Thinking woman’s crumpet

Taranaki-born editor of women’s erotic magazine Filament Suraya Singh, 30, has succeeded in publishing an image of a sexually aroused man in the publication’s second issue and now claims to be “the first UK women’s magazine to publish an erection pictorial”. The photos in the Filament pictorial were taken by the model’s girlfriend and are accompanied by an interview with him. “…The intensity of feeling just shines through beautifully: that intensity of feeling is fundamental to good erotica,” said Singh, who runs the quarterly from her North London bedroom. In a Guardian article entitled ‘A limp response to women’s erotica’ Kristina Lloyd and Mathilde Madden argue that “Filament [had] been turned down by numerous UK distributors refusing to handle a women’s magazine with a man on the cover. 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.” Filament is available for purchase online.