The heart of the matter with Rain's followers on OF (as well as other participants in parasocial relationships) is not "sex"; it's "significance". Guys like Joe, who might be doing pretty good in life otherwise, still go through their days feeling insignificant or largely invisible to everyone around them; even their wives and kids. The culture men live in in today's America is very stingy with significance, + most men who reach 30-35 without achieving major distinction have pretty much given up on ever having any.
But if they can send a big chunk of coin to a young lovely like Rain, they can briefly be made to feel important; and significant, to her.
And that feeling of visible significance to a person known to be watched by thousands of other men, who might, for a second, see Joe as a "big shot" or "whale"; that feeling is more... precious than sex, to be frank.
Sex didn't "sell" so much; what sold before was the *suggestion* of sex, and suggestion doesn't have the juice anymore, to a 24-hour porn-on-demand world. There's no value in the "tease" like there once was; when one can skip right off to graphic video footage of whatever one's adult fascination may be.
But significance? That can still be teased; because it's largely "unobtainium" to Joe, and more importantly, the 100s or 1000s of guys who are clinging to scraps to stay afloat below him.
"Attention is currency", as the saying goes; and Rain is rich in that. She can afford to sell little bits of hers at a high price.
Easy to dismiss people who use OnlyFans as losers etc., but there is clearly a huge appeal so it’s fascinating to learn more about why this is and the increase in parapsociality (I’d never heard this term before?!) Cheers.
I’ve never been on Only Fans and never will be. I don’t watch porn, either. Some other things Sophie Rain has lost is virtue, purity and self-respect. She’s selling her soul one dollar at a time. The men who pay for the content are just as guilty. A majority of them are married; they are weak and pathetic. Rain has a “manager”, aka pimp, who takes a percentage of her earnings. The whole business model is a twisted, codependent transaction. I feel sorry for the wives of the men who passionately lust over the body of a 20 year old and shell out large sums of money to do so. Sophie Rain’s biggest contributor paid her over $5million over the course of a year. Feminism is supposed to fight the patriarchy that objectifies women. Instead, many women who have been freed by feminism see their best asset as their body. They are objectifying themselves.
I suspect it’s like gambling and not subscriptions - the addicts are the ones who are paying a disproportionate amount of that $43million. The real comps are Wynn and DraftKings.
This was outstanding. I learned how little I know about different worlds.
It also made me think ... is this why humans are having less sex than ever? Horny dudes are not out trying to have sex with actual women because they're home watching OF models instead?
Honestly, the success of Sophie Rain just comes down to human connection. Men are lonely and depressed with zero self-confidence and if it costs $10 to have a woman acknowledge you, no matter how fake it is- well, that’s a good trade off if you haven’t had a woman smile at you or engage with you in the last year. And many times, that woman is their spouse. It’s a cheap and easy fix, but sadly that’s the case for A LOT of men out there.
"Most have a hard paywall set at somewhere within the margin of error of $10. This is a low-barrier to entry: most of Rain’s fans can afford to spend $10-a-month to enter the Shangri-La of exclusive content." $10 a low barrier? Try telling that to anyone who has ever tried to sell a Substack subscription! Seriously though, great piece. The OnlyFans model is a truly fascinating one.
Remember the old peep shows where you put some change in and a window opened? A bit before my time but those women must be feeling like the missed out.
Parasocial, I've heard that word before but I'll remember it now. I notice it with my motocross podcasts, you can't help but feel you sort of know these people but of course they have no idea of the people listening.
I think if there was a reasonable monthly fee that got distributed amongst work you have read and weighted based on likes maybe? Keep in mind I'm paying $10 a month for NY Times so it's hard to pay everyone $10 each.
p.s. I feel like for proper journalism you should have paid to see what's inside the paywall at OF. Too much speculation.
Love your angle here, it touches on the esoteric concept of an Egregore (aka a Pendulum according to reality transurfing). Subtle transpersonal entities that create parasitic relationships with people who get hooked by them. OF would be one example of such an entity.
Also, the OF model is far, far more nefarious than appears on the surface. I've spoken with some friends who were approached by OF "promoters". The main business model is to fish for men with the images, then the funnel is like you said; softcore images. Then pay more for special photos. But the funnel goes way deeper, all the way to "1:1" chats with the actress...however those chats are in fact with the promoter's Virtual Assistants in the Philippines or wherever. And their goal is to get the target to give gifts, and redirect his wishes to "meet up" into something more profitable. To keep the illusion of a special relationship as long as possible, and pump as much money out of him as they can.
Outstanding post that - despite the length - just started to cover the issues of consumers, creators and people that are both, across the differing platforms and business models. Great read.
The heart of the matter with Rain's followers on OF (as well as other participants in parasocial relationships) is not "sex"; it's "significance". Guys like Joe, who might be doing pretty good in life otherwise, still go through their days feeling insignificant or largely invisible to everyone around them; even their wives and kids. The culture men live in in today's America is very stingy with significance, + most men who reach 30-35 without achieving major distinction have pretty much given up on ever having any.
But if they can send a big chunk of coin to a young lovely like Rain, they can briefly be made to feel important; and significant, to her.
And that feeling of visible significance to a person known to be watched by thousands of other men, who might, for a second, see Joe as a "big shot" or "whale"; that feeling is more... precious than sex, to be frank.
Sex didn't "sell" so much; what sold before was the *suggestion* of sex, and suggestion doesn't have the juice anymore, to a 24-hour porn-on-demand world. There's no value in the "tease" like there once was; when one can skip right off to graphic video footage of whatever one's adult fascination may be.
But significance? That can still be teased; because it's largely "unobtainium" to Joe, and more importantly, the 100s or 1000s of guys who are clinging to scraps to stay afloat below him.
"Attention is currency", as the saying goes; and Rain is rich in that. She can afford to sell little bits of hers at a high price.
Really enjoyed this piece, Nick.
Easy to dismiss people who use OnlyFans as losers etc., but there is clearly a huge appeal so it’s fascinating to learn more about why this is and the increase in parapsociality (I’d never heard this term before?!) Cheers.
I’ve never been on Only Fans and never will be. I don’t watch porn, either. Some other things Sophie Rain has lost is virtue, purity and self-respect. She’s selling her soul one dollar at a time. The men who pay for the content are just as guilty. A majority of them are married; they are weak and pathetic. Rain has a “manager”, aka pimp, who takes a percentage of her earnings. The whole business model is a twisted, codependent transaction. I feel sorry for the wives of the men who passionately lust over the body of a 20 year old and shell out large sums of money to do so. Sophie Rain’s biggest contributor paid her over $5million over the course of a year. Feminism is supposed to fight the patriarchy that objectifies women. Instead, many women who have been freed by feminism see their best asset as their body. They are objectifying themselves.
Funny how much incentive there is for women to objectify themselves, to seek out that they were legally freed from.
Just as if patriarchy was still alive and well.
Excellent overview with phenomenal writing, as always. I had no idea this person existed until just now.
I suspect it’s like gambling and not subscriptions - the addicts are the ones who are paying a disproportionate amount of that $43million. The real comps are Wynn and DraftKings.
The whole platform disgusts me, tbh.
This was outstanding. I learned how little I know about different worlds.
It also made me think ... is this why humans are having less sex than ever? Horny dudes are not out trying to have sex with actual women because they're home watching OF models instead?
Hopefully, even better tho would be if were affordable to poor people so that they wouldn't be making more poor people.
Honestly, the success of Sophie Rain just comes down to human connection. Men are lonely and depressed with zero self-confidence and if it costs $10 to have a woman acknowledge you, no matter how fake it is- well, that’s a good trade off if you haven’t had a woman smile at you or engage with you in the last year. And many times, that woman is their spouse. It’s a cheap and easy fix, but sadly that’s the case for A LOT of men out there.
A lot to think about. Thanks for the observations and digging beneath the sex appeal to the motives beyond.
"Most have a hard paywall set at somewhere within the margin of error of $10. This is a low-barrier to entry: most of Rain’s fans can afford to spend $10-a-month to enter the Shangri-La of exclusive content." $10 a low barrier? Try telling that to anyone who has ever tried to sell a Substack subscription! Seriously though, great piece. The OnlyFans model is a truly fascinating one.
I have come to the conclusion that OnlyFans creators have certain advantages over us Substackers, when it comes to revenue generation...
Remember the old peep shows where you put some change in and a window opened? A bit before my time but those women must be feeling like the missed out.
Parasocial, I've heard that word before but I'll remember it now. I notice it with my motocross podcasts, you can't help but feel you sort of know these people but of course they have no idea of the people listening.
I think if there was a reasonable monthly fee that got distributed amongst work you have read and weighted based on likes maybe? Keep in mind I'm paying $10 a month for NY Times so it's hard to pay everyone $10 each.
p.s. I feel like for proper journalism you should have paid to see what's inside the paywall at OF. Too much speculation.
Love your angle here, it touches on the esoteric concept of an Egregore (aka a Pendulum according to reality transurfing). Subtle transpersonal entities that create parasitic relationships with people who get hooked by them. OF would be one example of such an entity.
Also, the OF model is far, far more nefarious than appears on the surface. I've spoken with some friends who were approached by OF "promoters". The main business model is to fish for men with the images, then the funnel is like you said; softcore images. Then pay more for special photos. But the funnel goes way deeper, all the way to "1:1" chats with the actress...however those chats are in fact with the promoter's Virtual Assistants in the Philippines or wherever. And their goal is to get the target to give gifts, and redirect his wishes to "meet up" into something more profitable. To keep the illusion of a special relationship as long as possible, and pump as much money out of him as they can.
Many men have a primal need to spend money on/provide provisions for women; it’s akin to baby fever.
Outstanding post that - despite the length - just started to cover the issues of consumers, creators and people that are both, across the differing platforms and business models. Great read.
Excellent article discussing the hidden depths of parasociality. It's got to be much more complex that what it seems.
This is so beautiful omfg