Mirror writer Ellie Fry contends that the viral adult star’s dark influence on young men and women is painfully ignored as a new Channel 4 documentary explores the shocking real world of Bonnie Blue.
Bonnie Blue, real name Tia Billinger, appears to be in her element in a cozy cinema room full of press.
As her famous face and bright blonde curls pop up on the big screen, us viewers have no idea what’s in store as we sit down to watch one of the biggest adult stars in the world appear in a brand new Channel 4 documentary, which promises to deliver full access to the real life of Bonnie Blue.
But Bonnie, who is among her “proud” parents, other members of her family, and small team, is well aware that the broadcaster’s fly-on-the-wall hour-long show, titled “1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story,” will soon become even more popular.
Up until now, her life’s behind the scenes and the operation of her multi-million dollar businesses have been buried in mystery.
But one thing Bonnie’s always been desperate to promote are her extreme sex challenges. The star’s troubling social media strategy, where she posts aggressively across platforms like Instagram and TikTok, means that everyone – including young girls and boys – can easily stumble across a glimpse of her explicit content, where she boasts about sleeping with married men and being “helpless” as men “take her”.
Unfortunately, Bonnie’s deep dive on Channel 4 does little to hold her accountable for the undeniable responsibilities she has as a well-known adult celebrity who promotes potentially dangerous sex acts online.
There is already a lot of violent porn and unhealthy perceptions of sex in our online world, and there seems to be no limit to Bonnie’s potential success with the proliferation of viral videos and views.
Chillingly, the star’s entire business model revolves around “normal” men sleeping in amateur videos.
The horrifying juxtaposition of taking such extreme, unrealistic measures with regular people in the audience struck me while watching the movie.
Bonnie positions herself as somewhat of a saviour – relishing in giving the average man a chance to sleep with a porn star, or “teaching barely legal” virgins how to perform in the bedroom.
In the doc, she states, “I found my purpose in porn. I’ve identified the area of interest. And it’s not just because I’m obsessed with 18-year-olds, it was such a bigger picture in terms of teaching them how to have sex, watching their face light up as they lost their virginity. That is so lovely.
But while these gritty, ‘ homemade ‘ scenes may seem real – and earn Bonnie millions of pounds – the relatability ends at the amateurs involved. The star is only perpetuating dangerous myths about what women should do for their partners and what men should expect in the bedroom because of her extreme stunts, which range from sleeping with 1,057 men in a day and planning to cage herself in a glass box in a sex “petting zoo.”
Bonnie claims that she talks about consent until she’s blue in the face, insisting that every participant must present ID and sign a consent form in order to avoid her critics, who have questioned the ethics and power dynamics of her content.
But I can’t help but notice her thirst for control over the participants she chooses – notably people who are not in the porn industry, or have never filmed such extreme content before – and wonder where that stems from.
She appears to be knowingly squandering her young people’s vulnerability and innocence on her films. And this connection to the everyday public is exactly where that danger lies – it feels so within reach, despite being so extreme.
Oliver Davidson, the star’s ex-husband, perfectly explains her plan in the movie despite how fleetingly in the scene it appears. He claims that “she really connects with the fans.” “Most people, if they do porn, they seem out of reach. You’ll never get to know them. You’ll never be able to film with them. Whereas Bonnie puts a location online, and then obviously her fans can actually film with her. She completely altered the game in a pivotal moment in porn.
But the normalisation of such severe porn will soon seep into the psyche of young people being fed the content by the giants at Meta and TikTok. Bonnie is also at risk as a result of this marketing strategy. The actress acknowledges in the movie that she hasn’t left her home alone in six months and fears being attacked by acid on the street.
The documentary is radically uncensored in its depiction of Bonnie’s work and shows explicit sex scenes, something Channel 4 says is “editorially justified” and “presented in a non-gratuitous manner”.
It’s undoubtedly shocking to witness what transpires behind the scenes, but I find it more upsetting when it comes to the lesser-known “challenges” involving young women.
In the show, the more viral Bonnie gets, the further she leans into these extreme sex acts, as she begins relying on the use of young girls in her content.
In one scene, Bonnie and a male porn star are seen filming sex tapes with several other young female OnlyFans creators. The documentary’s director discovers that the women who were hired to perform the stunt aren’t being compensated to do it.
One young woman, who profits on OnlyFans with solo work and content with her partner, tells the camera that she’s never done anything this “adventurous” and looks visibly nervous.
Another sneeringly admits that the only time she’s ever seen live sex is in the red light district of Amsterdam. A 21-year-old woman who is the third creator admits that her subscribers find her content to be so appealing because she is so much younger than she actually is.
Bonnie describes the classroom stunt in a statement that makes my stomach churn: “The fact that they are so nervous actually works in my favor because their reactions are going to be more realistic.”
Bonnie seems to enjoy proving that her participants are innocent. Yes, they’ve all consented. But in a classroom full of young women who have never shot porn before, let alone with extreme content, the undercurrent of exploitation is palpable. What message does that send to the young boys watching her videos whose opinions of consent and power are being shaped by the content?
To me, the star appears to hide behind the guise of empowerment – both of herself and virgins, young content creators and ‘ normal ‘ men – when in reality she is profiting from their vulnerability and glorifying rape culture with her ‘ challenges’.
Her petting zoo stunt, which OnlyFans decided to permanently ban her from its platform at the end of the film, would have resulted in Bonnie being “tied down” in a glass box in a London home where strangers would “come and do whatever they wanted.” In the documentary, Bonnie boasted that she would be “completely helpless, tied down, gagged, and choked.”
Alarmingly, a recent government review revealed that non-fatal strangulation (NFS) porn was “rife” and that its prevalence online was making choking more prevalent in some people’s sex lives, especially among young people.
Even more alarmingly, the UK courts have witnessed an alarming rise in women’s deaths as a result of what their accusers of being “sex games gone wrong.”
To the feminists who challenge her behaviour, Bonnie hits back, saying in the doc: “You fought for women’s rights for years and years. You fought for our body’s empowerment and control over us. I’m now living up to that.
” And suddenly you want me to shut up, have a couple of kids, get married and stay quiet, but I don’t want that. I resemble what you’ve been asking for for years and years in some way. You suddenly notice it and start to wonder, “F***, we don’t want this woman to speak proudly of sex.”
As a woman who openly brags about using rage-bait as the cornerstone of her business model, spamming multiple TikTok and Instagram accounts a day with content designed to outrage, it’s hard to take anything Bonnie says seriously.
She will not, however, accept any liability for the influence she might have on younger generations. When asked how she feels about young teenagers coming across her content, Bonnie admits she” forgets “to think of it from that point of view.
Then she blatantly states, “There’s also a parent’s responsibility to say, hey, there’s people in the world who commit mass murders. You don’t have to do that, though.
Even if it’s not Bonnie’s job to educate young people on safe and healthy sex, there’s something sinister in wanting to profit from those who may be vulnerable. She admits in a show episode that she “really wants to do a disabled gang bang.” Where do we stand when we accept such assertions, rage-bait or not? And who is being” empowered “here?
Bonnie made that hateful comment, but it was ignored by Channel 4. It’s a show that more questions than answers, and it’s more of an advertisement than a documentary.
