Wait... Did We All Agree on Something?
(Alternate Title: Don't Sleep With 101 Men in 14 Hours)
Raise your hand (or your phone) if you know the Lily Phillips story.
*reluctantly raises both*
I'm (thankfully) seeing little about it on social media, but as the consumer of many political and cultural podcasts, I hear more and more about it daily.
If you haven't heard of Lily Phillips, here is the gist: Lily is a 23-year-old OnlyFans "model" from the UK who, in October, slept with 101 men in 14 hours and live-streamed it to her 36,000 subscribers.
Uh...
Thanks to a recent YouTube documentary that follows Phillips on this depressing quest to get more clicks and make more money (as of this publication, Phillips has made $2.5M+ on OnlyFans), the story has gained national attention, with the most aired clips showing Lily describing the encounters before breaking down in tears.
"And like, sometimes you just disassociate and be like, you know, it's not normal sex at all. In my head right now, I can think of, like, five, six guys, ten guys that I remember and that's it. But it's just, I don't know, it's just weird, isn't it? If I didn't have the videos, I wouldn't have known I've done a hundred."
Filmmaker Josh Pieters then asks Phillips whether she has processed what just occurred. The 23-year-old responds, "Not yet. God, I won't forget this day, Jesus," before breaking down and needing a moment to compose herself.
The entire scenario is heartbreaking, and it seems that no matter your politics or religious affiliation, we can all agree that pulling stunts like this is grotesque and violates moral codes across the board.
Ladies: Don't pull cheap and harmful stunts like this. You are made for so much more and worthy of respect.
Men: Don't respond to Craigslist ads promising 5 minutes of sex in exchange for being filmed.
OnlyFans consumers: Please do better and spend your money on more lucrative things, like your future or a charity. (Don't make jokes about models being the charity of your choosing - that's gross.)
As a Cradle Catholic who has been happily married for almost 12 years, homeschools her boys and teaches faith formation classes, you can guess where my concerns lie for Phillips: I worry for her soul and those who participate in or consume her content.
But I don't just worry about her on a spiritual level: I am concerned about what this WILL do to Phillip's mental and emotional health.
According to Beyond Fantasy, between 2017 and 2018, five porn "actresses" died by suicide, with a March 8, 2024 article from the DailyMail adding how the "entertainers" are "plagued by suicides, overdoses and eating disorders of those chewed up and spat out by the sex industry."
The DailyMail article continues, citing a "study in the US suggesting that the average life expectancy for women in the industry could be as low as 37," thanks, in part, to "fatal infections, cardiac arrests, drug problems, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts."
It doesn't just end there, however, as many, myself included, also worry about the physical harm that Phillips has exposed herself to.
As a commenter named Jaye noted in a recent DailyMail piece about Lily Phillips, "I find it difficult to believe this is even physically possible without causing her intimate physical damage. It's far too extreme and she needs to take medical advice if she insists on subjecting herself to this."
Another commenter, Ms Glasgow, adds, "There was a deeply disturbing and heartbreaking documentary about a young woman who did this for money, about 20 years ago. She said herself she has never recovered from the physical and emotional trauma. It should be illegal to participate, sponsor or fund such an obviously damaging and abhorrent situation. She clearly has no clue- nor did the other young woman."
Thanks to that emotional scene in the YouTube documentary where she breaks down crying and calls the experience "intense" and "a different feeling," it seems that Phillips has learned her lesson and acknowledges just how physically and mentally (not to mention morally) tortuous it was to subject herself to this kind of depravity.
We can only hope that she has learned from this experience and can go on to get help, find a new career path, and, hopefully, lead a long and happy life.
...
....
Wait, I am receiving word about an update on the Lily Philips story.
*pause*
*grimace*
*crosses herself and curses under her breath*
Ms. Phillips has announced a plan to break the world record by sleeping with 1,000 men in 24 hours, which she plans to livestream at the beginning of next year.
While many of the comments on a recent Instagram post by Phillips mention Jesus, I will end this piece with a non-religious comment from user @casey_rhodesss: "No hate. But The people encouraging you to do these things do not care about you <3
everyone including you deserves a better life than this. True friends, real love and genuine connection is worth more than any amount of money."
This comment and the sick feeling most of us get from reading Lily Phillips' story may be the one thing that we - the religious, secular, conservative, and liberal - can all agree on: she deserves better than this. No matter how checkered the past, EVERYONE deserves better than this.