Suicidal Revolution
Written by Mark Osborne
Published on 03/04/2007
Originally from Binary Culture / [the-lowdown.net]
http://www.binaryculture.net

So I'm the Editor in Chief now. Big news, and hopefully good as well. Binary Culture is a challenging site to contribute to because of the volunteer nature of the format, but I've stuck around this long because whenever we can manage to put out a glut of new content, it's fucking good. We have principles, we have vision, and they don't get compromised for anything or anyone.

So that's definately something that I want to retain during my tenure as EIC, a focus of quality over quantity. But at the same time I plan to expand the writing team and scope of the site gradually. I see no reason why Binary Culture can't continue to grow into something even bigger, which is why I'm currently scouting untapped talent to bring us content in a variety of different areas from politics and humour to anime.

We will be funny, relevant, and go for the fucking jugular, so don't really look for any radical changes.

So my first act as Editor in Chief will be to talk about porn.

When I started out as Assistant EIC, I took the time to look over my body of work and decide on a focus, a theme to run through it. What I decided on was blatantly stolen from Hunter S Thompson but in the spirit of picking up the torch; "The Savage Journey into the Heart of the Revolutionary Spirit," which was predictably enough inspired by a quote of his;

"People are wondering why there is no rebellion. I think there is no rebellion not because kids are stupid or slothful or whatever, but because the dark side of America is now in charge."

Thus, alot of my work deals with counterculture and protoculture. It continually informs how I write and think because genuine revolution and innovation can come from some of the most unlikely sources.

Take the case of Hugh Hefner and Playboy as an example. As of 2007 it's considered the establishment as far as mainstream nude photography goes. Fake breasts and hefty amounts of post production in Photoshop are the stock and trade of the magazine, it hardly seems progressive or revolutionary now and neither does it's founder's lifestyle.

Coming under fire and ridicule within the last two years thanks to tell all autobiographies, Hugh Hefner's bedroom proclivities have been touted by some sources as being evidence that the sexual revolution is over. Canadian news magazine Maclean's saw fit to make it a cover feature with the famous rabbit's ears sagging as if to suggest the flagging virility of it's founder and his lifestyle. Apparently Hugh's sex life has become as imaginative as your typical letter to Penthouse Forum with the same emphasis on baby oil and busty blondes kissing. It's all fascinating stuff if you're interested in the sex life of a septagenarian, but the fundamental flaw in the argument is that the sexual revolution hasn't been using the Playboy Mansion as it's address for well over two decades.

Playboy had it's moment in the sun by pushing society's boundaries regarding sexuality and placing nude photography for titilation's sake in a higher brow context, seeing contributions from a variety of talented American writers from Tom Wolfe to Hunter S Thompson and Chuck Palahniuk. But as with all major revolutions it came full circle and Playboy became the establishment that it overthrew, and in that moment the revolution went elsewhere to plot it's downfall.

Where it eventually landed was in the heart of the Internet at a little site called Suicide Girls. SG, the popular shorthand, became the poster child for the decentralization of porn and nude photography that exploded as broadband internet proliferated in suburban homes.

Suicide Girls' contributions to the revolution have been twofold; first that the models themselves exert far more control than in any analagous print situation. They generally book their own shoots and do their own styling and promoting. From there photo sets are run by the main body of the company and hopefully they go live from there.

The second major contribution was to speed the acceptance of so called "alt porn" in the mainstream. Tattoos, natural body types, wild hair colours and styles, as well as a healthy amount of piercings make up the fashion zeigeist. To many it's a heartening step away from the carefully manipulated and surgically altered fare on display from the previous generation's attempts at revolution which Suicide Girls would be nowhere without.

Unfortunately to many observers within the industry, it's looking like Suicide Girls has already expended it's time as the techno/socio zeitgeist and is quickly taking on the role of the classic "establishment" figure.

It appears that Suicide Girls is using their legal department in the manner that a paranoid drug dealer would use a louisville slugger with a few nails driven through it; to bludgeon potential rivals and allegedly two timing employees.

The most publicized and lamented incident involves the creative duo of Apnea and Philip "Lithium Picnic" Warner whose talents were major contributions to the meteoric rise of Suicide Girls from 2003 until the present. Lithium Picnic is one of the fastest rising stars in the fetish photography scene and is inarguably a critical contributor to what is considered to be the Suicide Girls aesthetic. In addition to doing a great deal of work with model Apnea and many of the other Suicide Girls, he promoted the site tirelessly on MySpace and until last year was the model wearing the men's hooded sweatshirt in the shop section of the site (it's now Dave Navarro, who LP previously shared space with).

He's now being sued for a hundred thousand dollars in damages relating to a non-compete clause in his contract. Apnea's characterization of the situation from 2003 until the present (in an interview with altporn.net) seems to fit the mold of the upstart becoming the jealous establishment perfectly:

Sean asked us to join the site in 2003. There were no exclusive contracts back then, the rule was more like, “If you shoot for another site your sets won’t go live on SG as often.” I remember the day it happened, ex SG Anouck made a fuss about the rule because she was on Manic Jane or something like that, then staff gave her the boot and created the exclusivity rule. Lucky for me, all I ever signed was a model release in 2003 . It wasn’t until I was kicked off of the site in 2005 that the contracts were ever made. As far as being surprised about Philip being served papers, we weren’t surprised at all, just disappointed. We are not a threat to SG, we want nothing more than to be disassociated with them. In my opinion, this is all based on a foundation of greed and spite.

The bulk of the suit seems to be that SG is alleging that Philip is running Apnea's paysite and using information and techniques gleaned from his time at SG to do it. The fact that the two are married probably plays a big part in Suicide Girls' case, given the fact that it could work against Apnea's (most likely legitimate) claims that he does not in fact run the site.

Clearly I won't have the same kind of pride rocking my SG belt buckle as I did when I first got it, but this is the very nature of counter culture and revolution. After all, revolution doesn't just mean a radical change to the status quo and power changing hands, it also refers to the rotation of a wheel.