So what's going on with Suicide Girls? For the uninitiated, Suicide Girls is an online soft porn site (i.e., no penetration) that specializes in girls with tatoos, piercings, bondages -- the sort of thing the hipster/punk/goth crowd would be into. Its figurehead is a woman named Missy and the models come off as freethinking and independent on their onsite journals, so the site has garnered a reputation for being the kind of porn site even a radical feminist could love (although I'm sure a radical feminist would prefer the appellation to be something like Suicide People Referred To Diminuitively).

Now that reputation has started to crumble. Rumors have been flying all over the blogosphere that a significant group of SG models have quit in the past few weeks, citing harsh and inappropriate management from Sean, a male who they claim is the real person behind SG and not the aforementioned Missy. In addition, the management of the site recently announced they would be taking down pictures involving visceral acts of sadism and masochism in response to a nascent FBI campaign against obscene pornography. Besides the fact that SG clearly does not violate obscenity laws as defined by the US Supreme Court, they're sure acting cowardly for a site with a seemingly hip and independent ethos. Zentastic has an excellent criticism of SG's response, and links to several anti-SG websites run by ex-models.

Boing Boing, which is sponsored by SG, has made an attempt to dispel the rumors by linking to a Wired News article where Missy denies the allegations. While it may be possible that these ex-models merely have sour grapes for personal reasons, Boing Boing's attempt to quell the rumors does not come close to explaining the situation. Just because Missy is a woman does not mean her word settles the issue -- after all, it's in her greatest personal interest to keep SG going strong and pulling in money hand over fist.

A fascinating development on the web, a place with niches that may appear more progressive that they actually are.