Sarah Jayne Dunn POLL: Should bosses be allowed to fire stars for posting ‘racy’ content?

Ms Dunn, 40, has been a member of the Hollyoaks cast since 1996, but bosses said she would have to leave the show if she refused to remove “racier” content from adult subscription site OnlyFans. When her departure was announced, she posted a simple message to fans on Twitter: “Thanks for all your support.”

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Fans of Ms Dunn have created a change.org petition to challenge the “heinous” decision to remove her from the show.

Twitter user Michael Williams said other female actresses should “boycott and unite” adding that the choice to fire Ms Dunn was “disgusting treatment” from “the same company that has sexualised hundreds of cast members for entertainment”.

Other fans pointed out that numerous British TV stars, like Holly Hagan from Geordie Shore, make thousands of pounds from OnlyFans and have not received similar punishment.

Ms Dunn said her decision to start an OnlyFans account was “about empowerment and confidence and having full power over my choices”.

In a statement published on Instagram on October 22, Ms Dunn said: “This is a decision I’ve thought long and hard about, not one I’ve taken lightly or on a whim, it’s about taking back control.”

READ MORE: Hollyoaks boycott as fans furious over Sarah Jayne Dunn’s exit

She added: “I’ve done men’s mag upon men’s mag and calendar upon calendar, I’ve enjoyed every shoot but never felt like I had much say in them.

“I’ve been pitted against other girls and felt deflated if not chosen for a shoot or for a cover, I’ve been airbrushed, retouched and ‘enhanced’ without consent and without necessity and I’ve not always been given photo or copy approval, leaving both my image and words distorted.

“The older I get the more cathartic it is to take back control, to put healthy boundaries in place and to know my worth and my value.”

Her OnlyFans page offers a subscription for £11 a month and also has a link to an Amazon wish-list where fans can buy her items including various costumes.

Do you support Ms Dunn’s choice to “take back control” over the way her body is sexualised? Comment on this article.

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Hollyoaks said her content on OnlyFans was not in line with its target audience and it did not allow cast members to sell such photos.

A spokesperson said: “Hollyoaks is a youth-facing drama with many young viewers, who follow our cast very closely, both in the soap and outside of it.

“We take our responsibility to our young audience very seriously and therefore the show does not allow any Hollyoaks cast members to be active on certain 18+ websites.

“We had hoped we could reach a resolution with Sarah that would allow her to remain in her role as Mandy, but we respect her choice to continue to produce content on OnlyFans.

“In the past four years since her return to the show her legacy character has been an integral part of some of our most important storylines and we will be very sad to see her go.”

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On OnlyFans anyone over 18 can earn money by creating content and publishing it to paying subscribers.

The company has been criticised as children as young as 13 have been able to set up accounts using fake IDs, but OnlyFans insists it has a rigorous child protection strategy.

OnlyFans pay out more than $2 billion per year to over one million creators worldwide, with consumer and creator sign-ups exploding during the pandemic, going from 7.5 million users in November 2019 to 85 million by December 2020, according to the Guardian.

Do you think actors should be allowed to take on private ventures without interference from entertainment bosses? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.

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