Monday, April 30, 2007

Schadenfreude: Joe Francis

According to the Washington Post, Girls Gone Wild Mogul Joe Francis is having a hard time of it. First he was charged by a group of women alleging that he got them drunk and videotaped them (or more appropriately their boobs) while they were underage. He was charged for contempt in this case for becoming belligerent and yelling at the defendants, and calling Judge Richard Smoak a "judge gone wild".

This comes in the midst of news that the IRS is nailing him for tax evasion, and recently a new suit has been filed against him for sexual harassment.

I admit that I have not parsed the "Girls Gone Wild" situation very carefully. On a gut level it disgusts me, not particularly because it is pornography, but because like much pornography, it exploits women by

a) paying them very little for their labor, which has turned out to be very lucrative for Joe
b) does not allow women to have a modicum of control over the final product
c) plays on the double standard of women's sexual freedom -- women are liberated to do stuff like this, no matter how stupid it is, but at the end of the day, they are sluts, and Joe Francis gets to be a big man.

At any rate, Joe Francis' likely jail sentence has me thrilled. A relentless exploiter of women is finally getting what's coming to him. Jail. And we all know what happens there. Mwahahaha!

But as much as I'm enjoying Joe Francis' tears, (his punishment appeals to that primal "an eye for an eye" sensibility) I wonder if there isn't some more just punishment that could be meted out -- perhaps he could direct some videos for battered women's shelters? Or use his vast fortune to send girls to college?

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