The sexual revolution promised more sex and more happiness. It delivered less sex and less happiness. For decades, this disconnect didn’t seem to matter. Slogans drowned out statistics: “Be whoever you want to be.” “Sexual freedom is the power to choose.” “Love is a human right.”
But Bonnie Blue may have pushed those slogans to their breaking point.
Bonnie Blue – real name Tia Billinger – is a 24-year-old OnlyFans creator who claims to have had sex with 1,057 men in 12 hours. She’s filmed herself in a glass box, turning sexual performance into public spectacle. Even OnlyFans, not known for prudishness, refused to host the footage.
Her hyper-sexualised performance has forced many to pause and ask what sex now means in our culture. Philosopher Kathleen Stock, writing in UnHerd, wondered whether we have “stripped sex of its enchantment”. While Bonnie frames her content as educational or empowering, Stock sees it as profoundly dehumanising – a sign of how far we’ve drifted from viewing sex as something personal, meaningful, even sacred.
Her hyper-sexualised performance has forced many to pause and ask what sex now means in our culture.
This same tension surfaced on the Modern Wisdom podcast, in a fascinating conversation between Bonnie Blue and Louise Perry, author of The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. The host Chris Williamson asks, “What do you think sex is for? Is it sacred, relational, recreational, or nothing? Is it the same as walking?”
It’s a piercing question – one that cuts to the heart of what it means to be human.
How does sex shape our sense of identity and significance? What happens to connection in a hook-up culture that treats sex as a physical transaction? In a pornified world of deepfakes and sex robots, are we losing what it means to be present? And how can we participate faithfully in a culture that is hyper-sexualised but increasingly confused about sex itself?
Perry’s book argues that we need a new sexual culture built on dignity, virtue and restraint. It concludes with a case for monogamous, heterosexual marriage – not as repression but as liberation. She found that confronting the harms of the sexual revolution, especially for women, led her to rediscover the Christian roots of her feminist convictions – and ultimately, led her to Jesus.
The end of sex as we know it may actually be the beginning of something else: a renewed hunger for meaning. Our hyper-sexualised culture is exhausted. The slogans sound hollow. The ‘freedom’ to do anything has left many wondering what anything is for.
The end of sex as we know it may actually be the beginning of something else: a renewed hunger for meaning.
At Being Human, we’ve been exploring this moment through our podcast and live events. We recently hosted Preston Sprinkle, who leads the Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender, for a day in London and a bonus podcast episode. Together we explored how to hold fast to the biblical sexual ethic with both clarity and compassion. Jo Frost and I had the chance to ask him some tough questions.
We’ve also launched Relationships Matter, a seven-session course that helps people trace the cultural stories shaping our views on sex and identity, and rediscover how the gospel offers a better story – one that invites everyone, whatever their attractions, to live truly human lives in Jesus.
We’re living through a strange kind of awakening. People are turning to crystals, manifestation, even Christian nationalism – searching for something transcendent. For years, sexuality was seen as a barrier to faith. But now, as the hyper-sexualised culture runs out of steam, those same questions are drawing people towards faith. The never-ending rainbow, hook-up culture, and endless porn aren’t delivering what they promised.
The end of sex as we know it isn’t the end of desire. It might just be the beginning of rediscovering what we were made for.