I was a a Dirty Show model

Blame it on the jaded media culture of my generation, but when someone asks me about posing nude for several photos featured in The Dirty Show I just don't see what the big deal is. It's just skin, and all the naughty bits are covered. Besides, I'm the girl who showed up to Theatre Bizarre as Leeloo from The Fifth Element one year and Ariel the Little Mermaid another — clearly I have no qualms about showing a little skin.

And yet people gasp when I shrug. You see five-and-a-half feet of bare flesh; I see a need to lay off the pizza for a few days. (Ideally doing so without falling into the stereotypical "girl who thinks she's fat" categorization — I'm just keeping it real here; I'm healthy and I don't like missing meals.)

Hi. I'm Nicole Rupersburg. I like long walks on the Riverwalk, cheese and beer. You may know me from local magazines, websites and blogs, and also the New York Post (yeah, I'm kind of a big deal). 

In other words, for better or worse, I am a member of the media. I often waffle between whether this is a good or bad thing. This is because Detroit is a very small city. You could fit all of Manhattan, Boston and San Francisco combined within the borders of just the city proper and still have room to spare, but the mentality here ... it's a little more Mayberry than Manhattan. In that small town, everybody-knows-everybody, tongue-clucking, finger-wagging sort of way.

I made a name for myself as a blogger and as a bitch. I can't help it — I rather enjoy pointing out when someone acts like an asshole. And will say so. Very publicly.

In the time I've spent challenging people to go ahead and try to ignore me, I've learned it's actually easy to ignore them — rather than to stomp my feet and scream at the sky at how fucking ridiculous this town can be. I've also learned the absolutely critical necessity of disassociating my public persona from my private life — it's amazing just how much people think they know about you (and more specifically, how much they think they know you ... and more pointedly, the appalling things they justify saying because of it) just because they follow your blog and stalk your Facebook profile.

I'm now fiercely protective of my privacy; it's all about the control of information. If I let people think they have access to everything, then my private life can remain completely private. My closest friends and confidants are about as far removed from my professional world and the "Detroit scene" as if they were elk breeders in Alaska, and with a gun to their heads probably couldn't accurately define what I do for a living. The rest of the world can continue making their assumptions, and I'll keep throwing scraps to keep them salivating.

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