The Conservative Union at Dartmouth, a campus political organization, is encouraging local merchants to withdraw advertising support from Spare Rib, a women's issues publication.
CUaD members said they were offended by the most recent issue of the journal.
This month's Spare Rib, called "The Sex Issue," discusses human sexuality, often in graphic detail, and on one page illustrates the vagina in various positions. Spare Rib publishes once a term.
CUaD President Matthew Berry '94 and several other students took copies of the paper to advertisers to show them Spare Rib's content.
Matthew Calkins '94, the editor in chief of The Beacon, a conservative journal, was also among the students visiting Spare Rib advertisers, Berry said.
"Almost all of the students I've talked to are quite appalled," said Bill Hall '96, CUaD's vice president. "Once the advertisers found out, many of them were really furious."
Hall said he did not visit advertisers but said he sympathizes with the students who did.
CUaD will meet tonight to discuss what organized action it will take. "It is not the purpose of the organization to shut down the Spare Rib," Berry said.
Spare Rib Editor in Chief Claire Unis '95 said the publication has no plans to respond to Berry's actions.
"We do not, at this point, plan to react to his actions until or unless contacted about a problem by our advertisers or by him," she said.
But last night, editors of Spare Rib sent electronic mail messages encouraging students to write to The Dartmouth to voice their support of the publication.
Patty Cohen, the owner of Derby Flowers, said she was shocked when two students visited her shop Friday to show her Spare Rib's November issue.
She said she told the students she could not comment on the issue until she read it. But she said after looking through the issue she would still advertise in the feminist journal.
"If I'm to advertise, I'll advertise in Spare Rib," she said. "I don't even understand what the to-do is all about. It simply made me want to advertise more."
Unis said she thought Berry did not understand Spare Rib's purpose, which she said is to promote communication and dialogue.
She said Berry acted in "a very subversive and underhanded manner."
"It seems he is trying to squash our freedom of expression -- which is a difficult action to justify ... Had he dealt with us directly, we would be better equipped to respond," Unis wrote in a statement.
Hall said Berry and the other students are not trying to infringe on the publication's freedom of expression.
"The people doing this are not trying to limit freedom of expression," he said. "They just want the advertisers to know what they're advertising in."
Spare Rib's advertising manager Courtney Murphy '95 said advertisers have not complained.
Murphy said one advertiser called to tell her that there are students going around asking advertisers to pull their sponsorship from the publication.
"It sounded more like a harassment than anything else," Murphy said. "They were going around saying 'how could you do this.' "
But Hall said three advertisers, Dartmouth Travel, Gnomon Copy and Campion's Women Shop, agreed to withdraw their ads.
Jerry Mitchell, the co-owner of Dartmouth Travel, said he no longer planned to advertise in Spare Rib.
"I thought it was tasteless and pornographic ... There's no question they've lost one advertiser," Mitchell said.
Mitchell said the students who visited him had no influence on his decision.
"We were influenced by what we saw," he said. "I'd be very surprised if the staff of the Spare Rib takes this issue home and brags about it to their parents."
Spare Rib's issue was meant to educate students and encourage dialogue about sex, Unis said.
"We were very aware that in this issue of Spare Rib, we tackled a topic which is extremely taboo -- and extremely important," she said.
Unis said Spare Rib had no political agenda or moral message about sex in the issue.
"I find it somewhat strange that the Conservative Union feels they must respond to an attempt to explore this difficult theme fairly and openly," she said. "We are talking about rights to expression."
Spare Rib Managing Editor Erika Meitner '96 said she has gotten more positive feedback from this issue than any other.
"Stirring up controversy for its own sake is one thing, but presenting an issue in its entirety, as controversial as that topic may be, is merely responsible journalism," she said.
Last year, The Dartmouth Review, the off-campus conservative weekly, accused English Professor Tom Luxon and several liberal administrators and students of mounting a campaign to discourage a local seafood catering business from advertising in The Review.
