He was convicted on five misdemeanor charges in 2013. I just wanted help.” At the end of the night, the girls said Francis told them, “You’re trespassing. Another victim said in court, “It was the scariest moment of my life. One of the women claimed Francis “choke-slammed” her to the floor and repeatedly bashed her head. Then, Francis struck again in 2011 when he forced three women from an LA club into his car and took them to his mansion in Bel Air. RELATED: Debunking the “Porn is Harmless” Myth In 2007, Francis was then arrested on contempt of court charges for telling the opposing counsel to “suck my d–k.” That same year, he reportedly advised his good friend, Kim Kardashian, on how to make the most of her leaked sex tape to build her career. Our culture is widely accepting of porn but at the same time horrified-and somehow shocked-by the unmasking of exploitation and abuse perpetrated by the porn industry’s founding fathers. We are in an interesting time of tension. That same year, after the alleged arrest, Francis was sued by a woman who claimed that her NSFW photo was included on the cover of a DVD without her permission. He was also accused of forcing a pair of 17-year-olds to massage his privates. In 2003, he was arrested on child pornography charges for allegedly filming two underage girls having sex in a shower. Joe Francis’ escapades in violence and sexual abuse don’t end there. Francis Led a Violent and Sexually Abusive Life An off-camera man can be heard coaching three woman to perform oral sex on one another and make sexy sounds while he films. The documentary also features footage in which a Girls Gone Wild employee tricks barely legal, drunk women into shooting same-sex pornography. And then he got off of me like I was garbage.” “I didn’t give my consent that night and he totally raped me. In the back room of the bus, she was coerced into drunkenly signing a waiver and then was forced to “touch” herself on-camera with sex toys.Īccording to Jannel, what followed was a nightmare. However, what awaited her was much worse. The self-described 18-year-old “party girl” was charmed by the celebrity businessman into downing drinks “like it was water.” Jannel soon found herself agreeing to return to his bus, where she assumed that the worst she’d be asked to do was flash her breasts at a camera. RELATED: Why Do Girls Participate in Hookup Culture? One girl, named Jannel, details her traumatic experience in the Rich & Shameless series that occurred after visiting a favorite nightclub that was also playing host to Francis and his colleagues in 2006. It is no surprise that his on-camera manipulation of vulnerable women was escalated behind the scenes, resulting in coercion, physical abuse, and rape. In the height of Girls Gone Wild, Francis was even called the “Hugh Hefner of the new millennium.”Ī closer look into Francis revealed a cruel, abusive man who finessed women into situations that featured sexual abuse and violence. The exposé series paints quite a predictable picture of the entrepreneur-o ne which reveals his predatory nature as a man who believes women are “horny sl*ts” who would show their breasts and engage in pornographic acts “if you simply asked.”įrancis was at the forefront of an early 2000s culture that feasted on overt female sexualization. The series showcases first-person accounts and interviews with women who shared their lives were left in shambles after being on the show.Įmmy-nominated director Katina Blackford Newman told The New York Post, “Behind the fun, the wet T-shirt competitions and the faux-feministic liberation centered around flashing your breasts in front of a camera, lives were being ruined.” In a new documentary series called Rich & Shameless: Girls Gone Wild Exposed, Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis has been exposed as a sexual abuser and a predator – a not-so-shocking revelation considering the exploitative nature of the early 2000s DVD franchise that profited off of inebriated girls at nightclubs and beaches. By 2004, the franchise was amassing $100 million annually and featured numerous celebrities.īut what was sold as sexy, spring break revelries, and sex-positive female empowerment, was actually deeply exploitative, sinister, and outright criminal. Girls Gone Wild became a household name in the early 2000s after their videos of wet t-shirt contests and girls flashing their breasts on camera raked in $20 million in two years. *Trigger Warning: This article features sensitive content, including written references of physical abuse, sexual assault and rape.

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