Rashida Jones has not made much news since her early cast regular days in Parks and Recreation and The Office. However, what was lacking in her 2000s-era deadpan television shows, she made up in her contentious work involving the adult film industry. In the past decade, her career has been tied up with more than one documentary that shed light on the lives of consensual s*x workers. But either the actress failed in putting across her message how she intended or she has been deliberately okay with the dangerous portrayal of the s*x industry.
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Rashida Jones Faces Severe Criticism For Sell/Buy/Date
8 years ago, the cycle of misinformation and discomfort within and surrounding the adult film industry began with Rashida Jones-produced Netflix documentary, Hot Girls Wanted. Not only was the 2015 project apathetic toward how the lives of its subjects – teenage performers – were being portrayed through the Hollywood lens but it also revealed private information about the said people without their consent.
At the time, the content and Rashida Jones herself faced severe backlash when several of the industry workers came forward with allegations that their images were being used in the documentary without their consent.
![Hot Girls Wanted [Netflix]](https://fwmedia.fandomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/12014427/Hot-Girls-Wanted-Netflix.jpg)
A follow-up documentary 2 years later titled Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On did the same and came under brutal criticism after these projects began to juxtapose the ideas of s*x work with s*x trafficking and by extension, a criminal offense. Gia Paige, one of the more vocal opposers of Jones’ work told The New Republic,
“I didn’t even know that I was in the documentary until a ‘fan’ messaged me telling me they knew my real name and personal information. Do you understand how scary that is? Nobody called me to warn me.”
A new documentary on the same subject, Sell/Buy/Date, based on a 2016 stage play by Sarah Jones has just been reported by Deadline to be under production for adaptation onto the screen as well.
Here we go again with @iamrashidajones acting like she represents the sex industry??? When have you ever participated in any part of our industry? You’ve done nothing but cause issues by sensationalizing sex workers & connecting consensual workers with trafficking. GO AWAY!!! https://t.co/L4EtfH6ho6
— ⭐️ Dee Siren ⭐️ “From Hotwife To Healer ✨” (@mrssiren) January 6, 2021
Produced yet again by Rashida Jones, the content has been brought to the limelight by industry professionals who are already growing tired and wary of how their lives are being viewed by outsiders and criminalized under the umbrella of trafficking.
Hollywood’s War Against the Industry of S*x Workers
In 2015, Amnesty International declared its intention to legalize prostitution by stating that its policy “is based on the human rights principle that consensual sexual conduct between adults—which excludes acts that involve coercion, deception, threats, or violence—is entitled to protection from state interference.”
The policy was further supported with researched arguments and case studies that indicate that criminalization of s*x work more often than not increases stigma, discrimination, and ignorance, and how legitimizing the act would allow more victims of harassment, abuse, r*pe, kidnapping, and/or murder among street-s*x workers to come forward to the police.
However, the policy was met with immediate opposition from numerous Hollywood A-listers including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Angela Bassett, Emma Thompson, Lisa Kudrow, and more, who signed a letter stating that decriminalizing prostitution would increase s*x trafficking – something that the Amnesty policy stands explicitly against – and allow more facilitation of the trade.
Source: The New Republic
