RUS Co-President Maura H. Swan '94 said, "The photo and headlines featured on the cover are offensive because they give the dangerous message that women are only prizes awarded to men who fulfill the macho stereotype of masculinity." Swan said she had only read the cover of the magazine.
Hsu contested that he did not think the magazine was offensive to women.
"Most women who do have complaints about it--and that hasn't been many--are caught by its provocative nature," Hsu said.
He said the editorial staff is 40 percent women and would not have allowed offensive material to be included in the magazine. Hsu added that the design editor, who selected the cover picture featuring two women romantically entangled with one man, is a woman. He said the photo was chosen because it was provacative and would get people interested in the publication.
A female Inside Edge staff member said being a woman working for a men's magazine was "weird" at first, but that "they've given us a lot of power to tone things down."
"I think there's some positive stuff [in the magazine] about how guys relate to women," said the female staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The staff member said she thought the magazine would eventually evolve into a more "meaty," more mainstream men's magazine. "It's going to have to start to cover more important issues," she said.
The first issue of Inside Edge hit newsstands across the country this week amid media hype. With backing from Time-Warner Inc., expectations are high for this magazine started by two Harvard juniors. However, the magazine geared at young men has not received glowing campus reviews. Some students say the magazine is sexist, and many interviewed this week say the Harvard Lampoon's parody was better than the real thing.
Things have improved for female scholars since the 1990 Report on Women in the Sciences made sweeping recommendations to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, but graduate students and the report's principal author say there's still a long way to go for...