top of page

sex, desire and relationships

issue iii

COVER.jpg
FEM LOGO.jpg

ENAM ASIAMA

 

COVER SHOOT

Direction Mia Maxwell @miamaxwelll

Shot by Faith Aylward @didudietho

Makeup and Hair Goodie May-Johnson @goodiemaykup

Bra by Maya Scarlette @mayascarlettex

Styling Mia Maxwell @miamaxwelll

Featuring Enam Asiama @enamasiama

ruby headshot_edited.jpg

'Sexual play can be infinite':

A Conversation with Ruby Stevenson

Ruby is a sex educator who works for sexual health charity Brook, runs pleasure and sex toy workshops, and Body Love Sketch Club with Rosy Pendlebaby. Georgia Mitchell spoke to Ruby about her mission to refocus pleasure in conversations about sex...

asian fetish (AF 1) COVER.jpg

Your Asian Fetish

A photo-series by Sophia Adnyana...

Screenshot 2019-04-19 22.49.05.png

Debunking the Virginity Myth

As a society, we’re obsessed with virginity.

 

It’s a hot topic in secondary school with whispered conversations at lunch on who’s ‘done it’, at pre-drinks during freshers’ week where some of us fess up to not having ‘lost it’ yet, and it can even crop up years later over drinks with friends...

text images for fem iii6.jpg

Sexuality isn't reserved for the Able Bodied

When you have a chronic illness and disability, you become accustomed to dealing with other peoples unwanted pity. You're often viewed as a ‘poor thing’ rather than a sexual being, when in reality it's not a dichotomy. I am a woman living in a less able body and simultaneously a sexual being with desires. It's really not a difficult concept to grasp. The societal projection of people with chronic illnesses and/or disabilities... 

COVER REBECCA.jpg

The Second Life of Self Esteem: An Interview with Rebecca Lucy Taylor

The name Self Esteem appears to denote a project with clear intentions - about empowerment, perhaps, and self-knowledge, definitely - but pop artist Rebecca Lucy Taylor tells Georgia Mitchell that when she came up with the moniker, it was just ‘a great band name.’ Rebecca’s music under ‘Self Esteem’ demands introspection, not only from its listeners, but from the artist herself...

BILAN 3. COVER.jpg

Sexuality and Culture: A Love Story

Sexuality and Culture: A Love Story photoseries by Bilan Suliman...

COVER BDSM.jpg

QUEER KINK

Kink, an umbrella term with fairly satisfying phonetics, is often used interchangeably with ‘BDSM’ - a multi-lettered acronym that Wikipedia helpfully describes as “erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal...

text images for fem iii2.jpg

Friendship as Resistance to Patriarchy

Through film, the overflowing supply of romance novels in the “women’s section” in every bookshop, romantic love is cast as the centrepiece of a woman’s world; it is where all her aspirations eventually converge. The attainment of romantic love satisfies many essential human needs. It offers emotional and financial support in the form of tax...

.

Mutations of the Body

Mutations of the Body is a project of evolution. The sequence of photographs studies the uncomfortable state of nakedness, unveiling the categorization of a gender non-conforming individual, which occurs based on their genitals. Bodies are situated as “sexed” in the biological approach, establishing either the male or female...

COVER BEFORE I KNEW ANY LESBINAS.jpg

Before I Knew Any Lesbians

‘Before I knew any lesbians’ is a portrayal of my younger self and her disconnect to queer life and culture. As a young gay woman, queer possibility models are also pop culture idols. Teenage fandom becomes a lifeline...

billy .jpg

To Campbell, From Billy

Today we start like this. My body is wide and broad over you. My groans deep and heavy. My tits spike down brushing yours - I'll keep my t-shirt on this time..,

Attachment_1545686860098110001_attach_6_

3D Intimacy

A photoseries by Melakas...

COVER.jpg

ENAM ASIAMA

A stunning photoseries directed and styled by FEM Editor-in-Chief Mia Maxwell exploring...

191B7085.jpg

Family Business: An Interview with Elsie and Fred

In 2012, Ryan and myself joined forces to launch a vintage shirt and t-shirt company. The idea for that I guess came from many trips to Thailand sourcing unique clothing and accessories for the boutique I also owned at the time in our home town in Coventry.

We developed our brand, moving away...

Screen Shot 2019-04-07 at 09.06.10.png

'Where are you from?'

I was sitting in a bar with two female friends, describing a pattern I’d noticed. Recently, I’d started to take note of how solicitous men opened conversation with me. I thought back over flirtations in bars and pubs, and reread old Tinder conversations, all starting the same way. Each of these men began, by asking me where I was from. My theory was bolstered a few minutes later, when a man in the queue for drinks questioned my... 

COVER.jpg

Staying at Home

Staying at home, by Precious Opara, is a series about getting to know yourself and becoming your own friend when you live alone...

Screen Shot 2019-04-09 at 15.38.29.png

What Not to Say to Married Dykes

A photoseries, directed by Mia Maxwell, featuring Maggie and Rene Matic...

text images for fem iii5.jpg

What I Wish I Was Taught Growing Up

If I had the right sex education, what would I have known earlier on? What could I have avoided?

 

I don’t like to play the blame game, but I think its fair to say that school, as well as my upbringing, did fail me when it came to...

pastedImagebase640.png

High Pitched and Moist: An Interview with Tami T

If like me you’re a massive Tami T fan, you’d know how exciting it felt to find out she was finally dropping her first album. Many queer people that I know of for the last couple years have loved, partied and cried to Tami T’s music, even incorporated it in their art. Tami has a truly unique voice in music, her bold lyrics and extraordinary music makes... 

COVER body 2.jpg

Conversations with my cousin

KA: Have you always been confident? 

CA: I wouldn't say I have always been a confident person, especially in the early years because I was young and lacked experience. I didn't know how to make sense of self love. I think the turning point for me was when I decided, I was happy with myself. I choose to do what makes me happy and if what I'm doing doesn't physically affect others, then why should I deny myself that happiness?...

text images for fem iii.jpg

Love in Black and White

Florescent lights and cobalt blue walls; that was the setting, when I met my love. Over a sea of faces and voices in waves cascading around me - the universe presented him to me. I was eleven years young, and unbeknown to me, this human would play a role in my future (deep inhale.) How beautiful and precious is that moment? At that moment, as significant as it remains...

text images for fem iii4.jpg

Colonised Desire

The idea of colonised desire is rooted in the structural and systemic construction of desire. It’s rooted in systems of meaning that operate within our society. These systems of meaning are oppressive. Desire is an intersecting network of power which decides whether or not you are loveable or worthy. It’s insidious because you think it’s natural; because you think you chose your partners...

COVER BECKY DANN.jpg

Ask Me Anything

I've always been the type of person that quite enjoys 'educating' people about disability. I like that people feel comfortable asking me questions about my disability because to me it means they are not judging, they are curious. As I got older the question of 'sex and disability'...

2 GJ.png

Intimacy Diaries: Volume 4 (TW r*pe)

Grace Jackson’s ‘Intimacy Diaries Volume 4’ grew from her ongoing project One in Five, which gathers the testimonies of women who are survivors of rape...

image1.jpg

read our first edition 

fem i: women and hair

read our second edition

fem ii: nightlife

Screen Shot 2019-04-09 at 09.48.06.png

Erotic Poetry by Womxn

femzine-03 COVER.jpg

KIN

In a time of commodification of self, our experiences of sex, sexuality, and love have, of necessity, hardened into weary transactions. Discarding the emotional, sensual, and spiritual aspects...

bottom of page