And now, college goes to Playboy

Boston University's answer to Harvard's titillating periodical, H Bomb, is about to go public, complete with full frontals and sex toy reviews.

The concept isn't new -- students at Vassar have been publishing Squirm, an erotica magazine, for five years now -- and neither is the mission. Like H Bomb, Boink's creators say the point of the magazine is to provoke discussion on a touchy subject in an open and healthy way.

It's how they go about it where things start to change.

"We started out with the same goal but did different things," said Alecia Oleyourryk, a senior journalism major at BU and Boink's co-creator. "The biggest difference between Boink and H Bomb is that we think a magazine can be artistic and porn."

When the premier issue of Boink is unveiled at a launch party at hotspot nightclub Roxy on Thursday, it promises to be an in-your-face counterweight to Harvard's literary--artistic brand of sex discussion. Co-creators Oleyourryk and Christopher Anderson, 38, who is a professional photographer, don't hesitate to describe Boink as a Playboy for the college set.

H Bomb co-creator Camilla Hrdy laughs when she hears this and says, "Let's just say, about Boink, that I will definitely take a look at it, but I don't think I'll emulate it."

The magazines' websites exemplify their differences in approach: Boink's entrance page is bright red, with big rounded letters flanked by pictures of partially nude male and female torsos, getting ready to slip off jeans and underwear.

H Bomb's background is black, the letters arty but simple, and a range of pictures float by, from a fully-dressed male immersed in a bathtub, to campy fishnet-clad legs being nipped by lips, to ethereal and spotlit shots of female nudes.

Boink's first issue will feature a review of sex furniture, while the second issue of H Bomb, tentatively scheduled for the spring, will feature a discussion of recent psychological research on the random hook-up.

"I hate porn," said Natalia Naish, '05, whose unconventional photographs of female nudes graced many pages of H Bomb's first issue. "In my opinion, porn is really boring."

Naish refers to photographs like Anderson's, which show only the young, beautiful body, in more or less salacious poses, and not, for instance, the body subverted by being covered in food, hair, or paint, as in some of her photographs.

Images like hers, Naish says, call into question stereotypical responses to nude bodies, instead of merely fulfilling our desires for them.

Oleyourryk has no pretenses about Boink's portrayal of bodies. "It's meant to arouse and excite," she said. "But that's not to say it's not artistic."

"Boink is different from Playboy and Penthouse because it has college credibility -- you'll see the models in class, but without lighting and everything -- and they'll look normal," she said. "Because they are real people, there's more grit to it."

"H Bomb is interesting because it's unerotic and shows a more introspective view of sex," says Naish. "But maybe that's typical of the Ivy League," she says, laughing. "The absence of sex."

This wouldn't surprise Anderson, who thinks that Boston's liberal politics don't extend to the bedroom.

"The attitude about sex in Boston is so conservative," said Anderson. "We're supposed to be a blue state, but we might as well be in the Midwest with the way people talk about sex." Boston's puritan side is certainly on display when campus administrators talk -- or rather, don't talk -- about their students' efforts at erotica.

BU's dean of students Kenneth Elmore issued a statement in October that said the university "does not endorse nor welcome the prospective publication Boink; nor view its publication as a positive for the University community."

BU director of media relations Colin Riley declined to elaborate, rather vehemently. "Look, I just don't think there's anything else to say," he said, when questioned about the reasons behind the administration's rebuttal of Boink, months before its publication. "Is this a bad thing for the university? No comment."

Harvard's spokesperson was equally tight-lipped and terse.

"Well, it's not like anyone's gone and taken an opinion poll," said Bob Mitchell, the director of communications for Harvard's arts and sciences faculty, in response to a question about H Bomb's reception on the Harvard campus. He then promised to call back with more information, but never did.

Of course, administrators at both colleges have good reason to remain close-mouthed about sex magazines on campus. There is the fear that, particularly with Boink, the magazines might portray students as focused on sex much more than academics.

But maybe there's some realism in that approach. "I think sex is really universal on college campuses," said Anderson. "University life is a subculture unto itself."

Certainly, both Oleyourryk and Hrdy lamented the lack of media space to share students' real experiences with sex and college life.

But now, they've chosen to show different sides of it.

H Bomb will feature short stories about girls at sleep-away camp discussing sex for the first time, and couples breaking up in parking lots.

Boink will discuss contraception and STDs.

But neither magazine is aiming for perfection.

"Magazines in general are all about celebrity and perfection," said Oleyourryk. "We're not about that."

"H Bomb's been fun," said Katharina Cieplak-von Baldegg, its co-creator.

"But I don't think we've changed anyone's life."