Amanda alerted me to this two part series in the Akron Beacon Journal. Here's an excerpt:
[Carl Moss] says the Girls Gone Wild crew has shown a pattern of behavior that is "predatory'' and "systematic.''
Moss actually helps set up these types of events through his local multimedia company, Moss One Entertainment.
"I've been part of that Girls Gone Wild thing three times (and) every single time the behavior of the (cameramen is) absolutely the same,'' he says.
"As the night progresses, the drunker the girls get, they'll start separating them. They'll say, `Hey, you guys want to come on the bus?' And the girls'll say, `Yeah!' And they'll take three down to the bus.
"But when they get to the bus, they'll say, `Well, we can only take one at a time because you girls have to sign a release, and blah blah blah blah, and we'll come and get the other two.'
"Well, the other girls will just go back into the club and they won't think about anything. And then (the cameraman will) take the single girl back to the bedroom (of the bus).
"I've seen it every time now.''
The series recounts an incident involving a 17 year old girl who was lured to a Girls Gone Wild Event with the promise of $50 and an open bar if she would dance on the bar and get things going. As the evening progressed, she became extremely drunk on all the free booze.
One of the videographers was paying particularly close attention to her, she says. "At one point he asked my friend to move so he could get closer to me. He was actually up on the bar with us (while taping).
"He was watching me drink all night. It was clear how ridiculously drunk I was.''
As closing time neared, she says, she and several other girls were invited out to the bus. She was the first in line and, after she climbed aboard, she says, the others were barred. While she was partially passed out, the cameraman who had been watching her came up from behind and forced himself on her, she says.
Afterward, she stumbled off the bus, wearing nothing but a tank top and twisted underwear, and staggered around inside the club, looking for her skirt and her car keys. Along the way, she vomited twice in the Mango's restroom and twice more downstairs at Panini's.
This account is consistent with the rampant misogyny of Girls Gone Wild founder, Joe Francis and his crew, as reported by Claire Hoffman in her expose a couple months ago. This article recounts how Francis himself lured an 18 year old girl drunk girl onto his bus for what she assumed would be more flashing for the cameras. He got her to masturbate on film, she says, and then pushed her onto the bed and started having sex with her. She says he did not stop even though she kept telling him it hurt. Then, she says, he opened the door and told the cameraman to come back, saying, "She's not a virgin anymore."
I think it is safe to conclude that Joe Francis and his crew and his products should be avoided like the plague. I wish there were a way to get the word out and to persuade young women to stay the hell away from this guy. Stop enriching this jerk, who apparently hates women and hates you. Stop giving him control over your image forever in exchange (literally) for a lousy t-shirt. And ethical people everywhere, stop buying this guy's stuff. Unfortunately, among a certain crowd of rowdy kids and celebrities, Joe Francis is the coolest. Unfortunately, that's not likely to change anytime soon.
NOTE: Joe Franics also pled guilty last month to failing to document the ages of very young women appearing in his videos.
I read the first part a couple days ago. The story is bad enough - but what sickened me were the comments (on the paper's site).
Posted by: Melinika | October 31, 2006 at 09:26 AM
This sort of thing pisses me off. Women are being misled into thinking that making some guy who could care less about women rich off their sexuality is cool and fun. And guys go and buy shit from this rapist enabler!
Posted by: shannon | October 31, 2006 at 12:28 PM
Ugh. I'm in Ohio and this has been getting a fair amount of local publicity. It's sick.
Posted by: evil_fizz | October 31, 2006 at 02:40 PM
It reminds me of something a young guy (15) said to me once. He said his friends had urged him to have sex with a girl who was passed out drunk at a party, and he had said "'No, that's just not cool." I first praised him for saying no, then I said not only was that 'not cool' it was rape. He sort of hemmed and hawed, so I sked him how he would feel if he woke up from passing out drunk at a party to find that another man had had anal sex with him. Would that be rape or would he have been "asking for it" by getting drunk?
I think that was a feminist click moment for him.
Posted by: Left Right Out | October 31, 2006 at 04:10 PM
>>> Stop enriching this jerk, who apparently hates women and hates you.
Don’t know the guy, so I can’t say what motivates him, although I doubt it’s “hate.” My guess would be “indifference,” coupled with a strong profit motive.
Posted by: Richard | November 01, 2006 at 12:47 AM
Uh, why are underage girls voluntarily agreeing to go out and get drunk in the first place? See "drunken defense" here...
And if you wanna see REAL "Girls Gone Wild," watch the 2 videos in HERE!!!!!
Posted by: Bird's Eye View | November 02, 2006 at 12:45 PM
Nice, Bird's Eye. So one woman behaves badly (I haven't seen the video but I'll take your word for it) and somehow that invalidates feminism? Or has anything whatsoever to do with my post? And if a woman gets drunk, she's fair game for rape, abuse, ridicule, etc.? That's "fuzzy misogynist asshole" logic.
Richard, Claire Hoffman's expose paints a portrait of a guy with a deep antipathy towards and contempt for women, which the latest rape allegations seems to corroborate.
Posted by: The Happy Feminist | November 02, 2006 at 05:30 PM
"And if a woman gets drunk, she's fair game for rape, abuse, ridicule, etc.?"
You weren't smart enough to understand my blog, were you?
A woman is no less responsible for her actions when she decides to get drunk than a drunk driver is when they decide to get behind the wheel drunk. That is no excuse and no defense. In fact, drunk driving is a wrongdoing in itself!
So, refreshing to see how most of the comments on that article agree with me too! It's just common sense, really.
But as usual, a pathological feminist like yourself avoids female accountability at all costs...
Posted by: Bird's Eye View | November 02, 2006 at 06:48 PM
You're right. Drunk women should be held accountable for having things done to them against their will. That's just like drunk driving.
Posted by: The Happy Feminist | November 02, 2006 at 06:55 PM
Of course, Happy! I mean, a man couldn't possibly be responsible for the fact that he forced his cock into a drunken woman or that he decided to film girls who were so blasted they had no idea what was going on! I mean, come on! men, having responsiblity?
Posted by: shannon | November 02, 2006 at 06:58 PM