Porn Site Accused Of Exploiting Homeless Men In "Beatdowns"

Today in news that will make you lose your faith in humanity: two homeless men are suing a porn producer, alleging that his company recruited them to get savagely beaten on camera.

St. Petersburg, Florida-based website Shefights.net features “semi-competitive and competitive wrestling, MMA, and kickboxing sessions, as well as beatdowns (which we really love!).” The site also advertises its assistance in “helping you live out your ultimate fantasy; women, showing men their place, whether on the mat or in an alley, we have it all.” While several of the site’s female fighters advertise “corporal punishment and domination,” presumably of paying customers, Shefights producers also allegedly orchestrated videotaped “beatdowns” in which homeless men played the victims — and really got hurt. According to CBS, homeless rights advocate G.W. Rolle learned of the practice after he kept noticing homeless men in a local park with serious injuries. He photographed them, and now two of the men — George Grayson and Kyle Shaw — are suing Shefights and its manager Jeffrey Williams.

A third homeless man says Shefights employees “put me up in a tree and whipped me with a whip…they kicked the crap out of me.” And Neil Chonin, lawyer for Grayson and Shaw, says Shefights took advantage of homeless people’s need for money, delivering beatings that sometimes landed them in the hospital. He adds, What type of society would allow this to happen? This company preyed on people who are desperate.” While “beatdowns” would seem to raise a host of legal issues even in the best of circumstances, “corporal punishment and domination” can be enjoyable for some people when it’s consensual. But paying a domme to grind her boot into your balls is a lot different than being paid to get whipped and kicked when you have no other source of income. The former is a choice to indulge in a certain sexual behavior — the latter, as Grayson and Shaw’s lawsuit says, is exploitation. Williams says his company is innocent and that “my side will come out in court” — but it’s hard to see what that side would be.

Homeless Paid $50 To Be Beaten By Women For Fetish Video, Says Lawsuit [CBS]