Filament

Should Filament magazine be able to print the occasional erection in future issues?

If you think so, cast your vote by getting our first issue.
What's the story?

Explicit images of women are available at any newsagent, but Filament, the world's only magazine featuring male pictorials designed for the female gaze, is finding itself between a rock and a hard place when it comes to printing explicit images of men.

Filament only prints explicit images when these are of high photographic and erotic quality, and clearly designed for women - we won't ever be putting hard cocks on every page. The problem is, all the printers that a small, independent magazine like Filament can afford have said they won't print images of the male of the species in a state of obvious arousal. Reasons given include that printing these images may cause offence to women's groups.

The outpouring of support has been amazing. Zoe Margolis of Girl with a One Track Mind, Erotica Cover Watch and erotic author Shanna Germain are a few of those who've urged followers to support us.

From 3 August 2009 we needed to sell 328 copies of Filament Issue 1 to afford make history and print (we're pretty sure) the first explicit male pictorial in a British women's magazine.

Order Issue 1 or subscribe to support our cause.

Should Filament, a magazine for women featuring semi-naked men, launched earlier this year to widespread media coverage. Issue 1 featured three photo sets of men, none of whom removed their trousers. While some questioned whether women would even buy visual erotica, Filament's readers soon put them straight. Not only were women buying it, they were asking for more explicit pictures.

That demand brought Filament smack up against the biggest problem in providing visual erotica for straight women: the pervasive nervousness about depictions of aroused men. Previous attempts to offer erotic imagery to women flopped when publications such as For Women and Playgirl offered only photography that many believed fell short of what women wanted from an adult mag.

Filament, responding to reader feedback, had planned to include a photo set of an aroused man in their second (September) issue. It's not illegal to print images of erections but the Obscene Publications Act is notoriously vague. After taking legal advice, Filament intended to make a test case of sorts. Its printers, however, refused, citing potential objections from the women's/religious sectors. As a new, independent publisher, Filament can't yet afford more liberal-minded printers willing to tackle the taboo on tumescence.

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A huge thank you to the melon farmers community for supporting Filament's erection campaign. We succeeded in selling the 328 copies needed to afford to change our printers, with about three days to spare! We've just printed our second issue and it's out now, complete with, among other pictorials and articles, five pages of an erect man: the first such spread in a UK women's magazine.

The UK publishing industry double-standard: that hardcore pornography only comprises 'erections, penetrations and ejaculations' has never had a legal basis, and it's easy to see which audiences it's designed to cater to. This, I think, is the most insidious type of censorship, one we cannot challenge it through the means of government and therefore it's all the more important that you helped us trample all over it.

Our next challenge tackles similar issues: getting Filament into shops. Many people believe that decisions about what gets on shelves are based on facts about markets, and we thought so too, so we bowled up with our facts only to find that what holds sway with distributors is their own personal views about what sells, highly based on very dubious gender stereotypes: yet another form of censorship. However, we will simply not be told that there is not a market for Filament, not when we receive heartfelt emails at least daily from readers thanking us for having the courage to make a hot and brainy magazine for women. We'll keep chipping away on their behalf, and of course we keep making Filament available worldwide through our website.

Thanks again for your amazing support. Don't forget to get your history-making issue!

Best wishes
Suraya Sidhu Singh
Editor
Filament magazine