demands that they service agents or producers.1080

may drift directly into "call girl" status. 1081

Indeed, some

Most people,

I was never viewed as a human being.
right off the bat, assume I am a piece of meat, a porno
star, a floozie.1082

Wayne: It's hard to find a nice man who'd want you. And I guess you figure you wouldn't deserve a nice man.").

1079 Lederer Interview, supra note 969, at 67; Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Miki Garcia, p. 116, 124.

The

1080 Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. I, Chris, p. 93; 1984 Senate Hearing, supra note 975, at 179 (Linda Marchiano statement). "casting couch" is, unfortunately, apparently not unique to the pornography segment of the entertainment industry.

1081 Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Miki Garcia, p. 117. Ms. Garcia, until 1982 the director of Playmate Promotions, asserted that, among many other abuses, former Playmates "were involved in an international call girl ring with ties to the Playboy mansion." Id; Playboy Enterprises, in a letter from its counsel of November 6, 1985, accused her of "bearing false witness" in "efforts for self-aggrandizement," but offered no specific evidence rebutting her accusations. Until she left Playboy, Ms. Garcia occupied a position (conceded by all sides ) of responsibility and trust. Documents submitted to the Commission by Ms. Garcia indicate, further that she had received outstanding ratings for performance of her duties at Playboy, and that at least at the time of her resignation had communicated her feelings about the treatment of the Playmates with her superiors. We are, of course, in no position to evaluate the truth of this accusation or of the others included in her testimony - but we see no clear reason why, as Playboy suggests, Ms. Garcia's account should be dismissed out of hand. It accords, indeed, with statements submitted by two other former Playmates (Susan Amidon and Brenda MacKillop), and in significant respects with a recent full scale overview by an outsider. Miller supra note 1006. ("Many girls drawn into this orbit found the world of Playboy was not a pretty place . ") Id. at 160. We can

only urge a thorough investigation of Ms. Garcia's allegations regarding problems faced by the Playmates she supervised, which included sexual exploitation and harassment, rape, murder and attempted murder.

1985).

1082 Interview: Linda Wong, Adult Video News 19(March

"Adult" publications even those which are "soft core," view models as products.1083 In the midst of that environment a young female performer said that she "just hated [herself] every day"1084 and a young male told us it "[m]ade me feel worthless."1085 As Andrea Dworkin has explained, that valuation

is a central element of contemporary pornographic modeling. And it is a valuation we strongly reject.

1086

In sum, then, we have found, within the admittedly severe limitations of the evidence, the following propositions to be generally true of commercial pornography's use of performers:

(1) that they are normally young, previously abused, and financially strapped; (2) that on the job they find exploitative economic arrangements, extremely poor working conditions, serious health hazards, strong temptations to drug use, and little chance of career advancement; and (3) that in their personal lives they will often suffer substantial injuries to relationships, reputation, and self-image. We acknowledge that exceptions exist to

1083

1084

1085

Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Miki Garcia, p. 121.
Heather Wayne Interview, supra note 1051, at 58.

Washington, D.C., Hearing, Vol. II, Jeff, p. 171.

1086 A. Dworkin, Pornography: Men Possessing Women (1979) ("Contemporary pornography strictly and literally conforms to the word's root [Greek] meaning: the graphic depiction of vile whores, or, in our language, sluts, cows (as in: sexual cattle, sexual chattel) Id. at 200.

all these findings, and we concede, as well, that extremely thorough investigation might prove one or more of them untrue. Unhappily the power to conduct such an investigation is not in our hands. And the industry itself, which of course knows the full truth of the matter, has shown little interest in sharing that knowledge with us. We are, therefore, left with the unattractive but firm obligation to make recommendations in this area based on what we in our limited way have been able to

uncover.

The approach we propose in this area is a cautious but urgent one. Caution we believe to be required from the incomplete character of the evidence currently available. Urgency, however, arises from the extremely serious nature of the harms apparently being inflicted on many young and vulnerable people. Both of these interests will be best served, we believe, if federal and state governments initiate thorough investigations

by agencies or committees possessed of substantial resources of the use of "models." Those

and full subpoena powers investigations should, in our view, proceed from three related,

but distinct perspectives:

pornographic modeling as (1) a subset

Briefly we will

of prostitution; (2) a form of sex discrimination; and (3) an invasion of performers' personal rights. consider the parameters of each of these perspectives and possible concrete courses of action available under each

1.

Modeling and Prostitution.

It seems abundantly clear

from the facts before us that the bulk of commercial pornographic

modeling that is, all performances which include actual sexual

intercourse, quite simply a form of prostitution. So much was directly asserted by representatives of prostitutes' organizations who testified before us, as well as representatives

1087

of law enforcement1088 and effectively denied by no one. Every court which has examined the questions from this standpoint has agreed, reasoning that where persons are paid to have sex it is irrelevant that the act is for display to others. 1089 As prostitution is conduct which the state has a strong interest in regulating, the First Amendment does not preclude that regulation merely because it is labelled "speech" or is filmed.1090 It is also readily apparent that the interests which have in the past most powerfully justified the state's concern over prostitutionexploitation of the young and the weak, prevention of diseaseare just as strongly implicated by pornographic "modeling."

If upon further study our equation of prostitution and

1087 Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Margaret Prescod, p. 215; Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Priscilla Alexander, p. 224.

1088 Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. I, James Docherty, p. 15. See also, Chicago Hearing, Vol. I, Nan Hunter ("some women work in both pornography and prostitution": statement does not contest their overlapping character).

1089 See, United States v. Roeder, 526 F.2d 726(10th Cir. 1975), cert. denied 462 U.S. 905(1976); People v. Sonter, 178 Cal. Rptr. 111(Ct. App. 2d Dist. 1981); People ex rel. Van DeKamp v. American Art Enterprises, 142 Cal. Rptr. 338(Ct. Appp. 2d Dist. 1977); People v. Fixler, 128 Cal. Rptr. 363 (Ct. App. 2d Cist. 1976); People v. Kovner 96 Misc. 2d 414 (sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. 1978). See also, People v. Marta, 203 Cal. Rptr. 685(Ct. App. 1st Dist. 1984) (defendant convicted of pimping for hiring women to have on-stage sex with customers in a theater).

1090 Id.; See, United States v. O'Brien, 391 U.S. 367(1968).

"modeling" proves to be true, it is incumbent upon the federal government and the states to consider carefully how to respond. Some of our witnesses have in fact urged legalization of pornographic modeling, and of all prostitution, as a means of eliminating its clandestine character and allowing "sex workers" to improve the conditions under which they labor.1091 Insofar as that proposal would permit the recruitment of men and women into prostitution, the promotion of prostitution, or the living on the avails of prostitution all characteristics, so far as we can tell, of the producers and distributors of commercial pornography it flies in the face of established international mores,

1092

1091 Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Margaret Prescod, p. 215; Los Angeles Hearing, Vol. II, Priscilla Alexander, p. 224; Chicago Hearing, Vol. I, Nan Hunter.

1092 The International Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Women and Children, League of Nations Treaty Series (1922) (No. 269), adopted by twenty-eight member nations of the League of Nations in 1921, established the duty of all signatory states to punish the procuring or promoting the prostitution of any women by force, or any woman under age of twenty-one, even with her consent. See, V. Bullough, The History of Prostitution 184(1964). The United States, which of course refused League membership, never acceded to the Convention. In 1949 the United Nations adopted the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persona and of the Prostitution of Others, which committed signatory states to punish the procuring or the exploitation of the prostitution of another, without regard to any age limit. Report of Mr. Jean Fernand-Laurent, Special Rapporteur on the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, Economic and Social Council, United Nations (1983), Annex VII [hereinafter, United Nations Report]. At present both international conventions are in effect although not ratified by the United States and are supplemented by the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the United Nations in 1979, which also requires (in Article 6) the signatory parties to "suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women. Id. Annex IX. On their face these agreements all seem fully applicable to commercial pornography.