Magazine review: Filament #2

The new issue of Filament has dropped through my letterbox, and I am delighted to report that it is better in every way than Issue 1 which I reviewed a while back. In fact I'm dancing up and down with delight.

First of all - more pages, far less blank white space on those pages, and the cover price has gone down. Lots more pictures of blokes and much less of my personal bugbear: soft-focus photography.

The articles? Superb range. Finally, finally, a Women's Magazine exists that actually seems aimed at me - other women's mags (yes, even Scarlet) largely seem targeted at a different species. My favourite articles this time covered:

• Capoeira angola, the Brazilian martial art/dance form - just inspiring (and scary!)
• The Contagious Diseases Act of 1864 and how it mobilised disparate social reformers to overturn it.
• And the best article I've EVER read on the Ethics of Recreational Drugtaking - it made me consider the issue froma totally new angle.
• Not forgetting an article by our very own blogmates Erotica Cover Watch. Yay!
• And an erotic short story by Heidi Champna! (She's running a comp to win a signed copy of the magazine, and if you hurry and she's feeling very nice you might be able to slip in an entry ... )
  

But that's just me - there were a bunch of interviews with women photographers who work with the male body as their subject, one with the new drummer from Placebo, articles on pegging and how to do it (giving it to a man with a strap-on, for the uninitiated), on the science/social experience of autism and cerebral palsy (by a woman whose child has both), on what it's like to work in television editing, and how to cope with a low sex drive.

And of course there's the Erection. Filament #2 makes history with the first UK photo of a stiff cock in a women's magazine, sported by - hoorah! A guy with long hair!! Dreadlocks, no less! Lovely set of pictures, and it most certainly had the desired effect on me.

So congratulations to the indefatigable editor Suraya who has fought the most incredible battle to get this magazine off the ground, in the face of middlebrow derision and sexual double-standards (Did you hear, for example, that one distributor refuses to take any "women's magazine" with a man on the front cover?) . All power to her elbow and I really hope readers and everyone in the erotica community gives the publication their support.

Filament is published every three months and costs a measly £4.99 + P&P - you can buy one or subscribe for several issues if you like. It will ship overseas too.
BUY HERE.