Baring it all : Hot Girls' representation of workers' experiences in internet pornography production : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Media Studies, Massey University, New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis uses the Netflix feature documentary, Hot Girls Wanted (2015), and Netflix TV series, Hot Girls Wanted: Turned On (2017), as a lens for exploring the issues and challenges faced by workers in the contemporary internet pornography industries. It analyses connected representational concerns, both in terms of how these individuals’ workplace experiences are framed in the documentary and TV series, and in terms of the representational implications in online pornography and broader ‘pornified’ culture. The documentary and the TV series episodes (including “Money Shot”, “Take Me Private”, “Owning It”, and “Women on Top”) have been utilised as case studies to focus the discussion in each chapter around the representational issues they raise, including those related to gender, race, violence, coercion and mediated intimacy. I have examined interviews with the subjects, mise-en-scène, and cinematography and editing techniques chosen by the filmmakers, to highlight the ways in which Hot Girls represents the various emotional and physical struggles experienced by workers in the pornography industry. I then compare and contextualise this close scene analysis with what academic literature evidences about the experiences and representations of these workers, arguing that along with the proliferation of opportunities in the expanded internet pornography industries, there has also been an expansion of workplace and representational concerns.