Sexposé: A Magazine dedicated to the exploration of the culture of healthy sexuality in Toronto.
By: Veronica Blake, Vanessa Brown, Aileen Donnelly and Victoria Gray.
Sexposé - Mission Statement:
To cover the issues relating to healthy sexuality that matter to people in Toronto.
To give a voice to the unheard and create open discussions on taboo subjects.
To educate, enlighten and unsettle.
To acknowledge that learning about and understanding your sexuality is a lifelong process and deserves more consideration than a 10 minute “sex talk” during your youth.
To challenge assumptions and question the status-quo.
To put people at ease.
To go beyond traditional media coverage.
We will never sensationalize, trivialize or over-sexualize subjects.
We will avoid sexual labeling and sex-negativity.
Sexposé - Proposal:
Francis Bacon, the 16th century philosopher, once said, “knowledge and human power are synonymous.”
The willingness to learn about sexuality is the first step in possessing the power to understand it.
First and foremost, we at Sexposé acknowledge that exploring and understanding sexuality is a lifelong journey. Our stories are borne by a collective inspiration to uncover and promote open discussion on taboo subjects.
Toronto journalist and sex-educator Shannon Boodram kept this overarching goal in mind when editing her 2009 book Laid: Young People’s Experiences with Sex in an Easy-Access Culture.
“Sexuality is a universal language,” she said. “Because Laid is so open and honest, I hope it … brings relativity back, so that everyone can look at it and say, ‘I can relate; I understand this.’”
There aren’t many magazines in Toronto that expose both topical and fringe stories regarding sexuality in a single issue. What the mainstream news reel churns out and calls important doesn’t always properly reflect another culture’s sexual consciousness. Too many people struggle with normalizing sexuality and behaviour while many others come across, and ultimately, enjoy them.
Dr. Jessica O’Reilly is an accredited sexologist who offers workshops on sexual health, education and sex-positivity. Since she receives multiple questions from former clients and visitors to her website, she started a sex blog to deal with concerns en masse. She stresses the importance of using appropriate terminology when discussing sex while making it readable, accessible and informative. She feels that this is where mainstream media often fails.
“It’s not that I feel the media does a poor job. It’s that I feel they sometimes do an inaccurate job and really sensationalize stories in a sexual way because it works. Because, I suppose, it’s appealing,” she said.
With that in mind, we find it important to produce stories that shed light on what isn’t always perceived as normal, such as kinks. A mainstream/fringe hybrid of sexual culture in Toronto is a largely untapped market. If readers are thinking about it, we want to write about it.
Former Toronto Star youth sexuality columnist David Silverberg said he notices this, especially in young adults.
“I think a lot of kids don’t want to be labelled in any way,” he said. “They try to stay numb about a lot of … secrets or things that they want to express, but are not sure what outlet to express them in.”
Sexposé will encompass issues related to health, education, politics and culture. We seek to expose sexuality to mainstream Toronto and challenge censorship and conservatism in the city.
Our target readership is any Torontonian between the ages of 18 to 35. The magazine will include stories that range the life span, from your first sex-talk as a child, until sexuality in the later stages of life. We strive to be inclusive of all genders, orientations and cultures.
You might feel momentarily uncomfortable. It might shock you. You might even giggle. But ultimately curiosity overtakes you. We want to talk about what no one’s talking about. But more importantly, we want to challenge our readers, and their preconceived notions and biases.
Benjamin Boles, contributor to Now Magazine’s annual Love and Sex Guide says he’s not shocked by any topic that the guide has covered.
“You want to go a little bit fun with it, but you also make it utilitarian. Here’s the basics of what you would want to know, and then try to put a few jokes in here and there,” he said.
Sexposé is sex, exposed. 
