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FREETHUNK BOOK!The Complete Edition
By Jeff Swenson
160 pages, Jam-Packed
Purchase your collectable copy!
"JUGS, BEAVERS and EXPLODING BALLS"
by Jeff Swenson
First Cynic Comic Strip
collection now in print.
2004-2005
Buy it now for
below retail.
SUICIDE GIRLS: The Italian Villa
Commentary by Cartoonist Jeff Swenson
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Last night, since I'm dealing with some bug that's making me feel out of sorts, I turned on Showtime which then turned me on with their Suicide Girls special. I've known about the Suicide Girls site though I didn't realize they had made a video to be shown on pay cable. Suicide Girls, as you might have guessed by the picture to your left, are girls who pose nude--but not just any girls in the nude. These girls vary greatly in body types, and are usually plastered with tattoos accompanied by several piercings. |
| The SG Showtime Special resulted in many of the photos you can see on their site. Since I saw the photos before I heard the girls talk and didn't know their personalities it was interesting to watch. You always wonder what's behind a nude girl's photo on the internet (no not her ass, I mean her personality). Many of the girls are from different parts of the world, such as Finland, Britain, Switzerland, Sweden and America. Most of the special is divided between getting to know the girls flown to the "Italian Villa" and the stylized video shoots. Some girls were photographed on tractors or outdoors in various settings and one girl even did a tribute to Alice In Wonderland. Because of the locale all of the videos made you feel like you were on vacation and enjoying a simpler time when people shared wine over a long table filled with food. I could literally smell the old wood of the house they were staying in. Admittedly, I live in American and like it, but I'm next to a noisy road filled with angry traffic. If I could move to a peaceful Italian Villa and still make a living I think I'd pack up tomorrow. Now as I further explore why the SG photo shoots are so popular I must warn you, I usually make an ass out of myself when I wrestle with ideas of "what is beautiful" because I hate the two extremes. The first extreme is the dominating cultural view of what is beautiful which usually has to do with Hollywood and whatever starlet they're pushing or a certain super model that is making news. Examples might be Pamela Anderson (but, damn do I hate breast implants) or Heidi Klum (who you want to slap as you watch Project Runway). Increasingly, I think popular beauty will be leaning towards the offspring of interracial couples or women who have what I call "Mocha Skin" and the best features of two different races. The problem of this first extreme view on beauty is that while I think I'd be a liar to say I wasn't attracted to the bodies of most of these media-enhanced honeys, the focus is on a limited number of body shapes. There is very little variety. And women who are too skinny turn me off completely. I've noticed that many superstars were more beautiful with a little baby fat then after they went on their celebrity diets and exercise routines. The young anorexic antics of Nicole Ritchie and others like her are not only disturbing but quite honestly repulsive. The second extreme is the opinion that the first extreme is sexist and wrong and that beauty is defined by the average woman who may be somewhat plump, very curvy, flat-chested, too-much-chested, or in some way not fitting the super model mold. This extreme I believe is only valid in that they are trying to replace one commercial ideal with their own commercial ideal--which I'm all for because I view that as healthy competition. However, I don't think this view will change the fact that most guys would hump anything found in a Victoria's Secret Catalog, no matter how politically incorrect that might sound. The first extreme works because it preys on male biology and on male ideals. A dominating view of beauty achieved success not simply because of marketing, it also has to have some truth to it. And the truth, whether you like it or not, is that the average male would like to nail a skinny, young blonde with perky tits--or an ethnical variety of the same idea such as a skinny Asian with big tits (a rarity indeed). You can market the average woman's body to the public, such as The Dove Campaign for Beauty did with great success, but you will not defeat the dominating view of what is beautiful--at least not in the short term. I realize that cultural ideas of "what is beautiful" shift from century to century and even decade to decade, but that fits into my proposal that "beauty is competition." |
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| Suicide Girls is somewhere inbetween these two extremes but ultimately is following the trail of the dominating view of beauty. That's not a bad thing. In any market there is a product (and please bear with me, I'm not trying to make women into a mere product, beauty is the product being discussed) that dominates for whatever reason. However, following right behind a dominating product are hundreds of products competing for second place, third place and so on and they do it by diversifying their offerings. If Hershey offers a chocolate bar, another company tries offering a chocolate bar with peanuts. If a perfume offers elitism at a high price, someone else offers the same scent at a lower expense for those who want some affordable elitism. There are thousands of new niche markets based on a public demand for variety. The main thing you can say about the Suicide Girls photo collection is that it is "beauty diversifying" in order to compete for your attention. The producers knew they couldn't offer the same beauty that Playboy was offering and grab a good share of the market of people willing to pay to see naked women. They knew they had to show something new, something different, something that while not able to dominate could compete in the wake following behind the larger players. The more long-legged blondes posing out there, the harder the market (excuse the pun). They also probably found it boring to follow the same exact route as someone who had already succeeded. Their business model was based on naked women--the same business as Playboy--but women who offered something new, or maybe something that was there all along but no one ever thought it was worth something in this market. So what SG offers are not what I call average women, but rather stunning women. You can't help but flip through all of the pictures because each woman is different and I'm not sure if you can even describe it as erotic art or just art? Young, self-assertive women with tattoos and piercings and colored hair. Women with small physiques, women with hips and enormous breasts, women who look like librarians ready to flip you off--women you would never expect to see nude! It's a wonderful selection and each girl is a wonderful fantasy. I refer to all paysite girls as fantasies because for all you know the girl could be a coke addict that beats her love child. Though I would caution with SG that it is hardly a traditional paysite. This isn't porn. Porn, while I do not object to, is crass and commercial. SG is sexually charged but almost conveys a playful innocence at the same time. What I like most about Suicide Girls is that it has made me realize that beauty has diversified in our current culture to an incredible extent and that beauty is competition but not competition that has to care about beating out Pam Anderson. There is room for the short Indian woman with perfect proportions but nothing resembling a runway model. There is a place for the woman with breasts the size of cantaloupes which might get her laid in Hollywood but not taken seriously by an agent. Men have been taught the dominating view of beauty from birth, and the majority of them still hold onto it, but more and more men are now breaking away from the pack and realizing that they are more interested in variety. What would it be like to be with a short woman or what would it be like to be with a curvaceous woman? Personality will win out for the sake of monogamy, so don't fret that variety will cause men to run wild. I'm just saying that men are no longer going to be satisfied by chasing after the idealized blonde bimbo. I'm sure most women are now asking " What about their personalities? You're treating women like a product." But again, I'm not. I'm treating beauty like a product, a product that women use to their benefit if they choose. Beauty sells the inner package. If a man is sold on a woman because of her exterior but later finds her to have a selfish and obnoxious personality then he dumps her (or suffers). Sometimes exterior beauty lies, often it can tell the truth. I think many men have been attracted to women whose exterior beauty told the man alot about her from the very beginning. The SG women themselves, and this is the impression you get from the photos, are extraordinarily independent. They can turn their beauty on or off. Many of them aren't even what you call natural beauties; they have transformed themselves into what they want to convey and possibly for reasons of who they want to attract. In fact, I would say that it is the dominating view of beauty that can enslave a woman. You cannot force yourself to be Pam Anderson if you weren't born with the genetics to do so. And you cannot force a man to be attracted to you if he lusts after that type of woman. Which is usually why there's a backlash against super models, because just as most men can't compete with the looks of George Clooney or Brad Pitt, most women can't compete with the looks of Halle Berry or Beyonce. Dwelling on the dominate view of beauty can ruin your life. But understanding that beauty involves diversification and competition means that you may find your own "beautiful identity" which will hopefully lead to love. If not, then you should use your smarts to exploit the dominating beautiful people. Start your own paysite, start a modeling agency, etc. If you can't join them, make money off of them. I realize that's a very cynical ending to an article about the beauty of the Suicide Girls, but in the end I say "fuck the beautiful people" if you can't "fuck the beautiful people." As humans we don't let biology run our lives like ordinary animals. Why should beauty control us? We should control beauty as much as we possibly can. |
For more info on Suicide Girls go here:
SuicideGirls.com - Pin-Up Punk Rock and Goth Girls
