Remember several months ago when many Suicide Girls left the site? No one really talked about the reason or what happened to them. So many of the great people that shared my interests have left also. So in the past few months of not being happy with the direction of the site, I have been keeping my eyes wide open.
When I first joined in November of 2004 there were really cool people that I could relate with. The Suicide Girls that were modeling at the time were very attractive to me because of how normal they looked. They weren't the anorexic or fake models you have come accustom to in the "porn/nude model world" by any means. As time went on more and more of these SG sets were becoming more bland and now you can't tell many apart. Hardly any of them are creativity to say the least. There weren't very many elitist on SG and the groups that you could participate and run yourself were very busy. Groups that had interests in old school punk rock, hardcore punk rock, rockabilly, skinheads, tattoo's and other lifestyle/music related topics have all but fizzled into extinction. The elitist and hipsters have begin to take over the site in a disgusting manner that has appladed me and many others.
It has also been brought to my attention that the supposed queen of SG, the "women" who started SG(aka Missy), operates for women and their best interests isn't a women at all. You say, "Well Missy seems great and encourages women to express themselves with out being exploited". Your wrong. Please read the following article:
SuicideGirls revolt
Close to 40 of the punk-rock-porn models walk off the site
BY DEIRDRE FULTON
APNEA (left, here with Aprella), once one of the most popular SuicideGirls, says the while the site is 'really good at marketing, their business ethic seems to be a little crazy.'
'DIA' joined the SuicideGirls to 'reclaim' porn for herself. These days, she publicly denounces the site.
And then theres the FBI
In late July, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that the FBI would join the war against "obscenity" with a renewed focus not on child pornography, but on the kind of porn that both depicts, and is consumed by, adults.
In addition, an existing adult-entertainment regulation ("2257") has been updated for the Internet age. Some of the new stipulations, created in good faith to protect minors, are convoluted enough to practically guarantee that small-business pornographers will have to shut down their operations if they have just one violation.
"A lot of things are worse for the adult industry right now," says Annalee Newitz, policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Its been a really long time since the governments gone after adult content for adults."
Last week, some especially graphic images (involving blood and S&M) were taken down from SuicideGirls.com, Missy explained in a journal post, "in order to ensure that we are not targeted by the U.S. Governments new war on porn."
_DF
SuicideGirls
The official SuicideGirl site, where youll find almost 80,000 photos of more than 900 punkish provocateurs. Pay a fee to become a member, post journal entries, and communicate with models, or scope the site for free. Here, you can learn more about the DVD tour that will be stopping at the Middle East on October 12.
Tales from the Dark Site
On this LiveJournal site, SuicideGirls and their fans discuss SG gossip, horror stories, and information about where former models go when they leave the SG site.
Porn Liberation Front
Former SuicideGirl-turned-businesswoman "Dia" is channeling her anti-SG energy into this fledgling nonprofit, "not to liberate people from the bondage of porn, but to help women realize that they can go so much farther with themselves and still be sexually liberated." So far, all shes got is a ton of merchandise, but expect more in the near future.
Free Speech Coalition
Electronic Frontier Foundation
These two organizations will fight attempts by the US government to censor or obstruct adult entertainment produced for consenting adults.
Its not surprising that in the tattooed and pierced world of SuicideGirl erotica, some tempers would flare, some feathers would ruffle, some sexpots would get sullen. Thats all part of the growling appeal of the alterna-porn Web site, which features DIY provocateurs posing in hair-dyed, body-modified, mostly nude glory, and which has created an online community for these "real" girls and the Web surfers who love them (at $9 a month).
But few could have predicted that almost 40 of the close to 1000 SuicideGirls would stage a Web-out and stalk off the Web site amid claims that despite all its go-girl messaging, SuicideGirls.com is run by people who dont care much about female empowerment.
"Whats going on right now is a slap in the face to feminism," says Jennifer Caravella, a/k/a Sicily, a thin, raven-haired woman with nipple piercings and big eyes. "If SuicideGirls portrayed themselves as Hustler, or Playboy, that would be fine, whatever people have the right to make their own choices. But dont pretend to be alternative and punk rock. Theres nothing punk rock about that Web site."
Founded in late 2001, SuicideGirls.com was the brainstorm of two Portland, Oregon, residents who called themselves Spooky and Missy Suicide. The onetime couple designed the pin-up softcore porn site to showcase "the most crush worthy women we could find on the planet, the girls with style and grace and sexiness that we love." The girls would post their own "photo sets," keep journals, and eventually run Web cams.
Visitors could get a free peek at the girls, but if they wanted to become part of the community, they would have to pay for membership, which offered access to all of the photo sets and gave users the ability to e-mail the girls and talk on message boards. "[T]he women on display at Suicide Girls look a lot like the indie-rock chicks youd expect to see at a Strokes show but never thought youd get to see naked," Nick Phillips wrote in a 2002 Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages article.
2001 was a big year for alt-porn (Burning Angel, Supercult, and FrictionUSA all launched in the same year), but SuicideGirls managed to get a leg up, probably because its founders reached way beyond money shots. Models and members alike appreciated the widely read and commented-on journals, as well as the sites interviews with luminaries such as Chuck Palahniuk (whos credited with providing inspiration for the sites name).
Plus, it was fronted by Missy Suicide, a young woman who wanted to expand beyond traditional ideas of the beautiful. Spooky, whose real name is Sean Suhl, toiled anonymously behind the scenes.
"When I joined, it seemed like this community of girls, where girls could express their sexuality," says 28-year-old Caravella, one of the women who left the site over the last month. "I really thought it was a new feminist outlet, where girls could look up to SuicideGirls. I really thought I was a part of something that was almost revolutionary."
PROBLEM WITH THE BOSS
"Dia," a famous and fuming former SuicideGirl, was one of the first to bail almost three years ago. (Dia, whos now a businesswoman in California, prefers to go by her screen name, as did several of the women interviewed for this article.) In photographs that remain archived at the site, Dias dark hair, red lips, and theatrical costumes evoke the smoky sexuality of Juliette Lewis, Kathleen Hanna, or Fairuza Balk.
The recent wave of SuicideGirl defections has reignited Dias anti-SG passion. Like many of the women who have shared their stories in the blogosphere, Dia describes a prickly relationship with SG president Suhl. This man, she says, is the SuicideGirls puppeteer; he is "verbally abusive" to his models and wields more control than Missy does. "Its exploitational to women, and abusive," she says, "because it lures women in with a marketing scheme that purports feminism, when in actuality the sole owner of the company is an active misogynist."
A March 2003 story in Oregons Willamette Week describes Suhl as a Canadian-born, neoconservative Hampshire College dropout who rarely meets SG members and is estranged from his family but who is "friendly and casual" in person.
Indeed, "when he just meets you one or two times he is peachy," writes 24-year-old Kelly Kleinert, a/k/a Shera, via e-mail. "But when you are forced to be around him, like the original models and the tour girls, he is almost inhuman. He is a miserable person that takes his life/business problems out on the models." The former SuicideGirl from Pennsylvania says Suhl called tour girls "talentless, whores, and ugly."
(Multiple calls and e-mails by the Phoenix to SG headquarters elicited this e-mail statement from publicist Jennifer Vogelmann: "Despite our best efforts we are not always able to meet the individual needs of each and every model. We recently parted ways with several of the SuicideGirls for various reasons. We feel saddened by their accusations and wish them well in future.")
If nothing else, Suhl is a tough businessman. SG models get $300 per photo set, plus additional money if they go on tour, shoot videos, or pose in photos with another girl. Meanwhile, theyre free to model elsewhere, unless it conflicts with SG interests. But Suhl has no qualms about stopping payment on checks for photo sets (as he allegedly did to "Apnea," a 20-year-old Houston college student who left SuicideGirls about a month ago when she found that she could make more money modeling for several different companies than she could abiding by the SG exclusivity rules), or unleashing lawyers on former models who go to other sites (23-year-old "Dusty" got a cease-and-desist letter just this week).
Of course, it makes sense that a company would protect its interests and guard against competition. But disgruntled models say that what goes down at SuicideGirls amounts to more than ruthless management.
Caravella, on the phone from San Francisco, joins the chorus of former SGs who blame the wave of sour defections on Suhl, saying he wavered on the question of paying royalties for DVD sales, ridicules women in front of other people, and uses Missy as a pro-woman front.
But why are Sicily, Dia, and other women on the warpath why not just leave, quietly?
"I just feel like people should know what theyre paying for," Sicily says. "Youre giving money to a man who treats women like shit."
GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
To some, that might not matter. According to the sites most recent count, there are 952 SG models, including a handful currently on a burlesque tour (itll be stopping at the Middle East on October 12). So far, most are staying loyal.
"Besides having the best message boards Ive ever encountered, it has this distinct flavour to it that has much to do with the non-professionalism of a lot of the sets," instant messages 21-year-old "Alukh," whose photo set went live just a few weeks ago. "Most sites feel too impersonal or corporate. I like that SuicideGirls produce all sorts of different sets."
The redhead, whose first photos are a tribute to old-school striptease, says she doesnt put much stock in the recent accusations. While Alukh acknowledges that every SG model has a different experience with the site, she suggests that "some people like to cause and perpetuate drama."
Indeed, thats still the word from the SG camp.
"There is a very small group of people who hate SuicideGirls and actively campaign against the company," writes "Olivia," the sites programmer, in a recent journal entry. "Just because someone is an SG model doesnt mean theyre always telling you the truth or looking beyond their side of the story. Sometimes people just like drama. Sometimes people lie to make themselves seem better.... I cant stop anyone from believing bullshit and believe me, I have heard so much bullshit I am surprised my ears havent turned brown all I can say is that no one is infallible, and that works both ways for models and staff."
Deirdre Fulton can be reached at dfulton@phx.com.
Interesting to say the least.
Do yourself a favor and do a simple Google search on Suicide Girls.
I am sure that my freedom of speech rights as an American citizen will not be upheld and this post will be deleted by SG Staff soon. I have already made up my mind that I will be canceling my account and be gone by August. Maybe SG will cancel it for me like it has done already for so many. If they do, hopefully they will refund the money I have spent on this site waiting for it to appeal to me again.
To all you hipsters and posers out there that think this site will make you cool......IT WON'T. As a good friend just posted, "Don't be a sheep". There are other outlets in which you can express yourself and paying cash to do so on a site that doesn't give you much back isn't worth it. There are sites like MySpace that let you do that for free. If you want to look at naked, tattooed girls date one.
All of you that I have met and are friends with on here, I have to say thank you. That must have been the reason why I joined in the first place. Since friends and I have been kicked out of a group recently it makes me believe that the censorship will only get worse here.
If you are interested in contacting me you can reach me at: Gersguy on MySpace
Side Note: Owner of SGDC, SaintInsomniac I am calling you out. For being such a free spirit, pleather pants wearing, guy kissing, whatever goes, goth wanna be, you sure are a poser fuckhead. Your actions on booting me and others out of your hipster DC group has shown boundaries that have become the norm on this site. As a group owner I would never censor a group member the way that you did. As in many clicks yours has turned into an elitist group. Acting and doing are two different things. Think about it the next time you decide to herd your sheep up.
I wish NO physical harm to ANYONE on this site. No one should feel threatened by my words. I am not a stalker so dont give me the line of shit of, I think Gersguy will harm me, stalk me because I wont. I am merely making a point of why SG and some of their members disgust me.
This will be my last post on SG and I am walking out the front door that I came in saying, "Fuck You and thanks for the memories".
SLAM.
When I first joined in November of 2004 there were really cool people that I could relate with. The Suicide Girls that were modeling at the time were very attractive to me because of how normal they looked. They weren't the anorexic or fake models you have come accustom to in the "porn/nude model world" by any means. As time went on more and more of these SG sets were becoming more bland and now you can't tell many apart. Hardly any of them are creativity to say the least. There weren't very many elitist on SG and the groups that you could participate and run yourself were very busy. Groups that had interests in old school punk rock, hardcore punk rock, rockabilly, skinheads, tattoo's and other lifestyle/music related topics have all but fizzled into extinction. The elitist and hipsters have begin to take over the site in a disgusting manner that has appladed me and many others.
It has also been brought to my attention that the supposed queen of SG, the "women" who started SG(aka Missy), operates for women and their best interests isn't a women at all. You say, "Well Missy seems great and encourages women to express themselves with out being exploited". Your wrong. Please read the following article:
SuicideGirls revolt
Close to 40 of the punk-rock-porn models walk off the site
BY DEIRDRE FULTON
APNEA (left, here with Aprella), once one of the most popular SuicideGirls, says the while the site is 'really good at marketing, their business ethic seems to be a little crazy.'
'DIA' joined the SuicideGirls to 'reclaim' porn for herself. These days, she publicly denounces the site.
And then theres the FBI
In late July, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced that the FBI would join the war against "obscenity" with a renewed focus not on child pornography, but on the kind of porn that both depicts, and is consumed by, adults.
In addition, an existing adult-entertainment regulation ("2257") has been updated for the Internet age. Some of the new stipulations, created in good faith to protect minors, are convoluted enough to practically guarantee that small-business pornographers will have to shut down their operations if they have just one violation.
"A lot of things are worse for the adult industry right now," says Annalee Newitz, policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Its been a really long time since the governments gone after adult content for adults."
Last week, some especially graphic images (involving blood and S&M) were taken down from SuicideGirls.com, Missy explained in a journal post, "in order to ensure that we are not targeted by the U.S. Governments new war on porn."
_DF
SuicideGirls
The official SuicideGirl site, where youll find almost 80,000 photos of more than 900 punkish provocateurs. Pay a fee to become a member, post journal entries, and communicate with models, or scope the site for free. Here, you can learn more about the DVD tour that will be stopping at the Middle East on October 12.
Tales from the Dark Site
On this LiveJournal site, SuicideGirls and their fans discuss SG gossip, horror stories, and information about where former models go when they leave the SG site.
Porn Liberation Front
Former SuicideGirl-turned-businesswoman "Dia" is channeling her anti-SG energy into this fledgling nonprofit, "not to liberate people from the bondage of porn, but to help women realize that they can go so much farther with themselves and still be sexually liberated." So far, all shes got is a ton of merchandise, but expect more in the near future.
Free Speech Coalition
Electronic Frontier Foundation
These two organizations will fight attempts by the US government to censor or obstruct adult entertainment produced for consenting adults.
Its not surprising that in the tattooed and pierced world of SuicideGirl erotica, some tempers would flare, some feathers would ruffle, some sexpots would get sullen. Thats all part of the growling appeal of the alterna-porn Web site, which features DIY provocateurs posing in hair-dyed, body-modified, mostly nude glory, and which has created an online community for these "real" girls and the Web surfers who love them (at $9 a month).
But few could have predicted that almost 40 of the close to 1000 SuicideGirls would stage a Web-out and stalk off the Web site amid claims that despite all its go-girl messaging, SuicideGirls.com is run by people who dont care much about female empowerment.
"Whats going on right now is a slap in the face to feminism," says Jennifer Caravella, a/k/a Sicily, a thin, raven-haired woman with nipple piercings and big eyes. "If SuicideGirls portrayed themselves as Hustler, or Playboy, that would be fine, whatever people have the right to make their own choices. But dont pretend to be alternative and punk rock. Theres nothing punk rock about that Web site."
Founded in late 2001, SuicideGirls.com was the brainstorm of two Portland, Oregon, residents who called themselves Spooky and Missy Suicide. The onetime couple designed the pin-up softcore porn site to showcase "the most crush worthy women we could find on the planet, the girls with style and grace and sexiness that we love." The girls would post their own "photo sets," keep journals, and eventually run Web cams.
Visitors could get a free peek at the girls, but if they wanted to become part of the community, they would have to pay for membership, which offered access to all of the photo sets and gave users the ability to e-mail the girls and talk on message boards. "[T]he women on display at Suicide Girls look a lot like the indie-rock chicks youd expect to see at a Strokes show but never thought youd get to see naked," Nick Phillips wrote in a 2002 Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages article.
2001 was a big year for alt-porn (Burning Angel, Supercult, and FrictionUSA all launched in the same year), but SuicideGirls managed to get a leg up, probably because its founders reached way beyond money shots. Models and members alike appreciated the widely read and commented-on journals, as well as the sites interviews with luminaries such as Chuck Palahniuk (whos credited with providing inspiration for the sites name).
Plus, it was fronted by Missy Suicide, a young woman who wanted to expand beyond traditional ideas of the beautiful. Spooky, whose real name is Sean Suhl, toiled anonymously behind the scenes.
"When I joined, it seemed like this community of girls, where girls could express their sexuality," says 28-year-old Caravella, one of the women who left the site over the last month. "I really thought it was a new feminist outlet, where girls could look up to SuicideGirls. I really thought I was a part of something that was almost revolutionary."
PROBLEM WITH THE BOSS
"Dia," a famous and fuming former SuicideGirl, was one of the first to bail almost three years ago. (Dia, whos now a businesswoman in California, prefers to go by her screen name, as did several of the women interviewed for this article.) In photographs that remain archived at the site, Dias dark hair, red lips, and theatrical costumes evoke the smoky sexuality of Juliette Lewis, Kathleen Hanna, or Fairuza Balk.
The recent wave of SuicideGirl defections has reignited Dias anti-SG passion. Like many of the women who have shared their stories in the blogosphere, Dia describes a prickly relationship with SG president Suhl. This man, she says, is the SuicideGirls puppeteer; he is "verbally abusive" to his models and wields more control than Missy does. "Its exploitational to women, and abusive," she says, "because it lures women in with a marketing scheme that purports feminism, when in actuality the sole owner of the company is an active misogynist."
A March 2003 story in Oregons Willamette Week describes Suhl as a Canadian-born, neoconservative Hampshire College dropout who rarely meets SG members and is estranged from his family but who is "friendly and casual" in person.
Indeed, "when he just meets you one or two times he is peachy," writes 24-year-old Kelly Kleinert, a/k/a Shera, via e-mail. "But when you are forced to be around him, like the original models and the tour girls, he is almost inhuman. He is a miserable person that takes his life/business problems out on the models." The former SuicideGirl from Pennsylvania says Suhl called tour girls "talentless, whores, and ugly."
(Multiple calls and e-mails by the Phoenix to SG headquarters elicited this e-mail statement from publicist Jennifer Vogelmann: "Despite our best efforts we are not always able to meet the individual needs of each and every model. We recently parted ways with several of the SuicideGirls for various reasons. We feel saddened by their accusations and wish them well in future.")
If nothing else, Suhl is a tough businessman. SG models get $300 per photo set, plus additional money if they go on tour, shoot videos, or pose in photos with another girl. Meanwhile, theyre free to model elsewhere, unless it conflicts with SG interests. But Suhl has no qualms about stopping payment on checks for photo sets (as he allegedly did to "Apnea," a 20-year-old Houston college student who left SuicideGirls about a month ago when she found that she could make more money modeling for several different companies than she could abiding by the SG exclusivity rules), or unleashing lawyers on former models who go to other sites (23-year-old "Dusty" got a cease-and-desist letter just this week).
Of course, it makes sense that a company would protect its interests and guard against competition. But disgruntled models say that what goes down at SuicideGirls amounts to more than ruthless management.
Caravella, on the phone from San Francisco, joins the chorus of former SGs who blame the wave of sour defections on Suhl, saying he wavered on the question of paying royalties for DVD sales, ridicules women in front of other people, and uses Missy as a pro-woman front.
But why are Sicily, Dia, and other women on the warpath why not just leave, quietly?
"I just feel like people should know what theyre paying for," Sicily says. "Youre giving money to a man who treats women like shit."
GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
To some, that might not matter. According to the sites most recent count, there are 952 SG models, including a handful currently on a burlesque tour (itll be stopping at the Middle East on October 12). So far, most are staying loyal.
"Besides having the best message boards Ive ever encountered, it has this distinct flavour to it that has much to do with the non-professionalism of a lot of the sets," instant messages 21-year-old "Alukh," whose photo set went live just a few weeks ago. "Most sites feel too impersonal or corporate. I like that SuicideGirls produce all sorts of different sets."
The redhead, whose first photos are a tribute to old-school striptease, says she doesnt put much stock in the recent accusations. While Alukh acknowledges that every SG model has a different experience with the site, she suggests that "some people like to cause and perpetuate drama."
Indeed, thats still the word from the SG camp.
"There is a very small group of people who hate SuicideGirls and actively campaign against the company," writes "Olivia," the sites programmer, in a recent journal entry. "Just because someone is an SG model doesnt mean theyre always telling you the truth or looking beyond their side of the story. Sometimes people just like drama. Sometimes people lie to make themselves seem better.... I cant stop anyone from believing bullshit and believe me, I have heard so much bullshit I am surprised my ears havent turned brown all I can say is that no one is infallible, and that works both ways for models and staff."
Deirdre Fulton can be reached at dfulton@phx.com.
Interesting to say the least.
Do yourself a favor and do a simple Google search on Suicide Girls.
I am sure that my freedom of speech rights as an American citizen will not be upheld and this post will be deleted by SG Staff soon. I have already made up my mind that I will be canceling my account and be gone by August. Maybe SG will cancel it for me like it has done already for so many. If they do, hopefully they will refund the money I have spent on this site waiting for it to appeal to me again.
To all you hipsters and posers out there that think this site will make you cool......IT WON'T. As a good friend just posted, "Don't be a sheep". There are other outlets in which you can express yourself and paying cash to do so on a site that doesn't give you much back isn't worth it. There are sites like MySpace that let you do that for free. If you want to look at naked, tattooed girls date one.
All of you that I have met and are friends with on here, I have to say thank you. That must have been the reason why I joined in the first place. Since friends and I have been kicked out of a group recently it makes me believe that the censorship will only get worse here.
If you are interested in contacting me you can reach me at: Gersguy on MySpace
Side Note: Owner of SGDC, SaintInsomniac I am calling you out. For being such a free spirit, pleather pants wearing, guy kissing, whatever goes, goth wanna be, you sure are a poser fuckhead. Your actions on booting me and others out of your hipster DC group has shown boundaries that have become the norm on this site. As a group owner I would never censor a group member the way that you did. As in many clicks yours has turned into an elitist group. Acting and doing are two different things. Think about it the next time you decide to herd your sheep up.
I wish NO physical harm to ANYONE on this site. No one should feel threatened by my words. I am not a stalker so dont give me the line of shit of, I think Gersguy will harm me, stalk me because I wont. I am merely making a point of why SG and some of their members disgust me.
This will be my last post on SG and I am walking out the front door that I came in saying, "Fuck You and thanks for the memories".
SLAM.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
But that said, you do what you have to do and take care. I dont' use myspace and I refuse to ever use myspace.
I'm not a hipster nor a poser, just a normal person, i don't want to be cool and I don't care to analyse things to the enth. If I did I would say myspace is worse than SG, it is run by Murdoch afterall.
I hope you find what you are looking for