I'm curious if any of you out there are members of the Suicide Girls. A great friend of mine has been hinting that I should join up for months now, and I never saw the attraction as I always thought of it as a porn site, and only a porn site.

True, there are a lot of nudie shots on the site, but there is no actual porn. It's more a lot of pinup-style pictures of chicks with piercings tattoos and all their flaws. If you're into tats at all, some of the pics are actually pretty nifty to look at for ideas.

So, I finally signed up. Aside from the nudity, there is actually a pretty impressive community out there. Since everyone has to pay to be there (end up being anywhere fron $4-12/month depending on how long you sign for), there aren't a lot of assholes out there trying to get you you to add them to their friends list just to get their list bigger like there is on MySpace or other such sites. You also don't get the useless spam like on MySpace either. There are a ton of groups you can join as well as the multitudes of cool people that I am getting to know on there as well.

So if you do have an account, or decide to open one, look me up. As usual, I am Spiderlimbs there as I am everywhere else.

And if you don't, or if you've had one and didn't like the service, this would be a fab place to make your opinions known to the rest of the GN crowd.

~spidey

My husband wants me to join that site. I don't think I have enough tattoos. :p

I've been a non-member watcher/reader off and on for a while (Wil Wheaton writes the tech articles -- how cool is that?!)... never actually sprung for a membership: yet. Thanks for sharing positive feedback -- once I have the spare funds, you may have just tipped the scales.

Modeling for the site isn't a requirement, thank goodness. I don't want to psychologically ruin any young men who would wander across a naked pic of me on there only to be in therapy for the remainder of their lives.

Like I said, I just thought it would be a fun way to meet some interestingly off-the-wall folks.

~spidey

Definitely not for me. I know many people say that it is an "empowering" website for women, but I feel opposite to that. Someone's cashing in on the new "alternative pin-up" craze that has become so popular lately.
And I bet that when the majority of those 19 year old nude models grow up and get out of their alternative/punk phase and need to get a real job they are going to regret getting huge tattoos on their neck and posing nude on the Internet.

This is just my opinion, I do feel strongly about it, but I don't mean to ruffle any feathers.

Actually, you may have a legit beef there. It looks as though Missy Suicide, the strongly implied creator/operator/owner of Suicide Girls may be a figurehead. According to the previous issue of "Bust" to hit the stands, Missy is listed on legal docs as the secretary, and Sean Suhl, presented as the friend who helped program and launch the site, is listed as president and owner of the brand. (Suhl apparently comes from a marketing-strategy background rather than a punk-rock one.) Both "Spin" and "Wired" have run articles on former models complaining of everything from sexism to verbal abuse to withheld wages.

I'm not sure how I feel about SG. On the one hand, I feel fairly certain that the site itself is more about selling to a "alt" crowd than about female empowerment or presenting positive alternative body images (where are the big, beautiful women? ). But on the other hand, if a legitimate community springs up around it, are the motives of the parent company still relevant?


You may want to watch your wording if you don't want to "ruffle any feathers." Several members of this site haven't grown out of their alternative/punk/goth "phases," have huge tattoos, AND still manage to hold down "real" jobs.

I would worry more about these girls having no real control over their images than any regrets about tattoo-decisions. Eventually, Suhl and Miss Suicide could tire of the SG game, and then what's to keep them from selling their library of burlesque images to a hard-core site? Not much. The cynic in me, between reading Missy's response in "Spin" and "Wired" (she declined to be interviewed in "Bust"), suspects that a sale of SG may be in the future, with a "we can't take the liars and rumormongers anymore" spin.

Luna, tell your husband you'll join Suicide Girls if he joins Suicide Boys. ;P

I have heard nothing but complaints about SG on the modeling site I read on occaission,confirming the stories of verbal abuse,withheld wages,general weirdness,etc.There is a reason this lady isn't a member.
I also agree with LAdy A,where are the big,beautiful women? If it's just softcore with an 'alternative' spin-that isn't really that revolutionary in a feminist sense.

No offense Silbo, but a large portion of the stuff on that site appears to be heresay. What I found in some of the news blogs that are linked is that some of the girls left to join up with godsgirls.com and that SG pulled up their contracts and tried to sue them saying it was a breach, which it was not. SG has the rights to the pictures of the girls shot for SG, but that's it. Just like any model, they are free to pose for whomever they wish. Their contract and photosets seem to be on a "for hire" basis that is non-negotiable which the girls should have read when they signed up for the site. Not to say that the pay isn't crap or that SG isn't taking advantage of the naivete of young girls, but that's how I am seeing it.

I also see that the photographers apparantly aren't treated well either, but again it seems to be something that the photographers were told up front.

I'm not justifying that it's the right way to treat anyone in the situation, just saying that it doesn't seem like SG was duping anyone, just that the girls/photographers wanted to change their contract after it was signed and that they were told they could not.

That being said, I'm not there for the girls anyway. I am there because a friend of mine is there and the community seems like something worthwhile. As far as I am concerned, they can take down every pic on the site and I wouldn't care. However, if the community at large moves to godgirls.com I believe I would go with it. I have no loyalties to the site in general, just thought it would be something fun to get into. I hadn't realized it was going to be full of such turmoil until after I signed up.

~spidey