Billie Eilish Blasts Porn: it 'Destroyed My Brain' – 'I'm So Angry that Porn Is so Loved' in Society
- Michael Foust Crosswalk Headlines Contributor
- Updated Dec 16, 2021
Singer Billie Eilish is drawing applause on both sides of the ideological spectrum by speaking out against pornography and openly discussing how it "destroyed" her brain.
The seven-time Grammy winner made the comments on The Howard Stern Show while discussing her childhood and her dating life. Porn, she said, spoiled both.
"As a woman, I think porn is a disgrace," said Eilish, who turns 20 on Saturday. "And I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was like 11. I thought that's how you learn how to have sex. I was watching abusive porn, to be honest, when I was like 14.
"... I think it really destroyed my brain, and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn. I think that I had, like, sleep paralysis and these almost night terrors/just nightmares because of it.
"I think that's how they started because I would just watch abusive" porn.
At the time, Eilish said, she was a virgin.
"I couldn't watch anything else unless it was violent," she said.
Reflecting on porn's accessibility in society, Eilish added, "I'm so angry that porn is so loved. … Women's bodies don't look like that. We don't come like that."
Eilish's stance on the issue is significant because of her popularity and her social media platform. On Instagram alone, she has nearly 100 million followers. On Tik Tok, she has more than 30 million.
She won a Grammy for record of the year in 2019 and 2020, and for album of the year in 2019.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation thanked Eilish for speaking out, saying she had "courage" for doing so.
"Billie Eilish is absolutely right: pornography is destructive," said Dawn Hawkins, CEO of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. "Her testimony sadly matches what research about the harms of pornography show: that childhood exposure to pornography affects children's developing brains and normalizes the sexual violence, exploitation and abuse so frequently seen in online pornography.
"Modern online pornography is filled with extreme sexual violence, child sexual abuse, racism, and other disturbing and abusive content," Hawkins added. "Online pornography platforms are designed to hook even casual viewers to seek even more violent and extreme content. And there is no such thing as 'ethical' pornography – no matter whether it's a woman or man producing it, pornography is created to keep the viewer watching and to dehumanize those used to create it."
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Kevin Winter/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
