Episode 10 - Nixon Suicide, “The Suicide Girls Phenomenon 101” Episode 2 of 2

Nixon Suicide, “The Suicide Girls Phenomenon 101” Episode 2 of 2

Intro
This program brought to you by personallifemedia.com is suitable for mature audiences only and may contain explicit sexual information.

[music intro]

Beth Crittenden: Hello and welcome to "A Taste of Sex: Guest Speaker Interviews", here from One Taste Urban Retreat Center in San Francisco. I'm your host, Beth Crittenden, on PersonalLifeMedia.com, and you are joining us for our Suicide Girls episode. So Nixon has been with Suicide Girls for five years now. The website SuicideGirls.com was founded about six years ago in Portland, and we're going to hear more of the history of this incredible organization as we go forward, but not only is Nixon a model on the site, she also works with the Suicide Girls Burlesque Troop. The Suicide Girls, for those of you who don't know, are an online community based around pinup style photography of more alternative women. This is definitely not your standard fare in terms of appreciating women, and their sensuality, and their beauty. There are also newswires, chat groups, and regional groups that have actually organized to meet in person around Suicide Girls, and I have to tell you that every time someone heard that Suicide Girls were coming to One Taste they just got this radiant look on their face, like "Ooo, when is it? I have to be there!"

Nixon Suicide: It's exciting.

Beth Crittenden: Oh yeah, so you're finally here.

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Beth Crittenden: Join us today on "A Taste of Sex: Guest Speaker Interviews" as Nixon Suicide from SuicideGirls.com talks about this amazing business, has millions of users now, has women in over fifty countries who... there are no requirements to go on the site, other than being over 18 years of age. Women of any body shape, any persuasion, any skin tone, are welcome to express their beauty and their raw sexuality however they want to. Also we will talk to Nixon about the whole objectification issue and she has a great answer for embracing sexuality without making that the only one aspect that we can focus on in a person. Expand your mind and expand your turn-on with this episode.

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Beth Crittenden: Welcome back to "A Taste of Sex: Guest Speaker Interviews", I am your host Beth Crittenden, here at One Taste Urban Retreat Center in San Francisco, where it is our desire to weave orgasm into the world conversation and into our bodies, and I would say that www.SuicideGirls.com does an excellent job of spreading the message as well, and here today with us is Nixon Suicide, so we talked before the break about the business itself, and now we're going to get more into the politics. What is it to display a women's body, and what do women have to go through in order to live this as their lifestyle. So Nixon, before we started recording you were talking about how Suicide Girls is in over fifty countries at the moment, the girls actually are, and especially in the middle east, women have definitely faced some "stuff" to come out, if you will, how about telling us some more about that.

Nixon Suicide: Well we do have women now in so many countries, including some countries that are extremely religious, and very repressive, and the girls have been amazing, I have heard so many stories about them, you know even, ... basically having physical threats against them, being called any number of things, having, you know, family members threatening to cast them out, because they were doing the site. But they have all been just amazingly strong women that have said, "D'you know this is something that I believe in, and this is me, and it's what I want to do, and I’m going to do it." I think we've seen that from the very beginning, because there is always, even here in the U.S. so many girls that come from very repressive backgrounds and households, who have family members, church members, all the way up to employers, people in their schools, who can't imagine why they're doing this, and who have that dichotomy where they can't see someone as a sexual being, and as a competent, intelligent, you know, generally good person. But, girls have been incredible, and they have been fighting the good fight.

Beth Crittenden: What is it, specifically, in your opinion that is being repressed?

Nixon Suicide: Thinking in terms of specifically, I can mostly speak for myself, rather than for, you know, everyone on the site, because I think everyone is maybe coming at it from a slightly different angle. Personally, I grew up in a very old-school, feminist household, some parts of which I am extremely thankful for, and they have made me a much stronger person, but it was generally considered in my family that if you were going to, you know, go to college, get a degree, do all of these things, sexuality really wasn't part of that, and was not okay with that. When I first moved to the Bay area, I came out here to go to Cal, and I had some ideas in  the back of my head, that I was a very sexual person, and I sort of dressed the part, but I really hadn’t played around with it a lot. I had not been here a week when I walked past a newsstand and found the Spectator, and found Annie Sprinkle and Carol Queen and the San Francisco sex scene and it was like so many things made sense to me suddenly, and suddenly it did seem like maybe I could do all of these things. Maybe I could go to Cal and be a Cal student and get my degree and still be very sexual and still, you know, think about stripping and doing burlesque, and taking dirty pictures. I think the other thing that people are rebelling against, or changing ... you know certainly I grew up during a time in the eighties when porn was run by large corporations, purely for profit, and it really wasn't very good, really wasn’t something that turned me on, but I always felt like it should. You know, I would look at porn and I would think, "You know, well it's kind of a really good idea, it's also kind of gross, and weird." and I think that the part where women started taking it into their own hands, and saying, "... if I want this to be different., rather than just shutting it down and saying it can't happen, they should just make it the way I want it to be and make what I want to see happen," and I have been thrilled to be part of that.

Beth Crittenden: So it sounds like a collection of individuals kind of exploring their desires and their expression.

Nixon Suicide: Absolutely.

Beth Crittenden: So what does it take to be a responsible consumer of porn?

Nixon Suicide: I think that in this day and age that has changed a great deal. Some of what I want to talk about tonight is the decommodification of porn in this day and age, because I think that the internet has changed the way that porn is produced so enormously in the last 10 years, and in ways that I find marvelous. Very little of what is alt.Porn or niche porn at this point is making anybody vast amounts of money, and I think that is a wonderful thing, because it means that the people that are getting involved in it are doing it because that's what they actually want to do. I think if you look at the fetish community, for one thing, is a stunning example of that, of people who may even be losing money in some cases on producing full-on hardcore porn but they are doing it because it is what they want to do, and what they love. As far as being a responsible consumer, I think that knowing where your porn comes from, always important, you know, especially if you are looking at some of the higher levels of kink that may or may not be consensual, if you are crossing that line. Or if you're, you know, worried in terms of things like age. I think that looking at, for example, anything that is in the Barely Legal sort of department, you need to know where it comes from, and you need to make sure that it's a responsible agent that's providing it. Beyond that, I think that any time that the models look "happy", you're probably doing the right thing.

Beth Crittenden: I have a question to, just based on my experience at One Taste, we have a practice called "Orgasmic Meditation", and we say that we're going for the sensation underneath the story, and a lot of times the story is: look like you feel good, and then maybe it'll leak into your inside. How does a woman express herself and not get trapped in just that external view? Like, how do, how do women kind of feed their insides, and make sure that they are feeling really good in addition to looking good?

Nixon Suicide: Well, I think that if you start with the outside and expect it to work its way in, that's a terrible way to go. [laughs] I think you've got to go the other way around and start with the inside because, I mean, with almost anybody, you can spend a day and a half putting on makeup and clothes, and this, that, and the other, and still feel like crap. If you wake up in the morning feeling sexy and happy, and good about yourself, you can walk out of the house in your pajamas and you're going to look awesome.

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Beth Crittenden: What do you have to say to the people who would take the viewpoint that any sort of image of a woman meant to be viewed in a sexual capacity is objectification? How do you address that in point?

Nixon Suicide: I think I would address it in two different ways; one, in some ways I think they are right. I don't necessarily think that's bad. I think as humans we are all really, really sexual and that woman that you're looking at in the picture probably objectified somebody else earlier in the day too, and enjoyed the hell out off it. I think in some ways, fair is fair, and I think that as long as people are intelligent and adult about the decisions they make, as far as not assuming that because someone is sexual, or is presenting themselves sexually that is all that they are, or that that leads to any other assumptions about the person, I think that's where the danger comes in, not in seeing people as sexual, but in seeing them only as sexual.

Beth Crittenden: How do you want people to see you? In an ideal world what are all the facets of you they would see?

Nixon Suicide: I think that in an ideal world, the sexuality that I tend to present is definitely a part of a much more complete package. I am a very bubbly person. I am very energetic person. I am also extremely creative, and intelligent, and passionate about any number of things and I find that all of that is actually tied in to the sexuality for me. Not everybody works that way but I think it's the way that I work, and so it's very hard for me to be seen as only one of any of those things, or for people who see those things as being at odds with each other.

Beth Crittenden: Nice ... and if people were to decide they wanted to be a Suicide Girl, how would they go about doing that?

Nixon Suicide: Well the easiest way would be to send an email to [email protected] where someone will figure out where you live, and find a photographer in that area that has been okayed by a number of models as being comfortable and pleasant to work with, and is probably female, although we do also work with male photographers if they get enough good recommendations. Then you get several questions emailed to you back and forth. Missy does talk individually to every girl that applies, and if pictures look good and comfortable, and your interview sounds fun, and interesting, and you seem like you are genuinely interested in being part of the community, then that's pretty much all it takes.

Beth Crittenden: Great, and it's a membership site, correct?

Nixon Suicide: Uhum, it's a membership site.

Beth Crittenden: So people just go to SuicideGirls.com and they will find out what to do?

Nixon Suicide: Uhum, exactly.

Beth Crittenden: Great, any parting shots before we wrap up here?

Nixon Suicide: Parting shots before we wrap up here? I think it's a little late to invite people to come out tonight, so I am not sure.

Beth Crittenden: They'll be with us in spirit, and hopefully you'll come back again so they can come and see the burlesque and the whole nine yards.

Nixon Suicide: Hopefully so.

Beth Crittenden: Thanks for being here, Nixon.

Nixon Suicide: Absolutely, thanks for having me.

Beth Crittenden: So this has been "A Taste of Sex: Guest speaker interviews", I am your host, Beth Crittenden, on Personal Life Media. At One Taste Urban Retreat Center we do teach the practice of "Orgasmic Meditation" and it is basically unconditional freedom is freedom in all conditions, and part of the way we do that is by feeling every part of the experience which includes inviting a wide array of guests into our space here. We welcome anyone who wants to teach or to further their discussion. Anything on sexualities, sensuality, relationship, purpose, consciousness, all of those wonderful things, to come join the conversation. You can learn more at www.OneTasteSF.com. You can either visit in person, or hook up with us online. So, for text and transcripts of this show, please visit www.PersonalLifeMedia.com and visit "A Taste of Sex: Guest speaker interviews." You can also email us questions and feedback at [email protected]. thanks so much for listening to this episode, and please do check out our other shows. We have "A Taste of Sex" that is our main show that focuses on the community, you get the philosophy, the gossip, the interviews, the whole nine yards of what it means to live in a fifty person strong sensual community. We also have a show for our twice monthly, erotic, open mic night, where people read their poetry, and their journals, and sometimes dance, and then we play the music on the radio show. It's very delicious. So join us for any of those, and thanks again for listening to the show.

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