By Jess McCabe | 23 November 2005, 09:32

Around 40 of the women ‘modelling’ for the contraversial Suicide Girls website have left, citing a misogynist boss and dissapointment that the ‘community’ was not as concerned with empowerment as they once thought.

The Boston Phoenix reports the women describe the site’s male owner Sean Suhl as “almost inhuman”, “verbally abusive” and an “active misogynist”.

But the women are also disappointed that the site, portrayed as a move away from more exploitative pornography, including pictures of ‘alternative’ girls, an online community and interviews with cult art figures (not so different to Playboy in that regard?!), turned out to be less than they expected.

“‘What\x92s going on right now is a slap in the face to feminism,’ says Jennifer Caravella, a/k/a Sicily, a thin, raven-haired woman with nipple piercings and big eyes. ‘If SuicideGirls portrayed themselves as Hustler, or Playboy, that would be fine, whatever \x97 people have the right to make their own choices. But don\x92t pretend to be alternative and punk rock. There\x92s nothing punk rock about that Web site.’…

“‘When I joined, it seemed like this community of girls, where girls could express their sexuality,’ says 28-year-old Caravella, one of the women who left the site over the last month. ‘I really thought it was a new feminist outlet, where girls could look up to SuicideGirls. I really thought I was a part of something that was almost revolutionary.’”.