“You might not know me, but your husband does” is the tagline plastered on Bonnie Blue’s various social media platforms, including X and Instagram. Infamous for extreme sexual challenges, her rise to fame was marked by her behaviour during Freshers’ Week in 2024, where she turned on her location and agreed to sleep with anyone for free if they allowed her to film and post it on OnlyFans. This year she renewed this scheme – on September 3rd she announced the “bang bus,” which promised (or rather, threatened) to visit nine UK cities for Freshers’ Week, including Cambridge. She made an appearance on the infamous first-floor Revs sofas on September 24th – a friend of mine met her, and reportedly showered three times upon arrival back in college.

“This narrative she pushes is beyond damaging to young men”

Known professionally as Bonnie Blue, Tia Billinger started her career as a pornographic film actress in 2023 after stating that she was “bored of living the 9 ’til 5”. On the same podcast with host and OnlyFans model Lottie Moss, she also clarified that she “[sleeps] with anyone from 18 year olds, virgins, dads, husbands” and often uses the phrase “barely legal” to describe the students she seeks out during her campaigns at the beginning of university terms. It ought not to take much brain power to understand how this narrative she pushes is beyond damaging to young men, especially those who may be deemed susceptible to the ‘alt-right pipeline’.

Despite this, Billinger often claims that one of her aims through her work is to educate young people about sex and wishes that sex was no longer a taboo subject, alongside maintaining the stance that her work is empowering. As a young woman myself, I find this rhetoric disgusting. It’s not empowering to feed the ever-present culture where women lack true bodily autonomy and are viewed as nothing more than a few holes (forgive the crude language). Another line she likes to repeat is that her sleeping with married men who feel their wives are not sexually satisfying them is more than fine, because, of course, the heterosexual holy state of matrimony is a situation designed purely for the sexual satisfaction of the husband.

The phrase “all publicity is good publicity” is a phrase Billinger lives by. This critique of her brand is not unique, and she knows that. She purposefully plays into the vulgar, confrontational presentation of herself online to rile people up, and, particularly over the last year, has appeared on numerous podcasts which have gained significant traction. A notable one was her appearance on Saving Grace in October 2024 with host and popular TikToker Grace Keeling, better known as GK Barry. In 45 minutes, the two discuss her career, her infamy, and her pride. I used to consider myself a fan of Keeling, but listening to her laugh along with Billinger about her haters typically being, to paraphrase, middle aged women who ‘know’ that their husbands would sleep with her, caused me and countless others to lose a great deal of respect for her.

“The consensual porn she creates is ultimately indistinguishable from the non-consensual porn created as a result of trafficking”

One of the more chilling segments was when Billinger was asked about her parents’ response to her career, and she discussed how they first discovered it through a leaked video of what was essentially an orgy. “They thought I’d been like forced into it, [that] I maybe had money problems… that I was basically being held hostage.” This is a real scenario that thousands of women are trafficked into, and perfectly highlights how her career and the rhetoric she uses to promote it are intensely dangerous. The consensual porn she creates is ultimately indistinguishable from the non-consensual porn created as a result of trafficking, or of women who have fallen into poverty and have to resort to sex work themselves to survive.

Countless studies implicate sex work as “the most dangerous profession” due to it causing the exposure to criminal activity, namely drug and human trafficking. Violence, homicide and suicide rates amongst sex workers are much higher than international averages, and other leading causes of death include abortions and other maternal issues - problems directly linked to their line of work.

Despite what Billinger claims, sex work is not empowering. It is the result of a capitalistic patriarchy, and she is no exception to this: one of her most frequently asked questions is about her earnings. For the sake of fame and fortune, she has contributed to a culture that not only further warps the male understanding of women and sex, but a culture that ruins and takes lives. Despite my resentment for her, I feel sorry for her and hope she makes it out alive. She is both a villain and a victim in this unforgiving system.