There is a historical precedent for glass box events going poorly.

Bonnie Blue recently announced that she’d be putting on a glass box ‘petting zoo’ stunt. She intended to allow up to 2,000 members of the general public to do whatever they wanted to her while she was bound and gagged inside of a glass box. This isn’t out of the ordinary for Blue, but the public outcry against the stunt was so extreme that Blue not only canceled the stunt, she was removed from OnlyFans.

Blue, whose real name is Tia Billinger, has built her brand as a content creator on shock value. She gained notoriety in March 2024 during Australia’s Schoolies Week by offering free sexual encounters to men, later publicizing her preference for partners who had just turned 18, calling herself an “educator.” Her fame surged with an alleged record-breaking stunt involving sexual encounters with 1,057 men in a 12-hour period.

Critics of Blue’s actions have been calling for her behavior to be reigned in almost from the beginning. Blue has had travel visas revoked from Australia and Fiji, effectively banning the content creator from being able to travel to those locations due to controversy. Blue was barred from sharing footage from her 1,000+ man sex event to OnlyFans, due to the stunt violating the terms of service set by the platform. Blue thrived under the controversy, and continued to plan attention-grabbing stunts, with the glass box “petting zoo” being her latest publicized event.

Blue intended to allow herself to be tied-up and gagged and placed in a glass box where the general public would be invited to do whatever they wanted to the content creator. From Blue, “No limits. No breaks. Just me, in a box and ready to be used.” She was encouraging people to consider joining in and taking control of her, or to sit outside and “enjoy the view.” She’d hoped to have encounters with up to 2,000 different people throughout the 24-hour event. Public outcry caused her to cancel her plans, and OnlyFans removed her from the platform altogether.

The outcry against the planned stunt is about more than the public having enough of Bonnie Blue’s problematic behavior. There is a historical precedent for glass box stunts going poorly. In In 1974, Serbian artist Marina Abramović performed a six-hour piece, remaining motionless while allowing gallery visitors to use objects like perfume, lipstick, scissors, a gun, and an ax on her. Her instructions were, “I am the object. During this period, I take full responsibility.” Things began calmly with participants initially hesitant to use any of the dangerous items on Abramović. As time went on, the audience became emboldened with the idea that they wouldn’t face consequences for their actions against Abramović for the duration of the performance. By the end of the 6 hour event, Abramović’s clothes had been cut off, her neck had been cut so that one participant could suck her blood, she was groped, and one participant even made her press a loaded gun to her head with her finger on the trigger. Decades later, Abramović reflected that “In your own performances you can go very far, but if you leave decisions to the public, you can be killed.”

Bonnie Blue’s following thrives on scandalous stunts that captivate social media, but this event crossed a line. The overwhelming negative publicity led to its cancellation and her ban from OnlyFans. Could this signal a shift for platforms like OnlyFans, with tighter restrictions on such stunts? The public will have to wait and see.