MacKenzie Peck is on a mission to make progressive porn for everyone

Celebrating diverse sexuality — MacKenzie Peck makes real good porn. Publisher of Feminist Math Magazine, Peck gets off on sticking it to sleazy San Fernando Valley execs.

It’s a chilly day in Williamsburg, but it’s warm and cozy inside this small apartment. MacKenzie Peck – twenty-eight-year-old freelance designer by day, feminist pornographer of her quarterly Math Magazine by night – has just shot naked for her own feature, on a rooftop wearing nothing but a black bra and panties, gripping the ledge in reaction to a real fear of falling.

Down now from the roof – shaking off the jitters of nearly being blown away – she focuses her attention on her next issue’s centrefold. It’s a dreamy lingerie shoot. And, while her female photographer takes a few test shots, MacKenzie helps to calm the nerves of a beautiful blonde in blush lingerie. This is where MacKenzie’s approach to pornography shines, making sure the model is comfortable at all times. When she covers the model’s skin, it’s to accentuate a pose, not hide a ripple or stray hair. She’s not scared or ashamed of the body she was born into. She doesn’t get how, for many, being naked is scarier than falling to our death.

She has a point and a feminist magazine on a mission to prove it. But she hasn’t told her New England parents about her double-life. “If I were to tell my mother that I sleep naked, her first response would be about safety, ‘But what would you do if there was an emergency and you needed to get out of the house,’ sort of thing.”

So, it’s no wonder MacKenzie had to hide a book about porn under her pillow over Christmas until her mom went back downstairs to watch Erin Brockovich. “We’re a family of liberals, free-thinkers, in terms of larger impersonal concepts like politics, but we don’t speak freely with each other about sex,” says MacKenzie, who is an only child. “My parents aren’t judgmental. It’s not about disappointing them. It’s just that it’s a foreign language when spoken to each other. So, I just don’t.”

Back at her Bushwick apartment after the shoot, she wraps herself loosely in a robe, playing her Math Magazine playlist on Spotify. With Flight Facilities’ ‘Crave You’ playing in the background, she plops down on the couch upside down. “This feels like therapy,” she says.

Mackenzie

It all started when MacKenzie wanted to get off some years ago. She began scouring Google for something hot – not just the same young vulnerable woman and strong older man. Before she knew it, she was crawling through the dark dimensions of the Internet.

Getting tied up is fun, sure. But, nagging questions kept popping up in her consciousness preventing her from getting onboard. “Were these people into it? I’m talking about actual consent and enjoyment here. And, how do we know all are actually of age? What is the line between fantasy and reality?”

That’s when it hit her, not the orgasm, but the porn industry’s inability to move with the times. “We think about where our clothes and food came from, and I wanted to make sure my porn was ethically made before enjoying it,” says MacKenzie. “I also wanted to see someone who looked real, too: men that aren’t always chiseled and women not mainly plastic with a ton of make-up and hair extensions.”

She put her design skills to work and re-imagined what porn should have looked like in the first place. Historically, porn started with print, evolving early into the nudie mags young boys would steal from their dad’s closets, slide into their Algebra textbook and use to drown out equations while drooling – hence the name Math Magazine.

With feminist imagery, which MacKenzie clarifies is another word for equality, she strives to incorporate photos and illustrations of people of all colours, ages, sizes, shapes and sexuality, especially gender-neutral depictions. “It’s important that people see themselves in porn. I like to show stretch marks, bi-racial couples, women being eaten out, guys being tied up and pegged,” she says. “My magazine is about celebrating kink, not categorising what or who you’re attracted to as fetishes.”

Mackenzie

What sets Math Magazine apart from mainstream porn is the collaboration and shared vulnerability behind the scenes of each shoot. “I use female photographers just as much as male ones and both must get naked or down to underwear in order to level out the power dynamic,” says MacKenzie. “I also like for models to participate in things they are genuinely into, so pre-shoot we discuss that and the reason they want to do porn. It’s important that both of those things are coming from an authentic place.”

There’s been a wellspring of new, progressive porn magazines in recent years, but there are two main things that set Math Magazine apart: MacKenzie’s publication is not erotic literature and anonymity in photos is fervently avoided.

She explains that having naked women in masks or positions that purposefully obscure who they are could muddy the waters of consent, or propel a mainstream culture of shame in pornography. “The anonymous female body is tired. I want to be more dynamic than that,” says MacKenzie.

She’s her worst critic, though, always having afterthoughts post-print. “Like, man, I should have shown more pubic hair or done butt-stuff. It’s difficult finding an assortment of people to work with me on camera doing these things, though, when they’ve never seen their body type in media before,” she explains. “They think they don’t belong.”

She’s working hard to defy that stigma, and each issue spurs more progress. “All I want is for porn to be for more people than just white dudes.”

Check out Math Magazine.

This article originally appeared in Huck 54 – The Defiance Issue. Grab a copy in the Huck Shop  or subscribe today to make sure you don’t miss another issue.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Ad

Latest on Huck

Red shop frontage with "Open Out" branding and appointment-only signage.
Activism

Meet the trans-led hairdressers providing London with gender-affirming trims

Open Out — Since being founded in 2011, the Hoxton salon has become a crucial space the city’s LGBTQ+ community. Hannah Bentley caught up with co-founder Greygory Vass to hear about its growth, breaking down barbering binaries, and the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Written by: Hannah Bentley

Cyclists racing past Palestinian flag, yellow barriers, and spectators.
Sport

Gazan amputees secure Para-Cycling World Championships qualification

Gaza Sunbirds — Alaa al-Dali and Mohamed Asfour earned Palestine’s first-ever top-20 finish at the Para-Cycling World Cup in Belgium over the weekend.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Crowded festival site with tents, stalls and an illuminated red double-decker bus. Groups of people, including children, milling about on the muddy ground.
© Alan Tash Lodge
Music

New documentary revisits the radical history of UK free rave culture

Free Party: A Folk History — Directed by Aaron Trinder, it features first-hand stories from key crews including DiY, Spiral Tribe, Bedlam and Circus Warp, with public streaming available from May 30.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Weathered wooden building with a tall spire, person on horseback in foreground.
Culture

Rahim Fortune’s dreamlike vision of the Black American South

Reflections — In the Texas native’s debut solo show, he weaves familial history and documentary photography to challenge the region’s visual tropes.

Written by: Miss Rosen

A collage depicting a giant flup for mankind, with an image of the Earth surrounded by planets and people in sci-fi costumes.
Culture

Why Katy Perry’s space flight was one giant flop for mankind

Galactic girlbossing — In a widely-panned, 11-minute trip to the edge of the earth’s atmosphere, the ‘Women’s World’ singer joined an all-female space crew in an expensive vanity advert for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Newsletter columnist Emma Garland explains its apocalypse indicating signs.

Written by: Emma Garland

Three orange book covers with the title "Foreign Fruit" against a dark background.
Culture

Katie Goh: “I want people to engage with the politics of oranges”

Foreign Fruit — In her new book, the Edinburgh-based writer traces her personal history through the citrus fruit’s global spread, from a village in China to Californian groves. Angela Hui caught up with her to find out more.

Written by: Katie Goh

Huck is supported by our readers, subscribers and Club Huck members. It is also made possible by sponsorship from:

Signup to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter to informed with the cutting edge of sport, music and counterculture, featuring personal takes on the state of media and pop culture from Emma Garland, former Digital Editor of Huck, exclusive interviews, recommendations and more.

Please wait...

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.