Apr 14, 2007

Girls Gone Wild

Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis is in trouble. Again. This time he's charged with tax evasion.

If you've seen any late night cable TV in the past five years or so, you're probably familiar with those ads for the Girls Gone Wild DVDs. These soft-porn productions feature college girls exposing their breasts and making out with each other. Often they're on Spring Break and drunk. Francis, who is only 34 years old, has become a multimillionaire with his soft-porn empire.

So is this exploitation? Well, you might argue, the girls are doing it willingly, right? If this is indeed the case, then it's not really exploitation. Sleazy, yes. Stupid, yes. Contributing to the objectification of women, yes. But if it's consensual, then can you really call it exploitation?

Here's the thing, though: there's been some question about whether or not all of the Girls Gone Wild antics actually are fully consensual. Read this Los Angeles Time article about Joe Francis and his empire. If it's not consensual, then it's not silly fun anymore.

Consensual or not, though, it's disturbing that this is the image of the college girl that's so prevalent in the culture. Drunk, partying, willing to take her shirt off in exchange for a Girls Gone Wild tank top. I teach classrooms full of young women who want to be taken seriously as students and women and future members of the work force, and GGW makes it that much harder for them.