A P L U M E O F H A I R spills across Clément Castelli’s
forehead as he points his iPhone camera at the bath-
room mirror. He’s lean and chiseled, and save for an
iridescent time stamp that covers his crotch in the
mirror’s reflection, you can see just about every inch
of his body. There’s a natural sensuality to his pose.
Atop the photo, a caption reads: “Welcome guys to my
OnlyFans! I hope you’ll enjoy it.” This was Castelli’s first
post to his page, “a teasing,” as he calls it. “They didn’t
see my dick but almost,” he says via WhatsApp, which
was the only way he would speak to me.
In the beginning, Castelli was uneasy about join-
ing OnlyFans; it was hard to say whether the plat-
form would boost his image or sully it. Since joining
the site, he’s received a range of requests from his
mostly male following. (Castelli identifies as straight:
“1,000% heterosexual,” he clarifies.) The first time
he got a private request to show his feet, he hesitated
but ultimately gave in. There was also that one fan
who wanted to buy his underwear. When Castelli was
asked to have sex with a follower’s girlfriend, he didn’t
know how to respond. This was a paying customer, but
there was a line he would not cross. “I don’t do porn,”
he says, meaning videos of sexual intercourse. What
if someone offered a lot of money, I ask—is anything
actually too far? “Haha,” he texts back, “idk.”
Today, he says, he feels good about joining the site.
Most of his posts are teases, a jumble of soft erotica—
an image of him lying in bed, his butt visible; a short
clip shot from behind as he walks fully nude onto a
sun-soaked balcony in Rome; a Boomerang-style
video of a morning boner visible through his under-
wear. There’s no specific strategy to what he uploads.
“I don’t know what I’ll post 5 min before,” Castelli
texts. Still, he’s careful to never give too much away
in his feed. Only in private communication, and for
an additional fee above the subscription price, does
he offer truly explicit content. They want to see the