SOLD. ‘Sweet Action’ Magazine: Porn for Girls #3

‘Sweet Action’ Magazine: Porn for Girls #3

The Gaming Issue

by Adams, Robin & Micole Taggart, Jane Hansen

 

Book Description: THIS PUBLICATION IS OUT OF PRINT.

Asking usd$50 / sold

 

New York: Sweet Action magazine, 2004. Magazine.

60 pages includes covers, 11.5×9.75 inches

Explicit male nude b&w & color photographs.

  • Title: Sweet Action magazine: porn for girls #3; the gaming issue
  • Author: Adams, Robin & Micole Taggart, editors, Jane Hansen
  • Format/binding: Magazine
  • Quantity available: 1
  • Publisher: Sweet Action magazine
  • Place: New York
  • Date published: 2004

 

Press:

https://www.salon.com/2004/02/19/sweet_action/

https://nypost.com/2004/01/18/labor-of-lust-meet-the-girls-behind-sweet-action-the-citys-first-porn-zine-for-chicks/

 

 


LABOR OF LUST : MEET THE GIRLS BEHIND ‘SWEET ACTION’ – THE CITY’S FIRST PORN ‘ZINE FOR CHICKS

Samantha Jones would be so proud.

Kim Cattrall’s character on “Sex and the City” believes in treating men like pieces of meat.

And Brooklynites Micole Taggart and Robin Adams couldn’t agree more.

The two women are the co-creators of Sweet Action, a racy new magazine for women featuring chatty sex tips, cartoons – and pages upon pages of full-frontal male nudity.

The twist: Their “models” are regular guys – albeit super-cute downtown hipsters.

Over beers in a cozy Fort Greene bar (both Taggart and Adams live in Park Slope), they described their frustration with the scores of men’s magazines at the newsstand (Maxim, FHM, Playboy and Penthouse) featuring one nearly-naked starlet after another – while the only female offering seemed to be Playgirl, filled with photos of strangely shiny, hairless men who looked like they’d stepped out of a Village People video.

Taggart, a 29-year old stylist, and Adams, a 32-year-old jewelry designer, agreed that an alternative was long overdue. So they decided to make it themselves.

“Girls want porn!” says Taggart. But – and this is essential, they stress – not porn stars.

Instead, the duo wanted to see in-the-buff photos of the kind of boys they like – imperfect, scruffy, guy-next-door types (with maybe a tattoo or two).

“I love guys that I can’t talk to because I have a crush on them,” says Taggart.

“I like all kinds of guys,” says Adams.

Their ideal subject? “We’re looking for a guy who is going to be comfortable posing. I feel like we make [all] our guys look great.

“Although,” Adams adds, “we can’t pretend it’s not great when we get a large model in front of the lens.”

For the first batch of photos, they turned to friends and friends of friends, sweet-talking them into taking it all off for the camera.

It didn’t take too much convincing.

“We were really nervous before the first shoot,” says Adams, who eventually got into the photo shoot herself – clothed – to make him more comfortable. “But once we started … it was heaven.”

A film student named Jeremy (he prefers not to give his last name) is featured in the first issue, in a hands-on, how-to article on sexual technique.

“It was quite an experience!” he says.

Jeremy, who is 25, says he didn’t have a problem being used for his body. “I heard that [the magazine] was trying to get across a woman’s point of view,” he says. “I agreed with that philosophy. I didn’t feel like an object.”

Still, he admits, he’ll keep his alter ego as an porn pinup boy under wraps. “There are some girls that I chose not to share that information with,” he says diplomatically.

Adams and Taggart say the magazine will stay focused on average guys. “If there’s a celebrity, there really has to be a reason why [he’d be in the magazine],” says Adams.

Still, there is a short list of stars they wouldn’t kick out of the studio.

“Adrien Brody!” They’re unanimous on this one.

“Andre from OutKast,” says Taggart.

“I’d love to get [the Red Hot Chili Peppers’] Anthony Kiedis,” says Adams.

Early on, they say, they ran into the old argument that women don’t respond to visual stimulation the way men do.

They think that’s bull.

“Women like shoes, don’t they?” says Adams.

Then there are those who say naked men just aren’t interesting the way naked women are.

“That’s this weird sexual dynamic that’s used against us,” Adams says. “But when [people] actually see our photos – then we get them!”

As for the articles (yes, there are some), Adams and Taggart have just a couple of rules: no poetry and no erotica.

“That’s all we’ve [traditionally] been allowed,” says Adams, who thinks lusty ladies’ lit is, well, kind of lame. “I so rarely find erotica or poetry that I like.”

Instead, you’ll find such offerings as an essay by one of the models (“Jason takes a shower and tells us a story!”); an interview with local artist Eugene Hutz, frontman of the gypsy punk band Gogol Bordello, downtown deejay and all-around hedonist-about-town; a nostalgic story about X-rated Atari 2600 games; and a list of “things to do when you’re horny, broke and lazy.”

Producing the first issue over the past year has been amazing, say the publishers – but it’s also been a major lifestyle challenge.

The women’s office is Taggart’s kitchen table, where they do everything from photo editing to layout to silk-screening (Sweet Action Ts and slim brown paper bags in which to package the first issue).

Their bank accounts, these days, are mostly zeroes – the first issue cost them roughly $10,000 to produce.

“I can’t use my credit cards anymore,” Adams says. “I’m living hand to mouth.”

Neither expects to give up her day job anytime soon, but the magazine’s future looks rosy.

Sweet Action’s first issue was just officially released on Thursday, and the partners already have received over 400 requests for subscriptions via their Web site, http://www.sweetactionmag.com – from “all four corners of the country,” as well as Canada, the U.K. and even Japan. (The magazine will be available locally at the Park Slope shop Red Lipstick, 64 Sixth Ave., at KCDC in Williamsburg, 99 N. 10th St., and at Built By Wendy in Manhattan, 7 Centre Market Place).

Advance word of mouth was generated through small mentions in Black Book and Jane magazines, as well as word-of-mouth buzz in Brooklyn and downtown social circles.

“We’ve already paid for half the production through subscriptions,” says Taggart, who adds that they may eventually lower the initial price of $8 an issue. “And we’ve gotten so many supportive letters!”

“We’ve gotten great reactions from men,” adds Adams.

Her claim is immediately reinforced when three nearby hipster guys at the bar get up their courage to talk to her, and catch a glimpse of the magazine in her hand.

“We’re starting a porn magazine,” she says, showing them one particularly graphic photo spread.

“Wow. Cool,” says one. “You know, I do photography. I could help out, if you want.”

And the men in their lives are no exception. Far from being jealous, their significant others are actively involved in production.

“My husband is 100 percent supportive,” says Taggart. “He’s helping me look for boys.”

Adams’ boyfriend is a contributing editor (and sometime model).

Recently, she says, she had to abandon their plans to settle in and watch a movie to go to a late-night photo shoot. His response?

“Go make the porn, honey!”

 
 

 

 

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