Gangbangs, OnlyFans, Feminism and Lily Phillips
A comparison of the new documentary, I Slept with 100 Men in One Day, and Sex: The Annabel Chong Story
Warning: We’re going to talk about the online reaction to Lily Philips, an Onlyfans star who slept with 100 men in a day. We’ll explore the history of record-breaking gangbangs, the women who’ve done it before, and why it’s bad or maybe something you don’t need to care about at all.
So, this is a warning. I’ll be talking about sex! And porn! I am so sorry, Mom!
Edited on 12/14: There was another woman, Spantaneeus Xtasty, who broke the record in 1998. I couldn’t find interviews with her because I was misspelling her name. She’s been added to the piece. Apologies!
Why am I writing 5,000 words about an OnlyFans creator’s gangbang world record attempt? Because the discourse around it made me angry, of course! The brevity of social media created a conversation that felt disconnected from history and cultural context. For some, Lily Phillips was their first experience seeing this kind of taboo sensationalism in media. The shock value was evident.
Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, it was common for people to argue about the latest shocking sex act Jerry Springer decided to share with the world. By then, there were more academic arguments about sex and ethical porn under feminism. By the time I went to college, I joined the Queer Student Union where we brought feminist porn stars like Jiz Lee to campus and invited Dan Savage to speak. Debate and discussion around sex and porn were encouraged.
People did get mad when we brought Lee to campus. Fox News covered it and Lee had to write an entire thing asking people to be normal. I recently did Savage Love (a dream come true) and Dan told me he had to stop doing college talks because of the death threats he’d get. In just a few years, it seems the conservative movement in America had succeeded at separating queer and feminist youth from the history of sex. At the same time, I understand why a generation that’s seen porn normalized to a new, insane degree wouldn’t be interest in these old arguments, anyway.
Online, people said Lily Phillips was bringing on the downfall of civilization. But things didn’t come to an end in 1995, 1996 or 1999 when this was done before. People said sex is an “off limits” topic for the left and people didn’t want to hear criticism. Are you kidding? That’s one of our favorite things to argue about on the left! The Feminist Sex Wars have an entire Wikipedia page and you’ll notice it doesn’t say that war was won.
I tried tweeting my thoughts on it, but Deep Trouble exists to explain things beyond a Twitter thread. So, I offer you this very long and somewhat detailed history on the politics of the gangbang. This dive explores both the pro- and anti-porn stances.
Below are a few materials that popped into my head seeing the discourse around Lily Philips. Feel free to recommend other materials in the comments!
Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (1999, Documentary) - In 1995, she became the first documented woman to break the world record. Chong started making porn as part of her studies in gender at USC. In 1999, Gough Lewis made a documentary about her career and breaking the record. The doc has a lot of problems that we’ll get into, so I don’t really recommend watching it.
“What Happened to Annabel Chong” (2020, Vice Profile) - After watching the doc, most people want to know what happened to her. I think it’s best to read her own words.
“Jasmin St. Claire Will Always Be The Gang-Bang Queen” (2021, Mel Profile) - Jasmin broke Chong’s record in 1996 by sleeping with 300 men and talks about her motivations. Her World’s Biggest Gangbang video is called the last one that mattered.
Spantaneeus Xtasty: Business Entity, Ex-Porn Star, Model & the Only Female Who Was Managed by Tupac Shakur (2013, Da Grahynd Music) - The first black woman to break the world record. In 1998, she slept with 551 men.
Moment With The Messiah featured guest “SPANTANEEUS XTASTY” (2024, YouTube) - Xtasty on her video earlier this year.
The gang’s all here: Hope flickers at the World’s Biggest Gangbang (1999, Salon Profile) - About the porn star Houston who broke St. Claire’s record in 1999 with 620 men. By this point, interest in the event waned and this is considered a flop.
I Slept With 100 Men in One Day (2024, Documentary) - Josh Pieters’ very new documentary about Lily Philips. Filmed prior to and on the day of her 100 man act, this came out a few days ago. I wouldn’t really call it a documentary, it’s more like a 30-minute Vice special. It shares the same issues we’ll get into with Sex.
The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry (2005, Book) - A favorite if you want to understand the history and changes that have happened in the porn industry.
The Feminist Porn Book: The Politics of Producing Pleasure (2016, Book) - A feminist pro-ethical porn book that explains ideas like sex work is work and why feminist porn can exist. This is often reduced to “choice feminism” or “sex positivity,” but there’s more to it than that. I don’t agree with everything in the book and it gets a lot of fair criticism, but I would specifically recommend these essays:
From Text to Context: Feminist Porn and the Making of a Market by Lynn Comella
“Every time we fuck, we win”: The Public Sphere of Queer, Feminist and Lesbian Porn as a (Safe) Space for Sexual Empowerment by Ingrid Ryberg
Uncategorized: Genderqueer Identity and Performance in Independent and Mainstream Porn by Jiz Lee
A Question of Feminism by Sinnamon Love
Traffic in Women: Notes on Political Economy of Sex by Gayle Rubin (1975, Article) - A feminist anti-porn piece that I think does the best job of explaining this movement in relation to capital and social subordination. This is often reduced to “being a puriteen” or “anti-pornography feminism.”
I also don’t agree with everything Rubin outlines, but she makes some great points without calling people sluts. It’s old, but the systems it talks about haven’t changed since it was published. Also she was a sex positive feminist! Look at how complex people can be!
Ok, let’s get into it!
Everything Old is New Again
In 1995 a 22 years old porn star, Annabel Chong, agreed to take part in The World’s Biggest Gang Bang. She wasn’t the first to do something like this and she wouldn’t be the last. She would, however, be the first to generate a massive amount of media attention, creating one of the highest-grossing pornographic films in history.
Chong made international headlines, Chuck Palahniuk wrote a shitty novel about her, there was a play, and, obviously, the previously mentioned documentary. Gangbangs are an obvious taboo that draw curiosity, judgement and attention. As long as people have been interested in sex, people across genders and sexual orientations have been pulled in by the curiosity of the gangbang. Before Chong, a gay male porn star set a record at 1,000 men. Even ethical, feminist porn dabbles in the all-lady gangbang.
And hough Lily Phillips might make you lose faith in humanity, in reality, gangbangs say very little about actual human sexuality or desire. In 1999, when asked to explain the interest in Houston’s gangbang, Ted McIllvenna, president of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, said, “What happens is we get fascinated with excess. It’s like the guy who watches 47 football games on the weekend. The fact that it’s sexual doesn’t have very much to do with anything.”
Even the people who make and star in these videos know that it’s about the taboo nature of the act. It’s a curiosity because people are curious. It doesn’t reflect the true nature of men or women; only the nature of the people that produce them for profit.
The variation that gets the most attention is a woman sleeping with men. That’s probably why the industry uses it as a stunt over and over again. Chong’s record would be broken multiple times. In fact, she only have the title for a year. Sex: The Annabel Chong Story shows us Chong “passing the torch” to Jasmin St. Claire. When the director hands St. Claire her trophy, the camera follows Chong back to her empty, messy apartment. She takes off her wig, revealing a pink buzzcut. She goes from a tight black leather dress to a white t-shirt.
She goes back to being Grace Quek, a bisexual graduate student from a strict middle-class family with a dayjob as a porn star and a girlfriend. Quek came from a Protestant family, attended Singapore’s Gifted Education Programme, and studied law at King’s College London before dropping out to study art and porn at USC. To the shock of Jerry Springer viewers and Twitter users, like Lily Phillips, there was no tragic family backstory or missing father at the root of her behavior.
In the doc, Chong says she wanted to challenge gender roles and assumptions around female sexuality. She wanted to question the idea that women are passive sex objects by modeling a female version of the hypersexual male. For example, when describing her gangbang, she doesn’t say she serviced 251 men, she says she was serviced by 251 men. Whether her actions were successful is debatable, but she does lead the way for other women like St. Claire and Lisa Sparxxx (the current supposed 2004 record holder at 919.) Those are the two people talk about, anyway.
A black woman, Spantaneeus Xtasty, broke the record in 1998 at 551. Her video was successful, but mainstream publications didn’t take notice. There’d be another star named Houston, she’d break the record at 620 in 1999, but no one really cared anymore by then. Salon covered the event, declaring it the “end of the gangbang.”
After multiple Springer and Howard Stern segments, the act stopped garnering media attention. By the 2010s, realistic porn scenarios and the “authenticity” of things like OnlyFans and amateur porn became the norm.
The women who came before did it for a variety of reasons, but without media attention or monetary gain, over time, the industry stopped producing them. The event that would make Sparxx famous, Poland’s Annual World Gangbang Championship, would eventually be cancelled due to political pressure. As Mel says, “gangbangs fell out of fashion.” Cultural curiosity was satisfied.
Until 2024 when OnlyFans model Lily Phillips announced she was bringing this tradition back. First, with 37 guys. Then 100. And, now, she says, with 1,000 to beat the ultimate record. Outrage, support, and debate might dominate the topic online, but elements of Philips’ plan felt like nostalgia.
There are a few reasons why Lily, specifically, pushed gangbangs back into the zeitgeist. The main one was distancing herself from adult film stars who came before.
The Motivation Is The Same
A woman is a woman. She only becomes a domestic, a wife, a chattel, a playboy bunny, a prostitute, or a human dictaphone in certain relations. Torn from these relationships, she is no more the helpmate of man than gold in itself is money….What then are these relationships by which a female becomes an oppressed woman? - Gayle Rubin, The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex
Phillips, Chong, St. Claire, XTasty, Houston and Sparxxx will all give you different reasons for choosing to partake in their events. St. Claire and Sparxxx were primarily motivated by money. In recent tweets and in her Mel interview, St. Claire explains that doing the video allowed her to raise her rates as a feature dancer. Houston wanted to revive her career and transition to acting. Would these women have done this if these benefits weren’t promised? St. Claire and Sparxxx say no. St. Claire later says on Howard Stern the experience wasn’t pleasurable at all.
Chong, on the other hand, had artistic motivations and, in fact, was never paid the $10,000 she was contracted to receive for her video. When asked about it in the documentary, she says she didn’t want the money. It was pure love of the game. It did allow her to raise her rates too, though. In Sex, she demands a director pay her more than the next highest star. Why? Because she’s Annabel fucking Chong. In 1995, Chong said, ”sex is good enough to die for” and she’d do the gangbang no matter what, even if she got HIV. To her, it was an “intellectual curiosity.”
Did Chong’s intellectual focus tear her away from a dynamic that centers men and capital? It’s true she’s doing this because it’s her choice and it brings her pleasure. But even her desire to prove that female sexuality can mirror men’s centers men. At one point she says she enjoys knowing 251 men were turned on by her.
But if you’re defining female sexuality in relation to male sexuality, you aren’t viewing the woman as woman; isolated from man. If women only want to sleep with multiple men because men are allowed to sleep with multiple women, how is that an organic desire? If a woman’s love of a sex act is defined by how men respond to it, is that what she really wants or what she was socialized to want?
Spantaneeus Xtasty was perhaps the most successfully well off when she decided to break the record. In a 2013 interview, she explains that she got into porn after she had a start in the music industry. She was briefly managed by Tupac in the 90s and danced for Ruffhouse Records. As she says, “They called me and when I went to Cali, I had my business negotiated, so I wasn’t one of those chicks that fly out there knocking on the door saying, ‘I wanna be a porn star!"‘“
Xtasty decided to break the record so people would remember her. She was retiring and wanted to go out “like a nuclear bomb.” As she says in the above 2024 interview, she enjoyed the experience. She wasn’t sore, in fact, she was supposed to do 1,000 men, but half of them couldn’t get in since they lacked STI paperwork.
Unlike Chong and St. Claire, she had 4 years experience in the industry by then. She wrote the script for her movie and it took 2-3 months for them to build the specific set she wanted. “I wanted to be more of a porn Cleopatra.” It’s probably the most “empowered” gangbang we’ll discuss. When asked what’s the freakiest thing she’s ever done, she answers, “I’ve explored all my fantasies and it would have to be that 551 gangbang. I can’t compare that with anything.”
But, she’s still creating a product that she needs to profit from. The video sold $3 million in its first week, allowing her to retire, but what if it hadn’t? Would she still consider it a success? It’s also interesting that Xtasty, the only black woman to do this, is mostly erased from mainstream history. She’s not mentioned in Sex, even though it came out after her video. Her name is dropped once in Salon’s article on Houston.
There are no “Where is She Now” profiles with Vice, just podcast and blog interviews. Why? Racism! Some online have said no one would care about this if Lily Phillips was black because black women are viewed as inherently sexual. Xtasty shows us that’s pretty much true.
You can read about the Jezebel Stereotype and black women in more detail. But, essentially, it looks at the historic portrayal of black women in American media. While white women were fully developed characters, black women were often presented as innately promiscuous.
This racist stereotype, in part, kept Xtasty’s name from making a bigger media impact. Lily Phillips gets attention because she doesn’t have this stereotype placed on her, but we’ll get into that more later. In the above 2024 interview, Xtasty talks about historic black performers getting less attention than non-black performers who are often the focus of documentaries and profiles.
These motivations can’t be entirely torn from their relationship to capital, female socialization, race and patriarchy as Gayle Rubin explains in the quote above. Does this make these women inherent victims or oppressed women? I disagree with Rubin there. I disagree with Rubin on a lot. However, many who are anti-porn say this is why porn can never be ethical.
These women also wouldn't call themselves victims. St. Claire, Xtasty and Chong make clear that they’re not victims in interviews. Because of manipulated clips, the internet is saying Lily Phillips cries in her documentary because she wants us to feel bad for her, but that’s not the case. She’s upset for other (problematic) reasons we’ll get into more further down. But, she was mostly upset that the event didn’t go smoothly and she thought some men didn’t have a good time. The day after the footage of her crying was filmed, she put up the above ad searching for 1,000 men.
One woman expressed similar regrets. Lisa Sparxxx wishes she hadn’t participated in Poland’s Annual Gangbang Challenge. The event didn’t make her hate herself or ruin her life or chances at marriage, though (in fact, she was married when she did it.) She hated that the event was horribly planned and got her into legal trouble:
To be completely transparent with you all; this event is the one thing I regret doing in the 21+ years in the porn industry to this day. This was also the ONLY job I agreed to perform strictly for the money. Don’t get me wrong, I love gangbangs and have done most of them with you all, my fans.
However, this event was never anything I ever planned on and the entire event was a complete shit show. I was disappointed, but was excited to fly home and not spend any time in a foreign jail. - Lisa Sparxxx, Daily Star, 2021
So, I do treat this as an organic desire for these women because they say it’s something they love and I believe women. They can’t be infantilized. They’re adults who went on to live the lives they wanted. Chong stepped away from the industry because she was tired of being famous. St. Claire started acting. There was no dramatic disavowal or downfall. Houston wrote a book about her experience.
In I Slept With 100 Men In One Day, Lily Phillips also says she’s doing this gangbang because she enjoys it. “Last week, I was with 23 guys all at once and like some people would be like, you’re insane I would have to be paid to do that, but I would do it for free,” she tells the documentarian. But her motivations also aren’t torn from the systems Rubin outlines.
At the end of the day, she isn’t doing it for free. And unlike St. Claire, Xtasty, Houston and Sparxxx, Lily Phillips might film for free, but that’s because she makes more money selling the footage on her own platforms.
This difference is the supposed promise that separates Phillips career from the adult film stars who came before her. The other women were creating a product for sleazy producers who locked them in unfair contracts.
As a creator-led endeavor, OnlyFans should be a more empowered business model. Right?
The Business Has Changed
Above, Annabel Chong and Jasmin St. Claire are interviewed together by Howard Stern. I am so sorry to subject you to that. Chong and St. Clair are eager for Stern’s approval as they tell him they’ve never been molested and both have fathers. They bring in random men to ask if they’d have sex with them. It’s racist as hell. But, it is perfect cultural context for the industry Chong and St. Clair had to deal with. It’s far removed from the ideals of ethical, feminist porn. I suppose there was some equality in asking the men to pull their pants down.
If you watch Sex: The Annabel Chong Story, you’ll notice it’s male-dominated. Women exist around Chong, but other than her, men mostly speak. At one point, Chong goes to an adult film conference. A group of male photographers stand around while she poses at their command. Quek knows she’s playing a character, but the men barking orders at her see her as a product to sell. A talent agent says early in the doc, once she decided to join the business, they made it their job to make her “an object.”
Gough Lewis’s documentary takes advantage of Quek to tell its own narrative. Even though the film was a Sundance favorite, it failed to find wide release because Quek pointed out that it was misleading and manipulative.
For example, Lewis shows Quek leaving the industry to go back home to Singapore where she tells her family about her career. Then he shows her returning to America and porn. It’s a dramatic scene. In reality, her family knew and she had left the industry by the time she went home. He aired it out of order.
Lewis also fails to mention that he started dating Quek while making the documentary which is…well, less than ethical. He includes footage of Quek harming herself, but doesn’t mention he was off camera also self-harming, encouraging Quek to do it.
I told you, the documentary has a lot of problems. But, the thing it does show is that these women, even when they did have fame and some authority, had to balance the demands of awful men who ran the industry. Ron Jeremy’s involvement in every single World’s Biggest GangBang from Annabel Chong to Houston is proof of that. Jeremy was a porn icon, but in 2020, was charged with rape and sexual assault. More charges and accusations would come over the next 3 years. It says a lot that he’s a centerpiece at every single one of these events.
And fucking thank god Onlyfans has disrupted the above business model. Lily Phillips is in a better position since she can monetize her own content and promote it how she wants. I am so glad Phillips doesn’t have to deal with a Ron Jeremy type! There’s no male-dominated production company asking her to go on a daytime talk show or tour conferences for media attention and sales. She doesn’t need Howard Stern.
However, this hasn’t necessarily saved Phillips from men manipulating her narrative like Chong’s. Like Sex: The Annabel Chong Story, Josh Pieters’ documentary doesn’t give you a full picture of Phillips. It’s so focused on how shocking pornography is that Pieters never gets to know her as a person. At one point, she takes him to buy lingerie. He asks if this is a regular day in her life. They leave each other. I imagine she doesn’t just buy lingerie and then sit around staring at a wall, though. What does she do when she’s not buying lingerie, Josh? Let’s dig a little deeper.
She mentions her family. There’s brief comments on feminism and being a businesswoman, but Pieters doesn’t push her on these topics. Sex and I Slept With 100 Men in One Day are both made by men who can only ask questions focused on how men’s reaction to someone like Phillips.
Even when Chong or Phillips say something enlightening, the male interviewer can only pivot to male-focused questions like, “but how will you get married?” At one point, Pieters tells two passing old women what Phillips plans to do with 100 men. They don’t care. They probably watched talk shows in the 90s. Yeah, man, you’re more scandalized than an 80 year old.
I wish those ladies were interviewing Phillips. Actually, I wish only women were making these documentaries on porn so they wouldn’t be so focused on men. Like Gough Lewis, Pieters is forces a narrative onto Phillips that social media has been glad to embrace. “Will men appreciate how much time she took shopping for lingerie?,” Pieters asks. Who cares? She’s probably buying what she wants to wear.
There’s also a racial and class dynamic that affords Phillips status as a victim who deserves concern, unlike “regular” porn stars. If you watched that Stern clip, you heard his many remarks on St. Clair and Chong’s ethnicity. The porn industry was and is incredibly racist. Stern assumes they both grew up in poor, broken homes. Chong and St. Clair not being typical blonde white girls likely had something to do with them being in these videos. As The Other Hollywood describes, porn stars of color were often suggested for the worst gigs and paid less.
At the same time, Xtasty says her gangbang led to changes in the industry. “Before that, the women who did gangbangs like that were mostly white women,” she said in 2013. Although, the two before her, St. Clair and Chong, were not white and the three after her all were (Houston, Lisa Sparxxx and Rebel Rhyder). When Xtasty’s record-breaking gangbang failed to make waves, the industry figured white women could.
Just last year, Rebel Rhyder, a blonde, white porn star, starred in The World’s Largest Recorded 360-Degree GangBang with 100 men. It didn’t get much attention though because Rhyder is a known porn star. She looks like a porn star, so, even though she’s white, there’s no media attention or people on Twitter saying this is a cry for help.
Phillips is also on the other end of this spectrum. She’s the embodiment of the “white girl next door.” But, she’s also British and when Americans hear a British accent, they assume it means upper class. She’s able to revive attention in acts like this because she doesn’t look or sound like someone who would do this. That part of her brand keeps her relevant. She knows this shit always goes viral. It did at 37, 100 and we’ll see her name go viral again in a few months when she “attempts” 1,000.
The narrative constructed around Lily Phillips is that she’s an innocent girl who started selling bikini pictures on OnlyFans but got in over her head. In reality, she’s a porn star who runs a business with 9 employees. Society affords Phillips more humanity because she doesn’t look like a traditional porn star.
If Lily had a brand similar to Rhyder’s, no one would be talking about this. She’d be another name on a list with a dozen other adult film stars who’ve done this same act.
This distance may benefit Phillips’ branding, but it’s apparently also kept her separated from industry knowledge and health standards. When Houston, Xtasty and St. Claire did their gangbangs, HIV tests and condoms were required. They even shared a discount code with applicants.
Those events only improved because people learned from mistakes, though. Chang was told everyone was HIV tested and only professional porn stars would go without a condom. As the event wore on, no one actually made sure that happened. 1995 was the peak of new infections during the HIV/AIDS epidemic. When Chong tests negative in Sex, she seems truly shocked. It was a risk they had to take seriously.
Without a production company to handle testing, Phillips has to rely on her 9 employees to verify results from the hundreds of men who submit. She doesn’t seem particularly concerned about this. She understands it’s a fair risk and they tried to “prioritize” people with tests. The day of the event, men drop out and her team pull in last minute people. They ask guys to bring their friends. This doesn’t allow time for any safety checks to be done. STIs may not be as risky today and she did require condoms, but also did condom-free blowjobs.
This divide also creates the illusion that OnlyFans content is somehow more “real” or authentic than porn. Porn is like wrestling. It fakes stuff to deceive the camera and audience. There’s fake cum, fake orgasms and fake gangbangs. Chong didn’t really sleep with 251 men. She slept with 70 and men got back in line. St. Claire said her number was closer to 20 and they used camera tricks. She called it “the biggest scam in porn.” Even Sparxxx said her number was nowhere near the 900 advertised.
There are also “fluffers” in traditional porn. These are women who keep the men waiting aroused so they’re hard when they get on camera. It also gives the performer’s friends a chance to check out the guy’s junk to see if there are sores or anything alarming. Without these heroes of the industry, filming porn would be so much more difficult. Houston and Xtasty say in interviews that their fluffers saved the day. They were able to keep men at their time limit because the fluffers made sure people came ready and went when they were supposed to.
Phillips doesn’t use these tricks of the trade. In the documentary, Phillips says some men went over their time because they couldn’t get hard or she felt bad for them. There are no fluffers to help assist Lily, just a PA’s magician boyfriend keeping the guys entertained with tricks. There was no one there to hustle men out when their time was up.
Perhaps she was afraid to be firm with them. The OnlyFans dynamic can give the sense that you “owe” your fans something for their money and time. Chong, Houston, Xtasty and St. Claire made it clear the men were lucky to get time with them.
Safety is another factor that production companies have to take into consideration on set. Before Chong’s gangbang, a director lays out the rules for the men. Any deviation will cause them to be removed. If their finger nails are too long and Chong gets cut, filming will stop (this is eventually what happens and why Chong hits 251 instead of 300.) They all have men removed from set. St. Claire bosses the men around, calling them dumbasses for getting in her way.
It’s very different from the chaotic scene at Lily's gangbang. When asked about possible dangers, Lily says she can’t imagine anyone coming so far to do anything bad to her. Contrary to the above clip, at the last minute, they do hire security.
With the expectations parasocial fans have today, maybe her team realized that should be a concern.
The Fans Have Changed
My decision to explore many of my sexual firsts had little to do with my fans who would later watch these videos. Though I was aware that people would likely see my scenes later on, I was naive as to just how big the industry was. To me, I was merely having sex, experimenting with my sexuality and being recorded while doing so. My fans weren't a factor until years later. - “A Question of Feminism,” Sinnamon Love, 2016
When the gangbang topic comes up, part of the shock is people wondering what kind of men would want to do something like that. Well, back in the old days of porn, the motivations were pretty easy to understand. In Houston’s Salon profile, a few men are interviewed with their real names. In Sex, the men’s faces aren’t even blurred. A lot of them went because they wanted to join the industry and saw a chance. Some thought it was a historic act to be apart of a world record with someone famous like Ron Jeremy. Then there were performers’ fans who just felt lucky to be there.
These men knew they were taking part in a spectacle that would only be seen by the most intense freaks in an adult video store. They knew they were essentially props in something that was akin to a hot dog eating contest.
Chong, St. Claire and the others also didn’t have to concern themselves with the happiness of individual fans at their events. Their income didn’t depend on individual relationships to keep people subscribed month after month. As long as their production companies were happy and their tapes sold, they got booked.
Fans are the key to the OnlyFans creators’ success. In I Slept With 100 Men, Lily talks about keeping her fans happy. She does say no if they ask for something she’s uncomfortable with, but admits she’d have to reconsider for the right price. Some men who come to Lily’s event are like those in the 90s: they didn’t even know who she was, but saw the event and wanted to “break a world record.” But, for others, it’s clearly something else. These men know their faces will be blurred out. They know this isn’t an opportunity to enter the porn industry. They’re fans.
They’ve been following and supporting her for a long time. They don’t feel lucky to be with her, they feel like they’re owed something as patrons. They expect her to get them off and she says she’s disappointed when she can’t. They aren’t props, they’re experiencing something personal that seems to have an impact. One man shakes after his experience with Lily, he can barely take a drink from his bottle.
Chong, St. Claire and the others made it very clear: the man doesn’t need to cum, it’s not about their enjoyment, it’s about the record. Lily's feelings on the event seem to depend on how happy the men were. She makes excuses for men who broke the rules. On OnlyFans, each fan becomes a producer, paying you as long as they like you. Chastising a fan could make them disappear.
What’s supposed to be a more empowering way of making porn can easily turn into creators doing anything they can to keep fans happy.
The women who’ve done these record-breaking gangbangs won’t influence most people’s real sex lives. This won’t become a new cultural trend. The real danger is that other independent creators might try to create similar content, but won’t have Lily’s luck. More group sex acts in an unregulated influencer-led industry mean more opportunities for things to go wrong.
On Twitter, someone asked Jasmin St. Claire what she would do if she was coming up today. Would she take the OnlyFans route or work through a production studio? She said she wouldn’t do OnlyFans. That makes sense. It’s more work. Who wants to do their own marketing, appearance contracts, promotion, set safety, and background checks for 1,000 men? While also dealing with parasocial fans who think they know the real you?
Grace Quek played a character named Annabel Chong. That helped her videos feel like fantasy, like porn. She says she still sometimes steps into the “Annabel” persona when she needs confidence. Xtasty said she would never take the job home with her. She’s never even dated a porn star. There’s a divide.
It doesn’t work that way for Lily Phillips. She needs viewers to think they’re seeing the fantasies of the real her; her videos recorded right from her bedroom.
The “authentic” nature of OnlyFans makes it feel like Lily Phillips is doing something other than making porn. She’s not. She’s an adult film star making an adult film. We can only hope she sees the precautions those before her in the industry took.
Our Response Can Be The Same
I’ve talked a lot about Annabel Chong and the other women who’ve done the World’s Biggest GangBang without looking at the industry’s response. Anti-porn people are quick to say dangerous acts like Lily’s represent all sex workers, porn stars, models and anyone else who even likes sex a little bit.
That’s far from true! There isn’t even industry consensus on record-breaking acts like this. When Chong’s video came out, most people hated it. They saw it as lowbrow and something that set adult films back. St. Claire won Female Performer of the Year after her video, but was also voted “Worst Female” by Adam Film World Readers. Many of them did join the AVN Hall of Fame, but they hardly attained mainstream success.
And the response back then was pretty similar to what Lily Phillips is facing today. When these women would go on daytime talk shows or the radio, people argued with them. The cultural response was a clear and resounding: no thanks. There is no agenda to normalize record-breaking gangbangs. There’s a reason they’ve faded away since the days of Lisa Sparxxx. Nobody wants ‘em.
But if people are going to do it, then those of us who are pro-porn feminists share the same concerns as those who are anti-porn: We want to ensure the conditions are safe, healthy, and consensual.
People won’t magically stop making porn because of laws or shame. Instead, we need to work towards a future where safe, ethical porn is the norm; a future where porn isn’t shocking so it isn’t used to shock.
Because gangbangs, even on OnlyFans, are just porn. They’re make believe and fantasy. A curiosity that loses its mystery when we treat it like the carnival trick it is.
i have always been conflicted on my opinions on porn because i do understand the arguments on both sides. but when i saw the outrage made because of grace phillips really made me question where we are as a generation when it comes to taking about sex. people were quote tweeting about soul ties and how bad porn is for society and i was so confused how that was the take away they had.
This is exactly what I needed to read. I wrote an essay about Annabelle Chong way back in the 90s and compared her to JenniCam…but maybe I was wrong and Chong had that divide that the development of her character created. Phillips is more like JenniCam in that the parasocial demands just got more and more…I also talked a whole lot about the lesbian phallus and gangbangs…but that was because it was the 90s and queer theory classes were like that back then. Anyhow: THANK YOU. This is my favourite newsletter for a reason.