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| Suicide
Girls
INTERVIEW |
Interested
in pin-up and erotic photography? Bored with the
same old poses being rehashed by fake tanned, soft-focussed
wannabe Barbie dolls with fake tits, who might just
as well be transvestites? Fancy something more real,
gritty, imaginative and with a twisted sense of
humour? You should try SuicideGirls.com.
Despite
initially resembling some 21st Century ‘punksploitation’
equivalent to Playboy, under closer scrutiny SuicideGirls.com
appears to be an empowering and liberating forum
for the girls with a lively sense of community and
sisterhood as well as an ideal place for members
to drool over ‘hot naked chicks,’ and
joining in with a massive array of groups and boards
on subjects ranging from art and music to drugs
and eating disorders.
This
is not some porn conglomerate attempting to cash
in on contemporary fashions. It’s a self-sufficient
small business where almost all of the staff are
the same edgy, intelligent and creative models on
the site. Besides being fabulous alternative pin-up
icons, SG are working on their second glossy coffee
table book, strutting their stuff in punk burlesque
shows, and have just released the SuicideGirls DVD.
Though
originating in America, SG has attracted models
from all over the world. London-based Manko Suicide
is one of the most active girls on the site. She’s
contributed heaps of sexy punk rock photos, sold
out a collection of her specially customised T-shirts
in the online shop, and thanks, no doubt, to the
eloquence of her frank and amusing journal entries,
is a regular contributor to the SG radio show on
LA’s indie 103.1 FM. |
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What
makes a Suicide Girl?
I think it’s their secret and individual sexuality
that they choose to flaunt to the universe in the
most creative and uninhibited fashion known to the
internet. Suicide Girls eroticism combines the real
girl features: Their tattoos, slashed arms, wild
hair, peculiar hobbies, kooky fashions and geekiness,
poetic dreams and sick sense of humour. And it all
adds up to a girl so beautiful you can’t help
falling in love with her!
So
what’s a nice girl like you doing on a site
like this?
Hee hee. Well, I joined SG just over a year ago.
I was rummaging the net one afternoon, looking for
yet another modelling job to pay my gas bill, and
typed ‘punk rock modelling’ into good
old Google, and SuicideGirls.com popped up. I totally
creamed over those vibrant photos of girls who looked
like naughty indie comic book heroines or punk rock
stars, and I just had to jump on their bandwagon.
The girls are real. Along with photos of their beautiful
tattooed and pierced bodies, there come their journals
with deranged stories, dreams and confessions; you
can email your modern pin-ups instead of just another
sad little middle-of-the-night wank at the computer
screen. I worked as a model for years, and to me
the most boring part of the job is that I would
have to be beautiful and sexy in the way that stylists
and photographers want me to be. I always thought
that bruises, messy hair and lots of smeared makeup
looked much sexier than glamorous clothes and classy
heels. The Suicide Girls site allows the girls to
explore their own idea of beauty and sexuality which
is so honest and intimate, it’s raw sex. I
love it. I get complete creative freedom in interpreting
my sexuality in pictures. There is no greasy old
man of a photographer to tell me to fucking smile
and not sneer, what to wear and how to pose. I can
take photos in weird outfits, makeup, settings,
and tell sick stories in my photosets without being
creatively censored.
There
is a unique mix of Punk attitude and fantasy glamour
on the site. Do you feel this highlights some underlying
philosophy?
Punk attitude prevails among the girls on the site
because they gotta be free, rebellious and strong-minded
to make such alternative pin-up icons. And the glam
element is inevitable - girls love dressing up,
glamming up and dollying themselves up. But Suicide
Girls’ look ranges from extreme subcultures
to fairy tales, from hardcore punk to Alice in Wonderland.
There isn’t an official SG manifesto as such,
but you can feel an unwritten philosophy forming
around the site. It’s a playground for outcasts,
misfits, punks, artists, comic geeks…with
a few celebrities lurking around.
What
are the benefits of being a Suicide Girl?
I have met many extraordinarily creative souls through
the site: Photographers, film-makers, performers,
artists. I know that joining SG was a life-changing
experience to many of the girls, especially punky,
tattooed dolls in small towns and countries where
they would be isolated and ghettoised as freaks,
but once on the site they suddenly turn into superstars
loved and admired for their quirkiness, individuality
and unique beauty.
The site’s community is very strong, pulling
together differently thinking personalities, many
of whom have been isolated and misunderstood in
the ‘real’ life. I firmly believe that
alone makes Suicidegirls.com a much needed internet
phenomenon.
Words
by Jason Atomic |
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