Tofu Kitten: Let me start this off right… Missy Suicide, thank you for sharing your vision with us. The Suicide Girls are women I have always admired throughout my high school years and to this day. They portray a different spin on what beautiful is, screw social norms. I needed to see that, especially in high school, so thank you.
Missy Suicide: Thank you so much! There is a quote by Junot Diaz that really resonates with me:
If you want to make a human being a monster, deny them, at the cultural level, any reflection of themselves.
I grew up feeling very monstrous and I didn’t want anyone else to ever feel that way. So to hear that Suicide Girls helped to make you not feel so alone is really beautiful to hear.
Would you mind introducing yourself and for those who don’t know, who are the Suicide Girls?
Hello! I am Missy Suicide. I am notoriously bad at summarizing what Suicide Girls is because it is so many things. It’s bigger than the sum of any of it’s parts, but I’m going to try to smash it’s origin mission into one sentence…
I started Suicide Girls in 2001 as an online social network that brought together people who felt like outsiders in their real-life communities to celebrate the unique beauty of girls who chose to commit “social suicide” by choosing not to fit in.
Tell us a bit about the Blackheart Burlesque show and what inspired you to create it.
With the website I wanted to update the classic pin-up photos with modern girls and treat the models with respect and highlight their unique beauty. We wanted to do the same with burlesque. We wanted to take the sexy spirit of classic burlesque and put a modern, sexy, fun twist on it. We wanted to create a show that spoke to our community so it’s all pop culture referential, video games, movies, comic books, TV themed. It’s a dirty, nerdy, sexy, fun time that brings people together.
The tour is coming back for a second round in October at the Boston Royale. Can we expect anything different this time? Will the girls be the same? Will the acts be different?
We always add new acts as pop culture always brings something new and exciting and inspiring. So there will be some new numbers. There will also be a fully new cast in each city on the Fall tour.
What does female empowerment mean to you?
Empowerment means embracing our bodies and ourselves. Being whole and unafraid and unashamed. Confidence is the most powerful attribute a person can have. People should feel empowered to create their visage in whatever way gives them the most confidence about themselves. Our bodies are not separate from our mind and both deserve respect. I feel we should be unafraid to speak our mind and share our ideas.
I don’t think we are born being full of insecurities, but somewhere along the way they come to haunt and paralyze so many of us. I feel being empowered is to celebrate your flaws and your pauses, so that you can share your uniquely beautiful presence and thoughts and feelings and energy into the world. Not letting other people’s hang-ups or fear of your potential hold you back. Summed up in the immortal words of Jersey Shore: “You do you.”
Is there anyone you look up to?
I look up to my friends and am amazed and thankful for their love and support, and am in awe of their many, many daily accomplishments, and feel incredibly thankful and lucky that they continue to let me in their sphere.
I look up to Oprah, because she has done so, so much by having women tell complex stories of outsiders, and she is such a brilliant business woman. I look up to Dolly Parton because she makes it okay to want to feel beautiful and love sparkles and embrace glamour, to be genuine and unafraid of admitting your flaws or what you have done so that you can celebrate them. She is a ray of god damn sunshine and self-love while still helping others.
Those two are pretty much untouchable gods, but I also look up to tons of other artists and activists and musicians who are three-dimensional people who have good days and bad days and bring complex brilliance into this world. A short list in no specific order are: Elvis Costello, Chuck Palahniuk, Ice Cube, Kim Deal, Lil Wayne, Shepard Ferry, Nan Golden, Kanye West, Nelson Mandela, Kendrick Lamar, Miranda July, Malcom X, Diablo Cody, Junot Diaz, Gloria Steinem, Charles Bukowski, Dian Arbus, Dorothy Parker, + tons more. Also Elvira Mistress of the Dark because she literally embraced being a monster and made it okay. Also, Beyonce because she is Life.
What do you feel most proud of?
I am most proud of my babies, my two sons and Suicide Girls. I am proud of all the victories big and small that the members of our community are able to achieve.
If you were president, what is the first thing you would do?
I would make a terrible president. I am in no way qualified. I can barely do long division, my policy would be very liberally skewed. It would alienate hundreds of thousands of people, and actually destroy industries. I can’t imagine how I would negotiate with real huge diplomatic relationships like North Korea or Iran or Russia.
Now that we have established I would make a terrible president, if I was an all-important leader, I would ensure every citizen had free and proper health care.
Photo by Tofu Kitten
Can you tell me about a time when you almost gave up, how you felt about that, and what you did instead of giving up?
Oh man, when the internet hated me I nearly gave up. The final straw was when a story came out in Jane Magazine. I had put all of my time and energy into being open to the reporter and telling my side of the story in hopes of some redemption, but at the end of the day the damning sensationalist version was just a better story, so that was the lead. I was devastated.
I was reminded of something my Irish History professor told me: history is written by the victors, except in the case of the Irish because they told the best stories, so their version is forever memorialized. My version was not compelling and wouldn’t be memorialized, but it wouldn’t be my last story.
Life is long and I didn’t have to be defined by one tumult. So I put my head down and kept up my work and let the haters din fall into a whisper. I have created a dozen years of other stories since then and done more good and made more mistakes and continued my crazy beautiful life of adventure. People still love me and hate me but, at the end of the day, the ones that know me in real life tend to skew more towards love, so that is the victory that matters.
I’m not sure if anyone has asked but… Star Wars or Star Trek, and why?
Both, I love the cinematic swagger of Wars. It is an undeniably bold universe that wraps you up in the escapist dream of other planets and worlds and lifetimes. But, I have a special place in my heart for Trek, mainly Next Generation, and the wonderfully intelligent and simultaneously innocent Wesley Crusher. Swoon.
Final thoughts?
Please go see our burlesque show. It is really an amazing experience, full of such positive energy that it could change your life, literally:
- Sunny Holiday went to the burlesque show in 2013 as an attendee. She was working in government for the state of New York. She was so inspired by the show that she got on stage during an audience participation portion of the show and thought about the feeling of being on stage for the next several months. The next time we held auditions she flew to Los Angeles to try out for the troupe. She made it and now is one of the hosts of the show. She has traveled around the country, and around the world, performing with us and hasn’t missed the life of a bureaucrat once.
- A boy in Oklahoma City decide to attend the burlesque show two years ago with his friend. They enjoyed the show but he couldn’t take his eyes off the girl who had the seat in front of his. She was there with a girlfriend. He worked up the courage to talk to her at the end of the show. Two years later, when the show returned to Oklahoma City, he asked her to marry him at the show.