The New York Post Outs A Sex Worker For No Apparent Reason
For reasons yet to be explained, on December 12th the New York Post decided to publish a story revealing that NYC EMT Lauren Kwei has a side job as — gasp! — a model on the site OnlyFans. The site, which has exploded in popularity during the COVID pandemic, is a subscription-based platform that allows content creators to create an exclusive environment for connecting with their fans. While anyone can set up an OnlyFans account and post content, the site is famous for having been adopted by sex workers who use the platform to provide custom content for their paying fans.
To put it bluntly; the Post article is salacious trash. It makes a point of listing her full name, her employer’s name, her height and weight measurements, and features provocative photos and descriptions of her OnlyFans content. The icing on the cake is the search tags the Post chose for the article; nude, NYC, OnlyFans, paramedics, porn. There is no mistaking what this article is supposed to do and who it is supposed to appeal to.
The story manages to get worse from there — according to posts on the GoFundMe set up to help Kwei the reporter who interviewed her for the story, Dean Balsamini, refused her request for anonymity and contacted both her employer and her mother for comment. Since the story went public Kwei has been staying with her parents in West Virginia, helping take care of her ill father. According to Kwei she has not spoken to her employer, SeniorCare, since the article was published and she is not sure if she is still employed with them.
Kwei was not a public figure in any way, not newsworthy, just a woman making ends meet in the way that best suited her. In doing so she is hardly alone; during the COVID pandemic the number of women posting content to sites like OnlyFans has increased dramatically. From exotic dancers and escorts who could not work due to lockdowns, to women who were furloughed or laid off from their jobs, to actress Bella Thorne, women have posted content to the platform to replace or supplement their income.
The New York Post could have, if it was interested in publishing something worthwhile, highlighted the fact that an EMT in NYC needed to take a side job to make ends meet, as the NY Daily News did in their rebuttal. There is a discussion to be had there; the workers deemed essential during COVID have been the workers at the lower end of the pay spectrum and have not received much in the way of assistance while shouldering the responsibility for keeping essential businesses running.
Instead, the New York Post decided to do what so many other publications have done over the decades — sensationalize and degrade sex workers while making money off their stories. Publishing Kwei’s story in a national newspaper as if it were a matter of national interest perpetuates the stigma that adult consensual sex work is something to be ashamed of. Women have sexual agency and autonomy, and are perfectly capable of choosing to perform sex work for whatever reason. That some choose to do so shouldn’t be cast as a shameful decision on their part, nor should it be noteworthy.
Kwei herself summed it up perfectly
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t affect how I treat people. What I do in my free time is my business. It has no effect on how I care for my patients. I know when I’m working, I’m a paramedic. I think I’m pretty good at my job.
Update — In a wide ranging interview with EJ Dickson for Rolling Stone Kwei gives more details about her interaction with Balsamini
“Dean [Balsamini, the reporter for the New York Post] messaged me on Instagram and asked to speak with me. I asked him what it was regarding and he said, well, let me call you. I’ll give you the rundown. And he called me and just started firing off questions about my history, my background. And, you know, in my naiveté, I thought that maybe he was questioning me about if I was making an article about paramedics in the pandemic. After I gave him a brief history of myself, only then did he disclose that somebody had given a tip to the New York Post that I was a New York City paramedic that had an OnlyFans. I actually began crying on the phone with them because I was just so stunned. I asked him if he was allowed to use all of this information without my permission. And he said yes. And he basically told me, like, we’re going to run the story with or without your say. And so the quotes in the article are me defending myself to him, not me necessarily taking part in the interview. “
Balsamini’s actions are at best sleazy and at worst unethical. Given the backlash to the New York Post story and the additional details provided by Kwei I would be surprised if he faces no punishment from the Post.
Thankfully Kwei seems like she is a good place despite everything that has happened, and after talking to her employer SeniorCare she will be keeping her job.
Originally published at https://jenmonroe.substack.com.
