Porn Industry To Netflix: Stop Airing ‘Hot Girls Wanted’
The series, co-produced by Rashida Jones, allegedly exploits female sex workers, even as it purports to empower them, groups say
Scores of adult performers have taken to social media this week to protest Netflix’s new documentary, “Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On” for allegedly featuring several sex workers without their permission and revealing a performer’s real name. Now, the porn industry is taking its activism a step further.
As Vocativ reported earlier this week, at least four sex workers feel that the show has exploited them. The series, co-produced by actress Rashida Jones, focuses on the experience of women in the porn industry, especially around issues of objectification and empowerment. It’s a followup to the earlier documentary, “Hot Girls Wanted,” which took a critical look at the amateur porn industry in Florida.
The Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry’s trade association, has now sent Netflix and the series’ producers and directors a letter denouncing the documentary and calling for its distribution to be halted. In addition, the tube site xHamster is mailing the documentary’s team red umbrellas, which are a symbol of sex worker rights, and copies of the book, “Playing the Whore: The Work of Sex Work.”
Gia Paige, who is featured in several scenes in the new series, alleges that producers promised to exclude her from the documentary, as she previously told Vocativ. The series also reveals her legal first name. At least three additional performers allege that the series uses publicly available footage of them without their consent.
Netflix and the series’ directors and producers have not responded to Vocativ’s repeated requests for comment.
“We ask Netflix and the producers of Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On to immediately pause the distribution of this series before more damage is done,” wrote Free Speech Coalition in a letter sent to Netflix and the series’ producers and directors. “If your intentions are honorable, performers featured should be able to consent to having their image used, or legal names exposed.”
The letter continues: “It is ironic — and disturbing — that a mainstream series which purports to address workplace ethics among adult film performers and focus on issues of empowerment appears to exploit them for its own gain.” The group further argues that the film may have made the lives of the featured sex workers less safe by making them more visible “without regard to how that might affect these performers.”
xHamster says it is mailing red umbrellas and book copies to the series’ production staff, as well as to Rashida Jones’ home address.
“Too often, mainstream production companies who talk to adult performers and other sex workers decide that they need to ‘save’ their subjects from exploitation, and instead end up being the exploiters,” said spokesperson Alex Hawkins in a press release. “Consensual sex workers do not need to be saved. They need respect, they need consent, and they need to be paid for their labor.” (It is also worth noting that many sex workers take issue with the business models of sites like xHamster, which they argue make money off stolen content and drive down performer incomes.)
xHamster is also calling on Jones to donate her profits from the film to the activist organization Sex Workers Outreach Project. “As producer of the series, it would appear Ms. Jones is the one actually profiting from exploitation,” said Hawkins. “If she really wants to help sex workers, she can help.”