Has America Gone Mad?

Okay, the word sex entices people. It's a natural urge that 99.9999% of people begin to feel at puberty. Excitement usually does too-who doesn't like to laugh or ride an amusement park roller coaster from time to time?
But the part about hot young girls is what most likely draws the bulk of the attention and is what also alarms me most about the appeal within that phrase that can be heard on television in the wee hours of the morning.

Does it ring a bell yet? Think of a backdrop of beautiful beaches, a huge tide topped by daring surfers, images of deliciously refreshing cocktails accented by the sound of a steel drum playing the intro to a nauseatingly worn-out calypso jingle. Anyone who has a television and no strict bedtime of 8 PM has seen and/or heard the onset of a 'Girls Gone Wild' advertisement. One forum contributor says that, because of it, he/she simply cannot hear steel drums without thinking of a certain part of the female anatomy.

A particular tagline in the commercial sparked this personal pet peeve-driven rant: "These hot college girls will NEVER forget their first time - and neither will you!"

Huh?

Are viewers supposed to believe that the girls seen in the advertisements are ALL college students who are on once-in-a lifetime, no-holds-barred Spring Break getaways with a few of their best buddies? Oh yeah, and these friends just happen to be into girls, too. I personally don't buy that it's just a coincidence that the announcer insinuates they're all virgins or that the video previews that likely sell the most DVDs are those of girls acting out lesbian fantasies. They're being interviewed on the street and on the beach, asked to lift their shirts or peel back their bikini tops to reveal their breasts, to bend over to show their backsides and to go into secluded rooms or luxury vehicles to commit some lewd act while being taped-all for the enjoyment of the multitude of viewers who are turned on by the thought of under-aged and apparently oversexed girls.

To make matters worse, some are filmed holding alcoholic beverages (whether they're all old enough to drink is questionable), eyelids reduced to slits on their flushed faces, dancing and gyrating holding onto what seem to be remnants of their clothing on cleared dance floors and sandy beaches. Am I the only one horrified by the likelihood of sexual assault during these kinds of events?? In other scenes, girls are filmed locking arms and toasting to one another and shouting "We LOVE Girls Gone Wild!" One would think that being part of this circus is a girl's-er, college girl's-dream come true.

In one of the paid advertisements, one of the adult male producers asks a bikini-clad girl on the beach, "So, how many surfers have you had sex with?"
She hesitates briefly and replies with a nervous smile, "One."
Her interrogator then scolds her and sends her away with an order, "You got some work to do!" With this she runs off camera as he encourages the viewer to come along with him to find-you guessed it-MORE hot young girls.

It doesn't stop here! The GirlsGoneWild.com website seems to be a testament to the company's desire to reside among the ambitions of young starlets around the country, with a list of 'Future Tours' showing dates and locations of their nation-wide video-taping or bar-hopping frenzies. 'Girls Gone Wild Rocks America' is their current slogan and they've termed themselves 'America's Authority on Fun.' Appealing to pre-teen and teenage girls and boys who might secretly view the website and late-night paid advertisements while their parents are soundly sleeping at some remote part of their suburban home, 'Girls Gone Wild' employs celebrities and advertises iPod podcasts so they can infiltrate the impressionable psyche of kids and, at the same time, feed the predatory sexual appetites of middle-aged men. The site sells 'Girls Gone Wild' merchandise in the form of t-shirts, hats, tiny shorts and baby tees to further build their empire.

Not Customer-Service Oriented

Not only is 'Girls Gone Wild' doing a disservice to the girls in their videos, they offer a subscription service to their customers through which follow-up DVDs and videos are sent automatically each month but do not uphold their 'cancel anytime' policy. Some consumers are outraged by the company's blatant disregard for this portion of their advertisement once the first set of DVDs or videos is purchased. Account after account describes the company's unwillingness to cancel their orders, stop unsolicited calls to their homes and private mobile numbers or to stop charging their credit cards for subsequent shipments. One customer actually laments that 'Girls Gone Wild' profits relentlessly from the manipulation of young girls and repeat billing structure, making billions of dollars at the expense of both.

'Girls Gone Wild' in Court

You may ask yourself now: how many offenses does the 'Girls Gone Wild' monstrosity commit with each paid advertisement? Let's see…considering the number of televisions tuned to whichever cable network allows them airtime in back-to-back succession after-hours, the number of phone orders placed for the DVDs, and the number of hits and online purchases the GirlsGoneWild.com website receives, that number is undoubtedly astronomical.

There are, however, a few criminal offenses that 'Girls Gone Wild' has committed that landed the enterprise in court in the recent past. Several court cases are pending against Mantra Films and Joseph Francis, co-founder of 'Girls Gone Wild' because, while editing the juicy footage, they forgot to snip a little bit of the proverbial red tape.

These guys failed to comply between 2002 and 2003 with a federal law that caught up with them a few months ago. In September of this year, they were reminded of this law in which it is required that, any company that films, produces and distributes sexually explicit video materials must keep records to prevent sexual exploitation of children. In other words, they had no proof that the girls they filmed during this timeframe were 18 or older. Of course, as Mr. Francis' defense attorney claimed, it is arguable that many of these girls lied about their age at the time of filming. It is even easier to believe, though, that they simply were not asked to produce proof of legal and consenting age. Joseph Francis, Mantra Films and MRA Holdings were fined $2.1 million and had to agree to be monitored for 3 years to make sure they're making and selling legal materials.

In a second suit over the age of the performers in his films, Mr. Francis proposed a deal that he would pay $500,000 and expects the judge to say yea or nay in a December 18th sentencing hearing. There are still more charges pending against Francis claiming that two 17-year-old girls were videotaped in sexual situations by one of the cameramen employed by 'Girls Gone Wild.' It was not clear whether these other incidents are thought to have occurred during the 2002-03 period as well.

The Real Crime Being Committed
Regardless of the poor consumers who have been swindled by these guys, the larger body of victims is young girls in this country who are already bombarded with harmful messages about what they should do with their bodies and how their bodies should look. In supermarkets, department stores and on television, girls are continually given images of what is considered an acceptable weight, form-even color. Mixed in with the esteem-damaging images are unhealthy and warped messages about sexuality and sensuality. In the slight chance that a model in an ad or music video is not waifishly thin, she is still showing so much skin that she may as well be naked. Without knowing or without concern, our young girls are receiving mixed messages about how to determine their value and how to make themselves desirable to anyone outside their loving and nurturing families. Even for girls who come from not-so-loving or nurturing homes, the messages resound even louder as they may be seeking affirmation with a tad bit more desperation. Is this a reason to prey on any of them with cameras and a promise of 15 minutes of fame? How mixed of a message is portraying the girls as innocent and virginal as well as being wanton, drunken sexual objects? It's confusing and unfair if nothing else.

Maybe America is too desensitized to this kind of thing. Maybe we've rightfully given up responsibility to interfere into individual rights to free enterprise and constitutional rights to do whatever the hell others want to do with their bodies.

But shouldn't there be some moral code that makes it deplorable to continue contributing to a generation of wild girls? Can't we invoke the Golden Rule? Do unto to others as you would have them do unto you.

Does that mean that the 'Boys Gone Wild' series is an answer to even things out or is that equally as bad?

I guess we'll see somewhere around 2036 when and if the next generation repeats the cycle somehow when 'Girls Gone Wild' is a distant memory and the wild girls aren't so wild anymore.