College Visit: BU student announces plans to publish a pornographic magazine
By Jenny Kim, Staff Writer
Alecia Oleyourryk, a senior studying journalism at Boston University (BU), announced her plans to publish Boink, a sex magazine similar to Harvard's H-Bomb, which is full of sexually explicit stories and artistic images of naked students, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. However, Boink will not claim to be as artistic as H-Bomb. "We want it to turn people on, and we're not afraid to call it pornography," Oleyourryk told The Chronicle.

Collaborating with Oleyourryk is Christopher Anderson, a photographer for H-Bomb. According to The Daily Free Press, an independent newspaper at BU, Anderson contacted Oleyourryk to offer suggestions. "My primary interest in advancing this whole idea is that there is nothing shameful about nudity and sexuality," he told The Press.

Oleyourryk told The Press she hopes to release the first issue of Boink in January. However, since Oleyourryk will not receive any funding from BU, she has to raise $20,000 to cover publishing costs before she can release the first edition. Oleyourryk explained that the first issue will feature 96 pages of glossy photos of naked BU students and print material similar to professional monthly magazines, including sex columns, sex toy reviews and quizzes written by BU students. "We're going to be honest and straightforward, and it's going to be real sex," Oleyourryk told The Chronicle.

Anderson told the The Press that many of the nude images will illustrate the magazine's written content.

The magazine will also feature some more weighty topics. "We will be talking about some serious topics like pregnancy, STDs, abuse and date rape," Oleyourryk told The Press. "We plan to cover any and all sex-related issues that are relevant to college students-male, female, straight, gay or bi[sexual]." According to The Press, Oleyourryk expressed concern for the lack of opportunities students have to discuss sexual exploration on many campuses.

However, news of Boink's release has caused an array of mixed emotions. Katharina Cieplak-von Baldegg, a junior at Harvard and editor-in-chief of H-Bomb, told The Chronicle that she believes Boink is "a purely commercial venture to sell a magazine of nude photos of students." She told The Chronicle that distributing campus porn was a waste of time for students, in part because students can find better pornography on the Internet.

In contrast, Shalini Patel, a first-year student at BU, said he thinks the magazine will be a success. "I would definitely read it," he told The Press. "It sounds as if it will appeal to both sexes, which is something you never find with magazines like this."

Despite varying responses to the release of Boink, Oleyourryk told The Press that she is confident the magazine will succeed at BU. "I don't think the magazine's release will be too much of a problem because it is not something we're shoving down people's throats," she told The Press. "Readers should also know it is not affiliated with BU as an institution-it's just something extra that we want to do."

The University of Washington also recently started publishing Penitalia, an erotica magazine, which is for sale at bookstores in the Seattle area.

Issue 09, Submitted 2004-11-10 13:20:39