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==Former model backlash==
==Former model backlash==


In 2005, a number of the paid models were reported to have resigned from the site or had their memberships revoked in connection with allegations of censorship and mistreatment of the models by the site's owners.[http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69006,00.html] A primary issue was the SuicideGirls modeling contract, which prevents its models (including past models, for a time) from working for competing sites or agencies (specifically those dealing in nude photography and/or erotica). Numerous members have reported that their journals and message board posts were removed because they criticized management. Many of the former models in question are now involved with competing sites [[GodsGirls]] and [http://www.deviantnation.com/ Deviant Nation]. [http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3210/7126/] [http://suicidegirlx.com/stuff/jane/index.php?page=6] In response to the controversy, the website set up a page called "Trash Can," on which Missy addresses the various allegations and current models relay their positive experiences with the site.[http://suicidegirls.com/trash/]
In 2005, a number of the paid models were reported to have resigned from the site or had their memberships revoked in connection with allegations of censorship and mistreatment of the models by the site's owners.[http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,69006,00.html] A primary issue was the SuicideGirls modeling contract, which prevents its models (including past models, for a time) from working for competing sites or agencies (specifically those dealing in nude photography and/or erotica). Numerous members have reported that their journals and message board posts were removed because they criticized management.
Many of the former models in question are now involved with competing sites [[GodsGirls]] and [http://www.deviantnation.com/ Deviant Nation]. The owners of both of these sites have been sued by SuicideGirls LLC for hiring models who were allegedly still under contract with SuicideGirls and for allegedly violating SuicideGirls tradmarks. Several former models were also threatened with legal action. [http://www.wweek.com/editorial/3210/7126/] [http://suicidegirlx.com/stuff/jane/index.php] As of June 2006, none of SuicideGirls LLC's lawsuits against former models or competing sites has resulted in a victory for the plaintiff.
In response to the controversy, the website set up a page called "Trash Can," on which Missy addresses the various allegations and current models relay their positive experiences with the site.[http://suicidegirls.com/trash/]


Critics have also charged that SuicideGirls has dishonestly claimed to be a women-owned and women-operated business, when it is actually co-owned by Suhl. There has been no evidence, however, that the company has ever denied his involvement, and he has always been an active personality on the website.
Critics have also charged that SuicideGirls has dishonestly claimed to be a women-owned and women-operated business, when it is actually co-owned by Suhl. There has been no evidence, however, that the company has ever denied his involvement, and he has always been an active personality on the website.

Revision as of 07:35, 14 July 2006

The SuicideGirls logo, used on the website and associated merchandise. The company promises free lifetime membership to anyone who gets a tattoo of the logo. According to IMDb the actress Sam Doumit is the face in SuicideGirls logo.

SuicideGirls is an altporn website that features softcore pornography and text profiles of goth, punk, emo and indie-styled young women, who themselves are known as the "SuicideGirls". The website also functions as an online community with member profiles and message boards, and features interviews with major figures in popular and alternative culture. Access to most of the site requires a paid membership.

The SuicideGirls website and concept was created by the founding partners of parent company SG Services, Inc., "Sean Suicide" (Sean Suhl) and "Missy Suicide" (Selena Mooney) in late 2001, and based in Portland, Oregon. In 2003, the site operations moved to Los Angeles, California. Suhl and Mooney perhaps facetiously claim they started the site "just to see hot punk rock girls naked." Mooney has also stated that the purpose of the site is to give women control over how their sexuality is depicted. The site is privately co-owned by Steve Simitzis (server admin and SG user, "s5") and his wife Olivia Ball (site programmer and SuicideGirl).

The term "suicide girl" is often credited to a usage by Fight Club author, and Portland resident, Chuck Palahniuk, in his novel Survivor. Mooney confirms this novel as the source for the name in the Suicide Girls FAQ where she adds,

"Suicide girls is a term my friends and I had been using to describe the girls we saw in Portland's Pioneer Square with skateboards in one hand, wearing a Minor Threat hoodie, listening to Ice Cube on their iPods while reading a book of Nick Cave's poetry. They are girls who didn't fit into any conventional sub-culture and didnt [sic] define themselves based on musical taste like punk, metal, goth, etc. I think the only classifications right now people identify with are mainstream and outside of mainstream. That is why the site is called SuicideGirls."

Mooney also states that if she had known how popular the site was going to be, she might have thought the name out more than she did.

The use of "suicide" as a pun for those who "dyed by their own hand" (the source of the song title "Suicide Blonde" by INXS) may also have been relevant. As a trademark applied to the website, its models, and related merchandise and media, the term "SuicideGirls" is a single word, though this camel notation is often violated by external sources who split it into two words.

Website features

The website does not rely on model searches, but rather reviews international submissions at the rate of around 200 a week from women who want to become SuicideGirls. Originally, only one or two of these were typically accepted per week, though this eventually increased to one every day. As of March, 2006 the website features over one thousand SuicideGirls, each billed simply under a first name or one-word nickname. Most of the models have dyed hair, multiple piercings, and/or tattoos, in contrast to the often tanned, silicone-enhanced, bleached-blondes of stereotypical pornography. They are represented by nude photo shoots as well as self-written profiles and journal entries which they update as often as they see fit with their thoughts, snapshots, anecdotes, rants, and whatever else they wish to include. The SuicideGirls themselves have control over which images are included of them and how they are portrayed, and the photographs are generally intended both as an homage to classic pin-up art and a portrayal of alternative images of beauty. The level of nudity is approximately the same as that which appears in Playboy; full nudity is required of all the models, but spread-eagle shots are by no means required, and penetration is strictly banned. For various reasons, some Suicidegirls have decided to leave the site where they are then added to the site's "Archive," which contains over 100 previously active Suicidegirls. One notable SuicideGirl is Zia McCabe, the keyboard player of The Dandy Warhols, who posted a set of nude photos on March 8, 2005 that were taken while she was pregnant.

In the interest of fairness, a SuicideBoys group was added as a subgroup to the site. The same SuicideGirls framework and aesthetic is applied to potential male models. Within the many member groups existing on the website, covering topics from specific people to regional notes, the over 4,500-member SuicideBoys is one of the most popular, along with the "potential model" group. The SuicideBoys however, do not hold contracts with the site and post sets voluntarily, and without pay.

File:SuicideGirls book cover.jpg
Front cover of the 2004 SuicideGirls book, credited to photographer Missy Suicide. The cover model, "Mary", is one of the website's most popular.

SuicideGirls claims that 43 percent of the website's paid members are women (which would be atypical for an ordinary porn website), and that the nude photos rate less than 20 percent of the website's traffic. Members are often active in organizing meetings and events offline, and the company also sponsors many itself.

Media coverage and spinoffs

Positive reviews of the SuicideGirls site have been featured in Rolling Stone, Wired, The New Yorker and other mainstream magazines; it was also featured in an HBO Real Sex special and on Nightline. The literary magazine Fence used a SuicideGirl for the cover of a recent issue. Rock musician Courtney Love is a member of the site, and, in the past, has written "rambling, stream-of-consciousness posts on the site."[1] She also brought along several SuicideGirls during an appearance on MTV. Sixty-six SuicideGirls appeared in the PROBOT music video "Shake Your Blood".

Other celebrity members include:

Wheaton is an editor for the SuicideGirls Newswire; Breslin, Gottfried and Dr. Frank have all previously been editors on the Newswire.

SuicideGirls has also branched out into a coffee table book printing images and SuicideGirl profiles from the website, and a traveling burlesque show featuring several of the SuicideGirls. A print magazine entitled SG Pin-Up was also scheduled for release, but after being delayed due to contract and licensing issues with some contributing photographers, the magazine was canceled. SuicideGirls also had a brief partnership with Playboy magazine, which regularly featured SuicideGirls on its own website.

While SuicideGirls was not the first altporn site, the enormous success of SuicideGirls has inspired many similarly-themed websites and played a major role in establishing altporn as an important pornographic genre.

Former model backlash

In 2005, a number of the paid models were reported to have resigned from the site or had their memberships revoked in connection with allegations of censorship and mistreatment of the models by the site's owners.[9] A primary issue was the SuicideGirls modeling contract, which prevents its models (including past models, for a time) from working for competing sites or agencies (specifically those dealing in nude photography and/or erotica). Numerous members have reported that their journals and message board posts were removed because they criticized management.

Many of the former models in question are now involved with competing sites GodsGirls and Deviant Nation. The owners of both of these sites have been sued by SuicideGirls LLC for hiring models who were allegedly still under contract with SuicideGirls and for allegedly violating SuicideGirls tradmarks. Several former models were also threatened with legal action. [10] [11] As of June 2006, none of SuicideGirls LLC's lawsuits against former models or competing sites has resulted in a victory for the plaintiff.

In response to the controversy, the website set up a page called "Trash Can," on which Missy addresses the various allegations and current models relay their positive experiences with the site.[12]

Critics have also charged that SuicideGirls has dishonestly claimed to be a women-owned and women-operated business, when it is actually co-owned by Suhl. There has been no evidence, however, that the company has ever denied his involvement, and he has always been an active personality on the website.

Image removal

Also in September 2005, SuicideGirls announced [13] that it had removed a large number of images from its pages, in an attempt to avoid scrutiny in the U.S. Justice Department's so-called "war on porn." The images involved depicted bondage and sadomasochism and real or simulated blood or weapons. Communications from the Justice Department indicated that images of that type might be the subject of obscenity prosecutions, though SuicideGirls was not mentioned as a target.

References

External links

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