Warning: This article refers to practices and contains language which some readers may find offensive.
A new documentary came out this week in the UK, titled 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story.
Airing on Channel 4, the new film has caused quite the stir among viewers who were shocked to discover all about Blue and her story.
For those with scrupulously clean internet histories, Bonnie Blue – real name Tia Billinger – is a 26-year-old British pornographic actress who made headlines earlier this year when she claimed to have had sex with 1,057 men in a single day (12 hours, to be precise), in an attempt to set the world record for the most number of sexual partners in one day.
In case you were wondering, the record had been held since 2004 by pornographic film actress Lisa Sparxxx, who reportedly had sex with 919 men in one day.
Bonnie Blue then doubled down in June, when the controversial performer announced a “petting zoo” event in which she would be naked and tied up inside a glass box in a private house in London – with the aim of letting 2,000 men have sex with her.
This announcement got Ms Blue banned from the OnlyFans platform for violations of its policy against “extreme challenges”.
She then made an appearance on Andrew Tate’s podcast, which did nothing to diminish the flames of controversy. Worse, she said she wouldn't mind sleeping with the manosphere-peddling troll who the UK Crown Prosecution Service charged for rape and human trafficking in May.
For months, Bonnie Blue has been the subject of countless articles, ranging from ragebait tabloid fodder to more thoughtful pieces like a Guardian article in which Eva Wiseman wrote: “While (...) Blue’s intentions and morals and psychic damage have been frequently interrogated, the men lining up to be the 20th or 60th person to penetrate a stranger for three minutes while a guy does card tricks outside, have been granted barely a glancing thought. The intentions and morals of these men were not of interest, because… it’s normal! Normal to take sex when it’s offered, normal to commodify the body of a woman, normal to go home afterwards, to live in the world unaccountable.”
There, now you’re all caught up and your search history remains spotless. You’re welcome.
1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story aired on Channel 4 on Tuesday (with a warning at the start), and ever since, the complaints and moral outrage have been coming in thick and fast.
Channel 4 justified their decision to include graphic sex scenes in the documentary, stating: "The explicit content in the documentary is editorially justified and provides essential context; making pornographic content is Bonnie’s job, and this film is about her work and the response to it."
Commissioning Editor Tim Hancock said before a screening of the doc: “I believe it is Channel 4’s job to tell stories like this, trying to get behind the truth of the headlines. We film real stories in real time. We are very proud to do films like this.”
Meanwhile, director Victoria Silver said: “Bonnie Blue refuses to conform to public opinion and lives life by her own rules. At a time when factual TV is awash with retrospective stories, I wanted to capture the energy of a live and evolving story, with a woman at the heart of it who’s living her life in such a bold way.”
Still, none of those statements silenced outraged voices, who were also quick to highlight that the doc’s release came days after the Online Safety Act was introduced in the UK – an act designed to stop children from viewing pornographic images and videos online through age verification checks.
“Channel 4 has sunk a new low,” wrote one X user. “Why is there a documentary on Bonnie Blue? Why are they trying to normalise her deviancy on national television?”
"So Bonnie Blue gets a documentary on channel 4 where she can promote and glamorise her lifestyle for the kids watching at home but we need IDs to see posts on X because 'we need to protect the kids'," another wrote.
“Uk Gov: let’s ban saucy content and protect our kids. Channel 4: let’s show a film about Bonnie Blue being ploughed by 1000 guys.”
Beyond (and because of, let's face it) the moral panic and media frenzy, is the doc itself worth watching?
Once again, Euronews Culture bit the bullet for the sake of your sensitive peepers and can reveal that 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story does not live up to the real-life controversy or the discourse around her.
While it would have been interesting to examine the possible dichotomy of Billinger / Blue being either an empowered sex-positive entrepreneur – as she has become one of the highest earning content creators to have appeared on OnlyFans and earned a million pounds from her '1,000 men' stunt - or dangerously pandering to toxic male fantasies (or both), the doc doesn’t delve all that deep into what lies behind her story. Or what Channel 4 referred to in the synopsis as “what’s really going on behind those steely blue eyes.”
Viewers just get to witness her vacant stare. They do get to go behind the scenes and see how Blue prepares for her infamous world record. This includes numerous condoms, quite a bit of numbing lube, and several balaclavas for anonymity and throughout, the mood veers from fascinating to downright icky (“Barely legal or barely breathing… come and rearrange my insides”).
What you don’t get in this documentary, however, is any proper insight into the polarising Blue or the way the content creator deals with being accused of being an agent of the patriarchy and the numerous insults thrown her way. You wish that Victoria Silver had challenged her more and gone into detail regarding what’s at the heart of moralising online debate.
Is it a return to prudishness? Is it Blue’s desperate need to be provocative with her outspoken fascination with infidelity or taking people’s virginities? Is it the ethical concerns that the actress triggers and how her business threatens feminist values? Is it that people can't quite fathom how her mum, who appears in the documentary, is supportive of her daughter's actions? Or is it the fact that a sex-negative society can’t handle a woman doing what she wants with her body and dismisses the male roles in this world record to better hide the contradictions of an Online Safety Act?
All questions which didn’t have to be answered but which definitely merited at least a look-in.
“Everyone says my brain works different. I’m just not emotional,” says Blue in the documentary. “I can control my emotions. If I don’t want to get upset, I won’t get upset.”
1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story may or may not get you upset, uncomfortable or feeling dirty. But one thing’s for sure – you won’t emerge particularly enriched from the experience.
