Another wrote, “I don’t think people are deeping the Bonnie Blue and GK Barry situation enough. Her audience is 13-20 year old girls. Young and impressionable. This is not the message young girls should be hearing.
Journalist Sophie Wilkinson noted, “After decades of ‘barely legal’ being a porn category for adult men to profit off of and enjoy, Bonnie Blue – a woman – is now the target for people’s ire around exploiting ‘barely legal’ teenagers. She is a cog in a far bigger machine, and I just want to know who hurt her.”
Blue has since spoken to Cosmopolitan UK about the backlash. “I receive backlash for sleeping with barely legal 18-year-olds, but the key word in that sentence is ‘legal,’” she said. “Rather than comment on my TikToks, people should complain to the government to increase the age from 18 to 21, [as] I’m only complying with UK law.”
As for Blue’s comments about sleeping with married men, she told Cosmopolitan, that she doesn’t encourage cheating, but “if [men’s] wives aren’t pleasuring them then they will go elsewhere and that’s a fact […] opinions hurt when they’re close to home which is why I receive a lot of hate [from women].”
And Blue elaborated on her stance when she spoke to student newspaper, The Tab, about the Saving Grace backlash in particular, Blue reportedly said, “Grace has a platform which allows people to share their stories. This doesn’t mean she’s for or against sex work or glamourising it. Grace’s interviews are light-hearted, so asking difficult questions isn’t her style nor the right questions for her podcast.
“The reason the podcast will be receiving hate is because it has a female target audience whereas mine is men. Women have a lot more time [and] therefore have no problem wasting their time commenting hate and abusive comments across social platforms. Women dislike the things I have to say, but it’s because it hits close to home for them.”
Many women online, particularly on TikTok, have hit back that their “dislike” of Blue’s comments are more linked to their misogynistic nature and their fear that views like hers could spur more men to believe that have a right to demand sex from their partners and/or have a right to cheat on them if these specific needs aren’t fulfilled.
The worry expressed by many is that both her views and behaviour play into the dehumanisation of women. The OF creator consistently uses derogatory language when referring women, including herself, and has been accused of reducing the role of women to the responsibility of keeping men sexually satisfied. “When I ask [husbands] when the last time they got a full service [from their wife] was, they haven’t, but those partners still want the bills paying for,” Blue tells Grace during her podcast appearance. “You can’t expect bills [paid] if you’re not at least going down on them.”
“I don’t know why some people are so shocked when they’re partners cheat,” she adds, shifting the blame for their partner’s infidelity onto women as she explains that, according to her views, if you’re not having sex with your partner and they cheat on you, “what do you expect?”
