The Hard Sell
August 13th, 2009(safe for work version)
Businesses are afraid of porn. In fact, they are so afraid of it that they will turn down business from any potential customer that even comes close to being porn. This rejection of content can range from any instance of nudity, to tasteful erotica, to the things that reasonable people like you and me would actually (and affectionately) refer to as porn. Religious groups, women’s groups, and other small minorities with big voices terrorize companies that provide services to content providers they deem objectionable, so much so that it often makes it difficult for legitimate, independent businesses to find someone willing to risk working with them. I’ve been burned by this industry fear time and time again as I’ve struggled to find advertisers (See those text ads over to the right? Those ain’t Google ads, my friends) and potential merchandising partners. And it appears I’m not the only one.
According to an article posted on WarrenEllis.com, a fledgling magazine in the UK called Filament is having trouble getting its first issue on the stands. But this isn’t just another nudie magazine trying to make it in a Playboy-dominated world. Touting itself as “the world’s only magazine featuring male pictorials designed for the female gaze,” Filament aims to serve a different, vastly underrepresented market. According to a statement from the magazine’s web site, Filament “only prints explicit images when these are of high photographic and erotic quality, and clearly designed for women” and “won’t ever be putting hard cocks on every page.” But printers within the price range of a small, independent content provider such as this one won’t touch hard cocks with a ten foot pole, claiming images like these may upset women’s groups.
It’s hard to blame these small-time service providers for their irrational fears when you see the stink various groups have made in the past over “objectionable content.” Even big corporations like Apple, who restricts any application containing adult content from their iPhone App store, don’t want to deal with the publicity (and potentially legal) headaches associated with this type of content.
So what’s the solution? In Filament’s case, they are going to let their money do the talking. Or, more accurately, your money. According to their fundraising page, if the startup can sell over 300 copies of their first issue they can afford one of the larger printers who are willing to assume the risk of publishing photos of a man’s erect penis. I encourage you to visit the magazine’s web site for more information on this story and take a look around. If you like what you see, go ahead and preorder your copy now, and tell those special-interest groups where they can shove their Ithyphallophobia.
August 14th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
i find the “women’s movement” so frustrating, because as a woman, the principles fought for “in my name” are exactly averse to everything i believe. in the modern feminist movement straight sex is most often seen as an act of subjugation, and any woman who enjoys it is only doing so to please her male counterpart. during my college education i took many sociology courses surrounding gender, and the modern theme throughout them is that women are oppressed by sexuality, and any woman who embraces it is “bad for the movement.” rather than seeing it for what it is, another expression of female empowerment. it truly saddens me to see such a widespread movement of forward thinkers be so narrow minded. there was one piece of literature that actually referred to porn as “technological slavery” of women. with such pointed, pejorative language and biased opinions, one could easily come to the conclusion that the women’s movement was part of the conservative right.
August 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Sometime in the next few quarters at school I expect to take some of the sociology/gender roles classes offered at my school. I’m interested in the material, however I’m dreading the possibility that I’ll be taking it with a class full of modern angry feminists. I’m sure they would view my lifestyle and my web site (not that I’d share it with them) as a “part of the problem,” regardless of the fact that I find it very empowering.
August 17th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
and that’s exactly the problem, in my eyes. the way in which gender was handled in the sociology courses i took was very black and white. they only discussed gender through the eyes of a “feminist” female, and took very little to know time to view it through a variety of societal perspectives (which is the whole point of sociology…but that’s a different topic). the application of feminism has become so rigid and routine that any woman who deviates from the norm developed within the system must be unaware of the control and pressure that masculine society has over her. your web site would be interpreted as a tool for the continuance of male domination over female sexuality. i found my academic experience with gender issues to be very one sided and frankly offensive at times. i’m not sure how your university/professors may teach the subject…but if yours ends up anything like mine expect to feel stifled and and outraged. feminist academics say an awful lot of blatantly wrong and overreaching things in the name of “women everywhere.”