Women's Porn Mag Cockblocked in UK

This is news from last year but Filament, a women's erotica magazine, was cockblocked by their printer for pictures of erect penises in their second issue. Apparently their first issue, released last year, had three sets of pics of hot lads without dropping their pants. That in itself surprises me.


On hearing the reader demand for hard cocks, the Filament team included some fine boneage in their second issue only to have their printer refuse, "citing potential objections from 'the women's/religious sectors.'"

Uhhh...what? Can you imagine a printer refusing to publish one of the thousands of porn mags for men because "men's/religious sectors" might object?

Kristina Lloyd and Mathilde Madden make some good points in the Guardian article about the whole debacle, including this gem:

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.

You might be wondering why I'm blogging about another porn magazine for women on the PoolBoy Magazine blog. Isn't that our competition, you may be wondering? Honestly, I'm just psyched to see there are other women producing porn mags. That's just more variety for ladies. It gets so old having to look at the same porn, and men don't seem to have this problem because there are tons of different mags and movies for them to look at. Women have less than a handful. Plus, how could you not love a magazine whose slogan is "the thinking woman's crumpet?"

Luckily the British magazine is now on it's 5th issue, proving that ladies all over the world love man meat.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad F Word?

Venus magazine, the Chicago based feminist music zine that started out as an overnight project, is getting a makeover. The Chicago Reader reports that Sarah Beardsley is taking over and revamping the content and style of the much loved mag. The biggest change? No more blatant feminism. Beardsley is quoted as saying:

"That's such a word fraught with interpretation and meaning," she said. "We don't use that particular F word around here. It just doesn't seem relevant." She called feminism "an old-fashioned concept" and explained that "it doesn't enter into our discussions about what we're going to cover and what have you." She said, "We're much more into discovering trends, talent, whatever they are, and they can come in all shapes, sizes, genders, and forms."

Uhhh...what?

Venus was so great because it was all about women in music and art being DIY as fuck. While I agree with founder Amy Schroeder's concern that there's nothing wrong with getting bigger and growing up, I think feminism is still viable and relevant and important. But old fashioned? Until I get paid as much as the jerk with a dick in the next cubicle, I can walk home without looking behind me every few steps, and I'm not bombarded with images of naked or domesticated women everytime I turn on the television, there's still work to be done. It's nice to think that feminism has done everything it can do and everyone is equal and there's no oppression or exploitation, but we all now we're not even close to that point. Old fashioned is lemonade. Equality is not old fashioned.

While I'm not giving up on Venus, I'm also not looking forward to more celebrity coverage and less F bombs. I'll check out the next issue but I'll be doing so with a critical eye. Let's hope Venus won't become another Sassy turned into Jane, watered down girl power trying to sell stuff instead of build awesomeness.

Violence Against Women On TV Has Risen 120% Since 2004

In October the Parents Television Council released a new report titled "Women in Peril: A Look at TV's Disturbing New Storyline Trend"

Normally I would shy away from reading reports by an organization called the Parents Television Council because I'm always a little scared of any type of organization trying to curb 1st amendment rights - not that this org is trying to do that but I'm always brought back to images of people burning books or rap cds or condemning nudity on tv.

However, this report's findings are SHOCKING.

Some of the major findings in the report:

1. Incidents of violence against women and teenage girls are increasing on television at rates that far exceed the overall increases in violence on television. Violence, irrespective of gender, on television increased only 2% from 2004 to 2009, while incidents of violence against women increased 120% during that same period.

• The most frequent type of violence against women on television was beating (29%), followed by credible threats of violence (18%), shooting (11%), rape (8%), stabbing (6%), and torture (2%). Violence against women resulted in death 19% of the time.

• Violence towards women or the graphic consequences of violence tends overwhelmingly to be depicted (92%) rather than implied (5%) or described (3%).

2. Every network but ABC demonstrated a significant increase in the number of storylines that included violence against women between 2004 and 2009.

3. Although female victims were primarily of adult age, collectively, there was a 400% increase in the depiction of teen girls as victims across all networks from 2004 to 2009.

4. Fox stood out for using violence against women as a punch line in its comedies -- in particular Family Guy and American Dad -- trivializing the gravity of the issue of violence against women.

5. From 2004 to 2009 there was an 81% increase in incidences of intimate partner violence on television.

Yowza! Total sad face at this.

One would think that maybe Lifetime's repeats of Mother May I Sleep With Danger? could be the cause of this drastic increase but the study only looked at the major broadcasting networks (FOX, ABC, CBS, and NBC)! Imagine the results if they checked out HBO, USA, Showtime and FX?

It makes sad sense when you see headlines like "15 Year Old Girl Gang Raped As Crowd Looks On" and then read that depictions of violence against teenage girls has risen 400% since 2004.

400 PERCENT

It's true that our rates of violent crimes have been slowly dropping since 1997, but goddamn! We can't see positive portrayals of two consenting adults sexing each other up on CBS?

As a culture are we really that cool with showing women getting raped and tortured on CSI vs some hot nakedness?

I'm totally writing a letter to each channel's president to tell them that as a female viewer, I am disgusted at the amount of depictions of violence against women they choose to feature on their networks and that they can count out my viewership if these alarming trends continue.

Here's the networks addys if you want to write your own emails or letters (ironically 3 of the 4 network presidents are women!):

Mr. Jeff Zucker, President
NBC Entertainment
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
(818) 840-4444

nbcshows@nbc.com
Website

Ms. Nina Tassler
President, CBS Entertainment
CBS Entertainment
7800 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90039-2112
(323) 575-2747

www.cbs.com

Anne Sweeney, President
ABC Entertainment
500 S. Buena Vista St
Burbank, CA 91521-4551

(818) 560-1000 or

(212) 456-7777

www.abc.com

netaudr@abc.com

Ms. Gail Berman, President

Fox Broadcasting Co.
P.O. Box 900
Beverly Hills, CA 90213
(310) 369-1000

Fox's website
askfox@foxinc.com