By Peter Berton
BEDFORSHIRE, England – Throughout history, the mass media and adult entertainment have shared more common denominators than either might be comfortable admitting. Both have been staunch defenders of free speech. Both have been called “sleazy” and “obscene.”
And both have been instruments of social change.
The founders and staff of Frock magazine — a glossy, glamorous publication celebrating cross-dressers, transvestites, transsexuals and transgendered people — are well aware of the shared traditions. Though Frock actively works to maintain a “squeaky clean,” mainstream appeal, it hasn’t been able to avoid a certain amount of “adult” mislabeling by conservative elements that consider anything outside heterosexual, missionary-position procreation an affront to decency.
One cannot help but admire the magazine’s cheeky spirit. YNOT corralled founder and editor Katie Glover to learn more about what she calls “the point end of a real revolution.”
YNOT.com: Please tell us about Frock.
Katie Glover: Frock is a bi-monthly periodical aimed squarely at the world’s transgender community. It’s a typical glossy of around 90-plus pages, but it is only available in digital form on the web and on smartphones and tablets. That’s the way the whole magazine industry is heading. In a few years there will be no printed magazines left, so we feel like we’re at the pointy end of a real revolution.
When and why was Frock launched?
Let me tell you how it came about. Way back in 1999, when Facebook was not even a glint in its mother’s eye, I started a very similar online community called The Gender Society for transgendered people. Perhaps if I’d made it available to the whole world instead of just a very small niche, I could be a multi-zillionaire now. Anyway, I didn’t and I’m not.
It was a membership organization paid for by subscriptions, and as all clubs and societies know, it’s an uphill battle trying to persuade people to pay for membership and then keeping them as paying members year after year. We tried all kinds of incentives, but in 2009 some bright spark suggested we should offer full members a magazine as a way of persuading more people to sign up. And so was born Frock magazine.
It sounds like a lovely idea, creating a glossy magazine every two months, and it sounds like there’d be heaps of time to do it — but let me tell you, it’s a huge job. There’s just me, a part-time assistant editor who does only about one day a week for us, and Emma, our part-time art director. That’s it, just three of us.
We do have a number of regular contributors who write stories and articles for the magazine, but we have to do pretty much everything else ourselves. Proofing and subbing, selling ad space, updating the web site, chasing contributors and artwork, marketing, answering oh-so-many emails, more marketing, finding new stories, doing the accounts, more emails, making the coffee … the list goes on and on!
Anyway, after our first few teeth-cutting issues, we decided all that hard work was wasted on just a few hundred paying members, so we decided to make Frock available to the whole world for free.
What kind of content does Frock include?
Each issue contains features and photo features, interesting articles and stories, how-to guides and regular columnists, all transgender-related. By that I mean everything that comes under the transgender umbrella, which includes cross-dressers, transsexuals and even drag queens.
And there is absolutely no porn whatsoever. All of our models are fully dressed, and we consider that Frock is suitable for a broad-minded family audience. Our star reporter is Angie Bowie, former wife of David Bowie, who has been with us for many years, interviewing and writing about some of the world’s most famous trans people.
Our photographers rank among the best in the industry, and many of our models have been contenders on Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
What are your goals for Frock? Are you trying to break out of the “shemale” straightjacket that has defined T-girls in the adult realm?
Frock is not part of the “adult media” at all. As I mentioned, there is no element of porn in our magazine. It’s the same kind of glossy that you might find in the women’s magazine section in the supermarket, in plain view and suitable for pretty much everyone.
Many people would consider the subject matter to be “adult,” but why should that be? I think that’s only because trans people and transgender-related websites have been associated with the seedy side of the internet for so long.
Daytime TV has tried hard to demonize trans people and make us appear to be monsters. That’s not right. So, Frock is not about sex. It’s about transgender.
There are many, many confused kids out there who think there must be something wrong with them. A more mainstream magazine like Frock can help them get their heads around what being transgender is about, so they need to have access.
Having said that, Frock does not exist to provide counseling or psychotherapy to its readers, either. I’m merely emphasizing the fact that it is a squeaky clean magazine.
How have readers responded?
I can only say [reader response is] spectacular. When we started, we had an audience of just a few hundred. Now, a little over four years later, that has mushroomed into many tens of thousands of regular, unique readers. I say “unique” because I’m not counting those who read an issue more than once.
As far as we can tell, Frock is now the most widely read bi-monthly, transgender-related magazine in the world, bar none, and as the word gets around, the numbers continue to rise at an alarming pace. I guess the fact that Frock is a free magazine probably helps, whereas our nearest rival is charging something like $15 an issue.
What’s next?
We want to do the best we can with Frock, so we have plans to make it better in every way.
It would be great if we could one day have some full-time staff and maybe a little office somewhere. Finding the funding to make that happen is high on our wish list.
We’ll soon be running Frock Nights Out and perhaps even a Frock Week Away, where readers can come and be themselves without fear of ridicule for a whole seven days. We are also in the process of launching our own little TV channel, called Frock TV, which we hope will eventually be a bit like Logo, only for transgendered people. It’s not quite there yet, but we’re working on it.
We’re always looking for new ideas and welcome suggestions from any readers who want to help.
