False Prophets: The Myth of the Suicide Girls

I am not a big fan of fiction, so when I was recently at a store with “a million books” I went straight to the cultural studies sections, particularly the women and gender studies section. In the women and gender studies section was a collection of photographs from the website of the Suicide Girls. For those unfamiliar with Suicide Girls it is a punk version of Playboy, where women with tattoos and Mohawks pose nude.
My problem with this is that the book claims to be “redefining beauty.” The collection of photographs asserts that these women are rebelling against the “blonde” norm that Playboy puts forth. These claims are infuriating because they are overtly false. Yes these women differ because they have tattoos, piercings, and multi-colored hairstyles. However, all of these women are large breasted and very skinny, most with their ribs showing. So while maybe these women do not conform to mainstream beauty standards at first glance, they are nothing more than edgier clones of Playboy models. Suicide Girls does not redefine or transcend beauty standards, it only repackages the same expectations and pressures they are claiming to defy. Also, they are placing mainstream beauty standards on a group that is supposed to be in opposition to the mainstream.
Perhaps lost in hypocrisy and the commodification of punk culture is that the book is in the women and gender studies section next to a book marketing feminism to young women (the first time I went the book was wrapped in plastic, but every time I have returned since the book is unwrapped for anyone to see). This is not about exposing children to soft-core pornography, but the one section that women should be free from mainstream beauty standards they are again bombarded by them, even if it is in a different form!