“Porn is bullshit. It is dangerous, not real, and a performance,” Abrams said. “It’s really dangerous for young people for that to be their introduction to sex. I remember growing up reading Cosmo and it being like ‘six tips to give the most rocking blow job ever,’ and you’re like, ‘Holy fuck.’” In fairness, I do remember those articles…
“I had a lot of questions….I took to the internet for answers, which is frightening to think about now,” she continued. “Young people need to learn about sex from a reputable resource like Cosmo or a strong mentor, not just scrolling aimlessly online like I did.”
Apparently, Abrams is unaware of a little thing called ethical porn. While it’s hardly perfect or a sweeping solution, there are actually a number of options made by women and sex workers that depict consensual sex made on safe, equitable sets and with performers that identify as queer, trans, and people of color. PinkLabelTV? Kink.com? Frolicme? Bellesa.com. Come on, now. Someone put this nepo baby onto the good stuff.
Further, it’s downright funny that Abrams cites Cosmopolitan as a viable resource for young women curious about sex. Back when I was sneaking copies into my mom’s grocery cart, I only ever remember reading a lot of tips concerned only with satisfying male pleasure as opposed to demanding one’s own. See this Reddit thread for the most ridiculous examples. Spoiler alert: they include giving a blow job with frozen grapes in your mouth and clown role-play. But hey, Abrams wasn’t alive in those times, so.
And Abrams certainly isn’t the only Gen Z singer-songwriter to make ill-informed declarations about porn in recent years.
“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,” Billie Eilish told Howard Stern in 2021. “I think it really destroyed my brain and I feel incredibly devastated that I was exposed to so much porn.”
Surely, there’s a more intelligent way for those with a platform to publicly criticize or even discuss porn given the Project 2025 of it all. When our current administration is practically reading right from the sprawling, 900-page dystopian agenda for Trump’s second term brought to you by the Heritage Foundation, criminalizing pornography doesn’t seem like a stretch. In this moment, this kind of rhetoric is most dangerous for those who least deserve it (read: sex workers).
Clearly, someone needs to give these girls “the talk.”
