Maybe it really is as simple as: “Be the change you want to see in the world”. There are people imagining and building entire worlds in the gaps they’re seeing in this one.
Located right in the middle of patriarchy reducing women’s bodies to that of cheap sex toys and the crown of sexiness without the side of slut, exists Pearly Magazine. A world where all women can be their full selves and have a love for erotic art that isn’t tucked under the bed as a secret guilty pleasure.
“I’m interested in what happens when women stop being the subject of the erotic image and become the authors and the storytellers of it. And I feel like as a woman of colour, and non-binary folks and trans folks as well, it’s like we don’t get to be the authors of our own story,” says Pearly Pouponneau, founder and artist behind Pearly Magazine.
This summer, Pearly Magazine welcomed it’s second volume, because these stories aren’t meant to be one-offs.
“Simply put, it’s like, we can do this again. It doesn’t have to be a one awesome different erotic magazine and you do it one time,” says Pouponneau.
“My launch party, the second one was just like proof of that. I like jokingly said, y’all treat it like it’s my wedding. People bring flowers. They bring a blunt wrapped in a little gift box and I think that’s important too. Celebrating women in art in that way is so important.”
The community support that filled Wicked Wanda’s for the launch parties of both volumes is evidence that platforms dedicated to the minority are not doomed to waste away in the background. Or should be content with being a token side piece instead of the main character.
Pouponneau’s art screams that these stories can (and should) be sustained, while also challenging how they’re told.
Pearly Magazine Launch @ Wicked Wanda’s, Photo taken by: Adam Recchi
With volume two of the magazine exploring the multitude of womanhood, Pouponneau uses the magazine to hold space for the multitude of experiences people have with erotic art and the heart within the work.
“I don’t want to tell women that being sexual is empowering. I don’t want the audience to think just being sexual is the empowering part. I want to create a space where we get to decide for ourselves and for themselves what sexuality means to them,” says Pouponneau.
“I think sometimes too, people still expect, like, if it’s a sexual empowerment type thing [it’s] just purely leather straps and whips and da da da. And I think that’s where white folks have like dominated the kink realm a little bit, where it just put out this hardcore image, but it’s so not that.”
And Pouponneau doesn’t avoid the awkward or uncomfortable side effects that comes with erotic art’s taboo public perception. She embraces it.
“I’m aware that some people might feel like, ‘Oh wow, this is a lot’ or ‘This is invoking a sort of emotion I wasn’t prepared to feel’. I think at the end of it, I’m at peace with that because that is the whole purpose of what I want to do with my art. I want it to be more than just, ‘These are fire’. I think that duality is important for me…And I’m okay with invoking the uncomfortable feels because based on my experiences…the best way [I’ve] connected with myself is sitting through uncomfortable, feelings and thoughts,” says Pouponneau.
While Pouponneau intends for her magazine to impact people’s relationships with their sexuality, erotic art and themselves, creating the magazine has impacted her too.
“Honestly, I feel like even 4 or 5 years ago, I don’t think I would have put out a magazine and physical prints of photos like this as myself. So, I think it’s even invoked more willingness to be vulnerable in my own terms…like, experiencing cyber harassment and abuse is no joke. It will change you as a person,” says Pouponneau.
“And where I almost wanted to just shrink and disappear and not continue to be vulnerable and not share anything anymore. Instead, I just found new ways to do it that felt actually good and it was more like a statement for myself and for other people in the world that like, we can tell our own stories on our own terms. This is the art of storytelling.”
Photo taken by: Adam Rechhi
As Pearly Magazine captures Pouponneau’s own story of personal and artistic growth within its pages, she hopes the magazine can help others write their stories with that same courage.
“I hope it contributes to everyone’s curiosity,” says Pouponneau.
Because ultimately, the more curious we are as humans, the less judgemental, we will be. I really hope it invokes curiosity, which then allows you to explore your desires, not just sexually. Like, I feel like this energy translates into life. That youthfulness glow and mindset and like childlike wonder, comes from the curious. Comes from the desire. Whether it’s the desire to play, whether it’s the desire to like lay out in the sun, whether it is the desire to like play out sexual fantasies. I just hope that these issues continue to evoke that curiosity.”