Why Porn Is Pissed at Netflix

After the release of the 2015 Rashida Jones-produced documentary "Hot Girls Wanted" — in which cameras capture a sector of Florida's amateur porn industry through the experiences of five young women — directors Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus were commissioned by Netflix to expand the doc's legacy into a series.

When "Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On" was made available to Netflix users on April 21, the footage took some of the people featured in the documentary by complete surprise. A few claim they did not consent to their inclusion in the series. Another woman featured on the show said her real name was used despite explicit direction not to do so.

Even adult industry workers who have no involvement in the series whatsoever are condemning the streaming service for allowing such one-sided documentation of a world already susceptible to heavy criticism, often based on a lack of facts.

A spokesperson for Netflix has not yet returned TooFab's request for comment.

Here's the gist of why the porn industry is pissed at Netflix:

John Stevens, an adult talent agent featured in the Netflix series, told The Daily Beast the producers misrepresented themselves and their project when they asked him to participate in the series. He said the documentary was presented to him as a show that would focus on empowered women in porn. Having worked as an adult agent for 19 years, he was excited to participate.

"I'd never have gotten involved in this project had I known it was part of 'Hot Girls Wanted,'" Stevens said. "I specifically asked them if they were part of 'Hot Girls Wanted,' and they flat out said no."

"For the first 10 years, all I booked was single girl or girl/girl scenes," he continued. "In those days, there were over two hundred magazines. Nowadays, there are about six. There's been a shift in the industry and it's still shifting."

The series prides itself on the empowerment of women in the industry, but it fails to include those in front of the camera. "Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On" doesn't highlight the girls who get into the business or why they do so; it focuses on the people who take advantage of and make money off them. Several female adult film producers are highlighted in the six-episode docuseries — which is all good and well — but the actual actresses are not given the same respect. An Entertainment Weekly review of the series even says one episode in particular portrays "outdated views on race" and "troublesome aggression toward female talent."

When porn star Carmen Valentina watched the "Hot Girls Wanted" series, she was surprised at the imbalance of coverage of the girls being filmed. The series, she told The Daily Beast, gave too much air time to the "girl that was causing trouble, getting drunk and high."

"I didn't like how the porn stars who were normal and professional were ignored and only shown for a split second," she said. "I guess people still don't want to see normal girls. That might be boring to watch. It seems people just aren't willing to accept porn as normal yet."

Effy Elizabeth and Autumn Kayy — two webcam performers featured in Episode 6 of "Turned On" — said that footage from their Periscope feed was used in one of the episodes without their permission. The nine-second footage of Elizabeth and Kay is featured in an episode that tells the story of a woman who used Periscope to live-stream the rape of her friend.

"It is real, we weren't even told it was happening," Elizabeth tweeted.

Since then, she's posted a slew of tweets in response to those slamming her for her claims, including:

Kayy even posted a screenshot of a conversation she had with the person who manages the "Hot Girls Wanted" account on Twitter:

Ronna Gradus' response to Elizabeth and Kayy was simple: You outed yourself.

"They saw themselves, and then on Twitter, as themselves, using their own handles, tweeted out, 'Oh my God, we're on Netflix. Oh my God, nobody told us. Oh my God, we're sex workers and they've just shown us on Netflix,'" Gradus told Variety. "So the great irony here is that they identified themselves as sex workers. And really that is a key piece of information that has been lost in this story. We didn't know who they were. We never would have known, the viewers never would have known, unless they themselves identified themselves."

Porn star Gia Paige signed the initial contract that would allow the "Hot Girls Wanted" producers to film her and use the footage in the series, but when she changed her mind and decided she did not want to participate, she claims the producers promised not to include the footage. According to the The Daily Beast, she also requested that her real name not be used. Paige said these agreements took place through Riley Reynolds, her then-talent agent and fiancé, who is also featured in the show.

Upon finding out producers did not grant Paige's alleged request, she tweeted: "HEY @hotgirlswanted REMEMBER WHEN YOU PROMISED TO CUT MY PART BC YOU WERE TRYING TO MAKE ME TALK ABOUT MY FAMILY AND I WAS UNCOMFORTABLE. BECAUSE I DO. THANKS FOR KEEPING YOUR WORD. SNAKES."

She also posted a screenshot of a conversation she had with Riley about his participation in making sure her footage would not featured in the final product, saying, "@hotgirlswanted Can we get a reply ? Or are you just looking to hide behind interviews ?"

Paige also posted: "Ultimately, none of us watched it ourselves and were told by a third party. We were not jumping for joy, we were scared." Elizabeth retweeted the post.

But producer Jill Bauer told Variety the allegations are simply not true and that Paige never told them she wanted to be cut from the show. Bauer assured Paige and everyone who participated in the docuseries signed release forms and that "nobody was coerced."

"The bottom line is that everyone in the series was completely aware that this was a 'Hot Girls Wanted' offshoot and that we were involved," Bauer said.

It's unclear in this war of words which allegations against Bauer and Gradus — if any — are true, but the Free Speech Coalition — a non-profit trade association of the pornography and adult entertainment industries — issued the following warning to Netflix and the producers of "Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On":