Don’t judge women like Euphoria’s Chloe Cherry for doing porn

For millennia, women have been both sexualised and conditioned to deny their sexuality, something that has only been exacerbated by the birth of the internet and social media

Chloe Cherry revealed in a candid interview on the ‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast that her female friends – and even her own mother – judged her for her porn career (HBO)

In 2001, The New York Times Magazine estimated that the porn industry was worth between $10-14bn (£7.5-10.6bn). A projection by Ofcom last year also revealed that half the UK’s adult population watched pornographic content online during the pandemic. And yet, despite our apparent appetite for mature content, we still shame those who are part of the industry – especially women.

The latest star to speak out on the matter is Euphoria’s Chloe Cherry, who revealed in a candid interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast that her female friends – and even her own mother – judged her for her porn career.

“Suddenly, my friends that I was friends with in high school didn’t want to be friends anymore. They thought I was going to f*** their boyfriends”, she said, adding that her mum told her that “sex work is the lowest thing a person can do”.

Quite rightly, Chloe felt indignant about the response from her loved ones: “It was just insane the judgment people had. That will forever blow my mind”.

So, why is it that we feel the need to condemn female sex workers?

For millennia, women have been both sexualised and conditioned to deny their sexuality. Our wants and needs are disregarded; we are mere servants to the whims of men. We are told we have to stay in shape, wear makeup, shave our legs, dress in a certain way – be desired but not desire, fulfil but not be fulfilled.

This has only been exacerbated by the birth of the internet and social media. There’s this sort of duality of what we wish to present outwardly and what gets us off in private. Whether we admit it or not, most people – both men and women – watch porn on a regular basis. We receive and send nudes to quench our sexual appetites. Our kinks are catered for with the click of a button, for which we are grateful. But when that fantasy crosses over to our real lives? Well, it is met with repulsion.

Just last year, Hollyoaks’ Sarah Jayne Dunn, who played Mandy Richardson between 1996 and 2011, and then reprised the role in 2017, was axed from the soap for creating an OnlyFans account – and she is far from being alone in her experience.

Speaking to The Sun about the decision, Dunn stated that whilst it was “disappointing”, the creation of the profile was about “taking back control, about empowerment and confidence and having full power over my choices”.

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More recently, Hulu’s Pam and Tommy has highlighted the sexist treatment the former Baywatch star faced, when a private sex tape was stolen from her and her rocker husband’s home and leaked online. It was unfathomable to prosecutors and, indeed, to Penthouse magazine, that Anderson could choose to grace the cover of Playboy and do topless photoshoots, but not want deeply intimate moments shared with the masses. This misconception about consent, control and female sexuality was extremely damaging and drenched in misogyny – even the showrunners themselves failed to comprehend this, by going ahead with the dramatisation without Anderson’s permission.

The double standards are unending and exhausting, but what’s even more tiresome is how women are conditioned and encouraged to attack one another should we dare have agency over our own bodies. We are pitted against each other, taught that we cannot embrace our carnal urges or celebrate all types of bodies and personalities. You can be pretty, but not too pretty; you can have curves, but you can’t wear form-fitting clothes; you can please your man, but you can’t please yourself.

Not only is this completely regressive, it only serves to reinforce patriarchal powers. How many times does it need to be proven that in order to achieve gender equality, we must unite and accept that every woman is different? We can’t just accept those who are carbon copies of ourselves, we have to understand that real feminism is about pushing for equal opportunity for every woman – regardless of her looks, interests, skin colour, religion, or anything else.

Providing it’s consensual and they have control over the situation, what is it to anyone else what women decide to do with their bodies?