John Hughes forever will be one of my favorite '80s directors—if not for his ingeniously banal look at teenage angst, then for his embracing and endless inclusion of the "recluse" in his films. And, admittedly, for a memorable and, thankfully, brief moment in time during seventh grade, I fancied myself a Rocky Mountain version of Ally Sheedy's character à la The Breakfast Club. Something about that unbalanced, unapproachable (albeit super-hot) psycho-chick who just as easily could stab you as she could give you an extraordinary blowjob seemed so gosh-darned appealing—especially if one lived in Colorado Springs, Colo., a town not known for embracing "outsiders."
I was good, too. Having raided my mother's stash of vintage duds and—for the most part—avoided any prolonged exposure to the sun (which, for an African-American, doesn't always make that much of a difference), I put nearly as much effort into looking bizarre as I did into trying to affect the growth of an underground movement comprising those whose outward appearances suggested disenchantment, danger, depravity…and a little uncertainty about cleanliness. Perhaps it was the fantasy of having a "bad" girl or the idea of "rehabilitating" a lost Goth and turning her into the accepted Barbie prototype that fascinated the jocks and the normal guys. Perhaps they just wanted to have their penises chewed off (or thought they did) and could not resist the appeal of the anti-prom queen. Whatever it was, no one—not even the great John Hughes—could resist the underlying sexiness of the alt look.
Fortunately, it seems the adult Internet also is not immune to the charms of people who don't look like the standard adult starlets: characteristically blond locks, Roman noses, double-D breasts, and skin that is not the least bit imbrued with the logo from Corrosion of Conformity's last album or a black cross. Instead, sites like BurningAngel.com, SuicideGirls.com, PunkPorn.org, and AltPorn.net thrive on the atypical model, the one whose jet-black hair, pierced tongue, and tattooed flesh screams of an arousing individuality that increasingly seems to be converting hand-over-fist. No longer sated with the typical sexual fantasy, Internet users inexplicably began using their mouse clicks to inform webmasters they were less interested in the cheerleader-type and into the girl caught smoking behind the gymnasium.
The funny part is, it seems the explosion of alt-porn signified an interesting turn for adult content: Surfers wanted to get their porn fix while concurrently straying as far from the look associated with Wicked Pictures or Vivid Video, and a perhaps prescient group of producers was on hand to provide it. For these symbiotic bedfellows, the closest those surfers previously came to alt-porn was through innumerable memberships to bondage sites and über-niche destinations where the models who conveyed the alt look also had to be enmeshed in intense (often fake) pain. There was no yen without the yang. But, for those who, like I, have an equal fondness for Marilyn Manson and unencumbered sexuality, a growing number of women who don't subscribe to the norm decided to show off their bodies—and their purple hair.
The brainchild of Sean Suhl and Selena Mooney, SuicideGirls, which already has gained an impressive amount of mainstream and adult industry clout, can accept most of the accolades for infiltrating the adult Internet and adding another "sub" to the long list of sub-genres that frequently were relegated to being just an extension of BDSM—something to which almost any alt-porn enthusiast vehemently objects. It doesn't at all hurt that the mainstream press has taken notice. From the New York Times to Ohio State University's The Lantern (which referred to the site as "a community of individuals with a few common denominators, a group of girls who take off their clothes and call it art, a mentality and most recently, a burlesque show that brought its unique blend of satire, dance and strip-tease") to CSI: New York (which did a show with a SuicideGirls theme), the punk-porn community steadily is experiencing the mainstream acceptance it's so famous for skirting. Now, by attracting members who traditionally visited glamour-oriented adult sites, SuicideGirls is one of many pioneering alt-porn websites that have combined a hardcore look with softcore action. It seems as though skin art and dyed hair have been exorcised from traditional bondage content and have set up shop in a new niche that focuses strictly on the nonconformist and plays to the fantasy shared by many a Joan Jett fan.
Perhaps this new trend in sub-niche content was inevitable. Perhaps a bunch of webmasters also found themselves entranced by Sheedy's mysticism. Perhaps, with closeted mainstream freaks like Angelina Jolie and Crispin Glover, it was only a matter of time before more than just the porn-loving body public began to give the alt look a second glance. Perhaps some wise producer knew how to splice Hughes' prodigal recluse and the pin-up girl, and has delivered onto the Web a trend that will meet with consistent inner-industry controversy because of the bizarre nature of its models. Either way, I'm glad it's arrived.
