When Ohio’s House Bill 249 was introduced last spring, Planet Nude raised concerns about its vague language, its expansion of obscenity definitions, and what it could mean for naturists and others whose bodies defy conventional dress norms. At the time, the bill hadn’t been assigned to a committee. It has now passed the Ohio House.

On March 25, 2026, HB 249—the Indecent Exposure Modernization Act—cleared the House by a 63–32 vote, largely along party lines. It now sits in the Ohio Senate Judiciary Committee.

From suggestion to definition

What’s sharpened since our initial coverage is a specific statutory change that moves the bill from vague threat to explicit one. The bill replaces the term “private parts”—never defined in Ohio’s public indecency statute—with “private area,” a term already defined elsewhere in the Ohio Revised Code to include the genitals, pubic area, buttocks, and female breast below the top of the areola, whether nude or covered only by an undergarment.

Under the old undefined language, the legal status of topfreedom existed in genuine legal ambiguity that courts navigated case by case. Under the new language, the female breast becomes a named, codified body part whose exposure constitutes indecency. Rather than relying on vague standards like “affront” or “mature themes,” this version draws a direct anatomical line.

Laws that define indecency by specific body parts tend to reinforce longstanding asymmetries—male chests treated as neutral, female chests as regulated. For advocates of topless equality and body freedom, this is a familiar battleground. For naturists, the concern is less about any single body part and more about how expansively such definitions get applied once they’re in statute.

A topless sunbather, a nude figure at an outdoor art event, or a remote skinny dip can all become vulnerable to prosecution—not because of sexual conduct, but because of how a body is categorized under the law.

No exemption for naturist clubs

The bill’s only carve-out for breast exposure is narrow: a woman breastfeeding is not in violation if the exposed area is the breast. There is no exemption for private naturist clubs. There is no exemption for consensual adult recreational nudity. Ohio’s longstanding naturist resorts—several of them AANR-affiliated, some operating for decades—appear nowhere in the bill or its legislative record.

The statute does require that conduct be “likely to be viewed by and affront others” in the person’s proximity—language that offers private resorts some implicit protection, since guests at a clothing-optional facility can hardly claim to be affronted by the nudity they came to participate in. But that protection is factual and arguable, not codified. It depends on a jury’s reading of “affront,” on whether any portion of a resort is visible from neighboring property, and on the discretion of whoever decides to bring a charge in the first place. An explicit private-club exemption would make that protection real. The bill contains none.

Three committee hearings in the House Judiciary Committee focused almost entirely on the bill’s drag performance and gender-identity provisions. The ACLU of Ohio, in opponent testimony, raised concerns about enforcement discretion, noting that determinations of what is “patently offensive” are left entirely to the arresting officer and the charging prosecutor. That concern applies just as directly to a naturist resort as to a drag venue.

As we noted in our original coverage, this is Lovejoy’s Law in action: the appeal to child protection does real political work, keeping scrutiny fixed on drag performers while the broader definitional changes move through without comment. Rep. Angie King (R-Celina), the bill’s primary sponsor, called overbreadth concerns “the peak of fear mongering”—a response directed at critics arguing the bill could criminalize bikinis and sports bras, not at naturist concerns, which haven’t warranted a response at all. Organized naturism is watching. In a recent communication to members, AANR Executive Director Erich Schuttauf confirmed the organization is preparing to weigh in with the Senate Judiciary Committee directly.

The window

Senate Judiciary is where this can still be addressed. An amendment carving out private naturist clubs and consensual adult recreational settings would preserve the bill’s stated goals while ensuring Ohio’s naturist community isn’t collateral damage. Whether the Senate moves quickly or lets the bill sit is an open question—the 136th General Assembly runs through the end of 2026.

What’s no longer in question is the direction of travel. Over the past year, HB 249 has moved from a broad and ambiguous expansion of obscenity law to a more direct attempt to define where the boundaries of the body itself are drawn. Ohio naturists, and anyone tracking the legal landscape for body freedom, should be paying attention now. 🪐

More reading:

In the naturist world, body painting is a fairly common activity—which makes a certain kind of sense. What could be more ideal than a naked body for spreading paint on skin?

Most body painters work with brushes and sponges, covering the body completely from hair to toes, without omitting a single square centimeter. Sometimes to create abstraction, an animal likeness—or to blend a body into a natural landscape and create a sort of trompe-l’œil. In naturist spaces, the approach is often looser: buckets of water-based acrylics, big sponges, all left out for self-service. Fun and festive, without always being highly artistic—but that’s not always the goal.

My approach to body painting is very different. At the root of my art, I mostly love drawing on paper and canvas. I almost never use brushes, always markers. Initially, I didn’t envision using some of my equipment (Poscas, the only markers that are non-toxic for the skin) on bodies. To me, body painting was strictly about brushes!

Then I came across artists who only used markers at various festivals and public events. Since I regularly visit naturist campsites, it was only natural that I started drawing on people who wanted me to.

The approach of drawing with a marker is radically different from that of a brush. It’s a much finer and more angular tool, designed to create lines, lettering, symbols—and not large solid blocks of color. With this medium, you never cover the entire body.

This suits me very well. The “erased body” aspect of most body painting had always bothered me. From my very first attempts, other differences emerged: never anything on the genitals, and above all, I didn’t develop the same style as I did for my drawings on paper and canvas. Nor the same style as other body painters. So much the better—in art, the less conventional the approach, the more interesting.

On a traditional surface, I generally depict deformed, imaginary characters. That’s my thing! In a cubist and street-art style. On bodies, however, nothing figurative. Because the human form isn’t just another canvas: you have to follow its curves, its color, its presence. The drawing must serve the person, not the other way around.

This approach was quickly understood and appreciated in the naturist community, undoubtedly because it aligns with a certain philosophy. Since 2025, I have been wandering through naturist centers offering body painting sessions, followed by a photo shoot—not for simple souvenir photos: we are there to create art, even with amateur models. It is actually surprising to see how many people who have never particularly posed before do an excellent job.

Currently, nearly fifteen centers have been explored—and many more to come! For now, only in France, but perhaps one day in other countries too. The most exciting part is that every new encounter is unique. Unlike professional experiences, there are no real strict rules; quite the opposite, because the subject must feel entirely free at all times, and never constrained. There is simply an ethic: respecting everyone’s wishes, proposing rather than imposing, taking into account any potential restrictions.

The other unique aspects of the approach are brought about by the naturist setting. It wasn’t even necessary to add anything to the concept—the rest came naturally!

When I run my booth, I let people come to me, and there is no question of filtering them. Everything is inclusive, regardless of age or body appearance. Yet, even though it poses no problem for me to body-paint an obese person or an elderly person, very few dare to! Even in a naturist environment, you often encounter a sort of self-censorship. As soon as someone is “too” old, heavy, or has a body weathered by life, they are content to just watch or chat, without wishing to participate. It’s a real shame! Last summer at Bélézy, I managed to get a few older participants, but only because a young regular there went and convinced them.

This inclusivity also means that children and teenagers come to pose. Sometimes there are even more of them than adults! This is another point that sets it apart from other projects: while in the world of fine art photography, photos of children, pre-teens, and teens are quite common, it’s much less frequent for nude shoots. Even though other photographers explore this too (Sally Mann, Alain Laboile, among others).

Sometimes a child comes alone and the parent simply tags along; sometimes we do a mother-daughter session, which allows us to link them with a common motif. The results are sometimes astonishing! You’d think a child wouldn’t be patient, but they are actually so passionate that by the end, it’s the parent and I who are exhausted!

This last aspect sometimes makes the Symbiose project delicate to export. Several Facebook warnings, an Instagram account deleted without notice—over a thousand followers lost—three internet creeps I had to kick out of the project (once even notifying the authorities). So yes, despite a clear and wholesome concept, nothing is simple. Any unique artistic endeavor encounters stumbling blocks, and this project is no exception.

Every step is a new trial: searching for new centers (in summer 2026, La Chiappa in Corsica), navigating conservative vacationers who don’t always look upon it favorably, conducting the shoots without bothering anyone, social media censorship, a few malicious internet users. The life of an artist is complicated!

So why continue? Why does the project endure?

Because the positive experiences far outnumber the negative ones. Because for every problem encountered, ten positive elements counterbalance it—compliments, beautiful memories, moments of meditation, and personal growth. That is why the Symbiose project is undoubtedly not ready to stop anytime soon. 🪐

More work from Alexis and the Symbiose project a symbiose-body-painting.com.

The American Association for Nude Recreation will hold its 95th national convention August 11–16 at The Willamettans in Springfield, Oregon, and this year there’s an actual theme: “Steampunk: Past, Present & Future.”

The Willamettans (“Willies” to regulars) was founded in 1953 and is the largest nudist club in the Pacific Northwest, a member-owned co-op on 40 acres outside Springfield. It’s a well-established host, with the space and infrastructure to carry a week-long national event.

Six days of programming spans social games, a steampunk parade, golf cart jousting, tie-dye, live music by the pool, a GAT Fundraiser auction, and tournament finals, with daily meal service and a full convention meal plan available.

Whether or not you have strong feelings about steampunk, AANR is at least giving people something to dress for this year. Nudist conventions were once highly social affairs, drawing crowds that came as much for the spectacle and community as for the governance. That energy has been harder to sustain post-pandemic, and a themed event is one way to try to rebuild it.

Registration and details are at willamettans.com. 🪐

Disclosure: The author serves voluntarily on the PR Committee of the American Association for Nude Recreation.

Part I

Past episodes

The Nudist Newbies with Nate and Nikki

Meet The Nudist Newbies! Nate and Nikki are in their first year of discovering social nudism and the freedom of a clothing-free lifestyle. Join them as they learn about nudism and try to share their newfound love with others.

These two quirky nudists are relatable to anyone who is new to nudism, thinking about giving it a shot, or has been practicing it for decades.

This strip is best enjoyed in the nude. New comics every 4th Sunday!

Check out past Nudist Newbies:

Check out more Nudist Newbies

Love this? Check out the artist’s Substack.

Nudist Newbies

Creating Illustrations to help get younger people interested in nudism. Send me a message if you have ideas or want to be drawn!

Mandy Zelinka, who co-founded the online naturist community Skinny Dippers Club with her husband Jeremy Ferguson, was found dead Tuesday at their home in Venice, California. She was 49. Ferguson was also found dead at the scene. Los Angeles police are investigating the deaths as a suspected murder-suicide. Zelinka’s family has stated that her death is not believed to be self-inflicted.

Most public reporting has centered on Ferguson’s career in politics and nonprofit management. Zelinka has been less visible in mainstream coverage, identified primarily as a Portland native and local artist. Within the naturist community, she was known for something else: an effort, during the early pandemic years, to build a more accessible and inclusive entry point into nudist life.

She and Ferguson co-founded Skinny Dippers Club in 2020—an online platform designed for people outside traditional club structures, with an emphasis on inclusivity and lowering the barrier for newcomers. She also launched the Naturism Podcast around the same time, envisioning it as a listening project that would eventually become a field guide to naturism compiled from community voices. Neither project fully took off, but the conversation Zelinka was trying to have about who the nudist movement was actually serving was a real one.

Zelinka came to naturism later in life, brought in by Ferguson, who had been part of the community for years. She appeared on the New Nudist Podcast in March 2021, co-hosted by Scott Cline and this writer, and talked with characteristic directness about mental health, body acceptance, and why she found clothing-optional spaces more honest than strictly nude ones.

In the interview, she described her first experience at a clothing-optional resort in Palm Springs—arriving uncertain, staying in her bikini for two days, then finally getting in the pool. She called it “so freeing.” On why she started Skinny Dippers Club, she was equally clear: “If you don't have access to nude beaches close by for your friends, you still want access to nude people. Not because they’re nude, but because of how they think about things... they’re just status quo disruptors.”

Before moving to Southern California, she and Ferguson lived at Tiger Mountain Family Nudist Park in Issaquah, Washington—an experience she eventually turned into Escape from Tiger Mountain, a documentary she wrote, directed, edited, and produced herself. The documentary screened at film festivals in 2023, winning awards. She gave interviews, ran social media, built things. She was not someone who kept this part of her life separate from the rest of it.

For those who encountered her through that work, Zelinka was part of a newer conversation about where naturism was going, especially around who felt included and how people found their way in.

The investigation into their deaths is ongoing. 🪐

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap. This week on Planet Nude, nudity is back in the headlines. This week saw movement in the Denny Blaine beach lawsuit, legislation aimed at public nudity in Barre, Vermont, and Lupin Lodge has come off the market, tentative good news for Silicon Valley area naturists. There are more stories! It’s a packed News of the Nude week, with real stakes for where and how nudity shows up next.

As always, we’ve also got fresh Strips this week adding a bit of humor and perspective alongside the heavier news. Dive in. 🚀

This week on Planet Nude 🪐

April's News of the Nude finds naturism on defense on multiple fronts: a San Francisco judge dismissed charges against a nudist choked by a park ranger at a Bob Weir memorial; a South Carolina man faces the sex offender registry for sunbathing in his own backyard; and Spain's celebrated Cantarriján beach is quietly losing its naturist identity after beach bars banned nude customers, a reminder that informal traditions offer thinner legal protection than they appear.

Read full story

One of California’s oldest nude beaches is facing changes, possibly putting decades of use and history at risk. The story lays out what’s driving the decision, who it affects, and why the potential loss of San Gregorio would mark a significant setback for public naturist access on the West Coast.

Read full story

🎧 Listen to article:

A Vermont town is moving to ban public nudity, bringing a local issue into a broader debate over body freedom and community standards. The story breaks down what officials are proposing, why the push is happening now, and how the outcome could affect both longtime nudists and future access in the area.

Read full story

🎧 Listen to article:

A new court motion filed by Friends of Denny Blaine argues that private security guards have been misusing a court-ordered abatement plan to police topless visitors at the Seattle park, despite toplessness remaining legal under city and state law. The filing seeks clarification from the court and highlights broader concerns about enforcement authority, equal protection, and the interpretation of public space rules.

Read full story

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A sudden shift changes the outlook for one of California’s most well known naturist resorts as Lupin Lodge is pulled off the market. The story explains what led to the decision, what it means for members and the broader community, and why keeping the property intact matters for the future of established nude spaces.

Read full story

🎧 Listen to article:

A familiar debate gets unpacked in this #UndressedThread, which breaks down the perceived differences between “nudism” and “naturism” and why the distinction still matters. Comments explore how each term is used, what values they signal, and how language shapes identity, perception, and belonging within the community.

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Recent posts from 1 Naturist Life

1 Naturist Life

Back to the workbench

There’s a point every year where I can feel the shift. The air warms up, the sun sticks around longer, and suddenly being outside feels inviting again instead of something to endure. That’s usually when I find myself thinking about the workshop…

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15 days ago · 18 likes · Dustin Cox

In this personal essay, Dustin reflects on returning to nude woodworking as the weather warms, describing the practice as a kind of seasonal ritual: without clothing, he finds himself more attuned to the work, more focused, and more willing to experiment creatively, with safety protocols intact and nothing performative left in the room.

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1 Naturist Life

1 Naturist Life is a blog and community celebrating the freedom, body positivity, and culture of naturism, offering personal stories, travel tips, and insights into living naturally.

By Dustin Cox

That’s a wrap

That officially wraps up this week! Join us next Saturday for more insights and stories from the week ahead. 🪐

Spring is here, and so is News of the Nude—right on schedule, as always.

This month: a San Francisco judge dismisses charges against a nudist who was choked by a park ranger at a Grateful Dead memorial. A South Carolina man faces the sex offender registry for sunbathing in his own backyard. And one of the best naturist beaches in Spain is losing its identity—not through a ban, but through a business decision. All that and more below.

This is our fortieth edition, published on the last Friday of every month without exception since Planet Nude launched in 2023. News of the Nude is where most of our international news reporting lives—if you want just this and nothing else in your inbox, you can manage your subscription preferences at www.planetnude.co/account.

Forty issues in, and the world still has plenty to say about nudity. Here’s what it said this month. 🚀

News of the Nude, Vol. 40 🪐

Nature festival mixed up with nudist event

• BBC News | April 21, 2026

Naturists spend a lot of time explaining that they are not naturalists. So there’s something genuinely satisfying about a story where the confusion runs the other direction. Organizers of the Cumbria Nature Festival—a wildlife and conservation event scheduled for May in Workington, England—issued a public clarification after at least one prospective attendee apparently booked expecting something rather different. The post went modestly viral, gained the festival some unexpected followers, and ended with no refunds actually issued as far as I can tell. Committee member Sam Griffin told the BBC it was “a common misunderstanding” and that the response had been largely good-natured. It’s a light story, but it points to something real: the language around nudism remains genuinely slippery in the public mind, and the gap between perception and reality hasn’t closed as much as we might think. 🚀

World Naked Bike Ride confirmed for London this summer despite growing intolerance towards event

• Evening Standard | April 2026

The Evening Standard’s headline does the work here: the ride is happening “despite growing intolerance,” not simply because it’s June and it always does. Reporter Megan Howe documents a familiar squeeze—routes rerouted around Victoria Park after Tower Hamlets warned of violence risk, Hyde Park still off-limits, Saturday abandoned for Sunday. An active petition to ban the event frames nudity as a child safeguarding issue. Organizers call it a moral panic. The paper doesn’t adjudicate, but covering the ride’s return as an act of persistence rather than a calendar item says something on its own. The WNBR has run in London every year since 2004 except during the pandemic. That’s apparently no longer enough to make it routine. 🚀

Dropped trou, dropped case: Judge tosses charges against nudist choked at Bob Weir event

• SF Standard | April 8, 2026

The charges against Martin Moulton—the San Francisco nudist arrested at a January memorial for Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir at Civic Center Plaza—have been officially dismissed. Planet Nude reported on the arrest in News of the Nude in January. Body camera footage showed park ranger Antoine Fisher choking Moulton after Moulton told him not to touch him. Moulton was in the process of leaving voluntarily when the confrontation escalated. He spat in the direction of officers who continued to follow him, was tackled, and spent the evening in county jail. Judge Kay Tsenin granted the dismissal following a motion by the San Francisco public defender’s office. Deputy Public Defender Mark Goldstein said the rangers “needlessly escalated and inflamed this situation.” Moulton expressed regret about the spitting, calling it an “insulting gesture,” while maintaining that the nudists present had been “well within our rights and constitutional liberties.”

The legal outcome is clear. The broader questions the incident raises—about tactics, optics, and what effective nudist advocacy looks like in practice—a little less so. 🚀

Los Gatos nude resort no longer up for sale as owner assesses future

• Mercury News | April 21, 2026

Lupin Lodge, the historic naturist resort in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Los Gatos, has been pulled from the market after more than two years without a buyer. Listed first at $32.8 million and later reduced to $29.2 million, the property attracted serious interest but nothing closed. Owner Lori Kay Stout told the Mercury News simply: “Nothing stuck.” For naturists, the failed sale is a reprieve. When the listing first appeared in late 2023, the development language pointed toward a textile future. That Lupin is still standing, still operating, and still scheduling events—including the Naturist Society’s Western Gathering this August—is worth something. Founded in 1934 on the grounds of a Prohibition-era winery, it’s the oldest continuously operated nudist resort west of the Mississippi. It has survived a world war, recessions, wildfires, and a pandemic. A real estate downturn may just be next on the list. 🚀

Read our report

Greenville County man arrested for nude sunbathing in backyard raises legal questions

• WYFF4 | April 1, 2026

John Sullivan was arrested on March 13 and charged with indecent exposure after sunbathing nude in his own backyard in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. The arresting deputy’s report states he could clearly see Sullivan naked through the fence. Sullivan’s yard has an eight-foot solid fence on one side and a chain-link-and-slat fence on the other—a $12,000 upgrade he hadn’t gotten around to.

South Carolina’s indecent exposure statute carries up to three years and potential placement on the sex offender registry. Attorney Beattie Ashmore explained the legal line to WYFF4: being nude on your own property is generally permissible, but visibility to the general public can change the analysis, particularly depending on whether the viewer had to make any effort to see you.

It’s interesting how conditional “private” space actually is for nudists in many areas of the U.S. In South Carolina, the right to be nude at home apparently doesn’t come with much insulation from a neighbor’s sightline.

Sullivan’s case goes to court in May. 🚀

The COM has selected a candidate to build a naturist hotel at Orient Bay

• Soualiga Post | April 20, 2026

For naturists of a certain vintage, Orient Bay is a place that exists partly in memory. Club Orient—the clothing-optional resort that anchored the southern end of the beach on the French side of Saint Martin—was one of the best-known naturist destinations in the Caribbean, a full-service resort on the sand that had been operating since the 1980s. Hurricane Irma destroyed it in September 2017. What followed was nearly a decade of permits, rebuilding plans, regulatory fights, and pandemic delays, with the site sitting largely in ruins while the beach itself quietly continued to draw nudists anyway.

This month, Saint Martin’s governing body selected a developer to build something new there. SAS Griselle—whose partners are described as former owners of Club Orient and the Orient Beach Club—prevailed over a competing bid on the strength of a larger investment commitment and a faster timeline. The lease runs 60 years. Nothing is built yet and the opening is 36 months out at best. But for a destination that’s been in limbo since Irma, the selection of a developer with actual roots in what the place used to be appears to be meaningful.

This News of the Nude is sponsored by
Naturist Action Committee (NAC)

Dedicated to making naturism an accepted part of society.

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‘Clothing required’ clarification reignites Denny Blaine Park nudity fight yet again

• KOMO News | April 22, 2026

Friends of Denny Blaine filed a motion on April 20 asking King County Superior Court to confirm that toplessness is lawful throughout the park — including in zones where court-ordered signage reads “clothing required.” A hearing is set for May 1.

The filing responds to a documented pattern: private security guards hired by neighboring homeowners have been using the abatement plan—put in place last August to address public sex acts and indecent exposure—to confront and photograph topless parkgoers. Seattle police and park rangers have both confirmed that toplessness is not illegal anywhere in the park. FoDB is asking for updated signage that specifies bottoms covering genitals are required, specific enough to close the gap the guards have been exploiting. Washington’s Equal Rights Amendment, the motion argues, makes gender-selective enforcement unconstitutional regardless.

Planet Nude has been covering the fight over Denny Blaine since 2023. 🚀

Read our report

Readers defend ‘unofficial’ nudist beach after petition calls for Coolum Bay ban

• Sunshine Coast Daily / The Chronicle | April 5, 2026

A petition to ban nudists from Third Bay at Coolum Beach on Australia’s Sunshine Coast drew more pushback than signatures. The petition, titled “Ban nudism from Third Bay Coolum Beach” and citing concerns about “creepy old guys”, had gained only a handful of names when it started making the rounds, but it sparked a strong reader response that broke heavily in favor of leaving the beach alone.

Unfortunately the post is now paywalled, but the comments were worth reading. Defenders pointed out that Third Bay has operated as an unofficial nude beach for decades, that Queensland has no legal nude beaches at all despite toplessness being perfectly legal, and that the solution to not wanting to see nudity is simply going to one of the region’s many other beaches. Critics pushed back on the “creepy old guys” framing as a conflation of nudism with predatory behavior—a familiar and frustrating stereotype. 🚀

Naturists no longer welcome at popular Costa Tropical beach bars

• Sur in English | April 14, 2026

Cantarriján is one of the most celebrated naturist beaches in Spain—a protected cove on the Costa Tropical near Almuñécar, inside a natural park, consistently listed among the best in Andalucía and well known to European naturists as a destination worth the trip. It has operated as a mixed naturist-textile beach for decades, with the clothing-optional section at the southern end and chiringuitos that served everyone without much fuss.

That arrangement is ending. This spring the two beach bars told the local naturist association that naked customers were no longer welcome. The reasons are economic rather than ideological, which makes it harder to fight—no law is being broken, no ordinance to challenge. Cantarriján has no formal legal status as a naturist beach. Its identity is entirely customary, which turns out to be a thinner foundation than it looks. Still, for the naturists that occupy the beach, the stakes are real. As the local association’s president José Gamero put it to Sur in English: “Little by little the naturist character of the beach could be lost.” 🚀

Researchers unmask trade in nude images on Telegram

• SF Weekly | April 2026

Research group AI Forensics tracked more than 80,000 files shared across 16 Telegram channels between December 2025 and February 2026, finding nearly 25,000 active users exchanging intimate images of women, mostly without consent, often for money, and in some cases involving minors. Researchers also documented coordinated harassment, doxxing, and calls for sexual violence against the women depicted. It’s a serious report about serious harm, and it has nothing to do with naturism.

It does, however, have everything to do with how nudity gets talked about in policy and platform conversations—and those conversations have a way of affecting everyone. We wrote about this recently. Worth reading the report. 🚀

Read our take:

Wisconsin governor vetoes age-verification bill

• Free Speech Coalition | April 3, 2026

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers vetoed AB 105, calling it “an intrusion into the privacy of Wisconsin residents” and citing interference with access to constitutionally protected content. He pushed legislators toward device-based solutions instead. The Free Speech Coalition, which fought the bill alongside the ACLU, EFF, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, and Fight for the Future, called it a win.

It is one, for now. These bills have been passing across the country with enough momentum that a single veto doesn’t change the trajectory—it just slows it in one state. For naturist publishers, educators, and anyone running a clothing-optional community online, the practical concern has always been the same: broad definitions of adult content don’t make room for nonsexual nudity, and the data-collection requirements these laws impose create their own chilling effect regardless of what the content actually is. Wisconsin gets a reprieve. The fight continues elsewhere. 🚀

Even a nudist colony got a Maine moose permit. Guides want to change that.

• Bangor Daily News | April 1, 2026

Maine’s coveted moose hunting permits—allocated through a lottery system that distributes a small block of “lodge tags” to qualifying businesses—were apparently claimed in a prior year by an unlikely applicant: an unnamed nudist club in southern Maine. The club applied alongside restaurants, hotels, and hunting outfitters, and received a tag through a process that has drifted well beyond its original intent of supporting struggling sporting camps. The article doesn’t name the club, which makes independent confirmation impossible.

A legislative reform bill has since passed the Maine legislature to tighten eligibility and close exactly these kinds of loopholes. The club goes unidentified throughout all coverage of the story, which jokes that eligible members would still be required to wear an orange safety vest.

No comment from the club. No controversy. Just nudists, quietly participating in the civic life of their state, the same as everyone else. Which is, of course, the whole point. 🚀

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Later on, April

That’s a wrap on Vol. 40. Somewhere in southern Maine, a nudist club is sitting on a moose permit. We’ll all be okay. See you on the last Friday of May. 🪐

It’s basically the most frequently asked question of naturism. Someone always brings it up, and somehow it never gets old. Do the words mean different things to you? Is one more philosophy, one more lifestyle? Or have they basically merged? Are all naturists nudists but not all nudists naturists? Or do they apply at different times? And does the label you use actually change how people see you—or how you see yourself?

In this week’s #UndressedThread, we are asking:

What do “nudist” and “naturist” mean to you? Do you use one, both, or neither?

Drop your take in the comments. 🪐

Leave a comment

More #UndressedThreads

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Lupin Lodge, the historic naturist resort nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Los Gatos, is no longer for sale. After more than two years on the market—listed first at $32.8 million and later reduced to $29.2 million—and several failed attempts, the property has ultimately failed to attract a buyer, and owner Lori Kay Stout has pulled the listing to reassess the resort’s future.

Reporting from the Mercury News this week describes a range of serious but ultimately unsuccessful suitors: a Japanese developer with hotel plans, two schools looking to convert the property into a campus, and other buyers who fell through due to financing issues, retrofit concerns, or the ripple effects of tariffs. “Nothing stuck,” Stout told the paper.

For those who love Lupin, that’s genuinely welcome news. When the sale was first announced in late 2023, the outcome looked bleak—the real estate listing itself emphasized the property’s development potential, and most observers expected it would eventually go textile. I was quoted in The Guardian last year about what the possible loss of Lupin would mean for the movement. This feels like a reprieve.

Stout is clear-eyed about the broader context. She told the Mercury News that the nudist and naturist industry is on the wane both in the United States and worldwide. The summer ahead, she says, will be a time for reflection. “We will reassess after summer ends and when the weather starts to turn cold,” she told the paper. “We will have to see what’s going on with the naturist and nudist industry.”

Lupin has been the subject of significant coverage here on Planet Nude, including our special edition on the resort’s early history written by the late Glyn Stout. Founded in 1934 on the grounds of a Prohibition-era winery, it’s now the oldest continuously operated American nudist resort west of the Mississippi.

As it gears up for the summer, the resort is scheduling regular Spring and Summer events, including for Independence Day, International Skinny Dip Day on July 11, and its 92nd anniversary on August 1. The Naturist Society’s Western Gathering is also scheduled at Lupin this August, and that’s one I’m hoping to attend.

Lupin has survived economic collapse, a world war, recessions, wildfires, and a pandemic. It deserves a good summer. If you’ve been thinking about making a trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains, there’s no better time. 🪐

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Friends of Denny Blaine, the queer-led stewardship group that has defended Seattle's clothing-optional beach through years of legal pressure, filed a motion in King County Superior Court on Monday asking Judge Samuel Chung to clarify that toplessness remains lawful throughout Denny Blaine Park, including in the zone where the court-ordered abatement plan designates “clothing required.” A hearing is scheduled for May 1.

The filing is a response to something that has been reportedly happening at the park since the abatement plan took effect last August. As Planet Nude has reported, the abatement plan divided the park into two zones—a beach-level area designated “clothing optional” and an upper lawn area designated “clothing required”—installed under court order last July. According to FoDB, parkgoers have been “confronted, intimidated, and told to cover up their bare torsos by private security guards hired by neighboring homeowners—who have invoked the court-ordered abatement plan as justification for their directives.”1

Seattle Parks rangers and SPD officers have both said that toplessness is not prohibited anywhere in the park, but the guards have been calling the police on people anyway. Toplessness has no legal prohibition under either city or state law; Seattle repealed its lewd conduct ordinance in 1994, and Washington’s indecent exposure statute only applies when a person knows their conduct is likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm. As SPD has put it publicly, it’s the conduct, not the nudity, that determines whether a law has been broken.

Inside the motion

The motion, prepared by Perkins Coie (the firm representing FoDB pro bono since it intervened in the lawsuit earlier this year) makes a detailed legal case that the “clothing required” designation was never meant to ban toplessness. The nuisance Judge Chung identified last July was specific: public sex acts, masturbation, and genital exposure with lascivious intent. Toplessness, the filing argues, was never part of the evidentiary record before the court, never part of what any party complained about, and cannot be read into an abatement order whose scope must be construed narrowly. The motion puts it plainly:

“Just as socks and scarves are not required to cover the feet and neck, shirts are not required to cover the torso.”2

The motion draws on deposition testimony from the plaintiff's own witnesses to make the point. Stuart Sloan, the real estate developer and neighboring homeowner whose security firm is named in the filing, testified that toplessness “is not the same as full nudity,” that it had been present at the park since at least the early 1990s, and that he did not consider it a nuisance. Another plaintiff member testified that topless sunbathing by a respectful group “would not preclude her from going.” If toplessness was never the nuisance the lawsuit complained of, the motion argues, the court-ordered remedy cannot be stretched to address it.

The motion also documents the enforcement pattern itself. According to court filings, private security through Security Services Northwest has monitored the park 24 hours a day, seven days a week since April 2025. Incident reports included in the filing describe guards photographing a topless woman sunbathing, calling SPD on a person who walked topless from the beach to their car to retrieve an item, and as recently as April 4 of this year, confronting a FoDB member twice on the upper lawn as she walked topless to the restroom, telling her “there are rules that say you need to be fully clothed while walking on the upper level at Denny Blaine.” A senior park ranger who arrived on scene confirmed that toplessness is not prohibited for parkgoers of any sex or gender identity. The guard’s claim, the motion states, was not enforcement of the court’s order. It was a misrepresentation of it.

A constitutional dimension

FoDB also raises Washington’s Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in stronger terms than federal law, with no carve-out even for compelling state interests. The filing argues that selectively targeting some bare torsos while leaving others undisturbed, based on a guard’s perception of a parkgoer’s sex or gender, would be unconstitutional even if the city tried to impose it directly. A private security firm, the motion argues, cannot wield enforcement powers the government itself does not possess.

The stakes are sharpest for trans and gender-nonconforming parkgoers, who the filing identifies as among the most vulnerable and historically significant users of the park. FoDB notes that the guards’ own incident reports document attention to parkgoers’ gender presentation—whether bodies and voices matched the guard’s expectations about gender—raising obvious risks for people who don’t conform to those expectations. As FoDB put it in its statement accompanying the filing, the goal is to ensure “our state’s first official LGBTQ+ historical site isn’t erased.” Denny Blaine was added to the Washington Heritage Register last September—the first nude beach and first LGBTQ+ site so recognized in the state—a designation the motion invokes to underscore what’s at stake in how the court’s order gets interpreted.

The remedy FoDB is seeking is narrow: a court clarification that toplessness is not prohibited, and authorization for the city to update the park’s signage accordingly. The current signs read “clothing required.” FoDB is proposing language that says “bottoms covering genitals required west of fence”—specific enough to eliminate the ambiguity the guards have been exploiting, and clear enough that parkgoers of any gender identity know where they stand.

Planet Nude has been reporting on the campaign against Denny Blaine since 2023. The May 1 hearing will be the next turn in a fight that keeps finding new ground. 🪐

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FoDB’s full motion, filed April 20 in King County Superior Court, is attached here

Motion For Clarification Re Toplessness (2026

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It started with a phone call. Earlier this spring, a woman who operates a nude taxi service in St. Albans—identified by local outlet The Bridge only as “Tara”—called the clerk’s office and police department in Barre asking about permits and applications to operate there. She says she had no real intention of setting up shop in Barre. But the inquiry was enough. The Barre City Council introduced a public nudity ordinance for a first reading on March 241—the city’s first in its 200-year history.

The official agenda packet states the reason plainly: “In response to an inquiry regarding a nude taxi permit, we are proposing that the City Council enact an ordinance outlawing public nudity.” According to The Bridge, the council unanimously adopted it at a subsequent meeting, with the law expected to take effect by late April. The council meets again tomorrow, April 21, when a final vote or public hearing may take place.

Narrowing framework and naturist response

Planet Nude has been tracking the erosion of Vermont’s unusually permissive legal framework for over a year. The state is one of the few in the country where simple, nonsexual public nudity is not explicitly criminalized—provided a person doesn’t disrobe in public view. That distinction has made Vermont a bit of an outlier, where social nudity and events like Montpelier’s World Naked Bike Ride could exist without running afoul of state law. But that framework has been narrowing, city by city.

In June 2025, we reported that Burlington was taking its first steps toward a ban, driven by complaints from residents and businesses about unclothed individuals appearing downtown and in city parks. By September, Burlington’s ordinance committee had unanimously finalized the law, prohibiting exposure of genitals or the anal region in most public spaces. Fines start at $100 for a first offense, doubling for a second, and reaching $500 for a third.

Barre’s ordinance follows the same template—City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro confirmed to The Bridge he modeled it directly on Burlington’s, with minor modifications.

The American Association for Nude Recreation has been watching with concern. “We have always appreciated Vermont’s ‘live and let live’ spirit and its atmosphere of body acceptance,” AANR executive director and general counsel Erich Schuttauf told The Bridge.2 “It’s disappointing when that changes, as is happening here.” He argued that “making laws to address unique situations usually leads to problem laws. Why change what usually works?” It’s a pointed question given that Storellicastro acknowledged to The Bridge there have been no recent nudity complaints in Barre.

Barre and Burlington aren’t alone. Montpelier also restricts “immodest” public exposure under its municipal code.

That municipal trend has recently gone statewide with a legislative push that Planet Nude first reported on in February. House Bill H.683, introduced January 14 by Representatives Gregory Burtt, Michael Tagliavia, and Kenneth Wells, would go much further than any local ordinance—making public nudity a criminal offense across Vermont, with penalties of up to six months in jail or a $500 fine. The bill’s language would extend even to private property visible from public spaces, meaning someone nude in their own front yard could face charges.

H.683 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on the day it was introduced and has seen no recorded activity since. No hearings have been scheduled, no testimony taken. But it hasn’t been withdrawn either—and every new municipal ordinance passed gives its sponsors a stronger argument that Vermont’s patchwork of local rules needs a uniform statewide solution.

Make your voice heard now

The Barre City Council is scheduled to meet tomorrow, April 21, at 6pm in the Council Chambers at City Hall, 6 North Main Street—a meeting that may include a public hearing on the ordinance before any final vote. If you’re in the area, attending is the most direct way to make your voice heard. If you can’t attend in person, you can contact City Manager Nicolas Storellicastro at citymanager@barrecity.org. But make sure you do it today.

Vermonts state law hasn’t changed—at least not yet. But the space in which it means anything keeps shrinking. 🪐

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Last April, Planet Nude reported on a landmark conservation deal that put one of California’s oldest clothing-optional beaches in new hands. Now, more than a year later, the story has moved forward in concrete ways—and for regulars planning a visit this summer, there are some important logistics to know.

To recap: in April 2025, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced a $10 million agreement to acquire San Gregorio Ranch, the 195-acre coastal property that has served as the informal gateway to San Gregorio’s clothing-optional beach since at least the 1960s. The deal was celebrated by conservationists as a safeguard against development—and watched cautiously by naturists wondering what new stewardship might mean for the beach’s longstanding nude tradition.

In March 2026, the California Coastal Commission approved a permit waiver allowing POST to convert the existing private beach access road into a formal public accessway. The improvements are modest but meaningful: restored gravel road and parking area, a new entrance gate, improved pedestrian path to the beach, portable toilets, picnic tables, and better signage. A deteriorated mobile home and its septic tank will also be removed. During construction, estimated at 8 to 12 weeks, the site will be closed to visitors. Once work is complete and the land is formally transferred to POST, the beach is expected to reopen to the public in Summer 2026. Going forward, at least initially, hours and fees will mirror those at the adjacent San Gregorio State Beach lot: open from 8am to sunset, with an $8 per vehicle parking fee.

The most significant long-term development buried in the permit documents is this: POST intends to transfer operation and eventually ownership of the property to California State Parks or another public agency, with that handoff currently targeted for Spring/Summer 2027. That’s a notable shift from the more open-ended language POST used in 2025, when the organization spoke broadly about finding “a long-term steward.” State Parks is now named explicitly.

For the naturist community, this matters

State Parks manages the adjacent San Gregorio State Beach, where nude use is not formally permitted. Whether the agency would extend the same tolerance—or lack of enforcement—to the newly acquired parcel is an open question, and arguably the most important one facing the beach’s future.

When Planet Nude asked POST directly about clothing-optional use last year, the organization acknowledged the beach's history while stopping short of any guarantees. Marti Tedesco, POST's Senior Manager of Media & Communications, told us the organization is “committed to a future where public parking and access to this property and its beach remain available”—notably sidestepping any mention of nude use specifically. That posture hasn't visibly changed. POST has described its goals for the property in terms of “safe public access” and “low-key recreational use”—language that feels deliberately broad.

The nudist tradition at San Gregorio is old and resilient. The beach has been documented as clothing-optional since 1966, survived multiple ownership transitions, and outlasted most of California’s naturist clubs and many of its peer nude beaches. That durability counts for something. But the formalization of public access—new infrastructure, set hours, an $8 parking fee—does represent a shift from the freewheeling, caretaker-managed arrangement that has characterized the beach for decades. More visibility and more structure don’t always spell trouble for nude use, but they do tend to invite more scrutiny.

The transfer to State Parks, if it happens as planned, will be the real inflection point. A public planning process is expected before then, and that’s where naturist voices could matter most. As we noted last year, no formal advocacy group currently exists to represent nude beachgoers in those discussions—something that remains a gap worth filling. For now, the most practical advice is this: if you’re planning to visit San Gregorio this summer, watch for news of the construction closure and anticipated reopening date. And if you care about the beach’s future beyond this season, pay attention to what happens when State Parks enters the picture. 🪐

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Welcome to Nudeville is a comic strip that showcases the lives of a town’s residents who embrace a clothes-free lifestyle. Each frame is packed with the lighthearted, bare-all adventures of everyday nudist living.

New Nudeville comics come on the 3rd Sunday of every month.

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Welcome to the Weekly Wrap. This week on Planet Nude, the meaning of “nude” is doing a lot of heavy lifting—and not always in the right direction. One piece tracks how the word is being pulled into the orbit of harm in the age of AI image abuse, while another looks at a film where crossing into a nudist world isn’t the clean escape it first appears to be. Together, they ask a simple question with messy answers: what are we really talking about when we talk about nudity? Let’s get into it. 🚀

This week on Planet Nude 🪐

A major investigation into AI-driven image abuse raises a deeper question: what happens when “nude” becomes shorthand for harm. This essay examines how coverage of non-consensual deepfake imagery is reshaping the meaning of nudity itself—blurring the line between violation and voluntary expression—and why that shift matters for policy, platforms, and public perception. It’s a sharp look at language, power, and the unintended consequences that ripple far beyond the original crime.

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In this review by Brett Marcella, a seemingly simple “outsider discovers nudism” story turns into something stranger and more unsettled. The film A Decent Woman uses the contrast between a rigid gated community and a freewheeling nudist resort to explore class, intimacy, and belonging—before swerving into darker territory that complicates the escape it builds. It’s part character study, part social satire, and a reminder that crossing boundaries doesn’t always lead where you expect.

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Patriarchal norms in naturist spaces are holding us back

There’s a story naturists love to tell about themselves. It’s a good one. We talk about freedom, body acceptance, and a return to something more honest than the world outside. We talk about shedding not just clothes, but judgment. And for many of us, that story is real…

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Power dynamics don’t disappear when clothes come off, and this story takes a direct look at how patriarchal norms still shape behavior and expectations in naturist spaces. Using specific examples, it shows where those patterns show up, who they affect, and why acknowledging them is necessary if naturism is going to live up to its ideals of equality and freedom.

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1 Naturist Life is a blog and community celebrating the freedom, body positivity, and culture of naturism, offering personal stories, travel tips, and insights into living naturally.

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That officially wraps up this week! Join us next Saturday for more insights and stories from the week ahead. 🪐

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Neil Strahl is a comedy writer whose work has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. He’s also written for syndicated comic strips like The Grizzwells and Frank and Ernest.

Boris Grann is a Danish cartoonist trained at the Royal Swedish Art Academy. Known for his work in Swedish underground magazines, he also creates paintings, sculptures, music, and ceramics.

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Strips One-Shots is Planet Nude Strips’ banner for stand-alone comics. It’s where we publish single pieces that don’t belong to an ongoing series, giving artists the freedom to drop in a one-off gag or idea without needing a regular commitment.

Readers can expect an assortment of different artists to rotate through under this banner every 1st and 3rd Friday of the month (and sometimes intermittently). 🪐

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There are so many borders and boundaries in our lives, both physical and psychological. Navigating them is always tricky, and there’s always a question of just how necessary many of these boundaries are. In the 2016 film A Decent Woman, directed by Lukas Valenta Rinner and written by Rinner, Ana Godoy, Ariel Gurevich, and Martin Shanley, a woman discovers a new life for herself as she crosses physical and personal borders herself, with some unusual results.

Thirty two year old Belén gets a job as a maid in a fancy, gated community outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The woman who owns the home she’s hired to clean follows her around, nitpicking as she works. The woman’s athletic son mostly ignores her. While trimming the hedges outside, Belen discovers something that will change her life: a nudist resort lies next door!

The film solely follows Iride Mockert as Belén, who seems largely unaffected by her surroundings. It’s clear she needs this maid job, but there’s no explanation as to how she landed here and no emotion in her. Even as she goes out on a carnival date with the neighborhood’s gatekeeper, she seems like she’s somewhere else. She seems to be humoring him more than anything, there’s no chemistry between the two even when they go to a love hotel together. When she finally works up the courage to enter the nudist resort, it’s peaceful and idyllic in a way that the gated neighborhood is not. Belén finally undresses and joins the community there at the film’s halfway mark, where she is welcomed with open arms. It’s here that we see her openly smile for the first time.

At first, it feels like this may not be the community for her either: the members here are certainly nudists, but they are openly sexual swingers, holding tantric sex lessons and erotic poetry sessions outdoors, with Belén later running across a man masturbating alone. Definitely not what real naturist clubs are like and more of what outside people suspect goes on, which made me feel a little uneasy. Despite the discomfort this initially causes in her, she returns whenever the family she works for goes off on an athletic trip. We see her truly happy here, and she becomes more and more distant from those on the other side of the fence.

There’s obviously a stark contrast between the two communities, with the electrified fence that stands between them being uniquely emphasized and made into a plot point. The gated community itself already stands in contrast from its surroundings, especially when we see Belén walking through poorer neighborhoods, while the nudist resort is shown as a true paradise. There is the old, false statement that nudity is a great equalizer, but that very much seems to be the case in the community here, with boundaries between its members dissipating. The scenes here are so quiet and serene, despite complaints of noise from the gated community. We see young and old bodies of different shapes, sizes, and color, all sharing the space together happily. The sex stuff is a little weird, sure, but it’s all consensual, it’s far from the only thing the community here does, and it truly feels like Belén has found her place. It’s hard not to feel good for her, and it’s a perfect escape from the doting socialite Diana and her angry son. There is an emptiness in the gated community, no connection between anyone, whereas in the nudist resort everyone is connected and close with each other regardless of physical differences.

The problem lies in the movie’s finale: tragedy strikes, and things turn violent between the two communities quite suddenly. It feels out of nowhere. It doesn’t quite work, as it’s so tonally different from the rest of the movie. The satirical elements and darker humor are there from the beginning, sure, along with foreshadowing from the hunter who is always out shooting the nearby parrots, but I don’t think it’s enough to pull that big swing off, and the actual ending itself doesn’t hit the mark either, feeling inconclusive. It feels like a different movie got tacked on at the end. I understand this movie had a fairly small budget, and maybe that meant a lot had to be cut or simply couldn’t be filmed due to different constraints, but it’s hard to ignore the jarring effect it has. I have to say that this swerve does make it interesting and keeps it from entirely following the bog standard nudist movie formula of “outsider discovers and falls in love with nudism,” as well as making it yet another example of nudist fiction that gets really weird with things.

Despite that, the film is absolutely still worth watching. The filmmaking is subtle and simple, with typically very little camera movement, long takes, and music used sparingly. All of the nudist resort scenes are gorgeous, with painterly compositions adding a dreamy quality to the movie, and the chill vibes there remind me of Doris Wishman’s own nudist films. The sexuality on display is all shot tastefully, on top of being brief when shown. The movie is available to stream on Kanopy under its original Spanish title of Los Decentes, and can be rented on Prime Video as well. Kanopy’s subtitles have some misspellings and issues, but nothing that could truly disrupt the viewing experience. 🪐

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An easy one this time: Only one character and a static background. I see a lot of potential in Diluvia as a character and so I want to keep her in reserve for when I need her, so to speak.

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Greyfriar’s Isle is a comic about an island and the people who live there. A small family runs Marsh Light, a naturist campsite connected to the beach where locals and tourists spend their vacation time. The island is historically friendly to naturism, but not universally so. Also, there are ghosts and strange, eldritch island customs.

Greyfriar’s Isle is inspired by the comics I read in my youth, by the real-world island experiences I had in my youth, my ideas about what naturism should be and the stories naturists tell each other about themselves.

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Nova Unbound is a science-fiction comic by about a stranded astronaut navigating life on a strange planet beneath three suns. What begins as survival slowly becomes a journey of transformation, as Nova sheds the bonds of her old world and discovers unexpected freedom in an unfamiliar one.

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The women in the Telegram channels don’t know they’re there. Their photographs — pulled from Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat — were uploaded by someone else, traded for cash, paired with threats, used as raw material for AI tools that stripped or replaced or fabricated. Tens of thousands of them, according to a report released this week by the research nonprofit AI Forensics. The word the report uses for what was done to them is “nude.”

The word is accurate, technically. The images are nude. They are also non-consensual, fabricated, weaponized, and in some cases illegal. They are components of coordinated harassment campaigns. They have ended careers, destroyed relationships, and according to researchers who study this ecosystem, driven women from public life entirely. “Nude” is the least interesting thing about them. It is also, somehow, the word that keeps appearing in the headlines.

I want to be careful here, because the easy version of what I’m about to say is wrong. The easy version goes: the coverage is conflating nudity with harm, which is unfair to nudists. That’s not my argument. The harm in those Telegram channels is real and it is serious, and the nudity—or what passes for nudity in AI-generated images of women who never consented to be photographed, let alone undressed—is genuinely part of the harm. When someone’s likeness is fabricated into a sexual image and distributed without their knowledge, the violation isn’t merely abstract. It is intimate and it is specific and it is, in the fullest sense of the word, bodily.

What I’m interested in is something subtler. Not whether the word “nude” is being misused in these stories, but what happens to the word itself—and everything it touches—as it absorbs this meaning by accumulation.

AI Forensics spent six weeks this winter studying 16 Telegram groups operating in Spain and Italy, analyzing nearly 2.8 million messages. What they found was not a fringe subculture but what they describe as a thriving economy: over 18,000 references to surveillance tools appearing alongside more than 82,000 abusive images and videos, with users trading spyware marketed as “parental controls” alongside photographs of women they knew personally—partners, former partners, sisters, colleagues. The most extreme content depicted children in incest and rape scenarios. The Wired headline, which was more direct than the AFP wire version most outlets ran, called it what it was: men sharing nonconsensual images of women and girls, buying spyware, and engaging in doxing.

According to the report, most of the users sharing nonconsensual sexual content are young, heterosexual men sharing content of women who are their partners, former partners, or acquaintances. This is not, in other words, a story about strangers. It is a story about the intimate surveillance of people who are known, by people who know them, using tools that have become startlingly accessible. In 2023, creating a convincing deepfake required a powerful GPU and coding knowledge. By 2026, it requires only a Telegram account.

The policy response has been swift, at least by European standards. Three weeks ago, the European Parliament voted 569 to 45 to back a ban on “nudifier” systems—AI applications that create or manipulate images to depict identifiable real people in sexually explicit or intimate ways without their consent. The vote was framed, across virtually every outlet that covered it, as a win for women’s rights and child protection. “Every day, women across the EU are targeted by deep-nude AI tools that strip them of their dignity, intimidate them online and make them vulnerable to blackmail and abuse,” said Dutch Green MEP Kim van Sparrentak after the vote.

She is right. And the ban, as written, is carefully scoped: it targets systems that create non-consensual intimate images of identifiable real people, with a carve-out for platforms that have effective safeguards preventing such misuse. It is, as these things go, a reasonable piece of legislation aimed at a genuine harm.

And yet.

The word “nudifier” is doing something interesting in that legislation. It is naming an application by what the application produces—a nude image—rather than by what makes the application harmful, which is the non-consent. This is not a trivial distinction. It is, in fact, the distinction the legislation itself tries to encode in its carve-out clause. But in the public conversation surrounding the vote—in the headlines, in the MEP statements, in the advocacy framing—“nude” and “harmful” have become functionally synonymous. The nudity is the harm. The harm is the nudity.

I want to add here that I write about nudity for a living. I publish a daily newsletter called Planet Nude that covers nonsexual nudity and nude expression through history, culture, politics, and art—not sex or pornography, a distinction I have now made so many times it has lost all meaning to me personally. I have been doing this for three years. If you’re reading this now, you most likely already know all this already. You’re most likely a subscriber. Anyway, I mention it not to establish credentials but because it gives me a particular vantage point on what happens when “nude” becomes a dirty word again. Because it does, periodically. And the consequences are not abstract.

Platform moderation is perhaps the most immediate example. The Guardian’s January investigation identified at least 150 Telegram channels distributing AI-generated sexual images of women, and noted that channels shut down by the platform would reopen under near-identical names within hours. Telegram’s moderation, in other words, fails the people it most needs to protect. But platform moderation, when it does engage, tends to operate on keywords and image-detection heuristics rather than context. “Nude” trips the filter. Whether the image is a fabricated sexual assault or a photograph taken on a clothing-optional beach with the full knowledge and consent of everyone in it does not always register as a meaningful difference to an algorithm.

This is not a hypothetical. Naturist organizations, figure photographers, body-positive health advocates, and artists working in the tradition of the nude have all had content removed from major platforms in recent years—not because their content was harmful, but because it was nude, and “nude” had been defined, by accumulating association, as inherently problematic. Instagram’s nudity policies, notoriously applied with spectacular inconsistency, have resulted in the removal of mastectomy photographs, breastfeeding images, classical art, and documentary photography. The content moderation systems that were ostensibly built to protect women have, with some regularity, been turned against women’s bodies instead.

Legislation follows the same logic, slowly. When the EU Parliament's nudifier ban moves through negotiations with the Council, its careful carve-outs may or may not survive intact. What will survive, reliably, is the cultural association that has been built around the word itself. Nudity, in the discourse that produced the legislation, is something that is done to people. It is a vector of harm. It is the thing that needs to be banned. In Arizona, AANR is currently opposing HB 2133, a bill targeting non-consensual image sharing whose language is broad enough to create liability for naturist clubs and members posting consensual photographs. The bill passed the House in February and is advancing through the Senate. Nobody writing that bill set out to criminalize nudism. That's the point.

AI Forensics researcher Silvia Semenzin, speaking about the Telegram findings, made a point that the headlines largely missed: “We tend to forget that most victims are ordinary women. The majority of this violence is directed towards people who the perpetrators know.” This is important for several reasons, the most obvious being that it reframes the harm away from stranger danger and toward intimate partner abuse—which has different causes, different patterns, and different remedies than platform-level content moderation.

But it also says something else. The harm in those Telegram channels is not the nudity. The harm is the violation of trust, the weaponization of intimacy, the use of a woman’s image against her by someone who has access to it precisely because she trusted him. The nudity is the instrument. The harm is something older and more specific and, in many ways, harder to legislate away.

This matters because we are in the middle of writing the rules. The Telegram report will inform platform policy discussions. The EU nudifier ban will move through negotiations. The US Take It Down Act, signed into law last year, requires tech companies to remove non-consensual sexually explicit images within two days of notification. All of this is happening now, and the language being used to describe the problem will shape the solutions that emerge from it.

If the problem is “nude images,” the solution is to restrict nude images. If the problem is non-consensual violation of a person’s body and dignity, the solution looks different—and leaves considerably more room for the bodies and dignities of people who have chosen, freely and deliberately, to live without clothes.

I am not arguing that nudism is equivalent to the harm documented in AI Forensics’ report. I am not arguing that naturists are the real victims here, or that the concerns of the beach volleyball community should weigh against those of women whose images are being traded like commodities in Telegram channels. That would be obscene.

What I am arguing is that language matters, and that the language being used to describe this harm is imprecise in ways that have consequences beyond the immediate policy debate. Every time “nude” absorbs another connotation of violation, it becomes a little harder to talk about the body in any other register. Every time the headlines reach for the most viscerally alarming word rather than the most accurate one—and “non-consensual” is both more accurate and more alarming, if you think about it—the word “nude” does a little more work it was never meant to do.

The women in those Telegram channels deserve better than the coverage they received this week. They deserve reporting that names what was done to them with precision—not because precision is a journalistic virtue in the abstract, but because precision is what produces legislation and platform policy that actually protects them, rather than legislation and platform policy that protects everyone from nudity.

Those are not the same thing. They have never been the same thing. 🪐