In February, Matthew M. Di Pasquale ’09 announced his plans to publish a campus nude magazine entitled “Diamond.” Today, the idea finally comes alive in the flesh—literally.

Di Pasquale had initially planned on publishing Diamond in magazine format, but he recently decided an online pilot issue would be cheaper and more accessible, he said.

Di Pasquale said he aims to “promote tolerance, exploration, and empowerment with regards to sex, dating, and relationships.”

He also said he wants to counter the negativity typically associated with posing nude. Those who wish to publicly display their bodies should not be judged for their choice, he said.

“Why not? What’s the big deal?” Di Pasquale said. “Looking at pictures and thinking, ‘Wow, this person is beautiful’—that’s totally acceptable.”

To emphasize this message, the editor-in-chief himself is one of the two models featured in the pilot issue.

“I did it to make a stand,” said Di Pasquale, who stripped for a local photographer by the Charles River in broad daylight.

But he does admit some reservations.

“I’m definitely nervous about it,” he said.

The issue also includes articles about sports, movies, the presidential election, and a female Harvard student’s attempt to get onto reality television.

“The common theme is what’s popular and what people are talking about,” he said.

The publication is still waiting to receive official recognition as a student group, according to Di Pasquale. Though censorship will not be an issue, the College told Di Pasquale that Diamond must prove itself to be different from “H-Bomb.”

Whereas H-Bomb takes an artistic approach towards nudity, Diamond is “more vain”—a publication where the nudity does not have to be artistic to be enjoyable, Di Pasquale said.

For now, he said he hopes to publish content online every week, but the pace of the project depends upon the recruitment of willing models.

But Di Pasquale’s belief that nudity is “natural” may have already garnered some followers.

According to the Web site for Diamond magazine, “It’s your time to shine.” But as one “Sexonymous” person wrote on the site, “it’s your time to ‘flash’ would be more fitting.”

—Staff writer Esther I. Yi can be reached at estheryi@fas.harvard.edu.