I must admit, I'm a sucker for whodunit shows like CSI and Law and Order. So, already prepared to watch one good primetime hour of TV, what could be even more titillating than to hear the first character of CSI: NY say that she wants to be a suicide girl (what? Turn the volume up, are they referring to the suicide girls?), followed by a mini performance by a cast of actual suicide girls? This was definitely going to be an interesting hour of television.
At A Glance Author modified girl When N/A Two years ago, I was tempted to become a suicide girl myself. At the time, I thought I had a body to show off and that it would confer some sexual empowerment. Reading some reviews and opinions, I decided against it, but I still remain fascinated by the site. And so do many other people, apparently. Featuring over 1200 suicide girls and numerous celebrity members, the suicidegirls is far from an underground phenomenon.
However the main purpose of SG Services Inc. (or SG, as I'll refer to the company from this point on) is not to enlighten us on the positive aspects of body modification, just as Play Boy's purpose is not to inform us on the ethics of the boob job. The fact that these girls are modified is a selling point, and SG's sole purpose is to make money from a demographic that finds tattoos and piercings to be sexually appealing. So, while it was exciting to see some coverage of heavily modified people on primetime television, what was being portrayed was totally the wrong thing.
It quickly became apparent that the SG plot incorporation was nothing but a one hour advertisement for the website. The suicide girls that appeared on the show were playing "themselves", using their actual suicide girl names as they appear on the website. Thus, in name and face, they appear as themselves on the TV show, but whether the personalities that they portrayed were solely a product of a television script or not was a little more ambiguous. Granted, these girls didn't have much screen time for us to get an in depth picture of their character, but with a few scenes, I had a general impression that they were all wild, promiscuous, rebellious, violent, and so on. These girls were not portrayed at all as having a shred of intelligence. And this apparently was the intention of the show, according to Anthony E. Zuiker, the creator of CSI:NY: "I wasn't so worried about capturing the exact attitude of the individual, more of the spirit of what SuicideGirls represented. I made sure that they all had different sassy, naughty, interesting attitudes."
I'm aware that it would be a good publicity stunt for SG to have their girls portray characters that are wild, all out, bisexual, promiscuous, crazy-in-your-face-bitches, because that is a selling facet of the SG image. But I have to stress one important point: how often on prime time TV do you get to see someone that is as heavily modified as a suicide girl? On Prison Break???
Let's face it. SG succeeded in perpetuating the stereotype that people like me have been trying so hard to break. This is not in and of itself the fault of SG or any suicide girl, because this image is essentially what a suicide girl represents, and what it sells. On first glance, a girl as heavily modified as a suicide girl is already perceived by the general public as being more likely to be promiscuous and having fewer inhibitions than someone who is unmodified, in addition to numerous other associations such as crime, violence, lack of education, and mental illness. Being familiar with both the body modification community and with SG, I was able to see that these girls represented the SG image, and not the entire modified community�however, the majority of people that caught this show probably weren't able to make this distinction. Should SG be concerned with the social ramifications of the final scene of CSI:NY being eight heavily tattooed girls walking off into the sunset wearing short-shorts? Probably not. But I was definitely feeling more out of place after watching that. The portrayal of SG girls on CSI:NY has only reinforced the general public's idea of modified people as loose criminals that don't give a fuck. On one hand, the suicide girls' appearance on TV has added another face to the token suicidal, anti-social goth girl, nonetheless, modified people in the media and television remain two-dimensional stereotypes. This is not to say the general public should rely on the television and the media for an accurate portrayal of reality, just that it does.
I have a full back piece, genital and facial piercings and scarification on my arms and legs, and I live pretty "boring", un-SG life: I've been in a straight, monogamous relationship for over 6 years; about to apply for graduate studies in microbiology; I don't have a criminal record; I don't have an unnatural hair colour; I've never been covered in fake blood at a punk show, or listen to punk music for that matter�and I don't know where to fit in, being caught between how I would like to appear and how this appearance would affect my professional life, since SG is still the standard that represents all tattooed/pierced folk in most peoples' minds. Ideally, I appear as just another responsible, law abiding, boring person. The fact that I am modified is not my identity, and I, as well as many other people that happen to be modified, are none of those things that go along with the stereotypes associated with a tattooed and pierced person, especially the SG image. This one television episode made the road uphill a lot steeper.
And common, the guy killed the girl because he was insulted that his name wasn't in her tattoo after a one-night stand? What a cheap ending.