We think that censorship is a thing of the past: something that happened in Ancient Rome or Nazi Germany, or something we’re above and beyond.
But, a month prior to the release of This is Gonna Hurt, photographs Nikki Sixx posted on his Facebook page were removed. Though none were obscene, the website also threatened to delete his profile. Hundreds of fans reposted the pictures in protest and their accounts were deleted.
“Death Trip” was one of those banned photographs. The model is an obese adult film star named Farrah Foxx, who endured the tragedies of losing her mother, being thrown out of her house, becoming a prostitute, and all the adversities an overweight woman faces. Though she is completely nude, her genitals are not visible. The only makeup she is wearing is the smudged black eyeliner on her face. Her varicose veins, “rolls of fat” (as she calls them), and cellulite take center stage: her body is not airbrushed or photoshopped to perfection. The dark, faded circus tent background is a literal translation of the “freak show” she belongs to—she is an outcast due to her weight.
Foxx is lying on a Renaissance-styled lounger which is placed on top of a luxurious Persian rug. The grandiose furniture and rug represent how society’s views on overweight women have changed since the Renaissance. Back then, being overweight was a symbol of status: you could afford to eat all that food. Now being overweight is viewed as something detestable: a disease, a deformity, a motivation for you to hurt yourself both physically and mentally.
“I work with people who have developed eating disorders, which [has] the number-one mortality rate of all mental health disorders in this nation,” Siavonh Lenaburg stated in an interview via email.
Lenaburg is an undergraduate student at Barrett, The Honors College and the president of REAL (Researching Eating Disorders Awareness and Literacy) at ASU.
“Media and advertisement industries thrive off of telling people that they need their product, and they use images of models—all which are photoshopped entirely—to portray an ideal image," she says. "The messages they send have literally become invisible to many people, as they are so subconscious and influential on our lives that we don’t even realize it is happening, we don’t even realize how much media and images around us shape our own self-consciousness and the way that we live.”
Because of the adversities that plague overweight women every day, they usually hide their bodies in certain types of clothing. But Farrah Foxx has stepped out of this shadow, and her nudity in this photograph argues that she is no longer ashamed of her body. Foxx’s body is not representative of her personality or soul. Though she is judged due to her appearance, no one can see her inner beauty.
In the book, the lyrics of the song “Skin” by Sixx: A.M. (Sixx’s other commercially successful band) are printed alongside “Death Trip.”
The chorus reads:
"Death Trip." Photo Courtesy of Nikki Sixx.“They don’t even know you
All they see is scars
They don’t see the angel living in your heart
Let them find the real you buried deep within
And let them know with all you got
That you are not your skin.”
Let this be a reminder to all of you—big, small, black, white, male, female or somewhere in between—that your body does not define who you are. You are not your skin.
To view some of my artwork, feel free to visit mabmeddowsmercury.deviantart.com. You can also tweet me at @DamianoAlec or email me at Alec.Damiano@asu.edu.
