So apparently, Joe Francis was in court against a group of women who claimed that he filmed them when they were underage, thus ruining their lives forever, in what can only be called as “The Least Surprising Lawsuit Ever”. But as douchey as Joe is (and let’s face it, he is kinda skeezy), the judge ruled that the girls had to take responsibility for their actions instead of blaming Francis, which means for once I actually ag-GUH… Sorry, that came out weird. I ag-GEEEEEEEEEEE… I aaaaaaaaagggggggrrrrrrreeeeeeee with Joe Francis. OH GOD IT BURNS.
Francis — who represented himself for part of the trial in federal court in Florida — eventually hired a team of attorneys … who managed to convince the jury that Joe is not responsible for any lasting emotional damage alleged by the women and therefore shouldn’t have to pay them anything. Francis had argued that the women had consented to being filmed and they simply made up the claims of emotional distress after the fact in the hopes of a payday. After the jury made their decision — Francis said, “My legal team did an outstanding job and Girls Gone Wild will continue to take strident measures to avoid facing these false allegations ever again.” SOURCE
All right, let’s get a couple things straight first: Joe Francis is kinda super-skeevy. Hey, when you build your fortune by taping drunk girls flashing their tits, that just comes with the territory. Second, putting underage people in porn is WROOOOOOOOOOOONG. That isn’t like a moral grey-area where you can see it from different perspectives. WRONG. Okay? Moving on.
Now, here’s the thing: Despite what you think of Joe, let’s not kid ourselves here, those kids knew full well what they were doing when they flashed his cameras. I call it the Brent Corrigan Theorum: teenagers aren’t as stupid or innocent as people think they are (see, Teen Mom), and they know full-well that they shouldn’t be doing porn. And when you consider the amount of paperwork and the photo IDs necessary to even get porn off the ground, you can’t really say they don’t know what they’re getting into. Should Joe be a hell of a lot more careful about who he shoots? Yes. Should he also stop viewing women as merely objects? YES. But if you flash your tits at a camera, you have to be the one to take responsibility for whatever happens because of it.