Dear C ,
Frankly C, I don’t prefer any indie sites because I like my porn models the old-fashioned way: bleached, tanned and extravagantly pneumatic. Oh, and smiling. If you’re asking me which Web sites won’t give you all kinds of faux feminist tripe about being in charge of your image while editing your thoughts if they don’t adhere to their carefully constructed DIY community image, imposing exclusivity contracts without truly adequate financial recompense and threatening lawsuits if you do other work that may compete, under very broad definitions, with their company, that’s different.
You’ve all heard the anti-Suicide Girls rumblings by now (you know, that it’s a real business with equally contemptible practices as the mainstream industry it posits itself against). Not that nobody could’ve predicted, regardless of shitty company policies, that a Web site glorifying the sulky urchin wasn’t going to run afoul of the sulky urchins it glorifies. For some of the most up-to-date drama, visit apneaticmedia.com. Apnea’s a former SG who now has her own “single girl personality” Web site (apneatic.com) and I am learning that terminology like single girl personality Web site becomes common parlance partially as a result of ugly lawsuits and infighting: “I invented sullen girls who think they’re sex mavericks.”
Everyone shut up. Life invented sullen girls who think they’re sex mavericks; you all just tripped upon a really efficient way to make money off the current supply and now you’re all fighting like a bunch of pimps on a corner. Welcome to alternative porn, where rather than working for the Man, you work for the Boy.
The biggest problem is, C, nowadays there’s no reason not to be naked online if you’re young and skinny and *cough* different, which means you are looking at a severely oversaturated market and a lot of girls simply doing it for the attention. None of this is really new to porn, nor are the subsequent accusations of being taken advantage of, but as a start, check out www.indienudes.com, a clearinghouse of alternative porn sites. I had a chat with Igor, whose site www.drivenbyboredom.com is linked there and who is considered an expert in alt porn because, as he claims, he started the first related review site. Igor warns there is little chance of making a living simply doing alt porn, but suggests that carving your own niche, “even if it’s just a blog with some pictures” holds the most promise. He says working for multiple sites and making sure they will link to your own (where you should offer free content for a time) is a smart addition to this and is adamant that you work with good photographers. I would suggest haunting message boards on Craig’s List or the universities that offer photography and look for TFP, time for prints.
Have a peek at www.godsgirls.com and www.burningangel.com. They offer less money per photo set than Suicide Girls but neither of them demands exclusivity. Look for sites that allow you to capitalize off their traffic by linking your personal site to theirs, like the up-and-coming Toronto based Rock ’n’ Roll Geishas (www.rocknrollgeishas.com). Run by another former SG, Jezebelle and her partner Keaton, RNRG has ethical ambitions and looks to target the queer market, though they will “happily show our hot cocks and cunts for all the vanilla boys and girls next door too.” As of yet, they have no flat fee for photo sets but won’t impose exclusive contracts.
Keep your eyes open and don’t believe that “indie” necessarily means “principled.” There are a lot of grubby people in all aspects of the sex trade and one profitable way of galvanizing youth is to offer an option based on false or exaggerated claims about more mainstream industries and playing on their innate desire to be—and belief that they are—unique. A book that might interest you is Naked Ambition, a series of essays by “women who are changing pornography.”
