MacKenzie Peck wanted to shoot feministpornthat gets you hot and makes you think.
This content can also be viewed on the site itoriginatesfrom.
Aside from a few interns, its a one-woman show.
Photo by Thea Glassman
She splits her time between working at her kitchen table and local cafes.
(TheMathteam is known to don I Swear Its For Work shirts when they work in public.)
Do you remember the first time you saw porn?
I found a stack of inkjet printouts in a drawer at a friends house.
I think that had a big impact on me.
Id like to live in a world where it doesnt feel necessary to hide your porn.
Can you take me back to that very first porn shoot for Math?
What was it like?
I knew two women from the job where I was working at the time.
The first photo shoot was in my basement apartment, with them in my bed.
I was the DJ, makeup artist, you name it.
There werent a lot of shoots for that first magazine.
It was this pin-up-y shoot, and I was wearing a black garter and panties.
I also contacted models, photographers, and artists through Instagram, Facebook and Craigslist.
Id even go over to people on the subway, hand them a flyer and ask them to model.
Its amazing how brave you’re able to be when youre starting out.
I pieced the first magazine together the best that I could.
I could only afford to print fifty copies.
Now we print 1,000.
How do you go about finding your models now?
A lot of people approach me now.
For the most part theyre amateurs.
Theres an energy to those experiences thats really special.
If you want your picture taken, according to us, youre a model.
Nobody is going to tell us who is a model.
What makesMathdifferent from most of the porn you find on the internet?
Were showing bodies and situations that are uncommon to porn.
I love the idea of having racial diversity, but not fetishizing or tokenizing it.
It can be very offensive the way that some porn categorizes people of different races.
I also want to see physically disabled models.
She looks gorgeous and sexy.
Its this dreamy, cotton candy-vibe shoot, and its not about her disability.
Its about the person.
You also ask performers about their own sexual preferences beforehand, right?
Why is that important to you?
I want performers to have a voice.
Ill straight up ask about their fantasies.
People will send me pictures of themselves from their private collections…which makes sense, right?
How has working in the porn industry affected your own sex life?
Practicing what I preach can be challenging.
Maybe the idea behind the magazine was aspirationalI came up with it before I was actually living it.
My pleasure is really important and I dont always remember that.
You still catch yourself limiting yourself, judging yourself, being critical of your own desires.
Ive been trying to give myself permission to find out what I need.
I think Im still figuring it out.
What do you hope your readers get out ofMath?
I want readers to see themselves in the magazine.
Some folks have said they love that the models look like people they see on the street everyday.
It heightens the sexiness of it for them.
There was a time when I got one reader email, and that was it.
Now, I get long emails, poetry, thank-you notes, and photos of wet panties.
But to get messages from people saying they feel seen, heard and representedits incredible.
Thea Glassman is a freelance journalist based in New York City.
