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She’s a Kiwi made good in the Motherland - Suraya Singh is the editor of the ‘Filament’, a magazine for women......
RedHotPie Editor | March 21 2011
Filament - the new erotica magazine for women
She’s a Kiwi made good in the Motherland - Suraya Singh is the editor of the ‘Filament’, a magazine for women... with a difference. It’s been described as a glossy pages dinner party, full of titillation for the mind and just as importantly, for the libido. You see, Filament is not just a good read; it’s a feast for eyes too, well it’s a feast if you like dining on hot young fellas. Hard bodied examples of the male physique adorn the pages, brooding young bucks, skin shimmering and eyes locked on the reader.
Suraya recently sat down with RedHotPie for a chat about Filament, the world of male erotica and the women that enjoy it...
RHP - How long have you been publishing Filament Magazine?
Suraya - Our first issue came out in June 2009, so Filament is just over a year and a half old. Apparently 60% of magazines don’t see their first birthday, so we’re already beating the odds, and our circulation increases with each issue - not bad for a magazine made entirely by volunteers in a North London bedroom!
How has the reception been thus far?
Exactly what I thought it would be – very mixed!
The negative opinions of Filament reminds me how much it needs to exist. People tend to rely on notions that imply that all women are the same, or that women’s erotica largely doesn’t exist because women don’t want it, ignoring many of the huge successes in this area and claiming that if anyone is buying it, it must be gay men. I know for a fact that Filament's bought 95% by women because most of our sales are online and so I see all the names! This is difficult to prove without violating privacy, other than suggesting people look at our Facebook fan page (facebook.com/filamentmag) and look at who the fans are. I can see why people assume this though; it's not really socially acceptable yet for women to openly express enjoyment of the male form, and the 'only gay men do that' is obviously meant to deter - otherwise people wouldn't waste their time saying it.
Regardless of what's said in public, I can always go to my inbox and find a host of supportive, enthused emails (and often subscription orders) from women saying the likes of, ‘About time someone did something like this!’
I can’t re-iterate enough that Filament is not for all women! We seem to be struggling as a society to acknowledge that women (and probably men too) are individuals. Cosmo just doesn’t speak to all women. Neither does Filament – that’s the point, and that’s why both have a place.
Where did the idea for the magazine come from?
I often found myself standing in front of the magazine racks thinking, ‘there’s nothing here that I want to read; I must be weird’. The more I shared this with other women, the more I realised that I wasn’t weird. Most of us had ended up reading men’s or gender neutral publications like Arena or The Economist, but there was definitely a hunger out there for something that was for women, but not lobotomised. A lot of women also felt strongly that they were constantly being presented with erotic pictures of other women in women’s magazines, as if this was meant to stoke their envy rather than their libido.
How did the idea become a reality?
An awful lot of hard work, research, and trial and error.
Who exactly do you see as your audience?
Adult film director Jennifer Lyon Bell says of her market, ‘The kind of people who like my films are more defined by a social mindset than by their demographic’. That’s true of Filament too. I love how diverse our audience is. I can think of one Filament reader who lives Georgia, US and describes herself as a ‘suburban soccer Mom’, and another in Edinburgh, Scotland who is a dredlocked computer programmer with two live-in boyfriends. They have nothing in common to a marketer, but to me they’re very much on the same wavelength: they’re women who are open-minded, they embrace change and they make their own choices.
You’ve made a point of using female photographers, is that an important part of Filament’s identity?
About 80% of our photographers are women and yes, that matters a lot to me and to our readers. Those women are also exceptionally hard to find; I estimate there are fewer than 10 women in the world who specialise in photographing men erotically. Thanks to Filament, a lot more women are giving it a go and finding it quite addictive! The heterosexual and bisexual women’s vision of men is totally unexplored territory - past women’s erotica magazines like For Women, Playgirl and Australian Women’s Forum have largely used gay photographers.
What are your thoughts on the way the female body is portrayed in Western Culture?
The way the female body is portrayed in western culture is so diverse it’s difficult to have an opinion on. The thing that strikes me most is how ubiquitous it is: the eroticised female body appears in every context. There are obvious objections to the lack of variety in the body shapes and sizes (more so in commercial material), but what stands out most for me is the fact that the male body is presented considerably less often. I don't have a problem with 'objectification' as a first-wave feminist might put it; I think it's far too difficult to say what sort of image is objectionable and what isn't. What interests me is where there are certain 'gaps' in terms of who is being depicted by whom.
How will Filament be portraying the male body?
Our reader emails often praise Filament’s variety of men, and we do strive to present a wide range of guys. That’s also a challenge because men who want to model aren’t usually a diverse cross section of male beauty. If I wanted to fill the magazine with hairless skinny white guys with tattoos and piercings, I’d have a much easier job. I’d be really keen to see more shoots that involve guys with chest hair, non-white guys and guys of stockier build.
One of my favourite bits is giving the models a voice. If I find someone attractive, I often want to know more about them, and that’s certainly what our readers think too as they often comment on our model interviews.
Have you based Filament on any established magazines or styles of magazines?
I looked at every women’s erotica magazine that had ever been published – Viva, Australian Women’s Forum, Playgirl, Blam! Blam!, For Women and others. There have actually been very few, which is interesting because I was frequently reading articles telling me that women’s erotica has been tried ‘time and time again’ and shown not to work. In actual fact, there have been very few such magazines and some of them have been very successful: Australian Women’s Forum was around for 14 years and Playgirl for over 30 years. These are very, very long innings in the magazine world.
We also looked at similar publications aimed at men, and non erotic publications to see what people considered their strengths and weaknesses, which we could emulate or improve upon accordingly. It was a fun and inspiring process.
Along with your pictorials, what sort of article content will be featuring in Filament?
I wanted reading Filament to be like going to a dinner party and meeting people who study or do interesting and diverse things. You might never had thought you’d be interested in that topic, but they explain it so well and you find yourself fascinated and intrigued. Many of our articles aren’t about sex, and that’s important. Some really popular articles have included examining atheist parenting, prostitution law reform and why there are so few women in the games industry. Of course, we explore sexuality and there’s some erotic fiction too.
Meanwhile, we steer away from things like fashion, diets and celebrity gossip, because we want to give women a chance to feel what it’s like when a magazine doesn’t ask you to think about your appearance.
Who builds Filament, do you have an in-house team?
We have a core group of enthusiastic volunteers and contributors around the globe that number about 50 each issue. We’re open to contributions from anyone.
How did you get into the magazine game?
I learnt about the publishing trade in various jobs. I have a flair for working with writers, illustrators and graphic designers to create media that people look at and say ‘wow’, and I was lucky to work with some people who recognised that talent and were happy to help me develop it.
You’re a New Zealander? How did you end up in London?
Yes, I was born and raised in New Zealand. I had never planned to go to London and never thought I would like it, but here I am and I love it. I guess sometimes fate intervenes.
Where is Filament available in Australia?
There’s a list of stockists on our website. Unfortunately you will find it’s in an opaque plastic bag, as our Australian classification rating requires that.
People can also purchase individual issues or subscribe through our website if they prefer.
What’s your plan to grow the magazine here?
Australian women are already a large chunk of Filament’s readership, and that’s amazing considering we’ve only just arrived on the newsstand. Up until now, it’s all been from online sales. Largely speaking, we just want to reach more women, everywhere. We’re also hoping to branch out into electronic versions of the magazine soon, since e-reading is becoming ever-more popular.
I’m hopeful that we’ll receive more photographic submissions from Australia, as some of the most prolific Filament photographers are based there – including Shami Kiely and Cat O’Nine. Australian women seem to be well on the road to leading the world in terms of photographing men erotically – I couldn’t approve more!
Check out Filament and if you like what you see, why not put in your order! : Filament Magazine
Suraya recently sat down with RedHotPie for a chat about Filament, the world of male erotica and the women that enjoy it...
RHP - How long have you been publishing Filament Magazine?
Suraya - Our first issue came out in June 2009, so Filament is just over a year and a half old. Apparently 60% of magazines don’t see their first birthday, so we’re already beating the odds, and our circulation increases with each issue - not bad for a magazine made entirely by volunteers in a North London bedroom!
How has the reception been thus far?
Exactly what I thought it would be – very mixed!
The negative opinions of Filament reminds me how much it needs to exist. People tend to rely on notions that imply that all women are the same, or that women’s erotica largely doesn’t exist because women don’t want it, ignoring many of the huge successes in this area and claiming that if anyone is buying it, it must be gay men. I know for a fact that Filament's bought 95% by women because most of our sales are online and so I see all the names! This is difficult to prove without violating privacy, other than suggesting people look at our Facebook fan page (facebook.com/filamentmag) and look at who the fans are. I can see why people assume this though; it's not really socially acceptable yet for women to openly express enjoyment of the male form, and the 'only gay men do that' is obviously meant to deter - otherwise people wouldn't waste their time saying it.
Regardless of what's said in public, I can always go to my inbox and find a host of supportive, enthused emails (and often subscription orders) from women saying the likes of, ‘About time someone did something like this!’
I can’t re-iterate enough that Filament is not for all women! We seem to be struggling as a society to acknowledge that women (and probably men too) are individuals. Cosmo just doesn’t speak to all women. Neither does Filament – that’s the point, and that’s why both have a place.
Where did the idea for the magazine come from?
I often found myself standing in front of the magazine racks thinking, ‘there’s nothing here that I want to read; I must be weird’. The more I shared this with other women, the more I realised that I wasn’t weird. Most of us had ended up reading men’s or gender neutral publications like Arena or The Economist, but there was definitely a hunger out there for something that was for women, but not lobotomised. A lot of women also felt strongly that they were constantly being presented with erotic pictures of other women in women’s magazines, as if this was meant to stoke their envy rather than their libido.
How did the idea become a reality?
An awful lot of hard work, research, and trial and error.
Who exactly do you see as your audience?
Adult film director Jennifer Lyon Bell says of her market, ‘The kind of people who like my films are more defined by a social mindset than by their demographic’. That’s true of Filament too. I love how diverse our audience is. I can think of one Filament reader who lives Georgia, US and describes herself as a ‘suburban soccer Mom’, and another in Edinburgh, Scotland who is a dredlocked computer programmer with two live-in boyfriends. They have nothing in common to a marketer, but to me they’re very much on the same wavelength: they’re women who are open-minded, they embrace change and they make their own choices.
You’ve made a point of using female photographers, is that an important part of Filament’s identity?
About 80% of our photographers are women and yes, that matters a lot to me and to our readers. Those women are also exceptionally hard to find; I estimate there are fewer than 10 women in the world who specialise in photographing men erotically. Thanks to Filament, a lot more women are giving it a go and finding it quite addictive! The heterosexual and bisexual women’s vision of men is totally unexplored territory - past women’s erotica magazines like For Women, Playgirl and Australian Women’s Forum have largely used gay photographers.
What are your thoughts on the way the female body is portrayed in Western Culture?
The way the female body is portrayed in western culture is so diverse it’s difficult to have an opinion on. The thing that strikes me most is how ubiquitous it is: the eroticised female body appears in every context. There are obvious objections to the lack of variety in the body shapes and sizes (more so in commercial material), but what stands out most for me is the fact that the male body is presented considerably less often. I don't have a problem with 'objectification' as a first-wave feminist might put it; I think it's far too difficult to say what sort of image is objectionable and what isn't. What interests me is where there are certain 'gaps' in terms of who is being depicted by whom.
How will Filament be portraying the male body?
Our reader emails often praise Filament’s variety of men, and we do strive to present a wide range of guys. That’s also a challenge because men who want to model aren’t usually a diverse cross section of male beauty. If I wanted to fill the magazine with hairless skinny white guys with tattoos and piercings, I’d have a much easier job. I’d be really keen to see more shoots that involve guys with chest hair, non-white guys and guys of stockier build.
One of my favourite bits is giving the models a voice. If I find someone attractive, I often want to know more about them, and that’s certainly what our readers think too as they often comment on our model interviews.
Have you based Filament on any established magazines or styles of magazines?
I looked at every women’s erotica magazine that had ever been published – Viva, Australian Women’s Forum, Playgirl, Blam! Blam!, For Women and others. There have actually been very few, which is interesting because I was frequently reading articles telling me that women’s erotica has been tried ‘time and time again’ and shown not to work. In actual fact, there have been very few such magazines and some of them have been very successful: Australian Women’s Forum was around for 14 years and Playgirl for over 30 years. These are very, very long innings in the magazine world.
We also looked at similar publications aimed at men, and non erotic publications to see what people considered their strengths and weaknesses, which we could emulate or improve upon accordingly. It was a fun and inspiring process.
Along with your pictorials, what sort of article content will be featuring in Filament?
I wanted reading Filament to be like going to a dinner party and meeting people who study or do interesting and diverse things. You might never had thought you’d be interested in that topic, but they explain it so well and you find yourself fascinated and intrigued. Many of our articles aren’t about sex, and that’s important. Some really popular articles have included examining atheist parenting, prostitution law reform and why there are so few women in the games industry. Of course, we explore sexuality and there’s some erotic fiction too.
Meanwhile, we steer away from things like fashion, diets and celebrity gossip, because we want to give women a chance to feel what it’s like when a magazine doesn’t ask you to think about your appearance.
Who builds Filament, do you have an in-house team?
We have a core group of enthusiastic volunteers and contributors around the globe that number about 50 each issue. We’re open to contributions from anyone.
How did you get into the magazine game?
I learnt about the publishing trade in various jobs. I have a flair for working with writers, illustrators and graphic designers to create media that people look at and say ‘wow’, and I was lucky to work with some people who recognised that talent and were happy to help me develop it.
You’re a New Zealander? How did you end up in London?
Yes, I was born and raised in New Zealand. I had never planned to go to London and never thought I would like it, but here I am and I love it. I guess sometimes fate intervenes.
Where is Filament available in Australia?
There’s a list of stockists on our website. Unfortunately you will find it’s in an opaque plastic bag, as our Australian classification rating requires that.
People can also purchase individual issues or subscribe through our website if they prefer.
What’s your plan to grow the magazine here?
Australian women are already a large chunk of Filament’s readership, and that’s amazing considering we’ve only just arrived on the newsstand. Up until now, it’s all been from online sales. Largely speaking, we just want to reach more women, everywhere. We’re also hoping to branch out into electronic versions of the magazine soon, since e-reading is becoming ever-more popular.
I’m hopeful that we’ll receive more photographic submissions from Australia, as some of the most prolific Filament photographers are based there – including Shami Kiely and Cat O’Nine. Australian women seem to be well on the road to leading the world in terms of photographing men erotically – I couldn’t approve more!
Check out Filament and if you like what you see, why not put in your order! : Filament Magazine
