A Diamond in the Buff

Last February, Harvard got introduced to a peculiar undergraduate with an even more peculiar plan when Matt di Pasquale ’09, a would-be collegiate Hugh Hefner, sent out a mass e-mail calling on “all hot Harvard girls” to bear their souls and bodies for his new magazine, Diamond.

Well, now we know him better. Seven months later, the first issue of Diamond has hit the shelves and the results are astounding. Diamond is something like a journalistic version of the one-man-band: In this drama, di Pasquale is judge, jury, executioner, and the man on trial for indecent exposure. While the magazine contains a (fully-clothed) interview with a recent graduate named Fiona, a slightly outdated “look ahead” at summer blockbusters like The Dark Knight, and other such scintillating tidbits, the main attraction is a set of photos of di Pasquale posing nude at various locations around the Charles River, sometimes with his skateboard in tow. This charming tableau au naturel is complemented by an interview with di Pasquale conducted by (who else?) Matt di Pasquale.

In response to his own probing questions, di Pasquale reveals interesting facts like his tendency to “fart under the covers, Dutch oven style baby!” and that his ideal relationship includes “two or three special women.” Di Pasquale actually seems to develop an interesting rapport with himself, alternately expressing admiration, consternation, and even surprise at his own answers. The interview is prefaced by an introduction to our hero written by (drumroll, please) Matt di Pasquale, which tells us that Matt had “virtually flawless grades and SAT scores” and “scored fives on ten Advanced Placement Exams,” among other things.

Harvard has seen its fair share of new and sensational publications, from the ill-fated Scene to the pseudo-erotic H-Bomb, but never anything quite like this. In fact, I wonder if the world has ever seen a magazine featuring a nine-page interview with its editor, complete with nude photographs.

Questions ranging from what effect the nude spread will have on di Pasquale’s future career prospects to why he chose to mention that his ex-girlfriend thought his “splooge tasted like unripe bananas” are dwarfed by the sheer audacity of the act itself. The immense self-love poured into a full-color magazine essentially produced to display the mind and body of its creator is truly astounding. Diamond magazine is Harvard’s answer to Alexy Vayner, the Yale graduate who became a YouTube sensation after his preposterously self-promoting job application video “Impossible Is Nothing” made the rounds on the Internet.

Yet Matt di Pasquale is notable not because he deviates from Harvard’s social norms but because carries them to their logical extremes. The father of Diamond is not a rebel so much as the archetypal Harvard Man, right down to his professed love of two of Harvard’s largest classes, Justice and Positive Psychology. His self-authored biography reads not like a dissident’s manifesto, but instead sounds vaguely like a bizarre college essay or cover letter, establishing his academic, athletic, and extracurricular credentials. Di Pasquale is, in many ways, the ultimate representative of a Harvard culture obsessed with self-promotion.

There really is no more perfect monument to grade-grubbing, fellowship-applying, e-recruiting Harvard than a student standing naked on Weeks Footbridge wrapped in text lauding his academic accomplishments, athletic prowess, and hot bod.

So Matt di Pasquale, I salute you. As your magazine’s cover proclaims, “It’s your time to shine.”



Daniel E. Herz-Roiphe ’10, a Crimson associate editorial chair, is a social studies concentrator in Adams House.