I am not a big fan of fiction, so when I was recently at a store with "a million books" I went straight to the cultural studies sections, particularly the women and gender studies section. In the women and gender studies section was a collection of photographs from the website of the Suicide Girls. For those unfamiliar with Suicide Girls it is a punk version of Playboy, where women with tattoos and Mohawks pose nude.
My problem with this is that the book claims to be "redefining beauty." The collection of photographs asserts that these women are rebelling against the "blonde" norm that Playboy puts forth. These claims are infuriating because they are overtly false. Yes these women differ because they have tattoos, piercings, and multi-colored hairstyles. However, all of these women are large breasted and very skinny, most with their ribs showing. So while maybe these women do not conform to mainstream beauty standards at first glance, they are nothing more than edgier clones of Playboy models. Suicide Girls does not redefine or transcend beauty standards, it only repackages the same expectations and pressures they are claiming to defy. Also, they are placing mainstream beauty standards on a group that is supposed to be in opposition to the mainstream.
Perhaps lost in hypocrisy and the commodification of punk culture is that the book is in the women and gender studies section next to a book marketing feminism to young women (the first time I went the book was wrapped in plastic, but every time I have returned since the book is unwrapped for anyone to see). This is not about exposing children to soft-core pornography, but the one section that women should be free from mainstream beauty standards they are again bombarded by them, even if it is in a different form!
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So true! It pisses me off to no end that companies think they can get away with advertising their models as "untraditional" as long as the women have dyed hair, tattoos, piercings, and maybe a size-12 thrown in, once in a while. Mrgh. It's just the same old shit, of course.
With Playboy-type garbage, it is at least more or less understood that the models are unrealistic (I hope), and it isn't so hard remember that skinny, large-boobed women are not the norm. But with photos of "untraditionally" beautiful, skinny, large-boobed women, it becomes harded. The hypocrisy of Suicide Girls should be exposed.
Thanks for posting this! It's definitely true.
This is how I see it. My boyfriend is a goth by fashion/music/personality/whatever definition. I'm pretty darn glad that he finds me attractive, but I also know of his love for the goth/rockabilly types of girls. Pretty much the kind of women on the 'Suicide Girls' website.
He always rants about how he doesn't like fake women- women with breast implants, women with fake blonde hair, women with the same french manicured nails, etc. etc.
He didn't like it too much when I commented that his normal type of gal is just as much 'worked on.' The tattoos, the hair, the piercings. Just because you think it's hot (and there's nothing inherently wrong with that) doesn't mean that these girls don't put in the same amount of 'work' into their looks as the stereotypical Playboy bunny does! I've known a few of these girls and they spend a heck of a lot of time on their eyebrows, hair, etc.
I will say this, there are some girls that I've seen that break the norm of hot women (skinny, big breasted), but yeah. I don't see suicide girls as putting any shatters in the glass ceiling. Mainly the same girls but with a different covering.
Definitely true.
I myself love alternative fashion, and dress as such. I dye my hair, put on the makeup, buy the clothes and accessories, and have my eyebrow pierced. And I recognize that while it may not be mainstream, it is taking care of my appearance. I think that people should be able to dress themselves up however they want, if at all.
And I do like how the suicide girls are dressed up- but I also wish they were more diverse in body type. They pretty much have my size 4 body with my friends size 36D breasts... which is right around the size of the models in playboy, maxim, and all those other magazines that cater to the male gaze.
If anything this site is a fetishized version of the same beauty standards rather than a reform of them.
I absolutely hate the 'Suicide Girls'. I hate them for all of the reasons you pointed out, but most of all, I hate that they're called the 'Suicide Girls'. As someone who has tried to commit suicide, I find it incredibly UNamusing that they use that name.
It's a Chuck Palahniuk reference.
ABSOLUTELY! Why is suicide goth and edgy? Rather than a horrible outcome of a serious disease (mental illness)? I have always hated the Suicide Girls for this. Like they couldn't find some other name? As if mental illness isn't mocked enough in our society?
I've read some of the testimonials of ex-Suicide Girls models on how fucked up the whole thing is. They have strict and insane clauses in their contract that make it damn near impossible for the models to get work anywhere else and dozens of them have been sued over it, and the owner of the company is apparently verbally abusive and a blatant misogynist.
There used to be a site called ToxicCherry.com that I used to go to which featured models of all sizes and (legal) ages, but it's dead now.
To add to this, I've also heard of photos that didn't make the cut being sold to porn companies for them to photoshop penises into and otherwise do as they please.
I'll be supporting NoFauxxx, thanks.
It's very true from what I've seen. I was given a contract by them, but they wanted all rights over my creative out-put while I was working with them (any music I recorded, anything I wrote and published, even if it had nothing to do with them) and any creative works for five years after my contract finished.
Safe to say I didn't sign it.
not to mention they have complete rights to your appearance. not only can they photoshop whatever they want onto your skin... but if they want you to get a tattoo or a piercing or breast implants, your contract requires you to comply. and lets not forget that they get paid next to nothing. those poor women...
I consider my style decently alternative and have several friends who would fit the Suicide Girl mode.
Trust me, they work hard for that image. They have to maintain the color of their hair, have to slather on moisturizer to get that ivory snow look, buy the reddest lip stick possible and shop for hours. It's hardly like it comes to them with the snap of a finger but they enjoy it!
What's more telling is that several allegations from former SuicideGirls have risen regarding whether or not the site is truly 'feminist'.
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2005/09/69006
wow.
if all of this stuff is true about the company (and it doesn't seem like a long shot, considering how many people are saying it), i'm really, really glad i never went through with signing a contract with them.
i thought about it for a while, but something never felt exactly right about it. i'm glad i went with my instincts!
Not that I don't agree with you, but from what little I've seen of the site, it seems evident that far from all of the models are "large breasted."
But I agree with your assessment of the site. These women really aren't "redefining" anything.
I agree. I giggled a bit every time I read a reference to their epic boobage.
While I agree with the overall thrust of the post with regard to SG's objectification, I remember sneaking a peek at the website as a teen boy, and to my memory your assertions of enforced body norms were largely untrue. Many of the women presented on the site would not have been deemed "greatly imperfect" by any taste-making cultural bellwether, be it Playboy or Vogue. They had wide hips, and chests that did not protrude outward. But then, I wager that the most popular women on the site fit conventional body norms, and the women who went on tour as dancers for bands and appeared in books were selected on the basis of how they appealed to conventional beauty standards.
But that must have been at least 6 years ago, before the excitement of a "true alternative" and "empowering" erotica site gave way to the realization that SG was terrible to the people who worked for it, before models broke away from the organization and denounced it as just as much a sexist hellhole as any other mainstream pornographic enterprise. Before that time I knew several women (great women, I might add) who applied for SG and a few who were offered contracts. None of them took, because of the untenable nature of said contracts. Perhaps SG have dropped the pretense of being "body progressive" by this time. It would certainly fit their business model.
And I should note that I'm trying to be respectful and tasteful when speaking of "non-conventional" models' bodies. From the way I worded it, it might sound as though the women were just slightly different from the pornographic norm, but that was not the case at all. The women I saw did not have any exaggerated or tailored features.
IMHO if you don't get that 'punk porn' is an oxymoron, you're a bloody moron.
Fuck Suicide Girls.
Word up on the amount of effort the "alternative" look takes to maintain... I get shit for being into fashion and always having my nails done flawlessly (by myself, if that matters) but people never think about how much time and effort goes into maintaining "punk" hair and serious makeup and the money and pain that go into tattoos and piercings. Not that I'm dogging women who do these things, since I spend plenty of time on my appearance, but I hate the popular myth among "alternative" people (men seem to think this in particular, though that is a purely anecdotal observation) that women who look more "mainstream" are being duped into following some horrible beauty ideal while "alternative chicks" are somehow escaping the time, effort, and pain it takes to look good. If anything, the alternative types have to try harder to hide the amount of effort that goes into their looks in order to maintain the appearance of not giving a fuck, which is oh-so alternative. Only mainstream sheep care about how they look, right?