Trace Cyrus, the older brother of pop star Miley Cyrus and guitarist for the band Metro Station, has issued a warning about pornographic sites like OnlyFans, saying it was more important to build lasting relationships and a family. While he has drawn the ire of many due to his remarks, Live Action founder and CEO Lila Rose has made similar comments when conversing with other guests on the Whatever podcast — which often features OnlyFans participants on its panel.
“A good man and a family will bring you more happiness…”
Cyrus has worked as a songwriter and musician, most notably for the former pop-rock band Metro Station, which scored a major hit with the song “Shake It.” The song was nominated for, and won, numerous awards, though the band eventually broke up; since then, Cyrus has focused on a solo career, releasing indie albums.
Last month, Cyrus released a statement on X (formerly known as Twitter), decrying the rise of OnlyFans, which has turned many people — both women and men — into at-home pornographers.
“There’s so many girls that do OnlyFans that have lost their chance of ever settling down with a good guy with morals,” he began. “They will try and call those men insecure for having standards. They get a lot of attention from guys on OF [OnlyFans] so they think they have options. But any guy who is so desperate to see sexual content they are willing to pay for it is a desperate loser. A lot of successful guys will sleep with those girls but they don’t want to wife them.”
He then added that it can be harder for OnlyFans creators to find a serious, long-term relationship, which he said would lead to a more lonely life, and that men aren’t interested in a permanent relationship with a pornographer.
“It’s because men see the value in those girls strictly for sex. They don’t look at those women and equate their value as a future wife, mother, or loyal partner,” he continued. “I know some amazing girls that are genuinely good people that do OF. I just think this independent mindset of not needing a man is extremely toxic and leads to a very lonely future.”
Cyrus concluded that he hopes more girls will speak up about their experiences with OnlyFans, to warn others from getting involved with pornography. “Having a good man and a family will bring you more happiness in old age than OF ever could,” he said.
His comments quickly drew anger from others in the OnlyFans community, such as Farrah Abraham, an alum of MTV’s Teen Mom franchise. “Yet men have OF accounts with marriage, family, etc. So can [a] woman,” she tweeted. “Balance and brand is real. Forget limited, insecure mindsets @tracecyrus.” Abraham has an OnlyFans account, and is a pornographic actress.
Others quickly piled on. One claimed Cyrus was “devaluing [OF creators’] existence” and others claimed they were “married” and “happy” with their careers in sexual self-exploitation:
There’s a lot of female sex workers married with families, businesses, educations, homes etc. Some are married to sex workers and some are married to non-sex workers. We are valuable humans. Stop devaluing our existence with your platform.
— SybilStallone™️ (@SybilStalloneTV) August 31, 2023
a great opinion coming from a man who sang the lyrics “we’re on the bed but your clothes are laying right there” and “I was thinking of ways to get you to stay the night.”
is women’s sexual expression only okay if it’s free?
— Victoria (@SendToVi) August 31, 2023
This is the most cringiest shit I’ve seen all week 🤣🤣 coming from a married woman who does mainstream porn and OF!
— Rosalyn Sphinx (@RosalynSphinx) August 30, 2023
I don’t think you need to speak on sw’rs. Stop making assumptions. 90% of my friends in the industry are happily married or in a relationship.
Sex work is work. Hard work at that. Stop worrying about everyone else’s choices that has nothing to do with you. We are happy.— 𝕯𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖑’𝖘 𝕯𝖆𝖗𝖑𝖎𝖓’ DAHLIA (@DvonKnightXXX) August 30, 2023
Cyrus seemed to take the avalanche of criticism in stride, posting a video addressed to his detractors, who had demanded an apology.
You guys wanted an apology. Well here it is. 😔 pic.twitter.com/sDA2uNQtQm
— Trace Cyrus (@TraceCyrus) September 1, 2023
“I didn’t post this to cause people to freak out or anything,” he said. “I thought what I said was pretty much common sense, and everyone knew this. I said, no f***ing good-hearted man with morals wants to wife a girl who’s posting her naked body online for the entire world to see, doing sexual acts on the internet.”
He continued by asking, “How is this controversial in any way? At no other time in human history, what I said, would anyone be offended by.”
Cyrus concluded by saying he still stands by everything he said.
The harm of pornography
Live Action founder and CEO Lila Rose has also recently spoken out about the harms of pornography in our culture, and how marriage needs to be given a more important role in our society again. In May, she appeared on the “Whatever” podcast, discussing dating in the 21st century. During the discussion, Rose battled Justin Waller, a man who refuses to be monogamous in relationship, causing Waller to lash out angrily, insulting her. “You’re annoying, in like, this goody-two-shoes type way, and that’s fine,” he said. “I’m going to live my life on my terms.”
Rose also specifically addressed the creator of OnlyFans in another appearance on the podcast, pointing out that OnlyFans furthers the caricature of men as sex-crazed maniacs.
“I do think that it is inconsistent for a man to demand sexual purity from a woman, and not demand it from himself,” she said. “We’re seeing that a little bit because, it’s not like Dillon is saying, ‘Hey, I want to stand for self-control, and I’m going to be a man,’ instead of claiming that part of being a man is being promiscuous.”
She also made a point that backs up Cyrus’ argument: that marriage is about more than just sex, which is why a good relationship and a family will make someone happy in their old age, while a lifestyle revolving around sex will not.
“If you get hitched just to have sex, I think that’s going to be a problem for you,” she said. “Yes, you want to be intimate with the person, you want to give your body to them and receive their body, but it has to be more than just physicality. It’s about your spirituality. It’s about your lifelong plan of what we’re going to do together. We’re going to create something beautiful together: a family. So marriage isn’t just about sex. Sex is super important, but it’s not just about sex. If one of you had an injury, and you, God forbid, couldn’t have sex, would that make the other person love the other person less?”
Rose further pointed out that while choosing virtue is not something easy to do, with time, it becomes easier, though she received pushback from another guest on the podcast — who is an OnlyFans creator.
“I have a Bible in my house,” the creator said. “I’m very spiritual, I’m very religious. God loves me no matter what you think.”
Rose agreed that God loves the OF creator, but still urged the importance of virtue.
“God does love you. Totally agree with you on that,” she said. “These laws about morality on sex, it’s not crazy. Yes, it’s a narrow path, but it’s doable. I want you to be happy. The rules about relationships, and sex, and marriage, they’re there to make us happy in the end. They’re not to be a burden for you.”
A discussion also arose during the podcast about whether or not it’s a sin to shoot pornography, which Rose and another guest both answered in the affirmative. But the same OnlyFans creator pushed back, asking, “How is it sinning if I’m only hooking up with one man?”
Rose quickly jumped in to explain.
“I think it can be confused, especially since our society is so pornified,” she said. “Sexual objectification is everywhere. It’s in advertisements, it’s in movies, it’s everywhere. But the reason looking at porn, or making porn, is a sin, is because of lust. And you’re either intentionally creating content to get someone to masturbate and lust, or you are doing the masturbating and lusting.”
Many people hit back at Trace Cyrus by claiming that OnlyFan creators and pornographers can be monogamous; it’s an argument also made by the OnlyFans creator who participated in the discussion with Rose. She said that she is “monogamous,” because the only content she posts has been created with her boyfriend.
But as Rose explained, you can’t be a monogamous pornographer.
“The point about monogamy is more about marriage, in terms of your body is sacred and beautiful, and reserved for someone else,” she said. “That would include not showing your body or sending sexual videos to anyone else outside of the marriage. Pornography at large has been a menace to society. It leads to divorce; it leads to addiction. It has led to the proliferation of a lot of sexual brokenness and deviancy, broken relationships.”
Studies have shown that female porn performers are more likely to experience depression, be victims of forced sex, live in poverty, and experience domestic violence. Suicide is also not unusual within the pornography industry. Addiction and drug abuse is also more prevalent among porn performers… all of which shows that being a pornographer is not the empowering road to happiness that many claim it to be, which was the conclusion of Rose’s argument — and Cyrus’s.
“If we’re making money through selling pictures of our bodies to incite lust in other people, that’s going to ultimately, I don’t think, set you up for happiness.”
