portrayal of – “Euphoria” depicts OnlyFans through sensational, fetishized imagery around a character’s path to fame, drawing sharp criticism from real creators. “Margo’s Got Money Troubles,” by contrast, frames the platform as a survival gamble that can still end in doxxing
Cassie’s first scene in “Euphoria” in Season 3 doesn’t ease viewers in—it lingers. The show opens with a close-up of her bare buttocks in a dog costume. then widens into a tableau of Cassie wearing dog ears and a tight corset. bending over and lapping water from a bowl on the ground. Later. she’s dressed as a baby with a rattle in her mouth and pigtails in her hair. holding her legs open on a couch in a sheer pink shirt.
The show makes clear this isn’t just character “edginess.” The sexualized images are content for Cassie’s OnlyFans account.
That approach—fetishistic and. to some. demeaning—has landed “Euphoria” in direct conflict with how other popular TV is choosing to depict the platform. Apple TV+’s “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” takes a different route. treating OnlyFans less like a voyeuristic spectacle and more like a pressured. unpredictable reality for people chasing money in a difficult job market.
OnlyFans became mainstream after its 2017 shift
OnlyFans is an online subscription service that became a hub for adult entertainers after lifting its pornography ban in 2017. In 2024, creator accounts grew by 13%. The company hosts 4.63 million creators globally and is supported by 377.5 million users as of 2024. Fans spent more than $7 billion on OnlyFans that year.
In popular culture, that rise has now collided with TV. “Euphoria” and “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” both understand that in 2026’s unforgiving job market, stripping for a camera can look like “easy money.” But the shows land on very different emotional and moral notes.
Real creators criticized “Euphoria” for stereotypes
Criticism came quickly from people who create content on the platform.
OnlyFans model Maitland Ward called “Euphoria”’s depiction “beyond troubling.” She said it perpetuates “stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money.”
Inside the show, Cassie’s story is written in a way that critics say undercuts its own premise. Cassie’s interior world is portrayed as shallow: her “only desire is to get as rich and famous as possible. ” and she is willing to degrade herself to get there. The account also describes how Cassie funds vanity projects—especially a $50. 000 flower bouquet for her wedding to her fiancé. Nate (Jacob Elordi)—despite his dismay.
In a twist that drives the show’s tone, Cassie doesn’t pursue sex work as survival. Instead, the depiction frames it as a route to a life she wants. She makes enough to afford the expensive flowers and to fully fund a life outside Los Angeles. independent of Nate. who is described as now fully accepting her career choice and benefiting from it as he tries to escape his precarious financial situation. Cassie, the piece says, outgrew her suburban past “both literally and figuratively,” largely from the comfort of her home.
A success story can look idyllic on screen—even if real life is harsher
“Cassie isn’t the only character who finds lucrative success on OnlyFans,” the coverage notes. Cassie’s ex-bestfriend-turned-manager, Maddy (Alexa Demie), briefly manages Katelyn, described as sharing Cassie’s “breed”—suburban, White, thin, blonde. Katelyn’s success is put on screen as a staggering $700,000.
But the article draws a line between screen outcomes and what creators report on average. In real life, it says the average creator earns $131 per month after platform fees. It adds that the top 1% of OnlyFans creators earn about $49,000 annually.
“Margo’s Got Money Troubles” centers losses, not just money
In “Margo’s Got Money Troubles. ” the titular character—played by Elle Fanning—joins OnlyFans through a persona called “Hungry Ghost. ” described as a sexy extraterrestrial. The reason is immediate and personal: she is driven by survival after being pregnant by her married college professor and being fired from her waitressing job.
The show, as presented here, does not treat OnlyFans as a guaranteed escape hatch. It includes moments of financial success but insists it’s not enough to shield her from consequences. Her friends and family judge her occupation. with her mother (Michelle Pfeiffer)—once a Hooters waitress—at the center of the criticism.
Margo is doxxed despite attempts to conceal her identity. And the stakes sharpen further: the father of her child leverages her OnlyFans presence as part of an attempt to gain full custody.
The article’s thrust is that “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” highlights what many creators face despite the money they can earn—while “Euphoria” frames the platform more as a sensational, voyeuristic playground.
Behind the numbers, the gender reality of creators and users
The coverage includes demographic statistics that frame the debate over portrayal.
It states that as of 2023, 84% of OnlyFans creators are women, and 87% of its users are men. It ties that imbalance to a larger argument about a patriarchal. sex-negative society that “looks down upon women who engage with online sex work. ” leaving many of them victims of exploitation. abuse and social isolation.
That social friction is threaded through both storytelling choices: “Euphoria” leans into stylized scenes of hypersexualized content, while “Margo’s Got Money Troubles” treats online sex work as a path that still leaves people vulnerable to judgment and legal pressure.
A different lens inside the strip club scenes
In “Euphoria,” the article says the OnlyFans storyline looks harsher when set alongside “Silver Slipper” strip club scenes.
One by one, girls are described as dying or disappearing from the club. It names a stripper, Tish (Emma Kotos), who dies of a fentanyl overdose. Another stripper, Angel (Priscilla Delgado), is sent to rehab after grief overwhelms her, but rumors circulate that she ran away. A new dancer, Kitty, is shown visibly shaken after performing services for a group of men.
Later in the depiction, Maddy takes on some of the girls as OnlyFans clients. What looks like rescue on the surface is framed as a churn of exploitation: the girls are passed from one handler to the next, tasked with exploiting their bodies to make others rich.
Where “absurdity” becomes a point of disagreement
The article also notes that “Euphoria” creator and writer Sam Levinson drew ire from real-life content creators for the fetishistic and derogatory depiction. It says Levinson told The Hollywood Reporter that the show aimed to highlight a “layer of absurdity” in Cassie’s OnlyFans journey.
The coverage argues that this “absurdity” exposes something else: a preoccupation with showing female characters in an undignified, hypersexualized manner. It describes the filmmaking style as “style-over-substance. ” and says the problem isn’t just that the tone is superficial—it’s that the style is built around degradation.
A gritty reality doesn’t fit neatly into a get-rich plot
The common thread between both series. the coverage emphasizes. is the 2026 pressure cooker: young people seeing fewer traditional ways up and toward money they can control. The accessibility of OnlyFans can make it seem like a worthwhile way to ease economic pressure. But the article says depictions of OnlyFans in popular media. varied as they are. reflect an uncomfortable truth about modern American life—traditional paths toward upward mobility have become so uncertain that many people would rather gamble on unregulated. potentially dangerous options.
The result is a clash in what TV asks viewers to notice: whether OnlyFans is framed as a vehicle for glamour and escalation, or as a high-risk reality where money can come with doxxing, social fallout, and legal threats to family life.
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