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Louise Thomas
Editor
Rumer Willis has hit back at mom-shaming trolls who criticized her for promoting a sex toy.
The 35-year-old actor, who is the eldest daughter of former couple Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, shared a post on Instagram on August 7 to promote a vibrator for women from Bellesa Boutique. In the caption, she wrote about the importance of women’s pleasure, describing how “taking time for solo practice is a powerful act of self-love and discovery.”
While multiple people in the comments praised her for sharing such a candid message about sex toys, others were quick to criticize her for promoting the product when she has a one-year-old daughter, Louetta, who she shares with partner Derek Richard Thomas.
Shortly after, Willis took to her Instagram Story to address the comments on her Instagram post, specifically remarks from trolls who were mom-shaming her.
“What I think is really interesting that I wanted to bring up is that a lot of the comments I was seeing, other than the regular troll stuff is: ‘Oh my God, you’re a mother. Don’t be showing such intimate moments,’” she explained.
“We’re in a culture where it’s so frowned upon to feed our children in public, or to talk about female pleasure, talk about female sexuality,” said Willis, who previously hit back at criticism for posting about breastfeeding. “We’re literally so oppressed and suppressed around these issues that just the idea of even posting about something, or having some casual off-the-cuff conversation about it, the reaction is visceral from people.”
However, Willis said she still thinks “it’s really important to have these conversations” in order to “remove some of the shame around” them. She also described how it can be “really challenging” for young girls, specifically teenagers, to “create a dialogue” with their partner about their “pleasures.”
She acknowledged that while her own mother was open about the importance of female pleasure, it’s “still such a challenging topic to discuss.” Willis also expressed that as she now has a child of her own, she doesn’t want her daughter to feel any “shame” throughout her “sexual self-discovery.”
“Putting any sort of shame or taboo around that, I just think is honestly kind of despicable,” Willis added. “Because I want Lou to be able to love her body, to absolutely be able to share or not share it with whomever she wants to. And I don’t want there to ever be an energy that she feels shame about her sexuality.”
After encouraging her followers to “stop shaming people for talking about their sexuality,” she also described how proud she felt to be in a place where she can talk so openly about herself.
“I don’t feel any shame about it. I don’t feel shame about having any sort of discussions about sex toys, masturbation, about anything like that,” she explained. “And nor should you. I think we need to start raising the level of consciousness and awareness, so that as we are raising this new generation of young men and women, these old societal kinds of boxes we try to shove everybody into need to be abolished.”
Willis concluded by asking her followers to stop spreading “hate and negativity” on her social media and “to be kind” to others.
In her initial Instagram post promoting the vibrator, she addressed how she wanted to remove the shame surrounding sex toys and discussions regarding female pleasure.
“Embracing our own fantasies and desires is essential for cultivating an intimate relationship with ourselves. By removing the shame and taboo around this, we honor our bodies and their incredible capacity for pleasure,” she wrote in the caption. “Exploring what lights us up not only enriches our personal journey but also enhances the connections we share with our partners. So, let’s create space for self-intimacy, bring toys into the bedroom, and celebrate the beauty of our own sensuality.”
Willis has previously hit back at mom-shaming comments on social media. Last year, she shut down critics who questioned her for posting a photo of herself breastfeeding her daughter. In the comments of her post, she not only defended the picture, but she also explained how she wanted to fight against scrutiny that women face.
“I think it’s incredibly important to share because there is an incredible amount of shame that comes with being born into a female body,” Willis wrote. “And I want to lead by example in teaching my daughter that she doesn’t have to be ashamed of her body ever and that she can decide how she wants to share it.”
