitudes toward pornography, for example, now differ sharply along party lines. This moral divergence points to a shift in Democratic priorities, where the principle of bodily autonomy is increasingly extended to support sex workers and digital sexual expression. Republicans, by contrast, are more likely to argue for preserving social norms and resisting trends they believe undermine the value of lifelong partnership.
There is no doubt that all of this is a major contributing factor to the low marriage rate and soaring divorce rates that society possesses. The impact of focusing on someone through a screen, who can never give you the full gratification and purpose that being with another human being gives, is a problem that society is facing.