Driving my fella to the Babestation studio felt like taking a kid to Disneyland.
He bounced, and sang, and asked if we were nearly there yet, and upon arrival insisted on taking pictures of every corner to send to his mates.
‘Why do they need so much Febreze?’ my husband, Nigel, asked.
I was there to record the Option One podcast, hosted by former page three model, Rhian Sugden, and Oliver Tompkins, filmed at the Babestation studio.
I’d been expecting the usual chat about sex work and kink: I hadn’t expected to find myself fascinated by the workplace in which we were recording.
It’s an impressive studio. About fifteen separate rooms, all equipped with cameras, lights and a theme – usually a bedroom, but sometimes an office space or shower. A huge dressing room of mirrors, pink sofas and twinkly lights, and a kitchen where girls sit, gossip, drink tea and do their make-up.
For men in their fifties, like my husband, Babestation carries a cultural nostalgia. They remember coming home from the pub in the 1990s, scrolling through the high numbers at the very end of the telly, hoping for a flash of nipple before bed.
It’s remarkably old-fashioned pornography: women on a television screen, men watching at home, money changing hands through a premium-rate phone line.
The girls were immensely kind to Nigel. I guess they’re accustomed to that sweet puppyish enthusiasm, even if it’s not usually in the room with them.
They patiently answered his questions about shift lengths, how chatty they had to be, if they were aware they were a joyous part of his own personal history and many more of his generation.
Unlike my husband, initially I was shy of these girls. They’re confident, beautiful and made me want to hide. But they’re keen to talk, so I listen.
Model Megan Rox tells me she used to work in palliative care, but after compassion fatigue, became a babe five years ago. Now, she works three to four shifts a week, each shift around nine hours.
‘You need to be good at chatting,’ she tells me.
This was always the worst thing for me when I was a stripper many moons ago: not the dancing around naked, which was easy and fun, but that constant need to keep the client engaged and fascinated by you, and only you.
With OnlyFans I just post a film in the morning and forget about it – it’s two minutes work and minimal interaction.
Even my domming is just one or two hours tops. These girls work eight to 10-hour shifts in their equivalent of the office. I admire their stamina and commitment.
Despite feeling like retro porn, Babestation has survived the collapse of men’s magazines and the arrival of an internet where almost any imaginable sexual image is available free.
There’s a considerable business operation behind the scenes: technicians, producers, management, scheduling, advertising and the technology required to connect users with the right model at the right moment.
These days, those fifteen rooms aren’t simply bedrooms waiting for someone to ring in: they’re webcam rooms, where models interact with users online, while the company still retains its roots in television and telephone services.
While television remains part of its DNA, the webcams bring Babestation to audiences who have grown up with a very different way of consuming adult entertainment.
I suspect that’s because Babestation isn’t really selling pornography in the old sense. It’s selling the possibility of a conversation: the fantasy that the woman on the screen might actually be interested in you.
They’re selling a connection, more than explicit content, which is easier and cheaper to acquire elsewhere.
Babestation has already spent years building the audience, so a new model doesn’t have to spend months persuading strangers to follow her on social media, discover her content or decide if she is worth paying for attention.
Compare this to OnlyFans, where the platform itself provides the technology, but not necessarily the audience. You can make your page, upload your pictures and wait for the money to roll in, but first you have to persuade people to find you.
Much of the work is marketing: posting on social media, cultivating followers, producing new material and constantly reminding people that you exist.
Babestation’s model share is 50% of earnings, compared with the 20% OnlyFans takes from creators.
So, would-be content creators need to weigh up what works best for them. Babestation provides the studio, technology, and an established audience for live interaction.
OnlyFans is a solitary endeavour. You’re effectively running a tiny pornographic business from your bedroom, where you have total creative control: photographer, performer, marketing department, customer service, accountant and social-media manager all rolled into one.
What surprised me most during my visit here was how much of a ‘workplace’ Babestation is, they even have a Christmas party.
Here, the women understand each other and are on hand to offer tea and hugs throughout.
And perhaps that’s the secret of Babestation’s longevity. My chap may have arrived at the studio like a man returning to a particularly filthy theme park from his youth, but what I found inside was a community most creators like myself could only dream of.
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