Words: Martha Wright (she/her)
‘Vile’, ‘Shameful’, ‘Disgusting’, and ‘Outrageous’. I’ve cherry-picked these adjectives from the comments section of This Morning’s Youtube (a dark place) just for you. You may be wondering which evil, despotic individual these comments are referring to; perhaps you’re thinking along the lines of Putin, Trump, or some other imbecile. If that was your guess, I regret to inform you that you were incorrect. The subject of this torrent of abuse is OnlyFans starlet Bonnie Blue.
Blue is a pornstar whose success on OnlyFans has resulted in her earning more than premier league footballer in the last year. Although she may not be the paradigm of morality, the abuse Blue has faced left me with a sour taste in the mouth. Rather than jumping on the bandwagon of hate towards Blue as an individual, reading between the lines and investigating the industry that creates such a high demand for her content seems a better approach to take. For why should critique be directed at the surface when it’s far more interesting to investigate the core?
Pornography as an industry has and always will be a controversial one. Its controversial nature can be best explained by looking at the etymology of the term. In Pornography: Men Possessing Women, Andrea Dworkin shows how our modern word ‘pornography’ stems from the combination of 2 Ancient Greek terms: ‘pornē’ and ‘graphos’. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the definitions of these terms, ‘graphos’ is the Greek word for writing, etching, and drawing. ‘Pornē’ is the Greek word for a whore: the lowest kind of prostitute available in Ancient Greece… Therefore, pornography as a practice is defined as the depiction of the whore. Those depicted in pornography do not exist outside of a sexual context, only within it.
As pornography has interacted with the technological revolution of the 20th century, depictions have changed dramatically from mere writings and drawings to photographs, and then eventually into the fully fledged video content of today. Rae Langton regards pornography today as a form of speech, a language which has the power to silence. Whether this content can be ethical is a vital question to ask, especially if you are one of the many who presses play. In an industry defined by its depiction of sexual subjugation and the ability to silence, the answer may be a negative one.
Pornography is everywhere. Whether opening your laptop or glancing down at your phone, accessing adult websites has never been easier. This is great right? Viva the sexual revolution! Wrong. The heightened availability of pornography is not necessarily a cause for celebration. The ease at which pornographic content can be accessed can lead viewers to see pleasure through a consumerist lens. For those who want it, sexual gratification is there at any time and any place (but please, not at the University Library). Consuming high volumes of pornography can lead to porn becoming the only path to arousal. In a study conducted in 2021, for each point higher participants scored in the Cyber Pornography Addiction Test (CYPAT), their likelihood of experiencing erectile dysfunction increased by 18%. Real sexual experience is being tainted by pornography and affecting both those watching and their partners. This should not be a cause for celebration, it should be one for despair.
Since consumer demand for pornography is so high, the volume of pornographic content created has skyrocketed in recent years. In a market this saturated, success levels like those reached by Bonnie Blue are rare. Blue attributes her own success to her ability to produce niche content. On Saving Grace, a podcast hosted by GK Barry, Blue stated ‘you can’t expect to earn good money if you’re doing basic content’. It is no longer enough for pornstars to simply film themselves having sex. In order to reach success, the industry demands that their content become wilder and wilder. Gang-bangs. Barely legal. Hardcore. Bondage. These are a mere few of the many categories that content creators are foraying into in order to try and stand out from the crowd and achieve success. Pornography does not exist in a vacuum, it is content used by many as an educational tool. Therefore, the effect of people ‘learning’ about sex from an industry promoting increasingly warped depictions of it must be considered.
Life imitates art, or, in this case, life imitates porn. The increased proliferation of categories like hardcore and bondage promote the idea that sex is synonymous with violence – violence which is directed towards women. This not only has a negative impact on the watchers of porn but also their sexual partners. As watchers develop a distorted perception of sex as an act of violence, their partners have to endure the effects of this perception.
Alongside this, the constant pushing of prescribed fantasies by the industry detaches sex and masturbation from creativity and imagination. Sexuality does not exist to be defined by the molds and categories of pornography, it is fluid and should be treated as such. Take a leaf out of Audre Lorde’s book. In Uses of the Erotic, Lorde advocates for women specifically to know their own sexuality rather than having it told to them through the medium of pornography. Use your imagination, your creativity, your inner erotic! Even though it may involve a bit more work, the reward is far more plentiful.
After coming (no pun intended) on this journey with me, I hope you’ll realise that the anger towards Bonnie Blue would be far better off being directed at the porn industry itself, rather than one individual acting within it. I am by no means advocating for a return to conservative sexual politics of the Victorian era, frankly I could not imagine anything worse! However, it is important to recognise how the porn industry has weaponized the doctrine of sexual liberation in order to prevent critique. It’s time to read between the lines and examine the industry as it examines us: naked.
References:
This Morning. 2024. Bonnie Blue: ‘I Make 600k on OnlyFans by Seducing Students’. [Online]. [Accessed 20 January 2025]. Available from: Bonnie Blue: ‘I Make 600k on OnlyFans by Seducing Students’ | This Morning
Dworkin, A. 1989. Pornography: men possessing women. New York: Plume.
Langton, R. 2009. Sexual solipsism: philosophical essays on pornography and objectification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jacobs, T et al. 2021. Associations Between Online Pornography Consumption and Sexual Dysfunction in Young Men: Multivariate Analysis Based on an International Web Based Survey. JMIR public health and surveillance. 7(10), pp. e32542-e32542.
Spotify. 2024. 132: Bonnie Blue Reveals What REALLY Happened In Freshers Week?! How Much She Makes In a Year & MORE! [Online]. [Accessed 22 January 2025]. Available from: 132: Bonnie Blue Reveals What REALLY Happened In Freshers Week?! How Much She Makes In A Year & MORE! • Saving Grace
Lorde, A. 1984. Sister outsider: essays and speeches. New York: Crossing Press
