Filament, a magazine for women featuring semi-naked men, launched earlier this year, and it flew off the shelves, even though the women complained that the men kept their pants on. “A limp response to women’s erotica” (The Guardian, Kristina Lloyd and Mathilde Madden).

When Filament tried to run an issue with fully-aroused and naked men, its printer refused. Not only that, but distributers refused to handle a women’s magazine with a man on the cover. I had to laugh at the absurdity.

In challenging a culture that positions women as sex-products for men, Filament isn’t seeking to turn the tables in an act of vengeance. Instead, it’s asking for women to be acknowledged as human beings who can look and lust just as men can.

While some contend the lack of female-oriented erotica reflects a lack of demand, claiming the free market would prevail if women wanted such material, Filament’s experience of cockblocking proves otherwise. Perhaps what’s most insidious in this saga is that the market’s refusal to admit Filament reinforces an idea of female sexuality which justifies that very refusal. The absence of visual erotica for women on shelves crammed with magazines where women are products for male consumers, reduces female desire to the less-interested counterpart of male desire. The deficit positions women as the providers of sex for perpetually horny dudes. And so, runs the self-fulfilling logic, of course women don’t want magazines targeting their desire. Women don’t have desire, see? They merely receive it. How do we know? Just check out those magazine shelves.

Filament Magazine takes a swipe at this process on their website:

What is the female gaze? Our images of men are made for the female gaze. We draw on research about what women find erotic, from published academic research and our own online research community. From research we’ve learnt that what most women find erotic does not at all match what is typically thought of as an erotic image of a man designed for women. For example, on average, women prefer:  •men who are not muscle-bound •men with more feminine face shapes •men with attractive faces •images that show the subject’s character and the environment he is in. We also know that women’s tastes vary quite a lot, and we aim to cater to that variety too. Our mission to understand the female gaze is ongoing

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