Peaches Louise runs Peaches Magazine, which publishes erotica, true stories of being an adult actress, stories about how to give a proper blowjob, and more! It’s not a publication for the snickering immature in the back of the proverbial classroom; rather, it is aimed at a mature audience with the hope of shedding light on sexuality and promoting a healthy sexual lifestyle. The Monarch caught up with Peaches to ask her a little bit about her fine work. 

Jake Uitti: Peaches is a magazine for women, which promotes sexuality and female empowerment. If only one great thing could happen to the magazine in the next 12 months what would you want that to be?

Peaches Louise: Every day something great happens! I only get one more? Seriously, my fantasies all revolve around growing our audience and keeping them engaged. The more readers we have, the more conversations get started and the more rewarding it is for the writers. The joy of publishing online is the direct feedback loop between writer and reader. So if I had to pick one thing it would be publishing an article that gets 500 comments.

JU: The magazine is still relatively young, but what was the piece, or the moment, that made you think: Yes, we’re on our way!

PL: I’ve been lucky to receive a positive response to the site pretty early on. Friends were excited to suggest and debate content (our very popular blow job tutorial went live due to a friend’s request). Olivia London, a regular contributor of erotica, taught me some of the in’s and out’s of publication rights while the site was still under construction. Scarlett Ryan, a former adult actress, got in touch when the site had only been live for a few weeks and has been writing a weekly column ever since.

The dedication of clever, interesting writers like these make me think we must be onto something–goodness knows they’re not writing for the money!

JU: Why is it important to talk so openly about sex? How has the process of doing so changed you?

PL: Learning to be more open, honest and forthcoming about EVERYTHING was a huge part of my journey in my mid-twenties. I left the Northwest and moved to the NYC area and found people were so much more open to discussing… anything and everything. It also exposed me to different ways of expressing sexuality.

Growing up in towns outside of Seattle that tend to be more old-fashioned, I felt like most guys had NASCAR tastes (strip clubs, fake boobs, more strip clubs) and considered you a prude if you had any issue with those tastes. My experiences in the burlesque community in NYC was an eye-opener: women were defining their own sexuality in ways I rarely see outside that discipline. Burlesque is (usually) welcome to all body types, all races, women in their twenties through their fifties and beyond. These women get onstage to explore what turns them on–and you get to watch. It struck me as the most feminist art I had seen in a long time, and opened my eyes to ways I could mesh sexuality with creativity.

I started writing erotica and then eventually launched this magazine. Although I know most women won’t take such a roundabout route toward self-definition, I do believe that sexuality is interrelated to personality, and I don’t think there are enough honest and reliable (non-creepy) resources for someone looking to explore that side of herself.

We’re inundated with advice, images and stories about “how to be hot.” I came back to the Northwest wanting to spread the gospel: you decide what’s hot for you. Confidence is the sexiest thing you can wear.

JU: Was there a specific event. Or one or two things that put the light bulb on toward this sort of openness?

PL: Maybe it was a boyfriend whispering that he really wanted to have sex with me while I was wearing high heels, as though that was the most shocking confession. Or a female cousin telling me often that I was the only person she could have honest talks about sex with. I think it’s been an accumulation of small daily interactions that have left me with the impression that our society is still a bit repressed and people are hungry to talk–and that both men and women are hungry for women to be more comfortable expressing their desires.

JU: As a culture, do you think we’re moving in the right direction regarding women’s empowerment?

PL: In the Western world we’re doing really well. I’m very concerned with how women fare in developing nations. I think the issues I argue about on the magazine are almost luxurious compared to the fight to be seen as equally human that woman abroad still have to wage. “Is there porn for women” is a luxurious question to ask compared to “Can I board a bus without getting raped and killed.”

JU: Where do you think people need to be pointed a) for inspiring liberating work here in America, and b) to make a difference abroad?

PL: I think women are expressing themselves most frequently and freely in burlesque and erotica (fiction). There’s a lot of beautiful and very sexy work being created in those disciplines–in others as well, but those strike me as the most rich. And of course, the goal of this site is to provide inspiration.

As far as making a difference internationally, I’m still not ready to advocate for any one specific organization yet but consider it a priority for the magazine to eventually do so. I think the most effective social change comes from within (i.e. I believe an Indian woman is more likely than an American woman to effectively fight misogyny in her culture), but we can at least offer resources or support.

JU: What makes you say that?

PL: Lasting change comes from within; hasn’t history shown that imposing our Western attitudes on other cultures–whether politically, culturally or economically–is just as likely to cause harm as it is to help? Of course we want to offer humanitarian aid in moments of crisis. Beyond that, we get into a Victorian assumption that all sexism (or any other problem) can be fought the way we fought it. Maybe for one culture progress comes through micro loans and in another it comes from labor reform. Someone who grew up in that culture and is aware of the nuances of the situation could best imagine an effective solution–and present it in a way that her peers will accept.

It has nothing to do with sexuality but “Hope’s Edge” does a great job of examining the female experience around the world–through the lens of agriculture reform–and documents many examples of simple solutions derived at by locals.

JU: What sort of misogyny do you feel Peaches is fighting against?

The magazine isn’t necessarily fighting misogyny, it’s not an urgent problem for our readers. But a conversation about female sexuality eventually includes all women, and internationally too many cultures still treat women as less-than-human. I consider it relevant to us not only out of simple morality but because we’re online. The internet is full of content that we assume is consensual. We’re all expressing these crazy fantasies about tying each other up and what the teacher does to the student and so on… can we ensure it’s all consensual, and that it’s not sending confusing signals to men and women in other countries? American women are now struggling with body issues because of the surgically enhanced bodies they see in porn–how is it making a less-than-enlightened dude in the third world think about women? It’s just food for thought.

JU: What did you notice today that you thought: I want to write about that?

I’m writing less and less for the magazine as I get more and more quality submissions. I consider my own articles’ main function to be setting the tone–I want to hear from other women more than focus on my own opinion. However, my to-do list of articles to write include having a vaginal orgasm, skincare, and to research “old school” female pornographers like Candida Royalle.