Japanese rope bondage ... and PIRATES

I've just ordered issue 4 of Filament magazine. In fact, seeing as I've bought every issue so far, I've just bought a four-issue subscription, keeping me in tasteful, stimulating eye-candy and brain-food for the whole of the next year. Yay!

Filament is a ground-breaking magazine for women, predicated on the radical idea that women have eyes and brains too, and deserve to be spoken to as if they were intelligent human beings. It's an active rejection of the damaging mode of women's mag stuffed with talk of diets, celeb gossip and "how to please your man in bed" (what about pleasing yourself in bed?). Instead, Filament combines thoughtful, varied articles on subjects ranging from the 18th century politics of STDs, to what it's like being a female pro-wrestler, to how to explore pegging with a willing chap. Not every article is about (or by) women, but they are written from and for a female perspective.

Then there's the sexually explicit content. Filament was been rejected by a number of retaillers for displaying photography of men on the cover - rather blatantly highlighting the double standards at work in our culture - and when they released their second issue, which included a photoset showing a male erection, they caused a much bigger outcry. But they've persisted, and I can attest that the explicit photography in Issues 2 and 3 is delicious, even for a queer old pervert like me.

The criticisms which suggest that in showcasing erotic, female gaze, heterosexual photography Filament is just as sexist as the norms it rejects are lazy to say the least - particularly when that criticism comes from people who have not, in fact, read Filament. Filament's erotic photography separates itself from the empty sexism of mainsteam porn with its focus on context and character; the sensitive, positive model interviews; the idea that these men are attractive not only for their physical beauty, but for their personality, their talents, their whole selves. The nude male models are pictured doing things like painting pictures or spinning fire poi (an impressive feat while not wearing any clothes) - they aren't just cocks with limbs attached. (Although the cocks, I have to admit, are very visually appealing.)

This is what Playgirl always wanted to be, and never quite managed.

I'm particularly looking forward to receiving my copy of issue 4, because it features Japanese rope bondage...



... and PIRATES.



I wholeheartedly approve.