The Girl Who Didn’t Go Wild

There is a difference between doing something outrageous on camera and having something done to you.  People seem to sue big companies over many things that they did themselves.  Ten years ago, I remember a guy who was 57 years-old at the time who sued fast food restaurants for making him fat.  His name is Caesar Barber.  Instead of embracing his decision to go after the fast food industry, people laughed at him and his lawsuit never went to court.  People tend to not believe that a 57 year-old doesn’t know that eating fast food every day is not healthy.

The case I am about to talk about really did have a victim who was right to sue the company that violated her rights.

I have never seen a Girls Gone Wild video, but over the years I would see commercials for the franchise on television.  The premise is simple.  Some girls at parties get wild and decide to expose their breasts in public when cameras are around.  They know that by flashing in public (especially when cameras are in sight), that someone will see what they did.  Joe Francis, the businessman who created Girls Gone Wild, decided to take these wild and crazy videos and make them available for the public to purchase.  The lesson… if you are a college student on a wild trip to Cancun and you decide to flash your breasts when cameras are around, you better realize that someone in the future may be paying to see that footage.

Tamara Favazza was in one of those videos.  She did not flash the camera.  Instead, someone else lifted her tank top.  The footage was used in a Girls Gone Wild video.  She found out about it later.

Recently, Tamara won a $5.77 Million judgment against the makers of Girls Gone Wild.  She deserved to win because she did not choose to expose herself.  Therefore, it was not her choice to have her breasts shown in public.

When people do something stupid in public that is caught on camera, the people who were filmed may regret their actions.  At the same time, those people would not have legal recourse to sue over actions that they chose to make.  Tamara Favazza did not choose to expose her breasts.  She was not a Girl who had “Gone Wild.”  She was a victim.  That is why her lawsuit was justified and I’m glad that she won in court.

The makers of Girls Gone Wild should have looked at the footage and asked themselves if any of the women in the videos were unwilling participants in their exposure.  After seeing the footage of Tamara, they should have deleted it because she did not choose to be exposed.