The South African porn market is thriving, with=20 new and more daring titles every month. =20 Justin Pearce took a (very) close look
The only magazine that’s explicitly aimed at gay men,=20 Adonis doesn’t waste its time with articles and gives=20 you 24 pages of naked men mostly in outdoor settings,=20 proving for once and for all that you don’t have to be=20 female to be a dumb blonde.
What’s in it for you? Brad. Nick. Wayne. Koos. Actually=20 I’m making these names up since they aren’t given in=20 the mag. Wayne’s mountain bike is also in some of the=20
Sales: 5 000
Asian Babes
Probabaly unique in that the editor, who goes by the=20 name of Satinder, is also the magazine’s most popular=20 model as well as the agony aunt. Satinder edits the=20 British edition, of which the South African version=20 seems to be little other than a local reprint. Judging=20 by the letters, readers are a mixture of Indian men=20 seeking girl-next-door types, and white and African men=20 with a taste for the exotic. What they all get are=20 London secretary types, but they seem to like it=20
What’s in it for you? Photos of Asian women in poses=20 somewhere between Hustler and Playboy. Readers’=20 letters, under such headlines as “Cuntstruck in=20 KwaZulu”. Satinder’s replies: “It sounds like my=20 autographed photo could fulfil many needs out there=20 …” Erotic fiction: “As I leaned against the door I=20 could see the way his eyes were eating up my pert boobs=20
Sales: 50 000
Electric Black and Blue
Pictures of historically disadvantaged models.=20 Distinguished from the rest of the market not only by=20 the colour of the models, but also by the fact that=20 they are allowed to vary in shape and size, unlike=20 historically advantaged models who all seem to have=20 been made in the same mould.
What’s in it for you? “We asked the beautiful Charmaine=20 what she did when she went back home to visit her=20 parents in Kingston — that’s Jamaica, not Surrey –=20 and the 23-year-old chocolate cutie answered with a big=20 grin. ‘I do something that I can’t do here,’ she told=20 us. ‘I take all my clothes off.'”
Sales: 32 000
For Women
Each copy of the South African edition comes with a=20 free gift: two back issues of the British edition. Draw=20 your own conclusions.
What’s in it for you? World Super-Middleweight Boxing=20 Champion Nigel Benn poses nude especially for you.=20 Fiction: “She had imagined his hands caressing her with=20 the subtlety of oil being worked into her skin.”=20 Drooling profile on Tom Cruise. Results of a survey on=20 sexual fantasies, borrowed from the British mag, but=20 who cares? Letters page, also borrowed from the British=20 edition. And now for the real thing: photos of erect=20 penises. Since these may not be published in Britain,=20 the South African publishers have had to scrape=20 together photos of their own, and it shows.
Sales: 13 500
Aimed at men (and women?) who are turned on by the idea=20 that the white heterosexual male is in danger of=20 extinction at the hands of feminists, moffies,=20 affirmative action and something called political=20 correctness. Oh yes, and also turned on by generic=20 blondish supermodel types with their legs spread. In=20 spite of all the white male paranoia, Hustler’s=20 editorials make it clear that the mag is fully=20 committed to the new South Africa. And in spite of the=20 prevailing homophobia, lesbian fantasies are=20 commonplace. Female orgasms are women’s work, after=20
What’s in it for you? Hot letters: “The inside of her=20 slit felt like freshly chopped liver.” Mad-magazine=20 style cartoons, many of them featuring public toilets.=20 “Feminist child abuse: how man-haters brainwash=20 children.” Beaver hunt: “Mandi from the Vaal Triangle=20 spends most of her days reading and suntanning. ‘One=20 day,’ says the 29-year-old housewife, ‘I’d like to have=20 sex in a jacuzzi.’ Our balls are bubbling over at the=20
Sales: 186 000 (including 10 000 subscriptions)
Definitely the most off-the-wall skin magazine around.=20 Its influences appear to be an unholy alliance of=20 Hustler and the late lamented Vrye Weekblad: soft-focus=20 legs-open shots of a type you’ve seen a million times=20 before, combined with a crass kind of irreverence which=20 sounds less silly in Afrikaans than in English. If=20 their approach to erotic photography were as creative=20 as the rest of the magazine, it might be worth buying=20
What’s in it for you? Cartoons about sexual=20 dysfunctions by the Bitterkomix team. Advice column by=20 Dr Marie Jansen (not to be confused with Dr Murray=20 Jansen of Huisgenoot), who is pictured draped in=20 imitation leopard skin and giving herself a breast-lump=20 examination. Sex on the Internet. A humour column (“lag=20 jou gat af”) with jokes you probably haven’t heard=20 since you were in Standard 8. Inheemse blom van die=20 maand: this month it’s Beth: “Die 23-jarige rooikop van=20 die Boland weet wat sy in die lewe wil he …”
Sales: 71 000
The title is significant: Mayfair was once London’s=20 red-light district and is now Rolls-Royce territory.=20 Hence lots of high-class skin.
What’s in it for you? Overwhelmingly photographic, but=20 the models don’t all look the same, and several of them=20 show a glimmer of intelligence: the last taboo for many=20 of Mayfair’s rivals. Articles are along the lines of=20 “We think that Michelle Pfeiffer’s brimming over with=20 the Pfwoarr factor,” and generally imported from the=20 British edition.
Sales: 60 000
Penthouse, together with Playboy, is one of those=20 magazines which don’t like to think of skin as their=20 raison d’etre but which offer demure exhibitionism as=20 one of a number of reasons for buying the mag. This=20 considered, Penthouse falls down in the features=20 department — they have some good local writing, but=20 rely too heavily on an odd assortment of syndicated=20 articles to fill space. Dare we suggest that most of=20 their readers are in fact in it for the skin?
What’s in it for you? A feature on the inmates of a=20 Filipino prison colony who spend their days catching=20 butterflies in Camel-ad surroundings. An unflattering=20 interview with Kierin O’Malley, vice-chairman of the=20 South African Association for Men, who also seems to be=20 one of Hustler’s favourite freelancers. A horror story=20 about an innocent tourist kidnapped in Hong Kong.=20 Pretty good music and movie reviews and travel ideas.
Sales: 63 000
Where Playboy has the edge over Penthouse is in its=20 original commissions from South African writers, and=20 good international features too. You might even believe=20 people who claim they buy Playboy just for the=20
What’s in it for you? Heroin goes to Hollywood. Are=20 Afrikaners an endangered species? Profile on=20 Swaziland’s “playboy king” Mswati. Groom service:=20 “David has an avocado concoction made for him on a farm=20 in the Eastern Transvaal. ‘It keeps my hair really=20 well-conditioned and shiny. I don’t need to use a=20 regular conditioner because it conditions my hair=20
Sales: 50 000
Supposedly aimed at women, but a quarter of the=20 personals column comprises ads from men seeking men,=20 and certain bookshops keep this mag on their gay=20 shelves. Despite the title, has very little in common=20 with Playboy: Playgirl is, above all, a sex mag, though=20 less than half is devoted to pickle-shots of men. The=20 rest is interviews, columns, and articles mostly about=20 sex. Occasionally a snippet worthy of Feminism for=20 Beginners: “It is essential for women to break from=20 Victorian moulds …”
What’s in it for you? The Weanie Competition: “We are=20 looking for the man with the smallest John Thomas in=20 South Africa, but we also need to know what it is,=20 despite that, that makes him worth having. “Love can be=20 a gas”: an article on how much men smell. An=20 illustrated fantasy involving an ice-cream man. The=20 Real McCrotch: “Ladies who got a teeny bit bored at=20 stages of the never-ending rugby but happened to be=20 glued to the telly … were provided with their fair=20 share of glorious viewing. Nothing less than an=20 uncircumcised Scottish sausage. Of course Playgirl was=20 there to capture the thrill and to put an end to a well=20 kept secret about what the Scots really wear under=20 their kilts.” Real men: Readers’ happy snaps of=20 husbands and boyfriends.
Print run: 36 000 (sales unknown)
The mag which spent years pioneering the art of the=20 nipple star has now obtained photos which are just as=20 explicit as those in Hustler — but prints them only in=20 a pull-out supplement called Juice, which arrives in=20 its own plastic wrapper inside the already plastic- wrapped Scope. Seems excessive.
What’s in it for you? The photos in the main mag are=20 altogether softer than in Juice. Articles include a=20 retrospective on Elvis Presley, and a piece on Durban=20 rockers Urban Creep, which gets rapturous over the=20 beauty of these four young men and describes them as=20 “South Africa’s great white hope”. The record reviews=20 are excellent, though.
Sales: 76 700
Sales figures are those claimed by the publishers, with=20 the exception of Playboy, which is verified by the=20 Audit Bureau of Circulation