Women aged 65 and older are relaunching their careers on OnlyFans, fulfilling needs otherwise lacking from their lives and fighting back against a society that all but forgets they exist.
In the week Hattie Wiener spends a copious amount of time alone in her Manhattan studio, propped up in bed with a heating pad – a tool many use to help relieve back pain and other aches. On Sundays, however, the 87-year-old transforms, prancing around her apartment in her laciest lingerie, while a friend snaps photos of her to post on OnlyFans.
“You would think that perhaps my oldness would be a turnoff sexually. But it isn’t to young men,” she said. “It’s heartening to know that so many young men allow themselves to be admirers of older women’s bodies.”
Hattie is one of a number of women who have launched OnlyFans accounts in their later life, fulfilling a plethora of needs that are otherwise lacking in their daily lives. The platform provides mature content creators with a space to demystify their sexuality, demonstrating that old age is not just “Alzheimer’s and wheelchairs” and “nursing home and smells,” but that it is also “interesting and adventurous and exciting and beautiful.”
I first came across Hattie on Instagram. She was performing topless with DJ and artist Joni on the opening night of Intima, a new performance art space in Queens. Hattie was nearly naked, wearing purple lipstick and snorkeling goggles. “I went from being a committed virgin to a committed slut,” she said, when we first spoke over the phone in November. “If my bra strap showed in my day I was a slut. It was so tight-ass.”
We arranged to meet in her apartment that Saturday morning, a sunshine-yellow studio in Hell’s Kitchen. Hattie was barefoot, wearing a white sleeveless jumper and cream trousers, her fingernails painted mint and her toenails magenta. She ushered me inside, where two professionally-shot portraits of her were hung up on the wall. “I’m a boner queen,” she told me as we sat on her sofa. “They get hard-ons for me in a minute. If you were a guy, you’d have a hard-on.”
As we spoke, her phone lit up with messages. She read them unphased, sending back thumbs-up emojis in response. “The guys are so nice,” she said. “They’re so appreciative. And they thank me, because they get off on it. You know, when are you gonna see attractive old pussy?” A licensed sexologist, Hattie loves talking about sex (she used the phrase “ass-fuck” three times in our initial ten minute phone call). But at the core of it all, she was lonely. It was a loneliness that consumed her, a loneliness that no amount of anal sex or dick pics could fill.
“I’m a cripple here,” she said. “I wake up in the morning and I say what should I do? And the answer is nothing.” With arthritis and hip replacements, Hattie is constantly hurting (the pain temporarily yields when she is having sex — or when she is performing for her OnlyFans — “The endorphins kick in,” she explains.) “I have such a young spirit and young thoughts,” she said. “My body — as much as I never thought it would happen — it can’t keep up.”
I asked her whether posting on OnlyFans makes her feel less lonely. “Oh yeah!” She exclaimed. “I’ll see like ten comments: ‘love this post,’ ‘love that post, ‘you’re so beautiful,’ ‘I’ve been jerking off for years.’” But the dopamine-fuelled euphoria is short-lived. It’s no substitute for someone sitting beside her, holding her hand. “When you close your computer, the emptiness hits you right in the face.”