Erotica authors (and book cover crusaders) Kristina Lloyd and Mathilde Madden have written a great piece in the Guardian discussing the difficulties Filament has had in printing erect dicks.
I liked this bit:
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When set against the plethora of men’s lifestyle and top-shelf magazines featuring scantily clad and open-legged women, the struggles faced by Filament highlight a deeply entrenched sexism: men can look at women but women cannot look at men.
Attempts to even out this disparity often lead to cries that two wrongs don’t make a right; that countering the prevalence of eroticised women by adding men to the mix legitimises sexist objectification. But there’s nothing inherently sexist about depicting nudity. It’s sexist when only women are deemed to signify the erotic; it’s sexist when eroticised images of women are so normalised and widespread that women stand to be viewed first and foremost as sex objects – their value inextricably linked to their sexual desirability. The sexism is in the inequality.
As much as I support Filament in their quest to get dicks onto newsagent shelves, part of me is pondering the fuss. How is it that the print world is so fucking outdated? I’ve been publishing photos of naked men with erect cocks since the year 2000. No government interference, no printing issues, no distribution hassles, no sexist male penpushers getting all nervous about the prospect of peen. Just me and my server and my FTP program.
And yet that has never been deemed newsworthy. I’ve been participating in a publishing revolution for almost a decade and yet here we are still hung up on what’s considered suitable to print on paper. How extraordinarily strange.
And how is it, in two thousand and fucking nine, that people can be spooked by photos of erections? What? How? Why? WHY?
Maybe because it’s gay to look at erections? I don’t mean anything by this. It’s just that most buyers of adult magazines are men – either straight or not. Women aren’t used to doing that. This is the same feeling I had when I read my first Playgirl mag. But soon I got over the queasiness and began enjoying looking at the pics. I guess it takes maturity and a natural affection for cocks to want to see them erect and ready for action.
It’s funny how that old 1950’s view still exists that only men are visual creatures that want to see naked pictures of women and women aren’t that visual.. I find this so hilarious!
And htis opinion still exits in the rather archaic print world!
When I photograph men in sexy poses naked I get so many responses from straight women contacting me saying oh my god that is soooo hot! They always want to see more.. They are so excited to get to see images like this as there just aren’t many out there for a female market..
Of course straight women want to look at sexy photos of naked men!