Looking Back: Babeland's Founders Discuss Fifteen Years In The Sex Toy Trade

Last night, WeTV—a network we were surprised to learn was in our cable package—broadcast an episode of their documentary series "Secret Lives of Women" that focused on the not-so-secret (to us, anyway) world of pornstars. Apparently, they don't just have sex 24 hours a day! The show focused on Fleshbot faves Gina Lynn, Nicki Hunter, Tera Patrick and Buck Angel (who used to look more like a woman, so we guess he counts), and it did a good job of relating each one's unique story while treating like them like ordinary people who just happen to have not-so-ordinary jobs.

In case WeTV isn't in your cable package, catch some excerpts —including Gina's take on living in a pornstar household with husband and fellow performer Travis Knight; another about the rise of Teravision; Nicki's amazing porn comeback after a bout with leukemia; and Buck's story on making waves in the porn industry as its first FTM transsexual performer—after the jump.

"It's molded from my tight asshole, so now you can fuck me where I like it," breathes Fleshbot Supreme Comandress Joanna Angel through the packaging of her Tight Cyberskin Ass Stroker. And what about her Tight Cyberskin Pussy Stroker? "It's molded from my own pussy, so fuck me hard like you know I like it." I don't know, Joanna; you seem to like it no matter what we do.

Straight male porn performers belong to an exclusive club, and the ones who actually get their names printed on boxcovers and magazines belong to a still more exclusive club, because it takes a lot to make an impression on a predominantly male consumer base that is predominantly looking at the side of the screen occupied by a female and her wares. Tommy Gunn is such a performer. We talk with the 2007 AVN Male Performer of the Year after the gap.

"Geeks would be so attractive if they'd just take care of themselves," said Warcraft guild ace, porn performer, and sometime LARPer Winter Sky. "A guy who plays video games all day isn't unappealing because he plays videogames all day; it's because he doesn't clean up the pizza boxes, use deodorant, or iron his shirt."

Sky appears in the geekporn series "Whorelore", in which she may or may not don pointy ears. "Geeks would have it made if they just shaped up."

· Winter Sky (myspace.com)
· Winter Sky @ Goldstar Modeling (goldstarmodeling.com)
· Whorelore (whorelore.com)

Delightful polyglot pixie Casey Parker has re-signed with mercurial studio Shane's World for another year as one of Porn's Only Contract Girls Whom Anyone Has Ever Heard Of. "There is no other studio I picture myself being a part of," Parker didn't actually say but a press release said she did. I just know that I'm happy she hasn't run off to play bass in Australia. See more snaps after the gap.

As exotic as it might sound, the life of a Thailand-based photographer who specializes in taking pictures of cute ladyboys isn't that much different from that of erotic photographers anywhere: like many of his colleagues, Captain Outrageous has to deal with occasionally temperamental models and shooting porn in less than ideal circumstances. Unlike many of his colleagues, however, the good Captain sometimes finds himself sponsoring boob jobs for his models too: "Three and a half! In each case I have paid up for someone I cared about ... The half, by the way, was for a ladyboy who only had 50 percent of the cost of the operation. I told her she would look silly with one tit, so I gave her the balance as a birthday present." (Given the prevalence of boob jobs in the non-ladyboy glamour model population, though, maybe the Captain's unique brand of charity isn't so different either.)

· The Third Sex (blog @ third-sex.org)
· Interview: Captain Outrageous, Ladyboy Photographer (seymourtotti.com)
· Captain Outrageous (paysite @ captain-outrageous.com)