Former Disney actress Bella Thorne, who recently directed a pornographic film, rebuffed criticism that she’s “controversial” and denounced what she categorized as sexist attacks, according to recent interview with The Daily Beast, titled, “Bella Thorne Is Tired of Being Slut-Shamed.”
“It’s so funny that people say that I’m ‘controversial,’ when you’re exactly right—I haven’t been arrested,” Thorne told interviewer Marlow Stern. “I’m not doing bad things.”
“Of course I am a woman, and that definitely plays a part in it,” the 24-year-old asserted.
“If I post in a bikini, it’s ‘She’s a slut,’ but if a man posts shirtless on a beach, it’s ‘F*** yeah, bro.’ If a man posts with a different girl every other day, it’s ‘F*** yeah, bro, keep getting that p****,’ but if I’m in a three-year relationship, and then break up, and then get into another three-year relationship, it’s ‘Wow, Bella Thorne, she’s a ho. Look at her.’ I’m like, what?” she complained. “I’ve been in long-term relationships my whole life!”
Stern then praised Thorne for being “sex-positive” and directing a porn flick called “Her & Him.”
“We don’t see a lot of Hollywood stars work with people in the adult industry and help erase the stigma that they face—which I think is a harmful stigma,” the entrainment editor told the actress. “I’ve never understood why people in the adult industry can’t cross over into Hollywood given their popularity.”
“Thank you so much for noticing,” Thorne gushed. “I really do try, and I agree that the stigma is not right, and I hate the stigma around it.”
“I have a lot of friends in the sex-work industry and when I see them go through pain, it’s heartbreaking. These are my friends,” she said. “So, as much as I can be a voice, I’m always trying.”
“And it’s another thing where people are like, ‘Bella Thorne is controversial because she did this,'” Thorne complained. “OK, well now there are all these celebrities hopping on the sex-positivity train—making vibrators and owning sex-toy brands. Now people are finally talking about it, but when I do it it’s, ‘Why is Bella Thorne doing this?'”
During the same interview, Thorne revealed that she battles depression and restricts her social media use to help stave off depression spells.
“I’ve been in the media for a long time. I’ve been acting since I was eight and modeling since I was six weeks old. All I’ve ever done is been in front of the camera, in a way,” she told Stern. “To understand where I’m at now at 24, I don’t want to read these things anymore. I don’t want to think, ‘Oh, if I post this, someone’s going to judge my acne scars or say my eyebrows look like caterpillars.’ You do that to yourself in the mirror anyway, thinking about things that you wish could be better about you, and I felt that a while ago, because I wanted to better my mental health and I wanted to think I was beautiful.”
“Now, when I look in the mirror, I point out all the positive things about me that I love instead of always going to the negative,” Thorne added. “And I’ve taken that approach to social media and the rest of my life, otherwise I’m just going to split off into depression, which I already struggle with. I don’t need to push it further on that end.”
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