A Different Kind of Playboy

“Everywhere you look TV, movies, and advertisements keep shoving the same photocopied version of beauty down your throat. SuicideGirls was created to demonstrate that beauty comes in many forms, not a single cookie cutter shape and look. What some people think makes us strange or weird or fucked up, we think is what makes us beautiful…We’re a collection of over 1,800 pin up girls who are devoted to changing your idea about what makes a woman beautiful and we’re naked…”

This is a mission statement of sorts for The Suicide Girls, who define themselves as “beauty redifined” and “the daughters of Bettie Page.” Many of the girls that are a part of this group list body modification, the piercings and tattooos kind, as interests and by main stream standards could be considered to look very “hardcore.”

A friend of mine mentioned something about Suicide Girls to me awhile ago. I never really looked into it, pretty much forgot about it actually, but after today’s discussion about Playboy I was reminded of it. Not unlike female popstars there seems to be a “Playboy centerfold” formula, Caucasian blondes with small waists, big breasts and curvy hips – an appearance that is unattainable without the help of cosmetic surgery, the perfect lighting, and retouching. The Suicide Girls – to me are a combination of Playboy (uhm – naked women…) and Roller Girls (more hardcore women of all shapes, sizes, and colors).

While Playboy centerfolds are used by the technology that genders them Suicide Girls are using technology to their advantage – presenting a more universal, less stereotypical image of beauty. The Suicide Girls homepage includes boards, news feeds (with actual news on them), a Twitter account, as well as Myspace and Facebook pages, this doesn’t include the coffee table books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, calendars along with other typical merchandise that is available through the website.