'Diamond:' a boy's best friend

Pamela Anderson, Playboy and Maxim, look out.

Diamond, a Harvard-based magazine featuring semi-clothed or naked students, may be the new erotica magazine of choice on Penn's campus next year.

The magazine - which has garnered national media attention - is set to release May 12 and has already stirred up controversy among students at Harvard and Penn.

The photographs will feature Harvard males in boxers and females in underwear or bikinis and will be coupled with articles addressing sexuality and issues affecting the college-aged demographic.

Creator and editor-in-chief Matt Di Pasquale, a Harvard senior, said he was still unsure if the magazine would include completely naked bodies but that the publication was "open to nudity."

If Diamond publishes an issue at Penn, Di Pasquale said he would like to showcase Penn students so readers on campus could relate to and recognize the models.

The magazine will include various sections, like "Dr. Diamond," an advice section which will focus on medical issues affecting college students.

But beyond the sexual content, the magazine's staff has far-reaching goals.

"We read magazines like Maxim, but there's nothing targeted at college kids," said a Diamond editor and Penn junior who wished to remain anonymous. "We are here to inform, empower, inspire and keep things as positive as possible."

He added that the magazine should not be "degrading" since it will not expose females or males in "negative ways."

Di Pasquale added that his chief goal was to "show that models have achievements, that they are accomplished, that they have personalities."

"A lot of people associate people at Harvard or Penn as really smart, but they don't think of them as attractive or sexy," he said.

Even before its release on campuses, the controversial magazine is already generating debate.

"There are so many intelligent girls on campus," Harvard sophomore Eliza Dewey said. "I would hate it if that were stripped away from them and if [Diamond] only focused on sexuality."

"It should be done in a tasteful way," College junior and Women's Studies major Barrie Nussbaum said. "It can be sexual without actual nudity."

Nussbaum added that she feared that Diamond may become a popular icon similar to Facebook or JuicyCampus.com.

"If it develops that obsessive talk and becomes sort of stigmatized, that would be really unfortunate," Nussbaum said.

Penn's only prior experience with literotica was Quake Magazine, an erotic magazine that Kelly Writers House and the Student Activities Council sponsored three years ago. It lasted for only one issue in spring of 2005 before it faded out.

But some feminists would still support a magazine like Diamond, according to College sophomore Rachel Squire, the editor of feminist literary journal The F-word.

"Feminism is divided," she said. "There are women that believe that as long as something isn't harming anybody, then why should it harm you?"

Squire said she was worried about a magazine like Diamond because "no matter what, people will react strongly."

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