Harvard Magazine--known mostly for reporting on the football team and activities of alumni--has inspired unprecedented nationwide publicity with its current issue featuring transvestite pop star Boy George on the cover, Editor John T. Bethell '54 said yesterday.

The cover story, "Androgynous Zones," written by Peter Engel '81, describes a new phenomenon of cross-sexual fashion is society, from movies to music to department stores.

The color cover features the 23-year-old singer with gawdy makeup and flowing hair, and has been the subject of stories by The Boston Globe and the Associated Press, said Bethell, adding. "We've gotten clips back from everywhere."

Ripped Off

And in addition to national press coverage, alumni reaction has been fast and furious--"A couple of people have torn off the cover and sent it back to us," Bethell said.

Editorial Secretary Janet Sylvester added that response from other irate readers has included "one nasty phone call, a letter from a woman who said it made her nauseous, and a letter from a parent that is unrepeatable."

But, Sylvester added, the magazine has also received positive feedback from readers. "We've received a lot of praise," she said, mostly from younger alumni.

The magazine rarely receives this much attention for one issue, Sylvester said. "This is the liveliest thing that has happened around here is a long time."

Author Engel is in Asia and could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The 'Most Beautiful'

The cover photo, taken from the June 1984 issue of Rolling Stone, was chosen because it "epitomized a lot of things Peter Engel said in his article, such as the mass merchandising of androgyny," Bethell said. Also, he added, the editors felt it was the "most beautiful" choice.

Readers interviewed yesterday said both the cover and the article seemed to represent a change in focus for the magazine, which generally runs Harvard-related features, alumni obituaries and University news briefs.

Herbert S. Swartz '53, a freelance magazine writer in Manhattan, called the Boy George article part of a trend toward generalizing and broadening the appeal of college alumni magazines.

Flamboyant covers, Swartz said, are used to attract newsstand customers. But he said that since Harvard Magazine's circulation consists almost entirely of alumni subscriptions, this month's cover is "a little unusual."

Other readers objected to the cover because Boy George was an inappropriate choice to accompany the article.

"By putting Boy George on the cover, they're conveying the idea that this is androgyny, when it really isn't," said Rafael A. Ruiz '85.

"The cover is-inconsequential since Boy George is boring, uninspirational, and goofy," said one undergraduate who asked not to be identified. "It looks like People Magazine," said another.

Although the magazine's newsstand sales are "negligible," according to Bethell, publicity over the January-February issue did increase sales at Out of Town News, one of the only newsstands to carry the magazine, said clerk Brian Kirby.