'Baby, Give Me a Kiss' LATimes reporter writes about GirlsGoneWild jerk

[NVMojo]

Baby, Give Me a Kiss'
The man behind the 'Girls Gone Wild' soft-porn empire lets Claire Hoffman into his world, for better or worse

By Claire Hoffman, Times Staff Writer
August 6, 2006

Joe Francis, the founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" empire, is humiliating me. He has my face pressed against the hood of a car, my arms twisted hard behind my back. He's pushing himself against me, shouting: "This is what they did to me in Panama City!"

It's after 3 a.m. and we're in a parking lot on the outskirts of Chicago. Electronic music is buzzing from the nightclub across the street, mixing easily with the laughter of the guys who are watching this, this me-pinned-and-helpless thing.

Francis isn't laughing.

He has turned on me, and I don't know why. He's going on and on about Panama City Beach, the spring break spot in northern Florida where Bay County sheriff's deputies arrested him three years ago on charges of racketeering, drug trafficking and promoting the sexual performance of a child. As he yells, I wonder if this is a flashback, or if he's punishing me for being the only blond in sight who's not wearing a thong. This much is certain: He's got at least 80 pounds on me and I'm thinking he's about to break my left arm. My eyes start to stream tears.

This is not what I anticipated when I signed up for a tour of Joe Francis' world. I've been with him nonstop since early afternoon, listening as he teases employees, flying on his private jet, eating fast food and watching young women hurl themselves against his 6-foot-2-inch frame, declaring, "We want to go wild!"

more...

http://www.latimes.com/features/magazine/west/la-tm-gonewild32aug06,0,2664370.story

[Tunkamerica]

1. wow

what a jackass

[dorktv]

2. ditto

[NVMojo]

3. ...yeah, and then I worry about all of his followers ...voters???

[dorktv]

7. ?

[OzarkDem]

4. He should be in jail

he's a serial sex offender.

[ismnotwasm]

5. Not surprising

Another misogynist using the sexist bullshit of patriarchy to get rich. And to get away with rape sounds like. Lovely.

I better get my "sex positive" feminist manual out so I can emphasize with the freedom and choice these young women have. :sarcasm:

[NVMojo]

6. I agree with that woman who said it was exploitation on all sides

...of the women who bare it all and the men who recruit them. The only one getting rich off of their efforts is this jerk.

He also reminds me of that guy who killed his ex-wife in Reno and then went on the lam with his dough. Misogynist.

[SensibleAmerican]

12. You mean the men who buy the tapes?

n/t

[NVMojo]

17. no, the men he uses to recruit fresh meat every night he's out filming

[undergroundpanther]

14. Consent..??

Real consent is not possible because relationships and choices, indeed, what is attractive and desirable, are determined by power differences and power relations. Power differences between adults and children are especially sharp.As are power differences between GGW and some drunk teenager who feels like she is invisible and unworthy as a person.The power is very imbalanced. And the exploitation is as well.
Wanna be exploited sexually for a t shirt,and to get a temporary moment of not being treated as an invisible,unloveable, faceless,nobody?

It's Not mutual exploitation when you look at the POWER imblalances .

[guinivere]

8. Yikes! What a jerk.

A big jerk.




I don't understand why those girls want to be in those girls gone wild videos.

[undergroundpanther]

13. girls

are abused in our culture.1 in 4 girls before age 18 are raped.Child abuse teaches girls their worth is in their sex.Their power is in sex,and if they don't give away sex and get attention with sex they will be nobody and be invisible powerless and thrown away.
They do the GGW videos to be seen.
Because to be not seen is to be invisible and a powerless victim ..Understand?

"Sex-positive feminists" say being a porn star or a prostitute is a value neutral choice, simply one career option among many varied career options available to women, no more demeaning than a job at McDonald's, and easy money for the uneducated attractive young woman. This is an insidious twisting of the truth. To hold up this twisted version of the truth, they loudly parade a few women who smile for the camera and say "I LOVE sex work! It is so liberating! I never felt oppressed, and I make a lot of money at doing something I love! Who wouldn't want such a great career!" Tellingly, often you find these are white, upper or middle class strippers in higher end clubs, or professional dominatrixes, neither of whom (legally) have sex with their clients, nor who take such jobs out of economic necessity. These stories are repeated over and over until they look like the majority.

But the ugly reality of prostitution is more accurately reflected here.

"Up to 90 percent of runaways are believed to end up as prostitutes, with a third lured into prostitution within 48 hours." (From a study done by the Atlanta Women's Agenda.)

"In all, an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 underage girls are prostituted in the United States". (More on this here.)

"Half of the street-level prostitutes in Atlanta are believed to be under 18".

Here is a police information sheet on the "typical" female (and male) prostitute:

* Average age of 15.
* Runs away often and ends up on the streets.
* Needs to earn money to survive.

Here is an article claiming the national average age of a beginning prostitute is 14.

This New Zealand Study finds a similar beginning age.

Here is a study of at-risk youth which finds the average age of beginning prostitutes is 13, and 85% of prostitutes have a history of sexual abuse.

This study estimates the average prostitute is raped between 8-10 times a year.

Prostitution is empowering. It's a career choice made without coercion by free-thinking sexually liberated adults. Prostitutes love their jobs or they would just quit and find some other kind of work.

Sure it is.

Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies.
http://amananta.wordpress.com/tag/child-abuse/

Real consent is not possible because relationships and choices, indeed, what is attractive and desirable, are determined by power differences and power relations. Power differences between adults and children are especially sharp.As are power differences between GGW and some drunk teenager who feels like she is invisible and unworthy as a person.

[theHandpuppet]

27. Great posts, undergroundpanther

Thanks very much!

[bumblebee1]

9. The next Hugh Hefner?

No way in hell. Hugh Hefner has way more class that this jerk could ever dream of. Larry Flynt has more class than this jerk.

[undergroundpanther]

10. I hope

this Francis guy is humiliated,and jailed and bankrupt soon.I hope he falls and hits the ground with a crushing thud.
Rapist bully thug he is. He gets away with it because of,his domineering persona, money and popularity and that our culture is patriarchal and so rape friendly and victim hating.. I curse him and his video abuse..
Bully asshole.I hate men like him.I hope he gets reckless gets himself killed.If I ever see a GGW truck I will spit on it and curse it to ruin..

[blogslut]

11. He's not well liked by his peers either

Almost everybody that knows him thinks he's an asshole and an idiot.

[NVMojo]

18. too bad Jennifer Aniston and her boyfriend like him enough to go

stay at his getaway villa ...yeck

[blogslut]

20. I don't know anything about that.

I just know that I've had a few opportunities to meet him and I didn't try because I have no desire to do so. Being that I write for the Internet porn industry and often interview the players, I think that's a signifigant point. As I also said, nobody I know respects or likes the guy.

[GaYellowDawg]

15. He deserves to be locked in a room with Katherine Harris for eternity.

With her in heat. And the whole time, Francis tied in a chair so that he can't assault her. And with a zipper that can't be undone.

[beam me up scottie]

16. jesus fucking christ

I can't believe I read all of that.

I feel sick, physically, mentally and emotionally ill.

[salvorhardin]

19. That is one sad human being

What a waste, but even sorrier I think is that all these young women crave the attention. In many ways our society sucks.

[zcflint09]

21. What a prick

I can't believe there are people like this out in the world--and the way they treat other human beings. This sick fuck needs to go to jail for the rest of his life.

[TheMightyFavog]

22. Geeze, what a shithead.

Now I can see why many others in the adult film industry don't even want to be associated with that asshat.

[Hekate]

23. I had the misfortune to read that over breakfast. What a creep

Hekate

[PurityOfEssence]

24. He will crash, and he deserves it

The most disgusting part of the article is one where he's rather correct: that the most successful people are often the ones with the most unquenchable sexual appetites.

He got lucky. He had an idea that fit in tidily with changes in the media, what with sell-through cheap videos and a careful walking of the line to allow him to use broadcast as a sales forum. Cue the steel drums and make it seem like a joyous bit of innocent voyeurism, and the money keeps rolling in.

Deep at the heart of the enterprise, however, is exploitation: he pays his employees crap, entices hungry entry-level filmmakers to work for him for crap and gets his talent almost for free. It's classic producing at its worst.

Perhaps his downfall will be years in the coming, but the sheer hollowness of this USC thug rings resoundingly from this article.

As for the equation of success with rabid sexual hunger, he's onto something in the main; it's not as simple as that, though, and for those who don't understand passion and desire as something other than quick-fix dominance, there's no effective rejoinder. What a dirty little time passed with the paper yesterday morning.

[Iris]

26. Not long ago, I heard a news report about someone actually kidnapping him,

or at least holding him against his will, and forcing him to strip on camera. Surprised there aren't more fathers, brothers, boyfriends after him in that way.

[SensibleAmerican]

29. I don't know if that statement is solely encompassing to sexual desire

I think those people that know what they want will get it, but this want can be a great variety of things, from a good job, to good grades, to many sexual partners, to a good body.

[distantearlywarning]

25. This guy is sick.

He's a psychopath. I read that entire article and now I feel like I need a shower. :scared:

[SensibleAmerican]

28. Evangelical Christians oppose films like these because it's pornography

They say it offends God and, in all fairness, they say it victimizes women and children.

We may oppose pornography like this because of its exploitative nature. And I don't think it can be argued that if we were freer in our sexuality, exploitation would cease. Pornography and the sex trade is as prevalent, if not more, in Germany and France. What may be argued however is that the psychological costs of being exploited may be less. I don't mean to minimize sexual exploitation with that statement.

But in reality, it seems we may have a lot more in common with the evangelicals than we realize.