VENICE, Calif.—Within the adult industry there has been widespread consternation about the Netflix documentary series Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, and Anikka Albrite has collaborated with the Free Speech Coalition to record a public service announcement about the movie.
Billed as a documentary where “personal stories reveal how the intersection of sex, technology and intimate relationships is rewiring us in fundamental ways,” the series was directed by Jill Bauer, Ronna Gradus and Rashida Jones. All three women—along with about two dozen others—served as producers for the documentary.
Several adult industry performers and webcam models have claimed that they did not consent to their images being used and some weren’t even told that they were being filmed for a documentary. Some had private information revealed—including their legal names and details about where they live.
As a result, the family of one performer who had her name revealed has been harassed, including her mother receiving a package of graphic photos of her daughter. Other family members around the country have received similar mail. The performer has also been threatened online.
“Making our images available globally against our will and in areas we have restricted is a serious violation of our privacy,” Albrite says in the PSA. “It puts our safety and the safety of our family members at risk. Documentary filmmakers have an ethical obligation to do no harm to their subjects. Rashida Jones, the producers and Netflix continue to do harm to our community with every passing day that our images and our private information are broadcast around the world.”
Albrite also points out that hundreds have already signed on in support of the artists and encourages viewers to do the same at FreeSpeechCoalition.com.
The FSC sent a letter to Jones, Netflix and the show’s producers. “Some in our community are fortunate enough to afford to be open about their connection to the adult entertainment industry, but many more are not,” one part reads. “Each of us, then, is entitled to make our own decision about how we identify ourselves to the world—how much of our identities and what details of our lives other people can access. Revealing private information about those who work in the adult entertainment industry—information which an individual has chosen to keep private—may result in consequences more serious than we know or care to imagine. In a world which can still be viciously hostile towards our community, we must do all we can to ensure that every individual’s choice in regards to revealing their legal names and private information is respected and protected. Sometimes media makers forget the need for that respect, and it is no compromise with free speech to criticize them for that, because free speech truly does have consequences. Use it, but use it wisely.”
Find the PSA on YouTube.com.
For more information and to become a signatory to the, click here.
Read the full letter here.
