Since the beginning of time, women have been notorious for their dangerous powers of persuasion. There’s the original temptress, Eve, who conned Adam into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. In Greek mythology, the Sirens used their sweet songs to lure sailors to their deaths. Mata Hari, courtesan and spy, teased secrets from powerful men, then sold those secrets to the Kaiser. Aileen Wuornos liter
ally tricked her johns to their sordid roadside graves. Monica Lewinsky nearly brought down a presidency, just by going down on the president. The names and phrases we use are grim testament to the destructive power of female sexuality. Man’s ruin. Maneater. Femme fatale. Black widow. Looks that kill. Killer legs. A body to die for. Yet no matter how many times you’ve been warned, you men keep coming back for more. It’s only fitting that, more often than not, our legendary temptresses meet unfortunate ends. Eve was banished from Paradise, taking the original yes-man, Adam, with her. Mata Hari was shot by a firing squad; Aileen Wuornos was executed by lethal injection. Monica Lewinsky became a laughingstock, ridiculed for the skills that made her famous. Right now, as you read this, a beautiful woman is leading a man by his manhood to a dreadful fate. He’s forfeiting his career, his wife, his family, for a few moments of friction. Even after history and all its warnings, he thinks that this time, it will be different. Which begs the question: are men hopelessly stupid? They can build entire civilizations, but thrust a nice ass in a guy’s face, and all his brains ooze out his p***s. Are women terminally evil? They can create life, but will stop at nothing to ruin yours. Here at TEMPTRESS, we believe in the better instincts of man – and woman. We see temptation as a choice. Temptation is merely the come on, the promise of something beyond. You don’t need to go there, and yet you do. You want to be led, and misled. And so what is missing from the earlier definition of temptress is the element of choice. The women that you freely choose to lead you astray are as varied as the reasons you allow it to happen – and sometimes as inexplicable. Mata Hari, for instance, was not a looker. Aileen Wuornos was downright busted. And Monica Lewinsky, well, she was no Marilyn Monroe. But we at TEMPTRESS are not here to judge you for your choices; we are here to celebrate them. We understand that what tempts one man might leave another completely cold. Other magazines want to limit you to a single standard of feminine beauty. We are not constricted by the narrow aesthetics of the common men’s magazines because we aren’t a men’s magazine. We are a women’s magazine, and the only common denominator at TEMPTRESS is power. We are talking about power in its most absolute, feminized form: the power to allure, to entice, to make a man forget himself. This power can come from youth and beauty, but it can also come from knowledge and experience. From bubbly cheerleader to ball-busting CEO, if a woman makes you look twice and think with your manhood, she has the power to lead you astray. She is your personal TEMPTRESS. The only question is, will you follow?
~ Robin S. Editor-In-Chief
