Girls Gone Wild
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The Girls Gone Wild franchise, created by upstart media guru Joe Francis, is a series of videos by United States softcore pornography production company Mantra Entertainment. Primarily marketed to young adult men, Girls Gone Wild videos depict young women exposing their breasts, genitalia, and/or buttocks, removing their clothing, performing limited sexual acts, and so forth. Sometimes the camera crew will follow a group of girls back to a hotel or other location and tape them engaging in limited sexual acts with each other. The videos have themes such as Live from Spring Break or Sexy Sorority Sweethearts and involve a camera crew patrolling an area in search of attractive women who agree to flash, usually in exchange for a T-shirt.
The series has many critics who say it objectifies women and contributes to sexism. The series' supporters (including women) say participating in the videos is a personal choice. The videos are sold via mail order and are frequently advertised on late-night television, with a brief "warning" message before the commercial begins.
In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission fined Mantra Films for $1.1 million for selling "negative-option" subscriptions to Girls Gone Wild videos. Once consumers were enrolled in these programs, each month Mantra shipped additional, unordered videos and DVDs on a “negative-option” basis, charging consumers’ credit and debit cards for each shipment until consumers took action to stop the shipments.
Legally, exposing oneself in a public area constitutes no expectation of privacy; moreover, GGW staff members claim they get every flasher to sign a liability waiver.[link] The legal effect of these factors has resulted in a waiver of some women and girls' rights to bring a civil action against GGW. In 2004 in Panama City, Florida, a judge ruled that video footage of females under the age of 18 exposing their breasts without physical or sexual contact is not child pornography.
Knockoffs
The franchise has become so successful in recent years that several videos emerged bearing the "Girls Gone Wild" name. These videos lack any other apparent connection to the franchise; for instance, they lack the typical stylized intro and on-camera narration from the show's producers, and contain no end credits of any kind – thus, they also do not contain the Mantra Entertainment logo.These particular videos have crews that will patrol the streets of Mardi Gras, Las Vegas festivals, and other similar events claiming to be Girls Gone Wild staff people, and will even be replete with several convincing Girls Gone Wild t-shirts. Videos compiled from the use of this technique have been released, at least via the Internet, under innocuous names like Girls Gone Wild on Campus and Girls Gone Wild: College Girls Exposed.
Guys Gone Wild
In July 2004, Mantra Entertainment introduced a new addition to its products — a Guys Gone Wild video series, featuring men engaging in sexual acts. The company just recently released the first series of videos. Though it's intended to target young women, it instead has been well recieved among gay men.
Like Trading Spouses (which was the premise for a skit on Chappelle's Show before a series was made around the same premise), a skit called Guys Gone Wild appeared in an episode of The Man Show.
Partial list of Girls Gone Wild videos (unconfirmed)
- Girls Gone Wild (1998)
- ''Girls Gone Wild: with Doug Stanhope (2000)
- Girls Gone Wild: Doggy Style (2002) (hosted by Snoop Dogg)
- Girls Gone Wild: America Uncovered (2004)
- Girls Gone Wild: Games (2005)
- Girls Gone Wild: Bad Girls
- Girls Gone Wild: Girls Who Like Girls
- Girls Gone Wild: Dormroom Fantasies
- Girls Gone Wild: Road Trip
- Girls Gone Wild: Ultimate Spring Break
- Girls Gone Wild: Spring Break 2005
- Girls Gone Wild: Extreme
- ''Girls Gone Wild: Beach Babes
- Girls Gone Wild: Girl Power (also Girl Power Volume 9, another legitimate production)
- Girls Gone Wild: Best of Ultimate Spring Break
- Girls Gone Wild: Mardi Gras Invasion
- Girls Gone Wild: Co-Ed Tryouts
- Girls Gone Wild: Co-Ed Tryouts 2
- Girls Gone Wild: The Seized Video
- Girls Gone Wild: First Timers
- Girls Gone Wild: Ultimate Rush
See also
- nudity
- modesty
- indecent exposure (includes definition of "flashing")
External links
- [Official site] Warning: adult content
- ["Dispatches from Girls Gone Wild"] at Slate Magazine
- [Mantra Entertainment's Girls Gone Wild press kit]
- [CTV.ca Groups protest 'Girls Gone Wild Canada' tour]
- [Rolling Stone story on Joe Francis and his empire]
- [IMDB entry]
- [Review of Girls Gone Wild website] - Warning: Adult Content
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