Het Parool — This UvA student was filmed in bed with writer Michel Houellebecq: ‘I feel like an artist’

By Lorianne van Gelder. 6 April 2023.

On a cabinet in her small student room lies Immanuel Kant’s hefty Critique of Pure Reason (1781). The washing machine in the bathroom is working overtime; its noise sometimes drowns out her thoughts, says Jini Jane, the stage name of Jini van Rooijen. A large mirror beside her bed and a drawer underneath containing all kinds of lingerie may betray what Jini does for a side job. Otherwise, though, she is an ordinary philosophy student at the University of Amsterdam, in a modest room in Amsterdam-Zuidoost.

Yet Jini, 23, is anything but an ordinary student. She earns her living through an OnlyFans account on which she shares homemade porn films. For $20 a month, men can view her content. She makes a comfortable living from it, she says. That afternoon, she will also appear in a Goldband music video. The band was looking for a girl who wasn’t prudish. They soon arrived at Jini.

Previously, she was the ‘left-wing girl’ who wanted to sleep with a ‘right-wing boy’. Right-wing conservative FVD philosopher Sid Lukkassen responded to the appeal on GeenStijl. No sex took place; Lukkassen felt humiliated, but the film was made anyway, by Stefan Ruitenbeek and Kate Sinha of the art criticism platform Kirac — Keeping It Real Art Critics; see box. The controversial film Honeypot premiered in 2021. The ensuing scandal — Kirac was said to have exploited a vulnerable man — made headlines everywhere.

Jini Jane sits down on a small sofa in her room, her voice drawling; it is still early.

How did you become involved with Kirac?

‘I grew up in Rotterdam and came to Amsterdam for a boyfriend. That boyfriend was a Kirac fan. I then went to their events as often as possible to get in touch with Stefan [Ruitenbeek]. I was an enormous fan and deeply moved by what they made. I didn’t know it was possible to be so honest with people. They tell the truth about what they see. I wanted to be able to do that too.’

Jini is now caught up in the controversy surrounding French author Michel Houellebecq. She went to Paris with her Kirac colleague Ruitenbeek, initially to organise a gangbang for her OnlyFans account. What followed was a rather complex affair about which her lawyer no longer allows her to speak. But it boils down to this: Houellebecq and his wife Qianyum Lysis Li had seen Honeypot and wanted to do something similar. Jini agreed, but they arranged to sign a contract that would also allow Jini to post it on her OnlyFans. Later, Houellebecq came to Amsterdam to sleep with several young women. The writer regretted his participation and brought legal proceedings to stop the ‘defamatory footage’, but lost twice, in both France and the Netherlands.

Why do you make porn?

‘I originally started because I noticed that making sex scenes was liberating. I wanted to find out why it felt good.’

Have you always been so uninhibited about sex?

‘Yes. My parents are a bit hippie-like: not that I was exposed to what they did in their private lives, but they were very open with me. I had a lot of freedom and autonomy as a child, and I could always discuss anything with my parents. They are divorced, I’m an only child, and they never remarried, so I had full-time, one-to-one attention.’

What does sex mean to you?

‘I have had a lot of sex since I was sixteen. I think I learn a lot from it, that it is a form of expression. Before I decided to make art and films, sex was a way for me to put my curiosity and myself on the line, to express them.’

Sex often involves power.

‘I was never very aware of that. It only sank in when I was accused of inappropriate behaviour at my study association and expelled. Ultimately, it was about a boy who felt rejected, but it was a grim situation. Before that, I had egalitarian ideas about being together in a room and doing it together. I have had a great deal of sex with random people. At that point, I didn’t yet understand that sexual power existed.’

Would you call yourself an exhibitionist?

‘My mother once said that I was an exhibitionist, although she meant it affectionately. But I don’t think I’m particularly exhibitionistic at all, because people seeing me naked doesn’t turn me on. I think being naked is normal; I think it is normal for people to see me. I don’t feel a thrill or shame when I’m being fucked and filming it, whereas people who really are exhibitionists do.’

What is OnlyFans to you?

‘It is a really friendly place, and it is good that it exists. All those pervy men who follow me just want to be seen. When I talk to men, I often have enjoyable conversations. Making porn is simply an interesting exploration of how I want to have sex, what turns me on at that moment and how I can film something original, even though the platform has its restrictions. On OnlyFans, you can’t just walk around naked in a public square or fuck in a park open to the public. If you do, they take it down. You can’t use objects that weren’t intended for the purpose, cucumbers, for example. I would quite like to try more things, but then I’ll have to build my own platform one day.’

Do you feel like an artist, a porn actress or a sex worker?

‘I feel like an artist, because my OnlyFans is part of a broader project; it is a means of making things possible. The Houellebecq story began when Stefan and I went to Paris to arrange a gangbang and Stefan made a film about my search. That is how it is woven into the larger whole. I don’t do sex work, because I don’t have sex with men for money. I make porn with men I choose myself and earn money from that. There are men who would like me to have sex with them for money, but that is where I draw a line.’

‘I am not on a mission to liberate people sexually. I don’t think prudish people should be less prudish. Or that women who don’t want their cunt photographed should have it photographed. If you are open about it yourself, my main hope is that you don’t let yourself be frightened. Beyond that, though, I don’t think there is much I can achieve apart from making art.’

Your quest for art has nevertheless left some victims along the way. Sid Lukkassen, Michel Houellebecq. How do you see that?

‘I’m not allowed to say anything about Houellebecq. And I don’t see Sid as a victim. He found it difficult to be rejected. It is a theme I see often: you have an expectation of a sexual experience, and when it isn’t fulfilled, it triggers a powerful wave of emotion. But I cannot grant favours on that basis.’

Are you still going to graduate?

‘I really must finish my degree. All I have left is a dissertation, but I don’t yet know what it will be about. Probably something to do with love and sex.’

What is Kirac?

Keeping It Real Art Critics (Kirac) was founded in 2016 by artist Stefan Ruitenbeek. With his partner, archaeologist and philosopher Kate Sinha, and artist Tarik Sadouma, he makes postmodernist, critical, provocative films about the art world, subsidies and all manner of social issues that anger them. For example, they ‘uncancelled’ Julian Andeweg, who has been accused of sexual violence; Sinha and Ruitenbeek had previously been accused of sexism and racism, after which an event at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy was cancelled. Sadouma has recently left, according to de Volkskrant, because he reportedly disagreed with the treatment of Houellebecq. In 2018, the same newspaper described the collective under the headline: ‘Where these art critics enter, knees begin to tremble’.