Editor's Letter Three members of the PRISM editorial staff. A 3-to-1 ratio. The one being Frederico, otherwise known as Pico, a PRISM photo editor. The three: three females from PRISM's editorial staff; myself, the art director and the other photo editor. Decisions, decisions ... that's what putting out a magazine is all about. When it came to deciding what this month's cover would be, a decision needed to be made. There were two choices: the worn but proud face of a Filipino veteran with a slight twinkle in his eyes or T&A. Well, not the "A" but definitely the "T". So there in front of the four of us lay these two photographs. Which one would grab and attract a potential reader? Which cover would underline PRISM's integrity as one of the best magazines put out by a university? And finally, the most important question we needed to answer: what would our mothers and grandmothers think? Now, in most situations it might be more common for the women to be against T&A. After all, we would like to think of ourselves as feminists of the '90s. But I wouldn't go so far as to say we are militant feminists of the '90s (Hear us roar!). To get back to my point, the women gave a definite thumbs up for the breast shot. Pico gave it a thumbs down to begin with. His argument: the staff at PRISM magazine wants to be taken seriously. If PRISM features a lot of nudity it may be viewed as just another pop-culture magazine, demographically inviting to teenie boppers. It won't be taken as a serious magazine with newsworthy stories. We don't want that. As editor of PRISM I had to agree. On the other hand, I was still more inclined to go with the latex photo. I began to think of other publications that have displayed different forms of nudity without damage to their integrity. An example of this is, of course, Demi Moore in Vanity Fair. Demi naked with a man's suit painted on her body. Demi naked and pregnant (although her breasts were covered by her arms and nothing was shot below her abdomen). Both were done with style. Vanity Fair's reputation remained strong and attracted the attention of its readers. With some persuading and reasoning Pico changed his mind, but with hesitation. His last stand on the matter was, "Yeah, and men who tell their wives that they read Playboy for its editorial content really go from the cover straight to the centerfold." While PRISM is not Vanity Fair and definitely not Playboy, we believe various kinds of nudity can be used tastefully on our level. And its racy nature could more accurately represent the editorial vision of the staff. A readership representing an age range of 20 to 35 years old would more likely be intrigued by a half-naked woman in latex as opposed to an older veteran, at least to begin with. PRISM has maintained its cutting-edge reputation for quite some time. After all, this is San Francisco, not Kansas. We three women felt that, for the reasons I've stated, the photo with the woman covered in Liquid Latex was a go. We agreed without hesitation that this issue would disappear off the stands. After potential readers gave a very curious eye to the cover they would flip open the magazine to such important stories as the Filipino veterans, Social Security, and a future outlook on power alternatives, just a few of the great stories in this issue of PRISM . The last question still remains unanswered. What will our mothers and grandmothers think? That's a tough one. The only answer I have, and it goes back to what my own mom use to say in her thick English accent during nudity scenes in movies, "For heaven's sake Felicity, cover your eyes!" |ISSUE #1|FEATURES|A&E|INVESTIGATIVE|GREEN WATCH| |NAKED TRUTH|IN MOTION|HEALTH|LIFESTYLES|FYI|INDEX|