Kiwi launches UK erotica magazine aimed at women

An image from 'Filament' magazine. Photo / Ara Maye McBay

Suraya Singh used to have a mundane job working for an education organisation. Like millions of women the 30-year-old would often spend her lunch breaks perusing the women's magazine section at a nearby newsstand.

There she became increasingly despondent at the celebrity gossip, diet tips and fashion advice she was bombarded with. What she wanted was a classy erotica magazine that women like her would be happy to buy.

Men's magazines regularly mixed aspirational and intelligent content with high-brow erotica, but women, she felt, were being left out. Which is why she decided to quit her job and set up a magazine herself.

"There are an awful lot of stereotypes about who women are and what turns them on, which I don't think are true," she says.

"If you're not some walking stereotype of a woman - who really speaks to you?"

Next week she will launch Filament, a self-funded quarterly erotica magazine that is squarely aimed at turning women on.

A glitzy launch party complete with male acrobats is planned for Monday and an initial print run of 5,000 copies has just rolled off the presses.

Marketed as "the thinking woman's crumpet", the first issue features a semi-naked man in a praying position on its cover.

Inside, artistic photoshoots of scantily clad male models are juxtaposed next to erotic short stories and erudite articles on off-beat topics such as the merits of being a geek.

And if you tire of the sex, there's always a recipe for spicy celeriac bake to keep you busy.

Finding an erotic format that women will buy en masse remains a holy grail.

Many publishers have tried to create female-friendly pornography - most have failed. The only comparable magazine on British newsstands is Scarlet, which was founded in November 2004 and is often described as "Cosmopolitan with even more sex".

Ms Singh - a New Zealander with an Indian father who has been living in Britain for six years - believes other attempts to create successful female erotica have failed to take into account what women want.

"Male pin-up style material that was marketed at women was often created based on wrong assumptions, or was merely repackaged from the gay market," she says.