Singer Billie Eilish has described how she suffered nightmares after seeing "abusive" pornography at the age of 11. Speaking to SiriusXM, the 19-year-old said she is now "devastated", reflecting on her exposure to pornographic content.
Eilish said the experience made her not say no to "things that were not good" when she started having sex.
"I thought that was what was supposed to attract me," said the Grammy winner.
Eilish has spent most of her adolescence in the public eye. She has spoken regularly about body image and sexualization during growth.
The topic of pornography came out in the interview after being mentioned in a song, "Male Fantasy", on her album "Happier Than Ever".
She told interviewer Howard Stern that she now thinks pornography "is a disgrace" after seeing content she described as violent and abusive. Eilish particularly criticized the way pornography might portray women's bodies and sexual experiences. Eilish said it is a big problem that pornography can distort the meaning of what is normal during sex.
"I did not understand why this was a bad thing - I thought it was the way you learned to have sex," Eilish said.
The singer said that watching those videos at that age, had "destroyed" her brain and had caused her to suffer nightmares.
According to Unicef, exposure to pornography at a young age can be harmful. They say that pornography portraying abusive and misogynistic acts can lead to normalization as well as poor mental health and other negative outcomes in children.
