i'm here with rashida jones
i called her last night and told her
that we have to be matching
and so she is wearing a black jumpsuit
just like me
and we're here to talk about her new
documentary hot girls want it
rashida jones is one of the more lovable
comedic actresses in hollywood
who's the man head jesus you're the man
you're the man
i'm the man you're the man that's right
i'm the man
i'm the man i'm a man yes come on
best known for her roles in parks and
recreation the office
and i love you man peter your mouth
tastes like an ashtray
yes i went to dinner with this guy and
he kissed me
what the are you talking about but
over the past few years
rasheed has been focusing more on
writing and producing she also
though somewhat accidentally found
herself caught up in the middle of a
debate on the fortification of pop
culture
and the prevalence of twerking while
she's faced backlash from it
she's taken it as a chance to ask
genuine questions about sex and feminism
today
themes that are also central to the
documentary she just produced hawk girls
wanted
every day a new girl turns 18
free flight to miami
i found an ad on craigslist it was under
tv
shows and radio jobs i sent them these
two pictures because i didn't know what
they wanted exactly
it didn't hit me until i got on the
plane
i only work with amateur girls brand new
to the industry
usually like 18 to 21 i call them teeny
boppers
i've never had really a problem with
porn i don't know that i've really cared
either way too much about it people
involved in it people who watch it etc
but first kind of before we get into
film like what are your thoughts on porn
the porn industry
i have no problem with porn like i also
it doesn't even matter if i have
any kind of problem with porn because
it's here to stay yeah but i personally
have no problem with porn as
adult entertainment i think it's great
that we have
the freedom to explore our sexual
fantasies and that there's like tools to
do that
the problem with me is that there's no
regulation in the industry the average
age now where somebody watches their
first porn is 11.
and that would be fine except that like
to say porn it's just
broad term like porn can be anything
from like something really like soft
core
and like mellow to like hardcore violent
torture porn you know which so like for
somebody to learn about sex from porn i
think is really dangerous
and i think that happens a lot you
covered amateur porn so tell us a little
bit about what that is
so amateur porn it sounds like it's
it's not real porn but it is it's just
basically like another genre
it's incredibly popular because it feels
more realistic but the truth is it's not
it's still cast and it's lit and there's
scripts or whatever but
but the idea is that it's like young
girls like at home
you know and their dad's you know away
for the weekend and like somebody comes
by and it's like what are you doing here
and it's sort of
catching like young innocent girls off
guard
everything is the same shoot like it's
always your first time
how can i help you i locked everything
in my car i don't know if you have a
phone
yeah no i mean i work right over here
and you're just like well i'm
dumb as hell and i need five hundred
dollars and i'm just gonna
get this random dude that i would never
have sex with in real life
that last part i hate it i was terrified
i didn't know what to do
i didn't know if i could tell him no
just can't be good for you to have sex
that much
with that many different people ugh so
weird
but that's my job generally if you're 18
and you go to miami
you're done in a year because there's
not
enough amateur jobs for you you know you
can get some other jobs but like the
niche stuff pays more
and the niche stuff is harder on your
body you know they can make eight
hundred dollars
thousand dollars a shoe but they still
have to pay for hair and nails and
makeup and travel and clothes and
plus they're trying to live in a kind of
like lavish way
so it ends up not being cost-effective
you know it's not worth it so then you
have to start making like
further negotiations with yourself like
will i do torture porn will i do
fetish porn will i do sites like facial
abuse where you're doing like force blow
jobs and
you know vomiting and like things that
you just never expected
to do like the less pretty version of
porn can you tell us what facial abuse
is
facial abuse is a really popular site
and it's just
lots of movies of girls kind of showing
up to
like almost like a casting and the guy
starts to kind of ask her questions and
then it devolves into him just abusing
her verbally
and physically and making her choke and
forcing and
coming in her face and making her vomit
into dog bowls
like it's pretty graphic and then
sucking the vomit up
and the second and then eating the
comments right when you think it
couldn't get any worse
it gets worse yeah and you know listen
there's an argument that
some some of the women who do it and
some of the women talk about in the film
and some people outside of horn inside
of porn have which is
if you're making money you're empowered
so it's your choice it's entertainment
it's for entertainment and and therefore
you know argument over
i tend to think it's slightly more
nuanced than that
and it's really difficult to believe
that the girls who are crying
when they're being you know raped on
camera
are always you know acting and
performing i also find it hard to
believe that everybody who watches that
knows that it's fake and that it's just
for entertainment and and don't
internalize it in
another way but why are young girls
getting into this
porn is not a taboo you know marginal
subversive thing anymore it's like front
center and
part of the reason i got involved with
this documentary is i've been vocal
about this like conflation of
pop culture and porn that's happening
right now and it's happening everywhere
in music and film and
it's almost like they've been given
permission to think that
porn is a good place to go it's a great
like quick
cash glamorous way to
almost get famous maybe get famous if
you're lucky
i go by lucy tyler and she's a fun
little
bubblegum princess teenie bopper
character that i play i tuck in my nose
ring and i
take out my my gauges and i wear my hair
in my face
it's so much fun to have like a
different persona when you're 18
when you're making choices for yourself
you're not thinking about
the eternal effects of you know footage
online you're not thinking about like
the
external internal cost psychological
emotional
physiological physical costs of of like
having sex
for a living you're thinking about like
the fame part of it you know and so you
might not be
the best candidate to make a decision
for yourself but you're allowed to
because you're 18 and that's all you
need to be
i don't actually have sex other than
when i do porn
so it's just it's nerve-wracking and it
makes me nervous but at the same time
like i know i like doing it
and then the guys treat you like you're
a princess it's i know
i'm trying to be famous so you gotta do
what you gotta do
you've written about the pornification
of pop culture can you explain that idea
a little bit
i just i had like a bit of like a
tipping point with
pop culture and i don't know if this
like ages me and makes me of a different
generation where i just i saw
so much imagery in one week that was
just like fully inspired by
porn and stripper culture and i just
felt like
it just felt like something that we were
forced to accept and nobody ever we
never
got a chance to have a conversation
about it it wasn't like
sexy titillating you know suggestive it
was like
here is the bottom of my ass here is
the closest thing you're gonna see to my
vagina without getting arrested
that message that really homogenized
myopic message that your sex is the
thing that makes you valuable
that is your currency that limits
women's choices
and you think that's coming from pop
culture i do and i think it's not like
it's nobody's fault it's a frankenstein
of culturally what we want it's also
to me like what was going to happen the
trajectory from
you know the women's movement and like
you know sexual liberation movement
it was going to happen like we were
going to get to a place where anything
goes
but the problem is the eyes that are on
these girls
the people who buy tickets at our
concert are nine you know like
nine-year-old girls so whether or not
you say you're a role model whether or
not you say
it's not your responsibility
unfortunately that's who
gives you money or like young young
young people and i just think
it's worth stopping and asking the
question
do is is there something else that we
can do like is there another way to go
do you have to do you have to twerk to
be cool
yeah i just want to know but don't you
think like
miley and uh rihanna and nicki minaj
choose to do that like i don't think
it's maybe i'm wrong
some male manager who's saying you
better do this dress this way
dance this way don't you think that's
sort of them
that's their art right like that's their
performance yeah kind of shouldn't they
be able to do that
totally i i think they should absolutely
be able to do that and
i actually think for all three of them
it's probably just very much who they
are yes that's the way they're
expressing who they are
i think the problem is that because
they're so cool because they're so
talented
because their music is so good it's it
makes
everybody else in the industry want to
do what they're doing and
it makes all of the other record
executives want to have their version of
that thing
so you know you could chalk it up to
like a trend but it does feel like it's
across the board now
with instagram social media
uh pop stars actresses
like it feels like you have to be sexy
to be noticed
i don't know i don't know what the
answer is and i also like to call out
people by name
i feel slightly strange about because i
do think they're
they are so sex positive and empowering
you know nicki minaj in terms of like
allowing other girls with
different you know body types that
weren't acceptable 20 years ago
they they now have somebody to look up
to that make them feel good about
themselves
i work sometimes with this organization
in san francisco called about face and
their
their whole thing is about really making
sure
we distinguish between sexuality and
sexualization what's the difference
between sexuality and sexualization
sexuality is kind of everything
involving what makes you feel good
what gets you off who you're attracted
to
little specific things are important to
you to get you off
and then how you kind of in turn present
that in the world sexualization
is really when you're the object it's
only when somebody looks at you and
tells you
how they want you to be sexy what they
see about you it's performative so
i think we've we've lost track of the
difference this big psychological study
just came out about young girls and sex
and media and like
self-esteem and we really don't have
room in our brains for everything at a
certain age we're like eight nine
ten developing it's like either math
homework or you care about
what a boy thinks about you it's murky
in the area of like sex positive
female empowerment sex for money
area doesn't necessarily make you feel
good
i think the biggest takeaway for me in
this film is it's not
that porn sucks it's not that people
shouldn't do porn it's that young girls
should know
what they're getting into when they
decide to do amateur porn yeah is that
what other takeaways would you have yeah
i mean i guess it's a bit of a
cautionary tale
in that way porn does not suck i mean
porn to me is embodiment of
like the the peak of capitalism in so
many ways
um the commodification of sex there's a
lot about it that that says a lot about
our culture that's good and bad
have we reversed the path that we were
on
for women's rights i do not think that
we that we've gone backwards
it's tricky because i think what's
happening is women
are now embodying this classic idea
of um like the powerful successful
capitalistic man which is like i make
money
and it doesn't matter how i make money
i'm making my money like that's sort of
like the new brand of like sex
and i think there's a lot of value in
that but i also think it's dangerous
because we're ignoring
what whatever other costs there may be
you know
why does it have to be our currency it
shouldn't have to be our currency we
should just
it's just limiting i just find it really
limiting but i don't think we've gone
backwards in fact i think that
the fact that we're having the
discussion probably means we're going to
continue to move forward well put
i think we're trying to be balanced we
get in so much trouble
all the time i think we did a good job
saying we're not food
i literally was called a sunday school
teacher and i was like no
i'm sure the trolls are going to come
out after this interview oh god yeah
for sure this whole run yeah for sure
you