What have Bonnie Blue's videos got to do with sex?

 First, a bit of context. I am a dinosaur. I still have a couple of newspapers delivered every day and I read them, over a cup of tea before I get up in the morning. It sets me up for the day and I had always hoped it would give me an informed view on the issues of the day. My papers of choice are The Guardian and The Daily Express, to give me a range of views on both the left and right. There was a time when both papers had regular columnists who were brilliant writers and gave a unique perspective on the events that mattered. Since the passing of Frederick Forsyth, who wrote for the Express and was always interesting, just about the only writer left who I make a point to read is the Guardians sketch writer John Crace. The Express buys freelance articles that are occasionally interesting, Sadly many are written by befuddled cranks, who simply aren't capable of putting a coherent article together. One recently spelled out a dystopian future for England, where we were all forced to live in an Islamic state, St Pauls was the Mosque of the 7/7 martyrs, and, wait for it, we were all forced to be Transgender? I kid you not. The poor fool who wrote the article simply didn't understand that whatever radical Islam may or may not be, it isn't woke and if it ever took over, Gay rights would not be on the agenda. 

As for the Guardian. This morning, I was treated to an article by Gaby Hinsliff, about porn star Bonnie Blue making a video where she had sex with 1,000 men in 24 hours. The sad thing is that it was probably the most interesting article in a very dull edition. This time of year used to be called "the silly season and the article certainly fitted the title Hinsliff's premise is that as Blue is making a fortune from the men (they are not paid for appearing), she is not being exploited. As Blue has had a Channel Four documentary made about the project, she is doing rather well in what us music business types call hype. I did some quick maths. To meet her target, she would be servicing around 44 men an hour, which is less than 90 seconds per person. To facilitate this, she advertised for 'just legal' University graduates. I guess a  primary requirement is to be able to perform quickly. God only knows what was going through her mind when the 834 fresh faced young man delivered his load. Whatever it was, I doubt it was anything to do with how enjoyable and memorable the moment was. As for young man number 834? He probably will be telling all his mates 'she loved it' and celebrated his luck at bedding a porn star. Unless he picked up and STD, I doubt he'll come to much long term harm.

I am fairly relaxed about the issue of pornography, when there is not exploitation involved and everyone is a grown up. It is by and large unrealistic and devoid of fun. I grew up in an age when access to porn was not straightforward. When I was 18, porn videos had just started being circulated. Given that I was living with my folks, who were strict Catholics and video was in the front room, it was not really feasible to watch such things. By the time I had the opportunity to enjoy such materials, I had a girlfriend and felt I had no need for such things (yes I know that is an old fashioned view). Although in my teens, I was rather partial to spending time with as many females as possible, by the time I was 20, I had concluded that I preferred to just be with one person I liked. My view, again pretty old fashioned, was that sex was actually best with someone you liked and when you could take your time and enjoy the moment.

I can imagine no worse vision of hell than having to watch Bonnie Blue spending 24 hours with a long line of 16 year olds making out in a rather dull fashion. My guess is that in twenty years, she'll be presenting a knitting show on channel four and saying how dull it is when the next generation of Only Fans star has sex with 10,000 young men in an hour.

What has interested me more, when it comes to the issue of online porn, is the outrage of Reform MP Rupert Lowe at the online safety bill. This requires platforms that share porn to prevent accounts that are not properly verified to see hard core porn. To see it, you need to prove you are over eighteen. Clearly Rupert is not keen on sharing his age with such companies. Personally, I don't really think that stopping children from having easy access to porn is a bad thing. If you are 18+ and want to watch such things, then it seems easy enough to get access. If you are prepared to share your credit card with Only Fans, then surely a snap of your passport or whatever other mechanism they use should not really be an issue.

Hinsliff is correct to applaud the business acumen of Bonnie Blue. She has clearly twigged a way to make a lot of cash quickly. I can't imagine it was much fun, but then again, working as a plumber, removing turds and tampons from blocked drains is not much fun either. There is an old saying "where there's muck there's brass". Never has it been truer.