EY! Magateen Makes Us Happy, Horny And Extremely Nervous

We were a little confused upon seeing the cover of EY! Magateen. Partially because less blood was going to our brain than usual (Skinny white boys x 2? Ok!) and also because we couldn’t figure out whether the magazine was a South American version of Twist or J14 tween-focused publications or whether it was gay cheesecake. After reading an interview with the magazine’s publisher, Luis Venegas, we were more confused than ever. 

Here is a cover presented with the colorful, fun, bubbly font usually used in marketing products to young people, that promises a shoot in “Argenteena.” Juxtapose that with the cover image of one young-looking man fixing to do something probably incredibly delightful to another young-looking man and we just… sort of don’t know what to do with this. Who is this being marketed to, and for what purpose?

Here’s an excerpt from Venegas’ interview with Dean Mayo Davias of Ponystep:

DMD: EY! MAGATEEN is your newest cult, an unabashedly pop celebration of youth. That, in contrast to Fanzine137 has a particular vision. Can you tell us about that?
LV: I started EY! MAGATEEN because I felt I needed another step forward and also to do a magazine very different from Fanzine137… I wanted it to be lighter, even more funny and as sexy as possible. I love young boys and all the excitement around them, so I decided to put it all together! EY! addresses the energy and power of young age. It’s an exciting, sexy, open, colourful and fun publication which celebrates the magnificent vitality of youth - and especially of young men. Each issue of EY! is dedicated to a country and a photographer, so it’s like an art portfolio of new images and it’s really important to me that this portfolio turns out very well. 

When we think “unabashedly pop celebration of youth,” we don’t necessarily think of pornography. To be clear, we mean pornography in the sense of an image meant to illicit an erotic response in the viewer, not necessarily the depiction of sex.

And for all the emphasis in the interview on art and beauty and celebration, it’s never mentioned that what is being discussed is, in fact, pornography. The images can be described as beautiful and artful, sure - that’s a matter of opinion. What’s less open to interpretation and disingenuous to skirt around is that these images are also a very erotic depiction of young people marketed as teens. Describing something as “sexy” is very different from acknowledging it as sexual. And that is a distinction that’s important to make when discussing images of young people. We like looking at images of young people doing sexy things. So sue us. But we know there’s a difference between finding young men attractive and liking young boys, and the focus on the male models’ youthfulness, specifically insinuating that all involved are teens, immediately kills our she-boner. It’s like do we know that they know that we think they’re still going through a voice change? Is everyone ok with this? Is everyone given the legal go-ahead to be ok with this? Maybe we’ll just coat our libido in Tootsie Rolls tonight and call it a day.

Also disturbing to us is the cover line about photographer Steven Klein venturing to “Argeentina.” Because there’s nothing quite so complimentary as a 48-year-old American and his long, hard camera peering out at teen Latinos because they happen to be 1) teens and 2) Latinos. We’ve come to terms with the fact that the fetishization of people of certain races and ethnicities (as is the case with us and skinny white boys) exists and that who we love or who we find attractive can be complicated. But the imbalance of power and privilege in this situation smacks of exploitation, of a non-consensual voyeurism because one or both parties are totally oblivious to the implications. 

What we’re asking for, we guess, is honesty in advertising, especially when what is being advertised is sex. This is cheesecake, and we think it’s hot and we hope that you think young, skinny, scantily-clad Latinos are also hot so that you can buy this. It’s not our call to say this can or cannot be called art, but, as a consumer, it is very much our place to say, hey. Be honest. 

VIVA VENEGAS! [Ponystep]