Posing is easy, says Hannah. By the end of her first photo shoot, she was trashed on whiskey ("it kinda settled my nerves,” she laughs) and hav¬ing a blast. And then she was naked. And then pretty soon afterward, she was naked on the Internet at Friction USA, one of a wave of adult websitesadult websites selling what’s basically—though no one wants to put it so bluntly—punk rock porn.bluntly—punk rock porn.
WomenWomen like Hannah—not her real name—are where the action is on sites like Friction USA, Burning Auigel, and leaderof-the-pack Suicide Girls. The sites rack up a reported tens of thousands of visitors a day, charging members a few bucks a month to see thousands of crystal-clear color photos of what Suicide Girls call "the hottest, cutest, sexiest goth, punk, and emo girls we can findthe hottest, cutest, sexiest goth, punk, and emo girls we can find.” And after only one year, these girls with pretty good hair and not-always-so-good-but-hey-we-all-liked-the-Misfitsat-one-time-too-rightgirls with pretty good hair and not-always-so-good-but-hey-we-all-liked-the-Misfitsat-one-time-too-right? tattoos have won more of an audience than Punk Planet or pretty much any little dirtball punkpunk band (any dirtball little punkpunk band not on one of those labels that has distro reaching into your local shopping mall anyway) has ever even approached. PunkPunk has a new face now: probably young, probably whiteprobably white, and probably topless, and if you wanna see more, you bet¬ ter get out your credit card.if you wanna see more, you bet¬ ter get out your credit card. And, says Hannah—a classy, stat¬ uesque woman who looks good in blacka classy, stat¬ uesque woman who looks good in black, at least in her freefree sam¬ ple pictures—it was no trouble at all.
Nobody’s started stalking her; nobody’s sending her creepy emails. About the most uncomfortable thing that happened was one of her co-workers gingerly asking, "So, I hear you’re on a . . . web¬ site.” And even that, she says, was no big deal.
"People think it’s totally like pornoporno, like guys on girlsguys on girls, and it’s not really like that,” Hannah says. "It’s not all about, 'Oh, there are your titstits!’ If you’re not comfortable with something, you don’t have to do it—and having it out in public is no big deal. It’s more cre¬ ative than it is sexualIt’s more cre¬ ative than it is sexual.”
And the part about skinny little punk rock boysskinny little punk rock boys point-andclicking up her pictures with one hand down their pants?
"It’d be really funny,” she says. "Better than them cutting ads out of Victoria’s Secret catalogs.”
So welcome to punk pornpunk porn, the alternative to Hustler, Barely Legal and poor old obsolete Victoria’s Secret: whether they’re peddling erotica, smut, or just old-fashioned pin-up-style T&A, a wave of websites like Friction USA, Burning Angel, and Suicide Girls have carved out a cozy little spot in the punk consciousness, playing upstart little sister to a swollen adult-amateur industry and bring¬ ing punk style and— maybe —substance to one of the last unexplored forms of, um, creative expressionbring¬ ing punk style and— maybe —substance to one of the last unexplored forms of, um, creative expression.
They run like bedroom record labelsbedroom record labels, not like big businessesbig businesses. The person behind the camera—and behind the cash register when you become a member—is more often than not a womannot a woman; at the shoots, the girlsthe girls (the naked-punk-boysnaked-punk-boys explosion has yet to hit, unless you wanna count the gaygay skinhead thing) get to do whatever they feel comfortable doing, instead of playing to some producer’s idea of what’s sexy. And punks—possibly the same punks who wouldn’t put a zine called Probe out on the record-store shelves IO years ago because it had a series of black-and-white boob shotsblack-and-white boob shots— aren’t even getting uptight about it.
Right now, this punk pornpunk porn thing feels pretty good—way better than stroking it to Belle and Sebastian record covers. Punk and porn have had a strangely uneasy relationship for years, but the chemistry—and the money—is apparently finally therethe money—is apparently finally there. And as everyone’s websites strut toward their one-year anniversaries, there’s still an almost-idealistic sense of innocence: it’s fun, it’s cute, it’s clean, it’s sexyit's sexy, it’s DIYDIY, and it’s not hurting anyone, right? Then why does it feel like no one’s thought about the hard parts—well, besides those hard parts—yet?
Punk porn looks great on paper.Punk porn looks great on paper. But is it really possible to put punk into porn, fitting the adult industry to the standard-operat¬ ing-procedure of the volunteer collectives that put on your shows and release your benefit records? Or are punk porn sites just a marketing scheme—and one that’s come up from within punk, not trickled down from some corporate boardroom?Or are punk porn sites just a marketing scheme—and one that’s come up from within punk, not trickled down from some corporate boardroom?