Women's erotic magazine 'educational'

MARK DWYER

Lively content: Mainly Magazines owner Sharon Harding checks out the pages of an erotic magazine for women that is being produced by a former New Plymouth woman in London.

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Sharon Harding of New Plymouth's Mainly Magazines has found an erotic publication for women educational.

"I think it is good, the questions and answers are pretty good, it answers a lot of questions that people don't want to ask," Ms Harding said.

This week she received copies of the first two issues of British-based magazine Filament, which is being produced by former New Plymouth woman Suraya Singh.

The magazine is also available at Tower Books, where Ms Singh used to work part-time after school.

Ms Harding said she first heard about the publication reading the Taranaki Daily News.

"Then I tried to get it through our distributor and I couldn't," she said. "We had had a lot of people asking about it as well."

The quarterly publication's second edition, which came out in September, caused a stir in Britain because it featured a pictorial showing a man with an erection.

Ms Harding finally got in touch with Ms Singh directly and arranged to stock the magazine.

"It's a good quality publication, it is quite amazing, I didn't know what to expect."

Ms Harding said the magazine pushed the boundaries and she was not quite sure where to put it on display.

After flipping through its pages Ms Harding believes the magazine will appeal to local women.

"I think it could do well because it is different," she said.

Tower Books owner Robyn Moseley said she thought the magazine was great.

"There will be women out there who will be wanting something that's a little bit more interesting," Mrs Moseley said.

Ms Singh said the controversy about the magazine's second issue had helped to raise its profile.

"It's great. I think it's partly because we've really improved from our first to second issue, and partly because so many people heard about Filament through 'the erection campaign' who otherwise wouldn't have, and have largely been, as far as I can tell, impressed," she said.

The magazine has been available for sale over the internet and Ms Singh said the feedback was positive.

"I've had nothing but great feedback directly from New Plymouth women - including several emails asking where they can buy it."

Ms Singh knew from the start the magazine was not going to be everyone's cup of tea.

"I'd be dreaming if I thought everyone was going to agree with what Filament stands for, but on the whole I'm often amazed by what a wide range of people support us."

- © Fairfax NZ News