Billie Eilish Highlights Dangers of Preteen Porn Consumption
Singer Billie Eilish revealed the problematic effects of her adolescent experience with pornography in an interview with Howard Stern on Monday.
Eilish, who turns 20 on Saturday, spoke on "The Howard Stern Show" about lyrics from her song "Male Fantasy" that reference using pornography as an emotional distraction.
"I think porn is a disgrace. I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest. I started watching porn when I was, like, 11," Eilish said, calling the videos she watched "violent" and "abusive" to the point of giving her nightmares. "I didn't understand why that was a bad thing—I thought it was how you learned how to have sex."
Eilish isn't the only teenager who has learned about sex through pornography. Like Eilish, Isy Abraham-Raveson of Yes to Consent, an organization that provides consent-based and shame-free sex ed, is concerned for what lessons teens will take away from this.
'I used to watch a lot of porn, to be honest...I didn't understand why that was a bad thing—I thought it was how you learned how to have sex.'
"Mainstream porn pushes a false narrative that sex doesn't require verbal communication and doesn't involve messiness, mistakes, adjustments, check-ins, laughter, feelings, awkwardness and all the other pieces of sex we don't see in mainstream porn," Abraham-Raveson said.
Eilish said she initially began watching porn to feel like she was "one of the guys," but believes her exposure to this content warped her perception of sex.
"The first few times I, you know, had sex, I was not saying no to things that were not good," Eilish said. "It was because I thought that's what I was supposed to be attracted to."
Eilish, who garnered a reputation early in her rise to stardom for wearing baggy clothing to prevent comments on her figure, went on to criticize porn's depictions of women's bodies and its issues with consent.
"I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn," Eilish said.
