Journey Magazine pushes the envelope

When you're 26 years old at some point in your life you're bound create a little controversy. Such was the case with FAMU's student run magazine --- Journey.

The latest issue which addressed love and relationships did just that.

First there was the content: A frank point-counter-point discussion on oral sex from an a male and a female point of view. Then there was the article that unpacked some other issues that we just don't want to talk about "the downlow". This was pretty heavy stuff for a Black college magazine right ? Shouldn't have been.

Last, but certainly not least, there were the pictures. One picture featured a shirtless young lady whose breast were covered by the hands of a young man who was standing behind her, and several other featured a shirtless male just being male.

The magazine, which is funded entirely by student A&S fees, received various response and prompted one its writers to pen an opinion piece in the FAMUAN to "clear the air."

"Most of the students who received it pretty much enjoyed it. But the feedback we received from most of our professors in the School of Journalism & Graphic Communication was unsettling. From "you guys are pushing the envelope" to "we can't use this for recruitment," wrote Wesley Martin, a Journey staff writer, in the FAMUAN. Martin defended the magazine by writing, "We read Cosmopolitan, Maxim and Esquire to get professional examples of how to do an adult-oriented issue. In the end, we liked the final product."

"We decided to tackle some issues that we felt weren't being covered by other mediums. Some of our content may seem risqué, but it's 2008, not 1968. Keep in mind this is a generation that was taught sex education in elementary school. The topics in the magazine are relevant to a lot of the students on our campus," Martin continued.

In the final analysis, Martin and his colleagues at Journey were right. Ruffled feathers, or not, Journey is a student magazine and the should serve the needs of the students.

The results, the magazine racks are empty and there's nary a copy to be found! And, one more thing: I won't take nothing for my journey!