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‘Girls Gone Wild’ goes on road, under fire
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Friday, November 8, 2002
NORMAL, Ill. (U-WIRE) — With local bar-oriented foam parties in full swing, rumors have circulated that the “Girls Gone Wild” camera crew — capturing, as their ads claim, the flashed boobs and bottoms of sexy college coeds — might make Bloomington-Normal, Ill., a stop on its gala 28-city, 32-day Midwestern tour.
Alas, the hearsay is unfounded, Andrew Sesena, “GGW” media relations’ spokesperson, said.
“GGW will not be coming to any parties in either Bloomington or Normal,” Sesena explained. “The rumors may be the result of our factual plans to hit the city of Chicago and Champaign at the end of November.”
“GGW” is one of many adult titles, also including the “Playboy Mansion Party” series, produced by Mantra Entertainment. Ryan Simkin, Mantra production manager, explained the process of selecting and eliminating locales for the impending “GGW” Midwestern expedition.
“We picked out a bunch of big college cities and inserted a few miscellaneous stops based on the tour’s routing,” Simkin said. “We picked colleges based on the Playboy party school list and eliminated certain scenes we knew would be freezing this time of year.”
“We also took into consideration e-mails from students that said ‘come to our school,’” Simkin added. “From there, we started putting together our route.
“If we aren’t coming to your school, tell us why we should through our web page,” Simkin continued. “We want to know if we are missing some good parties.”
Despite the vitriol of cultural critics and gender study researchers, Simkin said the appeal of the “GGW” video series in general is that it innocently features “girls — and guys — having fun and doing college things.”
“We don’t feel like we are making a mockery of the sorority scene because we don’t just go up to girls in sororities,” Simkin explained. “GGW may use the title ‘Sexy Sorority Girls’ on its tapes, but ‘sorority’ is just a generic title for college girls in general.”
Jodi Hallsten, a lecturer in communication classes relating to gender studies, said there are faults in Simkin’s generalization of college women.
“[Simkin is making] a mockery of higher education,” Hallsten explained. “This is hardly what ‘all college girls’ do.”
“Although college students are known to partake in crazy affairs after consuming alcohol, I believe that the depictions in the videos are still not behaviors typical of average college girls,” Hallsten added. “Especially those at [Illinois State University].”
“I would [also] argue that the majority of college students out there, even when drunk, don’t flash others — especially those with a camera — or behave in lewd or sexual ways,” Hallsten continued. “It would be easy for someone to come to that assumption from the videos, but it’s simply not the case. It happens, and the videos prove it.”
“But with a million college campuses in this country, I’m quite sure it’s not difficult to find this behavior 20 or 30 times on a given campus on a weekend night,” Hallsten said. “Twenty or 30 girls do not even closely represent an entire female campus population.”
Hallsten knows “more than one girl” who has had their image used in the videos.
“When they find out, they deeply regret their behavior,” Hallsten said.
Mantra Entertainment was recently involved in a series of high-profile court cases brought by women claiming to have been featured in “GGW” videos without consent.
Notwithstanding, Simkin said “GGW” does not obtain female partygoers’ images illegally.
“We either have them sign a release for us to use their images, or we have them make [an oral release] on camera,” Simkin said.
If someone with a video camera in their hands, wearing a “GGW” T-shirt, approaches a college coed without proposing a release, “they are probably ‘GGW’ impersonators,” Simkin said.
“Sometimes bars even host fake ‘GGW’ parties,” Simkin added. “If there is no release involved, you cannot trust them.”
“Imitators may be harmless, but there are liabilities,” Simkin continued. “Guys with cameras who have nothing to do with our company may make bad things happen — an assault, if you want the worst-case scenario.
“The real GGW is in this business for the good, clean fun of it,” Simkin added. “We are not about hidden cameras. We don’t ply people with alcohol. We will take girls off the tapes who don’t want to be in them, if they contact us and ask us to take them off.”
“GGW” garners much of its footage from camera flashers at college spring break parties and Mardi Gras celebrations. In a recent Daytona Beach News-Journal article, Stetson University professor Diane Everett — who specializes in gender issues — equated the “GGW” series to women “leaving behind the shackles of convention.”
“They don’t get AIDS, they don’t get pregnant,” Everett said in the article. “I think it is silly fun and I don’t think anyone is looking for anything other than getting attention.”
Still, Hallsten questions the good, clean, silly fun of “GGW” videos.
“[They] are harmful on many levels,” Hallsten explained. “The most obvious is that they display women as always eager and ready for sex, with a desire to please any man. If men watch these [videos] regularly, this theme can lead men to believe that when the real women they encounter wear seductive clothing — common, unfortunately, at the college bars — or become intoxicated, that because they are ‘college women,’ that their ‘no’ really means ‘yes.’”
“This is why researchers argue that these types of portrayals create ideas that lead to the victimization of women,” Hallsten continued. “Dr. Julia Wood (a gender researcher) explains that the circulation of pornography is the single best predictor of rape. How are these videos any different?”
Simkin said “GGW” should not be equated to pornography — the appeal of the videos “is in their nostalgic qualities.”
“‘GGW’ is set apart from other adult videos,” Simkin explained. “Our tapes are all real — no one we record is paid. The girls and guys are the types you’d find next door — the approachable men and women you could walk up to in a bar and talk to, and not souped-up centerfold girls.”
“[Also], anyone who has gone to college has seen the party scene’s craziness,” Simkin added. “In many cases, that craziness is what they like or liked and remember or will remember about college. And that’s what they like about the tapes.”
“I think everyone remembers doing a few crazy things in college,” Hallsten said, “and some may even remember doing something similar to what is on the videos.
“However, I highly doubt that the point of these videos is reminiscing of days gone by. They’re created for the same reasons other similar pornographic material is created — for the entertainment, arousal and pleasure of men.
“People remember a lot of great things about college,” Hallsten said. “I don’t think [seeing] naked boobs [is] one of them.”
“And some of these girls [featured on the tapes] are centerfold girls,” Hallsten added.
“GGW” advertisements and the videos themselves may spurn psychological hang-ups for female viewers, Hallsten said.
“These videos further perpetuate the idea that women should be eager to please men, that they are objects of desire, on display for the pleasure of men, and that all women should be thin and busty,” Hallsten explained. “Depictions such as these can lead to self-esteem issues in women with very dangerous consequences, including eating disorders and other destructive behaviors.”
Regardless of the video series’ debatable influences, Simkin said “GGW” will continue to grow in popularity based on the combination of advertising and word-of-mouth.
“We have grown into a brand,” Simkin explained. “GGW has become a part of the American popular culture. The infomercials and commercials help. Media coverage has made GGW a household name.”
Hallsten believes the video series will remain popular for other reasons.
“Here’s a video series that depicts attractive females as desiring sex, fulfilling many men’s fantasies and then flashing some of their ‘forbidden flesh,’” Hallsten explained. “Just enough to tease — with more, or sometimes less, left to the imagination — male viewers.”
“It’s soft porn packaged as non-porn,” Hallsten added. “Of course it’s going to remain popular.”
Everywhere the “GGW” crew goes, “girls want to know when ‘Guys Gone Wild’ is coming out,” Simkin said.
Mantra Entertainment has no intention of releasing any male-oriented tapes.
“It is our belief that women aren’t the types to buy this stuff as much as men do, even though they say they would,” Simkin explained.
Hallsten said there are women out there who would buy a “Guys Gone Wild” tape; “however, I think that there just wouldn’t be enough of a market to warrant it.
“These producers know they’ve got a good thing going — they’re going to focus their energy on the girls’ videos because they’re a sure thing with guaranteed revenue. I wouldn’t bother with a guys tape, either.”
