Stop me if this headline sounds familiar. “Gen-Z influencers band together in a mutually-beneficial agreement to create shared content in a ‘house’.” It does? Well, there’s a surprise.
The reason that so many influencers are quick to live together under one roof is clear. It increases their combined viewership. Doing this allows them to show more of their personality on screen, since they have live-in actors for their videos. It also creates a sense of community amongst their fans. The idea of co-owning a house and filling it with your equally-famous influencer friends borders on cliché. Welcome to TikTok.
Don’t believe me? There are pages dedicated to spilling the inside secrets on the latest TikTok Houses. They pour over the members’ personal details: their star signs, whether or not they have siblings, what their favourite colour is. You know, all that really important stuff.
These pages also document the Houses’ new members. Well. I say ‘house.’ ‘Mansion’ is probably a more accurate word. But I’ll stick with ‘house’ for now. As you can imagine, there is always a steady stream of people joining and quitting these houses. (One can only speculate on how much worse a friendship break-up is when you’re co-owning property at the grand age of 21). At the rate these houses are popping up, you’d be forgiven for thinking that anyone could buy a multi-million-dollar house in LA.
So, there’s nothing new about TikTok Houses. We’ve established that. They’re a tale as old as time, and they’re certainly not going anywhere soon. But what goes on inside the Bop House walls is unlike other TikTok houses.
The ‘Bop’ House: Rebranding Female Sexuality
The Bop House was made at the end of last year by Sophie Rain, 20, and Aishah Sofey, 23.
Comprising half a dozen girls, the Miami-based mansion is home to some of the most famous social media stars including Alina Rose and Julia Filippo.
What sets this house apart from the (literal) dozens of other houses is that the girls in it are all self-defined ‘bops’. They make their living by posting explicit content on OnlyFans.
It is not unheard of for those in content-creating houses to rely on alternate means of income besides TikTok. For instance, several members of the now-disbanded Hype House made long-form YouTube videos to supplement their TikTok content.
But using OnlyFans is a first. This is a subscription-based content platform where fans can subscribe for exclusive content, which is often of promiscuous in nature.
Historically, a ‘bop’ is a derogatory term. It refers to women who ‘bop’ around several men at the same time. The Bop House, then, attempts to reclaim this term.
The Bop House is a safe environment for these women. They can have fun, produce content and show the reality of what it’s like to live the bop lifestyle, a lifestyle that had previously been shrouded in mystery and shame for hundreds of years.
Unrealistic Glamorisation of the Bop Lifestyle
The young women post a similar spread of content across their TikTok and Instagram accounts. In some videos, they’re dancing and having fun together. In others, they’re making relatable memes about boys and relationships.
The girls can afford to dine at fancy restaurants, try out stylish clothes and lounge about by the pool in their luxury property. Viewers are led to believe that the 8,890 square ft property, which is rumoured to cost $75, 000 a month to rent, on top of all their living expenses, is paid for exclusively by their OnlyFans accounts.
In one video, some of the women are posing in front of their new, brightly-coloured cars. They’re dancing happily underneath a line of text that reads: “when being a bop gets your whole group their dream cars”.
@camilla Who’s car is your fav? @julia❣️ @Sophie Rain @Aishah Sofey ♬ 오리지널 사운드 – 𝘀𝗰
In another video, one of the House members, Julia, 23, revealed that she was able to buy her car from a tip given to her by just one of her many OnlyFans supporters.
@julia_filippo love them 😉
♬ ILBB2 – Jorjiana
The women in the Bop House each make hundreds of dollars a month, with some of the girls raking in millions. From an outsider’s perspective, it certainly looks like a relatively easy and financially enticing line of work.
The Potentially Darker Side of Being a ‘Bop Girl’
However, another TikToker and self-described “matress actress” has portrayed her experience as an OnlyFans creator from a more mixed point of view.
@notburnttoasthehe id love to see larger creators talk about this more…
♬ original sound – Ari Kytsya
Ari Kyatsya, 23, said: “Coming from somebody who’s in the industry, people glamorise it way too much on TikTok. Everyone sees girls on TikTok posting cars, private jets, houses, trips…”
“Let me give you a statistic. 1% of creators make over £6000 a month on OnlyFans.”
Ari Kyatsya
“You don’t just join and instantly make 6 figures. The chance is very low.
“That thing that you wanted to do when you grew up, did you ever try it? Did you put hours of your time and years of your time into it?… If there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to do, try it first. You might not have the chance to after doing this job.”
Whilst Ari personally loves her job, she wants to bring awareness to the risks that come with the job title. She frequently reminds her fans that it isn’t all fast cars and fat wads of money.
“This a great job for me and many other people in the industry. But it’s not a great job for everyone,” she concludes.
Lucie Blanc, another OnlyFans creator, has issued a similar warning for young girls looking to break into the sex industry. She said that whilst it hasn’t stopped her from pursuing her dream career of journalism, it has limited the way she can go about achieving this.
@lucieblanc_ Preparing to watch you all fight in my comments 🤺🍿 #fyp #bop #wuhluhwuh #bophouse #qanda ♬ original sound – lucieblanc_
Lucie is a freelance lifestyle journalist, who has been producing adult content on and off since 2019.
“I absolutely do still write, but not in the capacity I did before.”
On numerous occasions, she has expressed her love for writing and for bringing people’s stories to life as a professional journalist.
But she also enjoys beng a bop, and that this is something that she has no intention of giving up.
“I want to do both,” she said affirmatively.
She admitted that this decision has impacted her career: “There are definitely some companies that will never let me work for them.
“But I still get loads of freelance work under different bylines. People are super interested in sex workers’ perspectives and my take on LGBT issues in sex work, so it really works for me. I’m still a journalist.”
Therefore, there are definitely instances where people can make it work and balance OnlyFans alongside a traditional 9-5. But it’s important to be aware of the risks beforehand, and know that this won’t always be the case for every avenue of future employment.
A Disclaimer to Future ‘Bops’
University of Sunderland academic and Professor of Language Angela Smith explained that new platforms like Only Fans provide sex workers with places to earn money ‘in the relative safety of the online environment rather than the streets.’ A few years ago, one OnlyFans content creator even managed to raise enough to pay off his sister’s student debt.
Consequently, it’s tempting to think that the bop lifestyle is conducive to a life without any hardship or risk. We watch these women make videos in their pajamas, and go out every night. It can feel like we’re watching them get all these amazing things, without doing much work at all.
The women in the Bop House, and others, are allowed to feel happy and confident for choosing a career that feels right for them. They are all 18+, have bodilly autonomy, and thus should be able to use pursue whatever career they’d like.
But at the same time, it is important that young girls are viewing the Bop House’s video content with a certain degree of scepticism. You only have to look at their comment section to know that these women face derogatory abuse and slut-shaming remarks on the daily.
Young girls should be educated in what these women have signed up for, and what they long-term risks are before endorsing the bop lifestyle.
