This fall on college campuses all across America, students tried out for a plethora of different activities. Here at the University, they ranged from club sports teams to the University Guides Service. At Boston University this fall, 85 students came to try out for an activity of a different sort, the opportunity to pose in Boink Magazine, despite the consternation of BU administrators. Fifteen were given the nod and posed nude in the first issue, which appeared Feb. 17.
The resulting Boink Magazine, subtitled "the college guide to carnal knowledge," includes 15 models in various types of pictorials: male and female -- with heterosexual and homosexual sex acts. The magazine includes articles such as "The Straight Girls Guide to Sleeping with Chicks," "Sex in the City," and "Virginity, Not Purity," among other salacious reads.
"Our [magazine] is porn," said Alecia Oleyourrk, a Boston University senior who is founder, editor-in-chief, and a model for the upstart magazine. "It's meant to arouse, it's meant to excite."
Other forms of this media have emerged among Boston-area colleges. Harvard University's newest campus magazine, the H-Bomb, rolled out in May 2004, with the approval of the administration's Committee for Campus Life. The magazine describes itself on its Web site as "racy, yes -- porn, no." None of the magazine's staff returned repeated requests for comment.
"The general consensus is that there was a lot of hype around [the H-Bomb], and it didn't really live up to it," said Chris Anderson, a Boston photographer who shot some of the photos and did some of the artistic work for the first issue of the H-Bomb before working with Oleyourrk on Boink.
The arrangement at Harvard drew criticism from people at all ends of the spectrum of opinion. Some felt the administration had no business sponsoring such a magazine. "The fact that the school allowed its name to be on that publication is a reflection of what is and isn't a concern at Harvard," said Bob Peters, president of Morality in Media.
Others involved with the production of the H-Bomb magazine felt that its freedom was stifled by the administration's involvement.
"Publicly the university supported it, but privately there was pressure to keep it tame," Anderson said.
After the H-Bomb's debut, Oleyourrk and Anderson felt that there was a market for a magazine that went further then Harvard's.
"Call a spade a spade," Oleyourrk said of the pornographic value of her magazine, the cover of which features two girls touching each other in a suggestive pose.
The magazine drew mixed reactions from University students who read it.
Second-year College student Spencer Wright, an experienced photographer, cited blurry pictures and weak lighting.
"It just doesn't look professional, it looks sleazy," Wright said, adding that some of the magazine's graphical elements appear unedited. "These photos do not appear to be doctored using computers."
This type of a magazine would be considered racy even by more liberal European standards, according to fifth-year Engineering student Michael Kantor of Belgium, who is spending a year at the University.
"These pictures are okay," Kantor said. "I don't see a point in this type of magazine. It's kind of cheap and tacky."
University students cited some aspects of the magazine that seemed to be deeply offensive, including the inclusion of an unorthodox depiction of Jesus Christ included alongside an article entitled, "Unholy Confession: What would Jesus Do?"
Second-year College student Bryan Smith said he found the article and a separate photo of a naked girl in the fetal position "disturbing."
"When I think of someone in the fetal position, I think of someone who has had a traumatic experience," Smith said. "It weirds me out. A magazine like Playboy is more artistic. Playboy doesn't have sex acts in it -- their articles are better, and it's not all about sex."
Other students appreciated the fact that a magazine like Boink made an effort to be inclusive.
"If you're going to be fair and equal, you might as well have a magazine with all types of sex," said Adrienne Patton, a third-year College student and president of the Queer Student Union.
Still, Patton expressed concern that such a magazine might inflame anti-homosexual bias if unveiled here at the University.
"I don't think a magazine like that would do well here, or any school in the South," Patton said. "I think it would be good for the LBGT [lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender] community, but the very vocal conservative group would get inflamed."
Oleyourrk dismissed such concerns, arguing that her magazine could do well at any college and said that she has received a wide range of reaction, from enormous praise to criticism at Boston University.
"It depends on people, not the campus," Oleyourrk said. "It seemed to make sense to me, why not bring something like this to a college campus? The cliché is that college is the time for experimentation, and it makes sense."
Adults who are concerned about the sexual mores of college students are skeptical of the impact such a magazine might have on what they already consider a promiscuous environment.
Peters said the magazine was more of an outgrowth of, rather than a contributor to, prevalent promiscuity on college campuses.
The magazine's first run included a target distribution of 20,000 magazines, to be sold on the Internet and throughout Boston, despite BU officials discouraging local vendors from selling the magazine. Boink's first issue was the product of a staff of 25 writers and three photographers. The magazine sells for $7.95 on the newsstand and $20 annually, according to Anderson.
How an upstart magazine such as this would fare here at the University is open to interpretation.
"I wouldn't want a magazine like this at U.Va," Smith said.
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