Quite simply; neither.

The Suicide Girls started off as catering to a specific audience, men who listened majoritively to rock or metal music, and who liked or had either tattoos or piercings. These men like girls. Some of these men have piercings. Do the math.

Whilst pleasingly provocative, there is hardly anything one call safely call “pornography” in the Suicide Girls. Sure, they’re in various stages of undress, but are we seeing copulation? Are we seeing any abuse of these women? Are they being humiliated in any way?

Or rather, are they taking large sums of money, not to mention the thousands of worshipping fans and associated fame, for simply posing in underwear for a few photographs?

Suicide Girls have no new formula, nothing different to add to the already massive erotica industry that hasn’t been done a thousand times over. The difference is, someone has decided to cater to a specific tribe of men. There is nothing pornographic about it.

As for feminism, well…I personally believe with erotica that women have the power, always. They are the centre of attention, they have control over what they do or don’t expose, and at the end of the day, they walk away with a bra-ful of cash. I can’t think of anything more empowering for a woman other than using the very things that mark her out as female to make money from hordes of slavering men, only to willing to fork out to see a few inches more.

So what’s the difference if the hordes of men in question are ones that have long or short hair? Have tattoos of their fraternities or their favourite bands? Wear black tees or sweaters from Gap?

There’s no difference. Suicide Girls is just another stylishly done and well presented erotica franchise, and one that doesn’t deserve the slightly extreme monikers of either pornography or feminism. The system is old, but this latest addition is refreshing.

What I personally think would be completely new and would blast this argument out of the water would be…Suicide Boys. I believe that is in the works…we’ll see what the feminists and nay-sayers have to say about the franchise when that takes off. Because believe me, it will. What will everyone do when they can’t complain that Suicide Girls is degrading to women any longer because there exists a male equivalent?

I guess we’ll just have to accept that whatever clothes you wear, music you listen to or even what sex you were born, people just like to see pictures of other sexy people. It’s neither feminism nor porn…it’s human, natural, and, gosh darn it, a whole lot of fun.