Bonnie Blue sat down with critic Aimee Walsh to discuss feminism and the adult industry. A new Channel 4 documentary changes everything: was any of what Bonnie presented true or was it all money-making rage-bait?
Bonnie Blue has taken the internet by storm, posting adult content on social media platforms that then directs to a subscription service. She was one of the biggest creators on OnlyFans, but her extreme pornography has seen her banned from the site.
Now, Channel 4 have released a behind-the-scenes documentary titled 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story. I was struck as I watched it, as it didn’t feel like the full story.
Culturally sex workers are everywhere. Sexual content is having a moment with the rise of website OnlyFans, where creators charge a subscription fee for access to videos, live-streams and messages. Pop icon Kate Nash even recently joined the site to fund her tour. One thing is for sure: sex sells.
Bonnie has reportedly earned millions from extreme porn. But is this good for women? Feminists have been debating about porn for decades. They are split between whether it is empowering or oppressive.
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In June, I spoke to Bonnie Blue, about the conditions and realities of modern sex work. I’m not interested in moralising about sex work – what I am interested in is the conditions in which women are working in within the sex industry.
When we met, she was lovely, completely warm and welcoming. Her eyes lit up as we spoke about our respective families and holidays. The totally normal topics that could be expected in any pub up and down the country, except we then buckled in for a chat about her experience as an extreme pornography sex worker.
‘It all leads back to increasing her bank balance’
However, the Bonnie I met then does not tally with the Bonnie in Channel 4’s documentary. She is an enigma, and from watching The Bonnie Blue Story, I believe she adapts her personality for whichever interviewer she is meeting. If you want to talk about extreme group sex, she’ll speak on it. Feminism? She’ll have something to say on that too, as it all leads back to increasing her bank balance.
On Instagram alone, Bonnie has 929,000 followers and counting. Her notoriety comes from her extreme sexual stunts – one of which includes bedding 1,057 men in 24 hours. The Channel 4 documentary follows the build up and fall out of this event.
In preparation for meeting her, I researched her previous conduct in interviews. I was taken aback by how she responded to questions put to her which were thinly (or not so thinly veiled) in disgust. She reacted with an over-the-top response, feeding into the media rage-bait machine.
You just have to google her name or look at comments beneath her posts on social media to see that her act inspires extreme lust or disgust from the general public. Bonnie has received death threats, she tells me, and sees the videos online where people talk about her at length. The result of which is a life lived in caution, with “security 24/7 when [she is] outside.” She added that: “I feel more safe when I do an event than when I actually just walk down the street.”
In The Bonnie Blue Story, there are stills of the hate she receives online. One calls for a “public execution” while a Youtuber calls her a “disgusting, deplorable slapper.” But despite this, she said to me that she loves the work she does. Porn allows her to have “control of [her] life.”
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Before sex work, she said that she had body insecurities, where she “was too bothered by people’s opinions to even want to go to the beach in a bikini or wear certain clothes because my eczema looks bad or my tummy didn’t look toned.” These are issues that I’m sure will resonate with most women.
This insecurity, she told me, was with her when she walked on set for the first time. It didn’t go away – and when she decided to pursue the 1,057 men in 24 hours stunt, she told me she was “nervous” but she reassured herself that at “any point [where she didn’t] enjoy it, [she could] just stop there.” Consent for her and participants is key.
She talked me through the forms and checks that any participant has to go through before they are even allowed to set foot in a room with her. She said: “[The participants] get sent to another room where they have to have their ID scanned to make sure it’s not a fake ID. This is like government level scanning. They have to do a breathalyser test as well to make sure they’re not under the influence. They then sign a consent form.”
However, while watching the Channel 4 documentary, I noticed that STD tests were not checked prior to her 1,057 men stunt. Instead they were supplied with condoms, which can split or tear.
The footage of the 1,057 men stunt, as shown in the documentary, is truly grotesque. As men queue on the stairs, socks still on the ends of their bare legs, they are filmed as they wait for their estimated 41 seconds in the spotlight.
After, Bonnie does a “snow angel” in the hundreds of discarded condoms nestled in with blue-roll tissue on the floor. This is not to kink-shame; this is a biological hazard as she rolls in the remnants of over a thousand men’s bodily fluids.
Is sex work feminist?
In the Channel 4 documentary, the question of feminism arises. Is sex work feminist? What message does it send to young girls and boys, who see Bonnie Blue content shared on social media platforms where the porn scenario is a class-room? What is this doing to society?
The rise of Bonnie Blue has created its own beast, as it ushers in a new era of porn where submitting access is not just visual – but physical by allowing the general public to queue up for sex. Not least as it can have ripple effects societally, as research shows that violent and extreme pornography can cause desensitisation or build acceptance of the degrading treatment of women.
Bonnie and I talked about what feminism means to both of us. She initially shied away from describing herself as a feminist, instead outlining her belief in equality. She said: “Women should be empowered by things they want to be. For me, it’s sex.”
Did the Suffragettes fight for this sort of women’s equality, where women are selling their bodies under the guise of sexual empowerment? Bonnie thinks so, as she added: “I’m taking control of my body and I feel empowered by it…[Feminists] have fought for this. Whereas before women…have been sexualised for a very long time and haven’t earned anything from it.”
Her extreme pornography has been met with critics, who argue that her stunts are degrading for women. Bonnie said about her critics: “A lot of women say I’m taking them back hundreds of years, but that’s not the case because hundreds of years ago, I probably would have been stoned to death… for openly saying I enjoy sex.”
However, its hard to take this enjoyment argument seriously. As in the Channel 4 documentary, ahead of the 1,057 men event her, we are told the packed kit includes 1,600 condoms and numbing lubricant jelly. Let’s be clear: the Bonnie Blue porn shoots are not about female pleasure, it’s about bank balance.
‘This is rage-bait trap set for us and it’s making her rich’
Bonnie said she prefers working with the general public. Particularly with virgins or anybody new to sex, she said she wants to “teach them how to have sex”. The cynic in me sees this as an advertisement for her “class-room” video, where she “teaches” younger content creators how to have sex.
There is an ethical issue as Bonnie in the Channel 4 documentary said that her “purpose in porn” is within the so-called “barely legals” niche. This is a rage-bait trap set for us, and it’s making her rich. After her Spring Break “barely legals” series, where she slept with 126 students, her earnings rose from 50k to 250k, the documentary tells us.
In The Bonnie Blue Story, she dodged accountability for this “barely legals” rage-baiting that has garnered horror from the public. She argued that parents should be having conversations with their children about consensual sex from a younger age. “You can never get in trouble for being too safe, but you can get in trouble for not having the conversations,” she says.
When I was young, we were told to avoid walking too close to strange cars, cross the road to avoid a man in the dark. But how to have the conversation with newly turned eighteen year olds about sleeping with a person who will monetise off taking their virginities? This is not a parenting issue, it is a societal safeguarding one.
Is it all a gimmick?
Beyond the porn-shoots and online promo for her extreme sex events, she told me her last dating experience turned out to be with somebody who queued for one of her events. “When I am ready to date, how am I going to date?” she asked. “Because if I was to go on Tinder or Hinge, they’re going to think they know me already. They’re going to instantly think they know me without actually knowing me.”
I think about how this woman navigates her relationships, when people may come to interactions with her with a preconceived notion of who she is. Specifically, I wondered how Tia can find love, when her persona as Bonnie Blue is so recognisable.
She said: “They’re going to have probably seen podcasts, interviews. They’ve read a lot about me. So, they’re not just going to see a girl that they think, ‘that person’s attractive.’ They’re going to see Bonnie Blue.”
She told me that in the future she would like to advocate for sex workers’ rights, specifically through “speaking more about sex and trying to keep people safe or doing more to lower the price of STD tests and the more educational side of porn.”
Having watched The Bonnie Blue Story, I wonder if the education side is a reference to “barely legals” content. Let’s hope that she makes good on her will to lower the price of STD tests too, so as that can be a standard for all stepping on set.
The woman I met in June is not the Bonnie presented on screen. I don’t think I’ll ever know which is the real her.
Let’s be real, as porn is not, the “barely legals” and “class-rooms” and “feminist” debates, it’s all part of the same nightmarish marketing gimmick. It’s adding fuel to the rage-bait machine and we’re all falling for it.
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