An Ohio University student publication has floundered before it could publish, organizers say.
Backlash Magazine, formed last June in response to a controversial cover story in Backdrop Magazine, is no longer active as the people involved in its initial inception have declared its grassroots audience has moved on.
“Unfortunately, it seems that the appeal of Backlash dwindled between it’s creation and now. As of right now, nothing is going on — I guess it was sort of a one time thing/an idea that never really took off,” said Kaitie Firm, one of the project’s co-organizers, in an e-mail.
“Last year the project was kind of thrown together without a lot of ideas that we didn’t know what to do with.” Firm said in an interview in October.
The magazine was founded last year after student publication Backdrop Magazine published a swimsuit edition cover story, which contained eight athletic, skinny and blond models.
The magazine prompted OU senior Bethany Francis to found “Backlash Magazine,” aimed at combating a “broad media type” of the perception of beauty, Francis said in June. Francis said she has since passed Backlash on to other co-founders.
“I had several co-editors last year … I passed it on because I don’t have time this (Fall) quarter.” Francis said in an October e-mail.
Firm said in October this year the project was to formulate a more concrete plan of how to publish its message. Francis said last June she had wanted a publication to come of the effort.
“We hope to form more of an actual idea of what’s going to happen,” Frim said in October.
She said she originally wanted to schedule the meeting in October but was unable to do so during Fall Quarter. In the meantime, the Backlash website, backlashou.blogspot.com, has seen no activity since the June 2 post introducing the publication’s philosophy.
-Tristan Navera
