This week, a new magazine seeks to fill the gap left by failed publications such as Playgirl - but can it really claim to be plugging into the complex sexual psyche of the modern woman? Olivia Lichtenstein investigates.
Filament, the brainchild of 30-year-old former education quango worker Suraya Singh, promises 'stimulating reading, saucy fiction, beautiful men'. It trumpets itself as 'The thinking woman's crumpet', an erotica magazine for women and an alternative to the celebrity-obsessed magazines that currently rule our news stands.
Lichtenstein says so far, so interesting. But then she turns the pages and there are the pictures of 'Boys'. Most of them are somewhat effeminate, and none of them is arousing. They are apparently intended as an alternative to the oil-slicked musclemen that proliferate elsewhere. The editor claims her 'research' has shown her these models represent the sort of men women really find sexy.
There's an article about Hard Core v Soft Core, which is so self-consciously academic that it's difficult to understand why its author, a lecturer in philosophy at a British university, feels the need to write under a pseudonym.
Elsewhere, an article about pubic hair promises to get to 'the (front) bottom of what women are doing to their pubes these days'. It's a perfectly straightforward article, but hardly illuminating and rather mundane.
The rest of the magazine is made up of articles with titles such as Singleness And Coupleness (is that even a word?), subheaded 'Does being single always mean sh****ng around'; picture stories of half-naked men given such cheesy sobriquets as Guiltless and Firebrand; and an agony column entitled Ask A Feminist.
There is also some pretentious poetry and softcore fiction.
'While I suppose we should applaud the editor's desire to provide an alternative to the many indistinguishable magazines for women, I'm not sure this one is the answer,' says Lichtenstein. 'Filament poses under an unearned and unwarranted banner of erotica.'
Priced at £7, she says it's far too earnest and dull, and reads like a geeky girl's idea of what might be sexy.
For more of Lichtenstein's review, click on the link above.
Would you buy a magazine like this? If you were to design an 'erotic' magazine targeting women, what would you include in it?
Filament, the brainchild of 30-year-old former education quango worker Suraya Singh, promises 'stimulating reading, saucy fiction, beautiful men'. It trumpets itself as 'The thinking woman's crumpet', an erotica magazine for women and an alternative to the celebrity-obsessed magazines that currently rule our news stands.
Lichtenstein says so far, so interesting. But then she turns the pages and there are the pictures of 'Boys'. Most of them are somewhat effeminate, and none of them is arousing. They are apparently intended as an alternative to the oil-slicked musclemen that proliferate elsewhere. The editor claims her 'research' has shown her these models represent the sort of men women really find sexy.
There's an article about Hard Core v Soft Core, which is so self-consciously academic that it's difficult to understand why its author, a lecturer in philosophy at a British university, feels the need to write under a pseudonym.
Elsewhere, an article about pubic hair promises to get to 'the (front) bottom of what women are doing to their pubes these days'. It's a perfectly straightforward article, but hardly illuminating and rather mundane.
The rest of the magazine is made up of articles with titles such as Singleness And Coupleness (is that even a word?), subheaded 'Does being single always mean sh****ng around'; picture stories of half-naked men given such cheesy sobriquets as Guiltless and Firebrand; and an agony column entitled Ask A Feminist.
There is also some pretentious poetry and softcore fiction.
'While I suppose we should applaud the editor's desire to provide an alternative to the many indistinguishable magazines for women, I'm not sure this one is the answer,' says Lichtenstein. 'Filament poses under an unearned and unwarranted banner of erotica.'
Priced at £7, she says it's far too earnest and dull, and reads like a geeky girl's idea of what might be sexy.
For more of Lichtenstein's review, click on the link above.
Would you buy a magazine like this? If you were to design an 'erotic' magazine targeting women, what would you include in it?
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