Smart smut
Issue #22
The uncut interview from issue No. 22
By Ling Ma
Published: November 19th, 2004 | 4:20pm
Editrix Jen Bowers runs SMUT zine, a sex publication based in Toronto. With degrees in both Women's Studies and Biology, not to mention her experience as a Planned Parenthood volunteer, this lady's a hub of information. Here, she addresses questions about sexuality and her innovative approach to producing a sexually stimulating-yet-informative publication for straights, gays, lesbians, trannies, and everything and anything in between.
What do you do outside of SMUT? How do you support yourself?
I don’t do much work outside of the magazine. It’s pretty much become my whole life, lame as that may sound. When I’m not editing or writing or doing layout, I’m promoting or doing distribution. I am lucky enough to have a wonderful partner that I put through law school. Now I get to work at home and reap the benefits of my investment, so to speak.
How did you come up with the idea for SMUT?
I came up with the idea for SMUT with a friend, and we just wanted to do something fun and creative over a long and otherwise depressing winter. We started out thinking that we would put a little something together for Toronto Pride and it ballooned into something much larger. Sabine LeBel, a long time friend of mine, decided to help out with the layout of the first issue. By the time we finished with that first layout and design, we had a 96 page publication with very few ads. We were both hooked by the idea and felt that we couldn’t and shouldn’t stop. Another friend of mine, Jill Allen, of Feisty Productions, started throwing parties to raise money for printing the magazine and they were a huge hit, some of them drawing almost 500 people. The formula just seemed to work — we’ve been going for a year now, which feels like a really big accomplishment.
What do you think SMUT’s niche is among other sex publications? How does it fit into that market?
We occupy a pretty empty place in the market at this point. There aren’t many magazines out there who talk exclusively about sex in an interesting and nonjudgmental way. The porn market is huge, granted, but it tends to be pretty specialized. There’s lesbian porn, gay porn, tranny-but-only-on-the-weekend porn, huge tits porn, massive black cock porn, bondage porn and so on. We’re one of the few magazines out there that just about anyone can pick up and find something to tickle their fancy. When you buy SMUT at a store, you don’t have to admit to the salesclerk what your predilections are.
The people we portray aren’t gasping, writhing models that are interchangeable. They’re self-contained, individual, sexy, saucy people with their own brains and ideas. Think Suicide Girls, only with boys too.
The zine isn’t strictly a porn mag, but it’s not exactly an information brochure about sex either. It titillates readers (with sexual drawings and erotic fiction) and it informs them too (with lube reviews and news about sextechnology). Why did you decide to take that approach?
I worked and volunteered with Planned Parenthood for a long time, and also worked as a sex educator at a store called Venus Envy: A Store for Women and the People Who Love Them. Obviously, I’m very education oriented. What I try to do with SMUT is combine the pleasure and fun of sexuality with a practical, no nonsense approach to sexual education. Sex ed isn’t just about avoiding diseases and preventing pregnancy, it’s about learning to become comfortable with your self, whoever you are, and learning to ask for what you want and need.
With a cross disciplinary degree in Women’s Studies, I’ve learned the instructive value of fiction. Stories can educate, as well as provide enjoyment. People can learn while enjoying themselves. Reading a story from a perspective you’ve never considered before can really change the way you think. If we’ve got a story where the gender of the main character isn’t disclosed until halfway through the story, then a reader can experience another person’s sexuality, and often find that it compares to their own.
I’ve noticed that SMUT caters to readers of all different sexual orientations. What factored in the decision to cover all the bases, so to speak? Do you notice any advantages or disadvantages in this approach?
There are a few disadvantages to this. There is a huge gay male readership for magazines in general, but because we’re not an exclusively gay male publication, some guys don’t pick it up. The same goes for lesbians, for example, if they notice some straight content. Some kinksters don’t see it as kinky enough. Etcetera, etcetera. We’re also pretty hard to classify on the newsstands. We usually end up in with Bitch and Bust, which is totally flattering, but those readers are really only a portion of our market.
The advantage has been that when people have taken SMUT home with them, it’s a great coffee table book. Anyone can pick it up and find something to suit their fancy. We support a women’s night called Girl5ive at a club in Toronto and leave the magazines out for people to look at. Throughout the evening, all kinds of people pick SMUT up and flip through it, usually to great excitement. We’ve got all sorts of readers — politicos, intellectuals, party animals, sex workers, bikers, lawyers. That kind of broad audience is exactly what we want.
In the “Letter from the Editrix” of the second issue, you write, “Here at SMUT we view experiences of sex as something that can and should be shared across gender identity, across orientation. … If it gets you hot or wet or hard or otherwise ready to roll, it’s sexy.” Your statement circumvents the popular notion that sexual orientations are singular and are naturally preset, genetically or otherwise. I was wondering if you could elaborate on what you meant by that statement, and maybe what led you to take that stance?
We’ve taken the stance that humans are pansexual or omni-sexual. More than ever, you can find people admitting to attractions that have typically been not talked about. At a friend’s sex store there are more lesbians renting gay porn than gay men.
I’ve also got a degree in Biology, and I’m a bit of a scientific reductionist because of it. I believe in the chemicals of desire, not in pigeon holing where that desire should come from. Everyone’s body creates the same rush of adrenaline and the comforting aftermath of dopamine. We’re tired of lesbian, gay, straight or trans all being labels that mean only one thing. Sexual stimulation is universal, and if it gets you off, then great. Of course, that means one or more consenting adults engaging in safe and sane behaviors, but, that said, go for it! Try something new. Dare to be inspired by someone else’s fantasies.
How would you compare SMUT with Nerve.com, a publication that dubs itself as “literary erotica” and also seems to attempt to merge the cerebral with the sexual?
I’ve never really spent a lot of time looking at Nerve.com. I’m very flattered with any comparison at all, but I’d have to say that we’re not as neat and tidy as Nerve. Sex is messy and gritty and doesn’t always fit into neat little boxes. We really seek to capture the real world experiences of that. Nerve has got a smarty-pants New England kind of feel to it, which I don’t mean as an insult at all, it’s just who they are. Their lesbian content is very much geared to the male gaze. Nerve doesn’t really do any gay coverage unless it’s of someone famous. They obviously speak to a certain audience, and they do it extremely well. Their audience overlaps some with ours, but SMUT panders to a more raunchy readership.
How would you differentiate between an exploitative sex magazine from one that’s not?
I think that the difference between an exploitative sex mag and one that isn’t is the gaze, to use an academic term. In SMUT the women and men are subjects, not objects. Well, okay, sometimes they’re objects, but only when they want to be. The control lies in the hands of the writers, the characters, the contributors and the models. For example, our models have complete control over what images of themselves are published, and they often help create the stage for photo shoots. The people represented aren’t just a series of open mouths or pussies or asses. The representations of sex are all ones that our contributors have created, and we try to present as varied a depiction of sexuality as possible. The characters in SMUT are engaged and present in the moment, not disengaged and disenfranchised.
Has initiating the publication of SMUT and being the editrix of it also advanced your learning of sex and sexuality?
I’m sure it has, I’m just not sure how.
Is there anything you wish people would ask you more often that you’ve never been asked? Are there any deep-seated questions you would like to respond to or things you would like to clarify?
I’ve been lucky enough to only be interviewed (so far) by people who’ve asked really fun, really smart questions. I always like to add in my little definition of what it means to be sex positive, since there are so many floating around out there. At SMUT, sex positivism means having the clit or the balls to allow yourself a sexual freedom of choice, and to not be a jerk about the choices made by others around you.
Find SMUT online at showmethesmut.com.
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