Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On

Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On, created by Netflix is the second series that they have done regarding the porn industry.

This new series explores various aspects of the porn industry and the women that work in it. The episode I am writing about here is regarding the young girls who are recruited. Similar to my last article, Hot Girls Wanted the difference here is that with this particular modeling agency, the girls they recruit are actually protected and taken care of. This in itself is a huge difference from the agency I wrote about in my blog last year. 

 In this most recent segment the recruiter, Bailey, is a young woman who is not only successful in the sex industry with several streams of income but is also an excellent business woman and mentor to the girls she recruits. She wants these girls to be excited about working in porn and also be well informed about the ins and outs of being in the industry.  She levels with them as to what is wanted and what their options are, and that they are always at choice. She tells them to never do anything you are uncomfortable with.

This modeling agency impressed me it is owned by John Steven who says, that he establishes himself as a father figure for the girls in his agency.  When the new recruits arrive at LAX,  Bailey picks them up and takes them to their new home, an apartment with several shared bedrooms. John introduces himself to them and he seems to genuinely care about the girls that he representing. This is of course very different from the agency I first wrote about where when the girls arrive their recruiter is a young man who gives the impression that these new girls are just a commodity to be peddled.

The girls Bailey recruits come from a variety of places. Some are already doing their own cam site sex shows from their homes. Others come from the Midwest and seem to be escaping from the life they lived there. A few have been strippers and exotic dancers that are burnt out and disenchanted with men. Some are college educated as is Bailey, who felt that what she could earn as a teacher was far less than what she could earn in the sex industry. One young woman, Eva, went into the biz to help support her family and to become financially stable. She was introduced to porn at a very young age by her step-father who watched it. She says she was six when she saw her first pop-up and from that point on she became obsessed and grew up feeling she wanted to do what she saw. Although Eva started out with high hopes of being a star we find out later that she has gotten into drugs and alcohol and is now doing boy/girl movies something she said she would never do.  Baily tries to turn her around more than once but it is no use. Eva seems deep into self-destruct patterns that can sometimes happen to girls who really are not ready for this type of work.

A few felt that even though they are still being objectified sexually, they were empowered because they were in charge.  They felt that taking off their clothes was both empowering and liberating.  But there are still drawbacks to being in the industry…not being able to talk to anyone outside of the industry and feeling like an outcast,  going out with men that just want to use you and sometimes become your pimp,  doing things you don't want to do but feel you have to to survive, getting involved with drugs, and just going down the darker path.  Although this agency is far more caring for the girls it recruits, they still admit that they have little power to change a girls mind once they choose to do drugs and alcohol. 

Being in the porn industry is hard work no matter what you choose to do. Bailey talks about her own businesses. She has multiple streams of income, recruiting new girls, having her own cam site and selling her own videos and panties.  She manages all of these plus the girls she has recruited. She admits that she comes from a mid-west town that was very sexually repressed and that she never had an orgasm until she was a junior in college. Now she is a very successful business woman making over $80,000 a year and for the most part, loves her life. She has paid off her college loans and feels that she is a feminist because she will never do anything degrading and that is why she only does solo. She feels empowered and proud to be a woman that can take care of herself so well. I liked her and felt she was sincere.

Selena has her own cam site and is very successful.  Although she says she loves what she does she also admits to having to drink to stay in-front of the camera 14 hours a day. The payoff is that when she is finished for the day she feels she has accomplished something toward her financial goals and this empowers her. When Bailey meets her she feels that Selena will do well in this business. She is older, 25 has solid business sense and seems to know exactly what she wants. Controlling your own content is the most important thing in this industry, she says.  The clips she makes she keeps and can sell on her own site as well as begin to get film opportunities.

As I watched and listened to each girl share some of their stories as to why they made the decision to enter into the porn business, I couldn't help but wonder if some of the reasons these young women find the sex industry so fascinating are due to the early sexualization of girls. As Eva said, she was only 6 when she first saw porn and it planted a seed in her mind. For an impressional little girl, it can be captivating,  titillating and as she said she became obsessed with watching it over and over. From the outside, the porn industry can look exciting, fun, and provocative. It can seem to be an easy way to make money especially if you feel your only value is based on how you look or how sexy you are.  Unfortunately, this is a fact that most girls grow up with. 

 As in the first documentary, very few of the girls that enter into the porn industry so young rarely make it big. Most are not very business savvy and are in need of a guide such as Bailey who seems to really go out of her way to take care and guide the women she brings in. But most agencies are not like that. This one is the exception to the rule and as such the false glamor that the sex industry portrays is little more than a dream most girls will never see.