After much debate, the sex magazine H-Bomb, the brainchild of two Harvard undergraduates, was awarded a $2,000 grant on March 21 to fund start-up costs for its first issue, which will likely feature photos of nude Harvard students, according to The Crimson. According to Matthew Mahan, president of Harvard's undergraduate council, the $2,000 grant was based on the estimate that 4,000 of Harvard's 6,600 students will read the magazine's first issue.

In addition to nude photographs, the magazine creators hope to have essays, artwork, fiction and poetry in their magazine.

At the meeting on March 16, sophomore Christina Adams proposed an amendment to eliminate funding for H-Bomb.

"I don't think it is right for us to fund a magazine that has rape fantasies," junior Aaron Byrd , who co-sponsored the amendment, said.

Byrd referred to the proposed table of contents presented at a March 16 meeting between faculty adviser Marc Hauser and the Committee on College Life (CCL). The contents included "a controversial fictional piece about female rape fantasies."

The amendment failed six to 28, with four abstentions.

"It's hardly our role to decide if we like the content of this, but not that," junior Josh Barro told The Crimson. Barro and others were concerned about any form of censorship.

The proposed contents of the magazine include an "expos on the demented sex life of the Harvard band," a photo essay of art and porn, and an article promoting abstinence. The two student creators of the magazine, junior Camilla A. Hrdy and sophomore Katharina C. Baldegg, were not in attendance at the meeting.

Some CCL members preferred to set guidelines that H-Bomb would have to break in order to lose its Harvard stamp of approval. Others were concerned that Harvard's free speech policies were inconsistent, as sexual artwork has been allowed to be displayed in Harvard-sponsored art exhibitions.

Associate Dean Judith H. Kidd told The Crimson she received "thousands of calls" about H-Bomb. She said she worries that posing in the magazine could give students "exposure that in 20 years they'd wish they hadn't gotten."

But Hauser claimed that H-Bomb is a literary effort, responding to "pressing issues dealing with sexuality that needed a forum for discussion." He told The Crimson that the magazine has been misrepresented by the media.



- Compiled by Jonathan Krisch