Frankly-written adult Website, toy, book, and film reviews: that's the stated intent of FuckFish.com, which also offers a variety of erotic editorial, promising critiques "with an analytical eye" and brutal honesty.
The magazine-style site launched Nov. 23, following about two months of preparation and test work. It includes a pair of predominantly monthly feature columns: "After Hours," which publisher Sanford Wilk describes as an answer to the current political climate, and which features an in-depth interview with adult actress Stephanie Swift to inaugurate the Website; and "Taboo," which will feature serious, often clinical analyses of the various sexual and other social taboos in both American and foreign cultures.
Other components will include weekly news updates and weekly reviews of adult films, Websites, toys and novelties, and books, giving ratings in fish rather than stars. But Wilk told AVN Online FuckFish.com thinks of itself as "a monthly," particularly in terms of the depth and weight they strive to bring toward analyzing and critiquing adult entertainment and sexual subjects.
"I felt that people were beginning to become segmented just because of their chosen profession," said Wilk of the ethos behind "After Hours," which goes behind the scenes by way of interviews with adult stars like Swift, but aims to present them as human beings who happen to be adult entertainers. "So, if you are a porn star, you are automatically labeled. You're no longer a human being. If you are a high-end call girl, albeit illegal, you're automatically labeled. You're on the outskirts of society, you're not socially acceptable anymore. We've all been through this. The goal is very, very important in terms of the fact that it breaks down those barriers."
The "Taboo" column, on the other hand, goes after real and often controversial taboos, but Wilk said FuckFish.com will take very strong care not to appear as though they're promoting any particular taboo.
"We look at it more from a sociological perspective," he said. "Here, once again, we're trying to show that in different cultures, different ideas are accepted. [FuckFish] is here to show the average reader that there's more going on in this world than [what?s] in the suburbs ... with the next door neighbor and the 2.2 children and the white picket fence and the minivan. There are undercurrents to sociological streams and there are different cultures that accept things differently. Different strokes for different strokes."
A third monthly column will address sexual health issues in a similarly clinical and analytical manner, though Wilk takes pains to emphasize that being clinical and analytical doesn't have to mean the same thing as being boring. "We'll try to examine objectively each month sexually-related health issues, whether impotence or STDs, or what the (Centers for Disease Control) is saying about STD transmittal," he said. "We want to do good journalism, break down the barriers between myth and truth and old wives' tales. It tries to make people scientifically aware of the facts of health in a non-boring or dry manner."
FuckFish.com plans to publish at least 20-30 new site reviews per month and up to two dozen book reviews per month, an ambition amplified by the fact that they have 30 staff writers as of this writing. Wilk said the site will keep and honor as best they can a wall between editorial and advertising needs - the site has no advertising for now, but plans to accept sponsors - to keep away the kind of pressure that often enough dogs both sides, where writers might feel pressured not to say certain things because of heavy advertising interest in their publications, or advertisers might feel pressured because a critic didn't particularly like a certain product.
Wilk made it plain, however, that editorial integrity would come first, and he's willing to negotiate sponsorships where a prospective sponsor would sponsor a section that doesn't address the sponsor's prime product, if that's what it takes to keep that integrity.
"If it's bad, and we think it's bad, we will say so," he said. "If it offends somebody, it offends somebody. There's no advertisers right now. We will be taking sponsors. If (a video or film company) wants to sponsor, we will more than gladly take their sponsorship. But they will not be allowed to sponsor films. There will be no pressure on the editorial team to lose their credibility among the readers. And they've gone out of their way to do the best job they possibly can."
Among the other highlights of FuckFish.com's debut edition: An "Aphrodisiacs" column dedicated to scents, food, drink, and other libido-enhancing methodology; and a "Health" column on the most-often-asked condom questions.
"We look forward to providing editorial credibility through each issue," editor Jaime Cooper concludes. "Every month, FuckFish.com readers will enjoy engaging and innovative reviews, articles, concepts, and information from the world of sexuality and erotica."
For more information, visit FuckFish.com on the Web or contact [email protected].
