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. 🪐

More to explore:

Tonight, Planet Nude contributor joins Mark Storey for The Naturist Society Foundation’s ongoing Exploring Nudist Culture series, a members-only Zoom program focused on nudist history, culture, and ideas. Storey, a longtime N magazine editor and TNSF consulting editor, hosts the series.

The session begins at 6 p.m. Pacific / 9 p.m. Eastern. TNSF members can request the Zoom invite here: https://naturistsociety.com/event/enc-202604/

Dr. Hild’s talk centers on New Life in Europe (1931), a rare Chinese-language book by diplomat Timothy M. Wang that Hild has had translated into English for the first time—and expanded into a new edition titled Birthright Bodily Freedom: Portrayal of the New Life of Europeans, alongside new research on social nakedness in Asia and the deeper prehistory of nudism before the German movement’s well-documented rise.

This work reflects Hild’s broader focus as a historian of early nudism, tracing overlooked origins and global threads that reshape how the movement is understood. The translation and accompanying research have been several years in the making, and this presentation offers one of the first public looks at that effort. If you’re interested in nudist history, Carl’s work—and especially this new book—is one to watch.

And if you’re not already a TNSF member, sign up! This event alone is probably worth joining, though the organization is well worth supporting for many other reasons. 🪐

Storm Clouds was originally serialized in Czech by Bureš from 2013 to 2014, and was translated into English by Juří Bernášek, with the English lettering done by Cor Van De Sande. A French translation also exists on the website. The comic is set a few years after what is known as the Naturist Revolution: people no longer wear clothes, and clothing itself is now outlawed contraband. At Castle Weaver, it is rumored that hidden away somewhere in the building is a tomb filled with these forbidden textiles, and there are folks out there who would like to get their hands on it. The castle’s former owner was a textile baron called Count Krakomar, who had died shortly after the revolution by hanging himself.

The story opens with the castle’s manager Adam Nilsky picking up a hitchhiker calling herself Eve, who states that she’s a student at the university and missed the bus to Castle Weaver. Both are on their way to a seminar about the growth of trees being held there. When they get there, Adam introduces Eve to everyone, gives a little talk about the castle, and warns everyone not to leave the castle grounds in the evening and to stay in their dormitories.

When night falls, a storm begins to approach and people start acting weird. Renata, one of the students, gets up to find a bathroom and is followed by a strange, clothed and masked figure. She finds a dress and puts it on before she screams and goes missing. In her room, Professor Triest withdraws some carefully hidden lingerie and puts it on. We also learn that Eve has brought a gun with her, but for what purpose, we don’t know.

There are so many questions set up in this opening, and I was expecting this to turn into a kind of locked door mystery with a killer on the loose, but I was very wrong, and the story took a surprising twist that really surprised me. The mysteries unfold at a rapid pace. If you wish to read for yourself without being spoiled, I recommend you do so now, as it’s a pretty big deal that drives the rest of the comic.

The spoiler is this: After the two run into each other while snooping around the castle, Eve reveals to Adam that she is actually an alien from the planet Naturn in Galaxy NUO35. She reveals the history of her home, which had its own naturist revolution. However, the leader of an underground resistance, Textyran (you’ll notice none of the names here are subtle), escaped the planet and came to Earth! Eve suspects he is plotting to undo Earth’s own revolution and reintroduce clothes to the population and has followed him to Earth to stop him. Okay, no more spoilers from here on in.

From there, more twists keep coming as the comic barrels towards a surprisingly downbeat, yet thoughtful conclusion. It definitely feels like it tried something different, and I appreciate it for that.

The art is a really big draw for this comic: heavy ink outlines, sometimes too heavy, over top some lovely watercolor paints that I can’t help but smile at. Castle Weaver itself is beautifully illustrated, packed with detail and history and very much a character itself. Unfortunately, the regular cast is rather bland, which dampened the impact of some of the story’s twists. An issue I had was trying to tell most of the characters apart: everyone is nude, but of similar build and their faces and hairstyles just weren’t quite unique enough for me to be able to easily differentiate between everyone. The English translation has its weaknesses, and the lettering isn’t a very professional job, but none of that is enough to make this a difficult or frustrating read. My other big issue, regarding the story is that I’d like to know more about the naturist revolution, how it took place.

It was refreshing that not once does anybody in the comic mention anything about the joys and benefits of nudism, which is something that gets crammed into almost all other nudist media. Everyone here is nude, there’s no need to explain it because, frankly, nobody who isn’t at least interested in nudism in general is going to read this. Within the history of the world in this comic, we’re past that point. To that end, there was something that caught my interest when I browsed the comments beneath the final page, and it was this particular critique by an unnamed user in 2019:

The commenter points out how the comic is just preaching to the choir, and I was reminded of a quote from the most popular Letterboxd review of the movie Act Naturally, which has stuck with me for years ever since I first read it: “If Act Naturally is any indication, Christian movies and nudist movies have something in common: they both suck. This is not to set up a dichotomy between Christianity and naturism, as one philosophy need not exclude the other. Rather, it’s to opine that adherents of either are likely to find that movies made primarily as a mouthpiece for a lifestyle or ideology fail as works of dramatic fiction.”

There’s also been some recent discussion in the Planet Nude Discord about naturist fiction in general that has been about the same thing, and I think we’re all quickly realizing how limited creators are when it comes to the subject as well as trying to reach an audience outside of nudist communities. So many nudist films of the 1960s have the same plot, where an outsider finds their way into nudism (usually by visiting a camp or resort) and falls in love with it. Act Naturally itself built off of that. There aren’t really any dramatic stakes to dig into, and as much as I enjoy these films, it’s rarely been for the story and more for the weird elements thrown on top: the criminals in Hideout in the Sun, the bizarre editing of Educating Julie, virtually everything about the Monster of Camp Sunshine, all of which I’ve reviewed for this blog. The naturist elements themselves are hardly what makes these things worth looking at, it’s everything else. I guess it’s also why I struggle paying attention to nudist social media in general because so much of it is just about the same thing over and over: yes, being nude is great! Especially when with other people! But I never get to learn about other aspects of people’s lives that AREN’T about being naked.

I think about these things a lot with Asada & Mischa too. I feel like I’m making the least nudist comic strip for this nudist blog, trying to make it about more than just nudity. You just have to make the thing you want to make and hope it finds an audience, I guess.

Were it not for the crazy twists in Storm Clouds, I don’t think I would’ve read the whole thing at all. In that respect I don’t think that anonymous commenter was right about this comic, because Bureš threw so many zany elements into it, possibly because he himself realized how boring it would be otherwise. It is a comic about naturism, yes, but also introduces an existential threat to naturism in a way I’ve never seen done anywhere else.

Looking at the creator’s website is a delight too: Bureš plays with so many different materials and styles. There’s photography, graphic design, realistically painted landscapes and portraits, and so much of it is naturist in theme. I highly recommend clicking around. There’s also an untranslated comic there called Dragonfly that I’m curious about. Looking at the pages, seeing soldiers chasing and shooting at naked people, I wonder if this may connect with Storm Clouds and be about the beginnings of the naturist revolution itself? I’m just guessing though! What do you think? 🪐

More from Brett

Editor's note: Filming on Disrobed has wrapped, but the film is not yet finished. This independent project was made possible by strong support from the naturist community, and that support is still needed. We are currently raising finishing funds for editing, sound, and festival delivery. Contributors who give $100 or more will receive a limited early-edition DVD of the completed film (shipping in 2027).

If you’d like to help bring Disrobed to completion, please consider making a donation.

Donate now

There are not many behind-the-scenes photos from the set of Disrobed. That was intentional.

We were making a feature film in a clothing-optional environment, on closed sets, with a cast that spent much of the shoot nude. Glen Eden has its own no-photography culture, and our production had its own rules as well. Together those boundaries helped protect the cast, respect the location, and build trust. They also left a strange absence once the shoot was over. Filmmaking is always temporary. You build a small world, live inside it intensely for a short time, then strike it and move on. Ideally there’s a dedicated behind-the-scenes documentarian, but even on smaller productions there are usually a few candid photos that help preserve the experience.

This time there were only a handful, and even those required careful clearance. So I decided to write things down instead. A kind of diary of the shoot.

For ten days, split between a rainy house in Altadena and the sunny grounds of Glen Eden Sun Club, Disrobed brought together several parts of my life that had mostly stayed separate before now. I was there as a camera operator, an executive producer, and an investor in the film. I was also there as a cultural liaison from the nudist world helping newbie crew members navigate that space. Usually these roles exist in separate contexts. On this project they didn’t.

Day 1: Figuring out the rhythm

We start at Arroyo Del Sol in Altadena, which serves in the script as the Schmidt family home for the first half of the movie. It’s cold, cloudy, and wetter than we hoped, though not unusual for mid-February in Southern California.

Arroyo Del Sol is the home of Cynthia and Rolf Holbach. Cynthia is the president of the Naturist Society Foundation, and she and Rolf are both founders of Southern California Naturist Association. This is not the first nudist film that has been produced in part in their home. By my count, it’s the third or fourth. They seem surprisingly accustomed to the business of a film set whirring all around their living room and kitchen.

Day one focuses on porch and bathroom scenes. The morning mostly consists of everyone getting used to each other and finding a flow. Most of our crew are non-nudists. Most of today’s scenes are clothed. But the production has a clothing-optional policy that was made clear before anyone was hired, and much of the cast is lodging on the site of our shoot. That means the crew is getting used to seeing a naked actor moving through the house between takes. It could be awkward. Instead it becomes normal surprisingly fast.

Once the work begins it’s just coverage, blocking, timing, weather, continuity, performance, and all the usual moving parts of filmmaking.

Day one I show up wearing a green felt Stetson I brought mostly to infuse a little whimsy. I always like to infuse a little whimsy on set for morale—a lesson I learned from a filmmaker mentor years ago. The hat turns out to be useful. When we’re shooting outside it helps block the sun so I can see my LCD monitor, and between takes I hang it on the camera.

A kissing scene on the porch results in the director and lead actor Troy’s lip bleeding. It was a kinetic scene. Luckily, he’s okay and no medic is needed — just makeup — and if this is the worst injury sustained on set we’ll do just fine.

The bathroom scene itself takes place in a very tight space. One of our goals is to shoot as much as possible with two cameras, but the room doesn’t allow it. Our DP, Autumn Palen, works inside the bathroom as A-camera while I spend most of the scene outside the closed door listening and preparing the next setups.

We make our day. That always feels like a victory on a first shoot day.

That night I go out to dinner with a few cast members staying on site. It feels like we’re actually doing this.

Day 2: Shooting in the rain

Back at Arroyo Del Sol. Most of the day takes place on the porch, in the hallway, and inside Axel’s room.

Arianna Evangelia joins the shoot today as Kat. She shows up wearing a bright red hat in one of her first scenes. When the shot wraps the hat migrates over to B-camera. By the end of the day both cameras have developed personalities. A-camera has the green Stetson. B-camera has Arianna’s red hat. It’s a small detail, but people laugh about it and the hat becomes a feature of the shoot. (It does.)

Light rain comes and goes, creating continuity headaches for scenes meant to happen during the same story day. We keep chasing dry windows and trying to keep the porch looking consistent from shot to shot.

One moment stands out. Ian Hayes has a scene that requires him to get into the pool. We don’t have time to warm it.

The water is freezing. Ian gets in anyway. Multiple takes. No complaints. Everyone notices that kind of professionalism.

Autumn and I are starting to develop a shorthand. There aren’t big debates about coverage. Instead we fall into a practical rhythm. Move fast. Get the angles. Stay out of each other’s way. “Hose it down,” we say. Two or three actors at a time. Quick setups. Stay ahead of the weather.

By the end of the day the crew is relaxed. Two days in, the movie feels possible.

Day 3: The day it gets hard

The weather is worse today, and we’re shooting our first major ensemble scene inside the house.

Up until now most scenes involve two or three actors. Suddenly we’re dealing with five or six people in a long interior scene adapted from a play.

To complicate things further, Autumn has a pre-existing commitment and we’re temporarily down a crew member. The problems don’t arrive as one disaster. They accumulate.

Rain complicates interior lighting against the windows. The director and actors want to maintain chronology, so we bounce around the house instead of shooting out each room. That means relighting spaces we already lit earlier. The schedule begins slipping. Small delays stack together. We lose time. We lose light. Some of the material will have to be redone.

It’s frustrating, but also familiar. Every production has days like this.

By the time we wrap, everyone knows we have work to recover. It’s gotten dark and we aren’t happy with what we’ve gotten for the day. Still, we also know Autumn will be back tomorrow and we can reset.

Day 4: Getting above it again

The day begins on the roof with Dave McClain and Karen Lasater.

After yesterday’s pressure, the rooftop feels like a reset button. The view stretches across Altadena toward Pasadena and the hills around JPL. The air is clear and the scene is simple. Everyone breathes a little easier.

Later we move to the pool.

I’ve been looking forward to this setup because we’re shooting underwater material. We’re using an underwater camera housing (and camera) from Light Forge Studios in Las Vegas, run by a longtime friend. I promised this friend I would personally operate the camera while it’s sealed inside the housing.

This becomes the first time I actually work nude on the production.

For a moment it feels slightly surreal. I’m used to being nude around other nudists, but doing it on a film set surrounded by mostly clothed crew gives me a few nerves. Then the feeling disappears. It’s just another technical setup.

While we’re shooting by the pool, Troy’s director chair — a gag gift from the writer Steven Vlasak that reads “Troy Peterson — multi-hyphenate” — suddenly tips backward while he’s watching the scene. Troy jumps out just before it collapses into a large rock positioned exactly where his head would have landed. Crisis averted again, though Troy seems determined to injure himself before the movie is finished.

Later we wait on the roof for sunset so we can shoot the field scene. Waiting for the sun to set creates one of those rare pauses during production. People start chatting and laughing while we watch the light change over the city.

When the sun finally drops we grab the shot and call it a good day.

Day 5: The redo and the field

Today we redo the material that defeated us on day three.

With the full crew back and better preparation, the difference is obvious. The performances are stronger. The coverage works. The scene flows the way it should have before.

Sometimes filmmaking really is that simple. You try again and do it better.

Later we shoot a large dolly shot in the field with several extras, and I strip down to jump into the frame for a cameo.

The moment feels oddly meaningful. It’s playful, but it also feels like a small collision between my filmmaking life and my nudist life.

One of the extras is Linda Weber, president of AANR. She didn’t realize I was actively producing and shooting the film. Seeing me working on set seems to surprise her. I notice similar reactions from others in the nudist community. I’ve been a filmmaker much longer than I’ve been a nudist advocate, but those worlds rarely intersect. Today they do.

With Linda and Rolf and Cynthia all there, a real chunk of the nudist community has turned out to watch.

After wrap we load all of our gear into my van for the move. It’s sweaty work at the end of a long day.

Tomorrow we move to Glen Eden.

Day 6: A different movie in a different climate

The shift to Glen Eden changes everything.

The weather turns hot and sunny. The space opens up. Instead of cramped interiors we’re shooting short montage moments across the resort.

The movie suddenly feels bigger.

Because I know Glen Eden well and many locals know me, the crew naturally looks to me to understand the space. I mostly stay focused on the camera work, but I also find myself quietly helping bridge the production and the location.

Later I learn the crew is uncomfortable with their offsite hotel.

After wrap we all go to Chili’s, and hearing the stories about shouting and security problems there, I decide to buy dinner for everyone. It doesn’t solve the bigger issue, but it lifts morale for the night.

Back on set we shoot the café scene, another long dialogue sequence with a large cast. Actor-heavy scenes always bring tension, but the performers handle it well.

By now the production simply feels like moviemaking.

Day 7: Solving a real problem

The morning begins with an early email from our AD about problems at the hotel.

There were security issues overnight and shouting in the hallways. The crew wants to move somewhere else. I agree immediately and offer to help cover the cost if needed.

Morale improves quickly once people know the situation is being taken seriously, but it creates a new producer problem to solve during the day. Between setups we search for replacement lodging and coordinate moving everyone’s belongings.

Meanwhile the temperature climbs.

The tent scene that morning is short and funny. Then we move to the art class and the gardens, both of which are visually playful scenes.

By now the crew feels noticeably closer. During downtime we toss a ball around with Mason from sound.

At some point the camera crew decides that if we’re waiting on actors or makeup we should jump ahead and grab material from upcoming days. It keeps us moving and helps the schedule. More importantly, it gives everyone a sense of momentum again.

Day 8: Running all over Glen Eden

The day begins at Riverside Municipal Airport.

It was tricky to secure during prep but turns out to be easy in practice. The airport is small and quiet. We get the shots quickly and move on.

From there the day becomes a marathon across Glen Eden.

We film Skye running through different parts of the property, emotional scenes in the woods, and later small interior setups for the motel and apartment.

The challenge is distance. Glen Eden covers a lot of ground, and even short montage beats require hauling equipment across the resort.

By now the crew is tired. Still, the field material we capture late in the day is strong. Ian does an incredible barrel roll on the ground in one scene — acrobatic, electric, and so funny it lights up the cast and crew to finish the day strong.

That night we all go out to dinner again. It feels like the last real hangout before the finish line.

Day 9: The ending

Because it’s a night shoot, the day begins slowly.

I sleep in and go on a hike with Ian Hayes before call. The break helps. The evening ahead feels like a finale.

This is my last day on set and the wrap day for most of the principal cast.

We’re shooting the film’s climax in Piper Hall, including a large audience scene and backstage material around the community stage.

The energy feels different from the moment we begin.

We shoot the crowd first, then spend the late hours working through the stage scenes. At one point I look around and realize the room is full of nude performers, a few crew members, and a couple dozen extras, and the atmosphere feels completely ordinary.

For a stretch I work nude myself and barely think about it. The internal logic of the production has fully settled in.

Near the end of the night the slate becomes a little artifact of the shoot, covered in drawings, jokes, and inside references.

We end the night with a playful green-screen setup where each actor gets a brief farewell moment.

It’s around three in the morning when we finally call the martini shot.

Someone surfaces a case of Modelo Especial. People cheer. Some people cry. A few of these folks have been with this project for the better part of a decade.

Then we break down the gear and say goodbye.

After

Two days later production returns for a final half-day of pickups at Glen Eden, but I’m not there for that. Instead I spend two quiet days packing gear, relaxing around the resort, and slowly easing back into normal life before heading to another job in San Diego.

I keep thinking about the lack of behind-the-scenes photos.

The no-photo rule served a purpose. It respected the location, protected the cast, and helped maintain trust. But moviemaking is a lightning-in-a-bottle experience, and once it ends, it ends.

Without images, much of it survives only in memory.

Maybe that’s why writing it down matters.

The film itself will remain. That’s the real artifact. But the experience of making it deserves a record too. Not because it was scandalous or wild. In many ways the most interesting thing about making Disrobed was how normal it became.

Once everyone settled in, it was simply a film set. A place full of problem-solving, jokes, stress, creative decisions, long days, quick resets, tired dinners, and the fragile chemistry that develops when a group of people commits to making something together.

For me personally, it also brought together parts of my life that had long stayed separate. On this shoot I didn’t feel like I was switching between filmmaker and nudist advocate depending on who was in front of me. Those roles were simply present at the same time.

For the nudists, I was a window into the filmmaking process. For the filmmakers, I helped translate the nudist world.

For me, it finally felt like everything fit together. 🪐

Donate $100 to help bring Disrobed over the finish line (and get a limited edition DVD when the film is complete):

Donate now

Jonathan Norman started Hiking Without a Stitch with a clear question: what actually happens when you take off your clothes and all the expectations that come with them and step onto the trail in your natural state?

Launched in the fall of 2025, the podcast has already grown into something more layered than its premise suggests. Over eleven episodes, Norman has moved through the full terrain of naturism, the legal landscape of public lands, the conversations with his wife and his mom who both had real questions he had to answer honestly, a therapist who found personal healing through nudity, and a men's hiking community in North Texas built on the idea that brotherhood belongs outdoors, unencumbered.

His most recent episode takes a different angle entirely, sitting down with Edward, the artist behind The Nudist Diaries, to explore how drawing the human body in everyday, non-sexual contexts can quietly dismantle the cultural reflex to treat nudity as inherently provocative. It's a conversation about art, stigma, nude beaches, and what it looks like to simply let the human body be what it is. That thread, naturism as something honest and human rather than scandalous, runs through everything Jonathan has built here, and it's exactly why we wanted to sit down with him.

Interview with Jonathan Norman March 2026

What was the moment you knew you had to start this podcast?

When I first was exploring and getting into naturism and figuring out how it all fit into my life, I knew I liked being naked and I also liked hiking. After hiking out to a local nude beach and stripping off for the first time to skinny dip and walk around. I found out that I loved the feeling of freedom and how much lighter I felt. I soon started looking for more media and representation for outdoor nude recreation.

I couldn’t find much dedicated information in audio or video format but I did find people that had blogs or shared openly on socials about their nude outdoor adventures. I realized that I could do a podcast myself and talk to these people and share their stories, to show that non sexual nudity is fun and can be done in the outdoors safely and respectfully. I feel that we need good representation if we are going to keep enjoying nudes activities out in wild places.

You say the podcast “isn’t just about nudity it’s about connection, authenticity, and living free.” What does that actually look like on the trail for you?

The nudity is a component of the bigger experience. On a trail it looks like being more aware of my surroundings and intentionally slowing down. Being more connected the smaller details around me. It’s showing a respect for the land that you’re on and the other people you may encounter.

It’s being thoughtful with when, where and how you are showing up in the view of the public. For me I want to be seen as someone who’s passionate about this way of life and the activities I’m involved in. But doing so in a respectful manner and to show that we are out hear doing this but we are doing it the rite way.

You’ve had some really vulnerable guests, your mom, your wife, a therapist. What has surprised you most about bringing the people closest to you into this conversation?

How open and curious the people closest to me have been about nudity and the benefits and how it’s changed me. It’s shown me that it’s better to be authentic and step into your truth. Even if you have to have some harder conversations or be misunderstood. It’s just better and what I’ve found is most people are actually a lot more open and understanding than we think.

For someone in the Planet Nude community who’s comfortable with social nudism but has never tried nude hiking, what’s your pitch for getting out on the trail?

If you already enjoy being naked and want to try a some what immersive experience, find a secluded area and be intentional with where you’re stripping off. There is almost endless tracks of public lands and secluded wilderness areas that present the opportunity to enjoy nature in a way that connects you back to everything around you. There is something different about it the way the sun warms your skin the and how the air shifts around parts of your body that are normally covered.

You sweat and it drips off of you instead of sitting on your shirt and shorts. Then the moment happens and you forget that you’re naked. Your thoughts and worries start to fade into the background of your mind. As you take in the sensations of being naked in nature. It’s pretty bad ass to stand naked at the top of a mountain overlooking the valley below.

You’ve talked about navigating encounters with clothed hikers and the legality of nude recreation on public lands. What’s the one thing you wish more naturists understood before heading out?

As a user group we are stewards of public lands and we aren’t the only people out on these multi-use spaces. We need to be intentional and thoughtful about the way we are showing up in these spaces. Choosing correct times, picking trails and areas that are low traffic and carrying a cover up to quickly cover up if need be. We also need to be good representation of what non sexual nudity looks like in these spaces.

Don’t act weird or like your doing something wrong. Your energy carries over to what others perceive when they encounter you. We are the face of nude recreation to a world that is uncertain about nudity. And if we don’t take care of what we already have it can be taken away and we will loose the opportunities.

What do you want someone to feel after listening to an episode of Hiking Without a Stitch for the first time?

I want someone to feel empowered to explore their own journey into non sexual nudity. I hope it gives someone the tools and the permission to go try it out themselves—whether that’s sunbathing in your backyard, hiking naked on a trail, or skinny dipping in a lake or river. We are just regular people—we just like to do it clothes-free. 🪐

🎧 Listen to Hiking without a stitch:

Nova Unbound follows a lone astronaut stranded on a distant world orbiting three suns. With her spacecraft destroyed and her mission over, Nova must learn to survive in an environment unlike anything she has known. What begins as disaster gradually becomes something else: a story of adaptation, discovery, and the strange beauty of starting over.

The series comes from illustrator Alfie, a French artist who has spent years working across illustration, animation, and comics. Under the moniker A Life Doodler, he has developed a body of work centered on the human form, with a particular focus on the female figure. His drawings explore artistic nudity, romance, and emotional storytelling through expressive line work that blends realism with a gentle, cartoon-inflected style.

With Nova Unbound, Alfie brings those interests into a science-fiction setting, combining visual storytelling with a tale about survival, transformation, and freedom on an unfamiliar world.

Ahead of the comic’s launch on Strips, we asked Alfie a few questions about his artistic path, his fascination with the human body, and the world he’s created for Nova.

Interview with Alfie, March 2026

How did your art journey begin, and what paths led you to creating Nova Unbound?

I like to say that I am simply a child who never stopped drawing. As a kid, holding a pencil was always more captivating than playing with a ball. For a long time, I didn’t think I could make a living out of it; it felt like a dream. After working in completely different fields, I finally started my freelance career, which has now spanned nearly twenty years.

My path has been diverse: I’ve illustrated children’s books, created comics for magazines, and worked on corporate communication. I also have a strong background in animation, ranging from short animated sequences to educational explanatory videos. This long experience in storytelling and movement is what led me to Nova Unbound. I wanted to combine my professional background in narrative design with my personal artistic exploration as Alfie, creating a world where the visual flow tells as much as the plot itself.

What keeps bringing you back to the human body as a subject?

It started with life drawing, the essential discipline of learning anatomy. But I quickly became fascinated by the subject itself. To me, the human body is like an open book that can tell a thousand stories.

In our society, nudity is almost always linked to erotica or pornography. While a body can be erotic, I am deeply interested in dissociating nudity from sex. I want to represent the body and specifically the female form, which is so often over-sexualized, as an embodiment of purity, innocence, and honesty. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of this subject because the body’s ability to express spontaneity and truth is infinite. Whether my style is realistic or a bit more “cartoonized,” I strive to capture that timeless elegance.

Who is Nova, and what is Nova Unbound about?

Nova is a highly skilled solo astronaut who finds herself stranded on a mysterious, unexplored planet after a catastrophic crash. With her ship destroyed beyond repair, she is forced to abandon her past life and mission.

Nova Unbound is not a story about a “damsel in distress” trying to go home; it is a narrative of adaptation and rebirth. It follows her journey as she discovers a vibrant, organic world lit by three suns. The series explores her physical and sensory awakening as she sheds the layers of her civilization to survive and eventually thrive alongside the planet’s colorful, diverse inhabitants. It’s a story about finding beauty and freedom in a place where humanity was never meant to exist.

What does “unbound” mean in this story?

In this story, “Unbound” carries a triple meaning:

1- Physical Liberation: Literally shedding the “bonds” of her heavy, high-tech spacesuit. Because of the extreme heat of the three suns and the atmospheric reaction that causes Earth fabrics to smolder, Nova must remain nude to survive. She is literally unbound from clothing.

2- Freedom from Convention: She is no longer bound by the rigid protocols, social shames, or expectations of Earth. In this new world, she is free to redefine herself. Her nudity becomes a state of pure, natural existence.

3- Organic Integration: It signals the transition from a mechanical life (bound to machines and ships) to an organic one. Like a star (a Nova) releasing its energy, she is “unbound” from her old shell, allowing her to connect deeply with the planet’s nature and its people.

What do you hope Planet Nude readers take away from this comic?

Above all: Escape. I feel that art today is often overly politicized or tied to specific ideologies. I prefer to offer a moment of relaxation, joy, and light. Even if Nova’s journey has its dark moments, there will always be a positive outcome.

I also hope to bring a sense of freshness through contemplative imagery. When I draw, I create what I would want to read myself; I am my own first reader. My approach is perhaps a bit personal in that way, but I hope that what resonates in my heart will also resonate in the hearts of those who follow Nova’s adventures. I want them to feel the suns of this new world and the beauty of a life rediscovered.

Anything else you’d like to share?

I would add that my years of professional experience have turned me into a “translator of ideas.” I love the challenge of taking a complex feeling or a sci-fi concept and turning it into a clear, evocative image.

Also, because I have spent so much of my career illustrating for younger audiences, I have kept a certain softness and benevolence in my line work. Even in a series for adults like Nova Unbound, I bring that same gentle eye. My goal is never to be aggressive or provocative for the sake of it, but to show the human form with the utmost respect and poetic sensibility. 🪐

The movie is shot in a very unique manner: the sauna is always dark, and the camera is intimately close to the women as they sweat, scrub, and speak in close proximity to each other. You hardly see the faces of whoever’s speaking throughout. More often you see the others listening and reacting. Body language is sometimes all you have to indicate who is talking with who, and yet even with faces cropped out, it never feels objectifying towards these women. Their bodies occasionally feel more abstract, especially in how they overlap in close quarters. Shots are long, with only a little bit of handheld movement, but never voyeuristic or creeping. You’re in the sauna with them, listening as they tell their stories. There are times where you can’t tell if a drop on someone’s face is sweat, water that’s been poured over them, or tears. It could well be a combination of any of them, considering the emotional intensity coinciding with the sauna’s heat and humidity.

Within this small, dark space, these women discuss their roles in society, the expectations placed upon their families, the men who desire them, their own body issues brought about by society and surgery. They discuss how difficult it is for their family members, particularly parents, to express any kind of emotion, to show that they care. In doing so, completely exposed to one another, embracing vulnerability, they are breaking this cycle.

One woman talks about how she realized she was a lesbian. Another speaks about how breast cancer has changed her. Another tells stories about her abusive mother. Two admit to having had an abortion. The cruel beating of one’s grandmother by her grandfather is discussed. Another openly details about how she was raped by more than one man, and how her mother didn’t believe her. It’s very heavy, sobering stuff, but there’s still this incredible feeling of a weight being lifted from these women’s shoulders in the time they spend together. It’s therapeutic, and the trust between them, both physical and emotional, is incredible and genuine.

And of course, it’s not all so heavy: there are plenty of smaller, lighter moments, and the women’s laughter is delightful to hear. Seeing them dance and sing together, drumming on their bellies for percussion, are some of my favorite moments.

These gatherings are a recurring ritual for these women, as we see the landscape outside of the sauna change with the seasons. Outside the small, wooden building, we see them step out into the snow together nude to quickly hop into a frozen lake, where one of them had earlier cracked open a spot in the ice. The plunge is a refreshing break from the heat indoors. We also see them chopping meat to smoke within the sauna, which they enjoy together later in the year. At one point the women dance together clothed while one plays an accordian. Later, when it’s warmer and everything is green, we see them lay outside in the grass, singing together nude in the sunshine.

We never see them outside of this location. We do not see them in their daily lives, we do not know what their jobs or hobbies are, nothing of that sort. We never see them dress or undress. When we see them clothed, it’s always in winter wear. Smoke constantly obscures things in shots, and there are strange, dreamlike moments here and there where we see the smoke superimposed over the image of an older woman who doesn’t appear anywhere else as far as I can tell. There’s also a shot of smoke receding from the trees outside, what I take to be a reverse shot, and something about it has stuck with me. It serves to drive home the cultural importance of the sauna: text at the end of the documentary expresses how this tradition is part of the UNESCO lists of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity. It’s a tradition that should be universal.

The intimate sisterhood on display here is something I personally find myself craving as I transition, but have been afraid of admitting that I desire. I see female friends doing group activities together, nothing like this of course, but going out together for spa days and things like that, and wish I could be invited. I don’t know if I’d be able to go, if I’d feel comfortable. I know I’m not a woman, even as I’ve doubled my estrogen to change my body further. I know I’m nonbinary, I know I will never experience anything in ways these women have. It feels wrong to even admit to wishing for this level of feminine connection. But I have to mention it all the same. Identity is often more complicated and stranger than you expect. If nothing else, I can be vulnerable myself as these women are in whatever ways I can.

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood is currently available to stream on MUBI, and can be rented digitally in several other places. Whatever you pay to watch it, it is worth every penny. Director Anna Hints also released a short film after this called Sauna Day. This one actually follows a group of men in a sauna together. While I haven’t been able to find it yet, I really would like to see how it compares to this incredible work. 🪐

In the mid-1800s China was seeking ways to build steel steam ships. During that process a marine architect and shipbuilder, Miers Coryell, who was from the USA, went to China and took along his young adult son, John Russell. Along the way, in 1869, that young man visited Japan and had an eye-opening, mind-altering experience – social nakedness.

Social bathing was still taking place in Japan at the time, and he was able to witness it first-hand during its waning days of common practice. That young man was John Russell Coryell, who soon would become a prolific and influential author back in the USA.

Born in 1851, in 1869 as a young man, John Russell Coryell visited Japan with friend Horace Fletcher, who would become a future natural health advocate. Coryell experienced social nakedness through mixed-sex bathing and common observance, then brought the idea home with him.

In the 1890s he wrote:

I went there in 1869. I had never until then seen a naked woman in my life. When, on my way there, I was told that in Japan I would see nude women to my heart’s content, I did not believe it. I mean that I did not believe I would ever be contented with so delectable a sight. Woman was the one mystery to me. I had been educated to long to know the one thing I must not know. Nature bade me learn and our system said, “it is shamefulness, it is lust, it is sin, vice - oh everything but natural.”

Will not any one say I was primed to plunge headlong and eagerly into the bottomless pit that yawned and waited for me? What happened? I saw hundreds, perhaps thousands, of naked women. For a little while I tried to look at each one, then nudity became commonplace, and I no longer looked for that, but, in growing delight, sought for beauty.

Ah! as long as I live, I shall not forget one dewy morning in the summer, walking the streets of Nagasaki. The city is built upon the sides of chains of hills, so that one street looks down upon the house-tops of the street below, as well as into the back gardens. I stopped again and again to drink in with my eyes the beauty of the landscape which is without a superior. Then I saw a sight that drove landscape quite out of my mind.

In a spacious back garden was a stone-curbed well; by its side stood a girl, about eighteen years old, quite nude, and holding above her a wooden pail from which the clear sparkling water was pouring upon her firm breasts. She caught sight of me as I looked, laughed gayly and called up to me a cheery good morning. I asked her if the water was not cold, and she answered joyously, “Yes, but so good.” I watched her draw up and pour two more pails of water over her glistening body. Then, with a pleasant, bright “syonara” she ran into the house.

I had never seen her before and I never saw her again. She did not scream with terror and shame at having me see her lovely body, and no vile or shameful thought entered my brain at the sight of her. She was as frank and modest and innocent as our baby girls, who have not yet been told that their persons are shameful. I dare to say the question of sex was not present in my mind when I looked at her, and I know that the remembrance of her pure unconcern under my eyes has gone far toward effacing the impurities forced into my young brain by the systems of education that I, with my fellows, was subjected to.

Coryell lived in China 1870–1875, where his father was building ships. John Russell served as a magistrate, U.S. Vice-consul in the Shanghai and Canton civil courts. He returned to San Francisco, California and worked as a newspaper journalist. He then worked at the Santa Barbara Press newspaper until 1882, after which he moved to Brooklyn, New York. He later lived in Orange County, New York and had a summer home in Readfield, Maine, where he and his family and friends engaged in social nakedness.

John Russell Coryell was called by later advocates the first American nudist. He wrote articles and books starting in the 1890s and then between 1899 and 1924 for Bernarr Macfadden’s rapidly growing and successful magazine Physical Culture and thus was able to get his message out to a very large audience through that publication as well as other Macfadden publishing house books and magazines.

In his 1893 boys’ adventure novel Diccon the Bold – A Story of the Days of Columbus, Coryell writes about the first impressions of the just discovered land in the Indies dubbed San Salvador.

The Spaniards, on their part, found everything beautiful and alluring – the mild and balmy air, the luxuriant and graceful foliage, the transparent waters teeming with strange forms of animal life, and the primitive innocence of the inhabitants, who knew nothing of the trammels of clothing, and who feared the very looks of their visitors.

The short phrase “the trammels of clothing” speaks volumes for what he will write on the topic of social nakedness over the next 30 years. His various books often make use of moral or social misidentifications due to what is being worn, and how opposite the character’s personality such assumptions turn out to be.

In April 1900, a little after the first anniversary of the production of Physical Culture magazine, an editorial likely written by John Russell Coryell was the reply salvo to a reader and those of like mind who were asking that nudes not be used in the publication.

In the reply to the letter from the Physical Director of the Y.M.C.A. (Young Men’s Christian Association) in Easton, Pennsylvania, which included 92 signatures and called for Physical Culture to stop publishing nude photos, the elegant two-page response was a very clear “no.”

The editor most sincerely appreciates the spirit which has prompted this criticism. He believes that it is made solely in the interest of the future welfare of PHYSICAL CULTURE. But, dear friends, with all due respect to you and your opinions, the writer believes most emphatically that no magazine which is designed to grow big and broad, and to be of mighty influence, dares to follow narrow policies. One of the principal causes of physical weakness and ugliness at the present time is lack of respect for the human body – is the idea that it is something vulgar to be hid and despised. Why should we be ashamed of our bodies? Are we so much inferior to other animals that we must hide every part of our own physical proportions?

The writer ventures the assertion that not a single one of our friendly critics would acknowledge that the nude to them, if beautifully proportioned, is a vulgar display. Their principal complaint is that it excites the baser passions of others. If this be the case, then is it not evidence of the necessity for reformation in those thus affected, and not of the necessity for despising, degrading and vulgarizing the human form divine?

If a corrupted, immoral mind, festered with sores of vice and sin, sees in a beautiful, wholesome human body that which excites the lasciviousness and vulgarity of his nature, is that the slightest excuse for branding this beautiful figure with the words, “Vulgar display?” If some continually gormandize and thus deprave their bodies, is that an excuse for depriving all of food? Would it not be far better to raise the standard of the human mind until it can appreciate the nude – until there is developed at least the same respect and admiration for a beautiful human body as is extended to dogs, horses and other animals when beautifully formed?

The letter goes on, but the message is clear. If your mind perceives the human form as vile, then you need to be educated about how a fine healthy specimen looks and behaves. Physical Culture had as its mission to educate the public not only about the fine qualities of the human form, but how each person could take action to achieve such a healthy form and be mentally strong.

This reply is not unlike Michelangelo’s response to Pope Julius III’s comment about the nudes painted in The Last Judgment within the Sistine Chapel. The Pope requested that Michelangelo make the art more “suitable.” The reported reply from the artist was: “Tell the Pope this is a small matter and can easily be made suitable; let him make the world a suitable place and painting will follow suit.”

The objection to nudity is in the mind of the beholder. It is not the nudes themselves, but how the public chooses to perceive them. All the Pope had to do was change people’s attitudes about nudes. It is no wonder that Michelangelo had his nose severely broken as a young man when he made such cutting commentary to others who questioned his art. His reply was similar, even if it was the Pope who was paying for and questioning his art.

In June 1900, Coryell wrote “Nudity and Purity” for Physical Culture. His September 1902 “Purulent Prudes” for the magazine focused on the foibles of wearing clothing and restricting practical education about the body.

In February 1903 the Physical Culture editorial was of the same tone. While Macfadden has often been cited as promoting a healthy physical body and doing exercises with minimal clothing and sleeping in the nude, it was Coryell who was writing the articles defending healthy nudity for children, advocating sex education, and promoting social nakedness.

In 1904, Marguerite Macfadden and her husband Bernarr Macfadden wrote the book Physical Culture for Babies. Chapter XX is “Air Baths and Sun Baths.” In it there is a discussion about the joy a baby has when allowed to be without any coverings in the sun. There are recommendations that daily air and sun baths should be offered from infancy through childhood. It is recommended that this should become a lifelong habit and that grown people should do it too.

While this is all very body positive and health promoting, the practice is only mentioned as being supervised by the mother at first, and it is hinted that later the child could take the bath by herself or himself, or with a dog for good exercise. However, there is no mention of sharing such baths with other children or in family groups.

Also in 1904, Macfadden as “Author and Editor” produced Building of Vital Power: Deep Breathing and a Complete System for Strengthening the Heart, Lungs, Stomach and All the Great Vital Organs. Early in the text he clearly states that everything written in this book as advice to the individual is equally true for men and women. As Editor he selected materials from Physical Culture, some of which were likely written by Coryell.

Chapter XVII is “Sun and Air Baths Vitalize Body.” It includes a very important statement, which it appears from its style that Coryell may have written:

Take off every article of clothing. Don’t retain the smallest kind of garment, for if you do, you are getting but a partial air bath. Partial air baths give but partial benefits.

If the temperature is mild enough, and you don’t care to take some active exercise, sit down and read. If there is any task about the room that you would like to perform, do it. The bath will go on while you are attending to other things. Two enthusiastic friends can even play cards, checkers, chess, or some similar game, and all the while the body is benefiting greatly and grandly by the bath.

This was truly expressing social nakedness in 1904. While doing non-sexual activities, one could be naked and socialize for purposes that were not based on religious practice, physical exercise, or for the purpose of cleansing the body or hygiene.

This was modern social nudity or nudism defined in 1904 and had been developed by Coryell from his experiences with social bathing in Japan in 1869. It was an activity that was a conscious decision to remove all clothing, inhibitions, and shame, to foster body acceptance and self-awareness, building self-confidence.

This definition is quite different from what was and would be promoted in Europe. The Europeans appeared to be focused on justifying going naked as the body needed full exposure to the sun to be healthy. Such nudity required rigorous physical exercise and the absence of tobacco, alcohol, and meat.

The idea of social nakedness indoors was an anathema to the Europeans and rightly so – there was no direct sunshine inside or even clean air if gas or oil lamps were in use, as well as a wood or coal stove.

However, Coryell, and subsequent Americans and later others as well, appeared to be focused on self-esteem and understanding the human form. This attitude is much more prevalent in 2025 than the European idea of the primary importance of exposure to full sun.

The research of the early 21st century and therapeutic practices of the late 20th century provide support for Coryell’s ideas and practices that can and do promote well-being through social nakedness.

The other aspect of Coryell’s ideas that were vehemently opposed was that if social nakedness were allowed indoors, what would keep it from being just a sexual romp?

The Europeans appeared to feel that being out of doors and being active in exercise was the only way of keeping those sexual energies from flooding the body and overwhelming any possible innocent intentions. However, Coryell’s indoor activities were not to be a distraction from appreciating one’s body, but an opportunity to engage with others without the constraints of clothing or excessive physical practices.

Body acceptance is a mental process of deciding to be socially naked.

The 1904 Macfadden publication also wrote of encouraging nude recreation or living in a state of nakedness as a daily practice as well as advancing the idea of free beaches:

Take one [an air bath] as often as you can; two or three every day will do you no harm. In addition to the bath in the morning, it is a first-class plan to acquire the habit of taking one whenever you are reading, or moving about the room.

Those of my readers who are camping in lonely spots, or who are living on farms where it is possible to roam about without clothing, can experience a new sense of delight and increased health….

From Chapter XXIII, “Importance of Frequent Bathing”:

Surf bathing is both a remedial agent and a tonic…. A great advantage in bathing of this kind is the fact that one gets the added benefit of sun and air.

These 1904 comments set the stage for the 20th century practices of nude camping, bare hiking, and free beach activities that became popular in the last quarter.

Coryell had taken the accepted practice of nude social bathing from Japan and combined it with his own ideas on health education as well as fostering self-esteem and body-acceptance for overall well-being. He wrote that removing one’s clothing with others offered the opportunity for healthy self-improvement. 🪐

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The First Time Experience (2021)

Directed by Stéphane Deschênes

I don’t need to tell y’all who Deschênes is, do I? He directed this short (and a sequel!) to promote naturism and his own Bare Oaks Family Naturist Park. The majority of this is our two lead women, Lauren and Leslie, in the car on the way to the park. It’s Leslie’s first time, and she’s nervous, asking Lauren all kinds of questions. Not exciting, but a nice little introduction to naturism as a concept and I love that it actually addresses body hair, erections, and menstruation as genuine concerns. Definitely good as a resource for newbies!

Watch on YouTube

Analog Roam (2002)

Directed by Kurt Wahlner

Two unrelated people, a man and a woman, leave the city to go on separate nude hikes in the woods, where they overstay their welcome and get lost as the sun sets. As someone with poor navigation skills and who gets lost quite easily and has done so while on hikes, something like this is a genuine fear of mine, especially when nude. Luckily, this short doesn’t veer into horror the way I was expecting it too and ends on a pretty funny note. The whole thing is in split screen, so you see both protagonists and what they’re experiencing at all times. It’s very neat but I’m also not entirely sure what the point of that is apart from aping Brian De Palma.

Watch on YouTube

Naked Yoga (1974)

Directed by Paul Corsden

This short film was actually nominated for an Oscar, a first for this series! Filmed in Cypress, there’s not much going on here as we watch conventionally attractive young nude women performing yoga in various, gorgeous outdoor spaces while the narrator explains the concepts of Buddhist philosophy and yoga itself as ways of becoming more in touch with ourselves. The music is chill, though occasionally it feels a little out of place.

Watch on YouTube

The Nudists From Venus (2020)

Directed by Vince Ynzunza

My favorite of this batch of shorts, this one is a historical reenactment of Samuel Eaton Thompson’s reported contact with Venusian aliens back in 1950 who frolicked nude and informed him of the return of Jesus Christ. I just find the whole thing delightful, especially as an artist who frequently sets up at a local UFO festival. I love the style of it, the use of handwriting, and the cast here is made up of body types you don’t get to see too often in these things!

Watch on YouTube

That’s it.

Which one of these shorts is your favorite? What do you like about them? Do you find anything in common amongst them apart from the nudity itself? 🪐

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More shorts 🩳

Naked World opens not unlike Naked States, showing Tunick getting arrested yet again during a shoot in New York. Where that hung over him for the majority of Naked States, we move past it quite quickly here to the real focus of this documentary. Tunick’s next big project is a world tour, attempting to photograph nudes on every continent. An undertaking like this requires more resources, and it’s made clear pretty quickly that by this point in time (2001 by my estimation, a year after the release of Naked States), Tunick has made a name for himself and become more established in the fine art world, collaborating with museums and governments in order to make this ambition of his a reality.

This is made clear in his first stop: Tunick goes to Montreal to shoot over 2000 nudes nearby the Museum of Contemporary Art. This shoot was organized with the Museum’s assistance, as well as the local government. Tunick even comments as he speaks to the crowd of models about how happy he is to know that he’s not going to get arrested on this day. We do get to see a little bit of that manic apprehension he displayed so much in Naked States, but not nearly as much. It’s also stated that this is his first time shooting such a huge group in color; every shot he makes in this project is in full color, contrasting with the black and white shots he took for Naked States.

He moves on to Paris for the next part of the project, where surprisingly he has no support. We see him running around asking strangers to model and getting turned down. Some locals talk about how while nudity in art is fine, nudity in public is still considered wrong. Deflated, Tunick turns to the internet to find a model for an Eiffel Tower shot he wants to do. An attempt to shoot at the Louvre is also interrupted by security guards with dogs. “Something about Paris, they want to attack the naked people,” he says in frustration.

Tunick was approached by members of the Tate Museum to shoot in London next. Even with their help, he’s approaching strangers with flyers on the streets in order to find models, but his shoot at the Cutty Sark goes well, and we get a nice quote about why Tunick is so driven to shoot large crowds of bodies: “I always like to think of the bodies as water, the bodies forming waves and ripples.” It reminds me that our bodies are mostly water, roughly 60%. From there, Tunick and his team travel to Dublin, where he once again has no support and seeks out individuals to model. A priest and others are interviewed about Catholicism’s grip on the country and how things are changing, a cultural insight that will become more of an ongoing thing for the rest of the documentary.

St. Petersburg, Russia is next. While Tunick spends time with some museum curators here, he’s once again shooting individuals on the fly. It’s here where he has to clarify the nature of his work more than ever before, and unlike in Naked States, this is where I realized we see him interacting more with the models themselves in this film. Throughout, we get to see him taking their hands and helping them up, grabbing their clothes, hugging and shaking hands after successful shoots, and it’s very sweet. I mentioned in my review of Naked States how the affect his work has on his models doesn’t seem to register much to him at all, but here you can tell he knows it. “I’ve always loved contemporary art and have dreamed of participating in it somehow,” one of his Russian models states. “Art is freedom. That’s freedom for me. It’s the most important thing in my life.” This is something that I quietly hope for others to feel when I draw or paint them, for my work and their involvement in its creation to mean something to them.

The next big installation shoot happens in Melbourne, Australia, for the Fringe Festival. Now that he’s more well known, it’s funny to get to hear what folks have to say about Tunick. One man is pretty critical of him, but then immediately states afterwards that he’ll be going to model for this shoot. This is the first time we see the weather actually cause issues, but the skies eventually clear and a new problem presents itself in the form of a protester running up to the group of bodies with signs as he repeatedly shouts “all men will bow to the name of Jesus Christ.” Police and assistants quickly remove him and one of Tunick’s most iconic shots is taken. I do wonder if anything like this has happened at other shoots of his. There’s also an interview with an HIV positive woman speaking about the shoot and what it meant for her that’s truly moving. We later see her with another model who’s gripped with emotion, and it’s a beautiful little moment of connection.

It’s interesting to see how Tunick and the nature of his work draws marginalized people. His Japanese models in the next segment discuss how in the corporate culture there, modeling nude would be unheard of, it’d cost you your job if your boss found out. One woman quietly states: “I do feel that I’m different from other people, but I don’t think it’s a good thing to tell other people that I’m different,” which broke my heart. When Tunick goes to Cape Town’s District 6 in South Africa, models openly discuss the Apartheid and how they are viewed. One of his models is a 73 year old political poet who mentions having been arrested in the 1970s. He reads from one of his poems about freedom, and talks about how incredible it is to get to model at his age, to keep surprising people. “I’m taking off my clothes and looking into the future, naked as I am.” This is the one place where Tunick’s work feels truly political in a way it hasn’t to me.

Antarctica is a surprising next stop, but Tunick did state he wanted to shoot nudes on all seven continents, didn’t he? His partner Kristen Bowler models for the first time here, posing with penguins, and another older model discusses stripping off in the cold and revealing the scars from where she had been severely burned as a two year old.

The project’s final stop is in São Paulo, Brazil. Tunick was approached to exhibit for the 25th Le Bienal and we see the show being set up before he sets out to do his final installation shoot for the project. These huge installations cannot happen on their own, with one person. Tunick needs to collaborate with museums and galleries, with local governments, to make these things happen, and it’s kind of awe inspiring to see how it all comes together. It’s a very different vibe from the small team he had traveling together in a van for Naked States. To see someone get the resources they need to execute such a large scale project is incredible, but…not exactly relatable for me. I will never get to achieve something like this as a watercolor painter, but that’s okay. I don’t need to.

All in all I enjoyed this much more than Naked States. Everything I found lacking in that documentary is more on display here, and the movement from one culture to the next was really fascinating. The copy I watched was a CineMax rip that I found on Youtube, with Spanish subtitles you can’t get rid of, and there seem to be other, sketchier places to watch it online as well. It seems the documentary got a DVD release, but it’s only available in the secondhand market. Again, like with Naked States, this was produced by HBO, so why it doesn’t seem to be available on HBO Max is beyond me. 🪐

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Edward Carpenter did not invent social nudism. But long before it had a movement, a magazine, or a federation, he gave it language. Drawing deeply from Walt Whitman’s poetry and expanding those ideas into philosophy, politics, and lived practice, Carpenter connected the naked body to freedom, health, and spiritual renewal. His work forms a bridge between nineteenth-century radical thought and the organized naturism that would follow.

Song of Myself was written when Walt Whitman was about 37, and first published in 1855. Edward Carpenter (1844–1929) of the United Kingdom later commented that it was a composite of so much of what Whitman would come to write over his lifetime and had the elements that offered the title of his meta-work Leaves of Grass. Carpenter felt that Whitman was a true prophet, and this particular poem is steeped with spiritual aspects and a connection to all of humanity and nature; we are all one in life, on Earth, and in the universe. It is a treatise of the diversity of America, the breadth of nature, and the oneness of it all.

Edward Carpenter went on to promote social nudity and gay rights in the UK. Carpenter would later become one of the earliest public advocates for homosexual rights in Britain and lived openly with his lifelong partner, George Merrill.

Sheila Rowbotham provides many details in her 2009 biography Edward Carpenter: A Life of Liberty and Love. He is cited as being Britain’s first nudist. As a young man Carpenter read Walt Whitman. He traveled to the USA in 1877 to meet with Whitman. They corresponded about getting back in touch with nature, breaking down class structures, socialism, and returning to pride in workmanship during the early industrial revolution. Carpenter wrote Toward Democracy in 1881, which some say reads like Walt Whitman’s poetry.

Whitman in the open air

Days With Walt Whitman — With Some Notes on His Life and Work was written by Carpenter and published in 1906. It summarized his visits with Whitman in 1877 and 1884. About their meeting in 1877 Carpenter writes:

It was his delight, and doubles one of the chief attractions of his favorite resort, to go down and spend a large part of the day by the “creek” which I have spoken of – and which figures so largely in “Specimen Days.” At a point not a quarter mile distance from the house it widened into a kind of little lake surrounded by trees, the haunt of innumerable birds; and here Whitman would sit for hours in an old chair; silent, enjoying the scene, becoming a part of it, almost, himself; or would undress and bathe in the still, deep pool. At this time he was nearly sixty years old, and for some eight years on and off had been stricken with paralysis. As is well known, he attributed his partial recovery very largely to the beneficence of this creek, with its water-baths and sun-baths and open-air influences generally.

In the same book Carpenter provides Whitman as Prophet. He waxes on that Whitman’s writings compare to the classic texts of the gospels of Jesus, the Eastern Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita, as well as Sayings of Lao-tzu, offering comparisons of thoughts and philosophies.

Carpenter looks at the inward references from Whitman and discovers that “underneath clothing, costume, ranks, trades, and occupations, the bodily form, its needs and physiology” and greater than the lessons from “the open air”;

In such simple elementary things as these — in the universal human soul, rediscovering itself in all forms, in the healthy and beautiful human body, in sex and fraternity, in the life with the earth and the open air, Whitman sees the root out of which future humanity will spring (as it has sprung in the past): out of which a society of proud, strong, free individuals who shall be brethren and lovers, may easily and naturally arise…

1881 was the same year that Carpenter read the Bhagavad Gita. He traveled to India and took up the habit of wearing sandals, which he wore the rest of his life. Carpenter associated with John Ruskin and William Morris of the British Arts and Crafts movement working toward simplicity in hand-crafted products. He returned to the USA in 1886 and again visited Whitman. Meanwhile, Whitman likewise inspired the likes of Elbert Hubbard and the Arts and Crafts movement in the USA. Carpenter, while striving for simplicity, kept a portrait of Whitman in his Millthorpe home in England.

In 1883 and revised in 1902, Carpenter wrote Towards Democracy. In it is a poem “In a Scotch-Fir Wood” where he reflects on a person going among the pine trees and listening to their advice:

O man, when wilt thou come fit comrade of such trees,
Fair mate and crown of such a scene?
Poor pigmy, botched in clothes, feet coffined in boots,
Braced, stitched, and starched,
Too feeble, alas! too mean, undignified, to be endured –
Go hence, and in the centuries come again!

Carpenter opens his 1889 book Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure with a Whitman quote: “The friendly and flowing savage, who is he? Is he waiting for civilization, or is he past it, and mastering it?” This suggests that both Whitman and Carpenter appreciated that the Eastern-based American Indians may have within their cultural foundations the philosophies that had moved around the globe from Asia. The oneness of nature and simplicity in living. Being nude in nature.

Carpenter’s 1889 book is remarkable in that he wrote about how civilization came about from hammering through and forging alliances of small groups of nomadic people. Great ideas were codified, and social structures established leading to cities and nations, as well as beliefs and religions. He then proposed, as he gazed into the future, that civilization will become global with worldwide standards and means of communicating. Some new concepts will be required that are very foreign to the thinking of the late 19th century. He mused that future generations will see the need to discard the structures that were developed to build systems. He concluded that a greater understanding will develop of the need to go back to nature, work collectively, and discard the things that are no longer needed, “and developing among others into the gospel of salvation by sandals and sunbaths!” Going back to simplicity by removing superfluous clothing he saw as an aspect of the cure to civilization.

Undoing the wrappings

In the book Carpenter wrote of how the vexation of civilization may be addressed by moving back to nature.

For no outward government can be anything but a make-shift – a temporary hard chrysalis-sheath to hold the grub together while the new life is forming inside – a device of the civilization-period….

Man has to undo the wrapping and the mummydom of centuries, by which he has shut himself from the light of the sun and lain in seeming death, preparing for his glorious resurrection – for all the world like the funny old chrysalis that he is. He has to emerge from houses and all his other hiding places wherein so long ago ashamed (as at the voice of God in the garden) he concealed himself – and Nature must once more become his home, as it is the home of the animals and angels.

As it is written in the old magical formula: “Man clothes himself to descend, unclothes himself to ascend.” Over his spiritual or wind-like body he puts on a material or earthy body; over his earth-body he puts on the skins of animals and other garments; then he hides his body in a house behind curtains and stone walls – which become to it as secondary skins and prolongations of itself. So that between the man and his true life there grows a dense and impenetrable hedge; and what with the cares and anxieties connected with his earth-body and all its skins, he soon loses the knowledge that he is a Man at all, his true self slumbers in a deep and agelong swoon.

Carpenter produced From Adam’s Peak to Elephanta in 1892 summarizing his trip to India in 1890. Not only did he comment on his own sunbathing but described the value of living without clothes.

I fancy we make a great mistake in these hot lands in not exposing our skins more to the sun and air, and so strengthening and hardening them. In the great heat and when constantly covered with garments, the skin perspires terribly, and becomes sodden and enervate, and more sensitive that it ought to be – hence great danger of chills. I have taken several sun-baths in the woods here at different times, and found advantage from doing so.

[Since writing the above, I have discovered the existence of a little society in India – of English folk – who encourage nudity, and the abandonment as far as possible of clothes, on three distinct grounds – physical, moral, and aesthetic – of Health, Decency, and Beauty. I wish the society every success. Passing over the moral and aesthetic considerations – which are both of course of the utmost importance in this connection – there is still the consideration of physical health and enjoyment, which must appeal to everybody. In a place like India, where the mass of the people go with very little covering, the spectacle of their ease and enjoyment must double the discomforts of the unfortunate European who thinks it necessary to be dressed up to the eyes on every occasion when he appears in public. It is indeed surprising that men can endure, as they do, to wear cloth coats and waistcoats and starched collars and cuffs and all the paraphernalia of propriety, in a severity of heat which really makes only the very lightest covering tolerable; nor can one be surprised at the exhaustion of the system which ensues, from the cause already mentioned. In fact, the direct stimulation and strengthening of the skin by sun and air, though most important in our home climate, may be even more indispensable in a place like India, where relaxing influences are so terribly strong. Certainly, when one considers this cause of English enervation in India, and the other due to the greatly mistaken diet of our people there, the fearful quantities of flesh consumed, and of strong liquors – both things which are injurious enough at home, but which are ruinous in a hot country – the wonder is not that English fail to breed and colonise in India, but that they even last out their few years of individual service there.]

Carpenter may have taken Whitman’s ideas and catalyzed the Indian group practicing social nakedness. In India in 1891, the British sparked an idea. It appears that correspondence between Judge Charles Edward Gordon Crawford and provocateur Edward Carpenter led to the formation of the Fellowship for the Naked Trust (FNT).

A group of three, Crawford along with Andrew and Kellogg Calderwood, met near Thane, on Salsette Island northeast of Mumbai to enjoy days without clothes. Crawford in other correspondence commented that his late wife stated that she would be accepting of life without clothing. There was a female who was interested in the activities of the FNT, but she apparently never joined the group.

Crawford wrote to Carpenter:

Andrew Calderwood and I were up at Matheran having two day’s holiday to spend naked from breakfast to evening. But that was only by shutting ourselves up tight in our room. Being indoors at our FNT meetings does not of course employ quite the same shutting up as it does in England. The room where we have “met” in this house is upstairs, lofty and spacious, and full of windows. In June Andrew Calderwood and I had a grand day. We went away to a bungalow in the Tulsi Lake without servants and spent from dinner time Saturday till five pm Sunday in nature’s garb. Servants are the great difficulty, because they are everywhere. At Tulsi, where we were quite isolate, we were able to stroll about in the veranda and round the house. I am writing this in “uniform” and we have retired to a secluded room for the purpose of spending a few hours so.

In 1892 Crawford remarried and by 1893 the FNT had ended. The very small, British-based, short-lived experiment in social nakedness in Asia had been documented and then ended. The Fellowship for the Naked Trust is cited as being the first organized nudist group in the world, and it was located in India, not far from the home of the Gymnosophists, although its purposes were different from seeking enlightenment through the discarding of material things. Carpenter was even made an “honorary member” of The Fellowship of the Naked Trust according to Sheila Rowbotham and Jeffrey Weeks in their Socialism and the New Life.

Carpenter wrote Angel’s Wings in 1898 and eloquently expressed his admiration for Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. He compared Wagner’s music, Millet’s painting, and Whitman’s poetry. Also, in Angel’s Wings Carpenter expresses his sense of how the human form and art are intertwined in an entire chapter, “The Human Body in its Relation to Art.”

That the representation of the body in Art should touch us so nearly, and that the sense of Beauty should be so especially associated with the delineation of the human figure may now seem easy to understand. For every outline and feature of the latter wakes trains of emotion in us, and is radiant with meanings. To look at a perfect body, in which all the parts are harmonized and in healthful relation, is to have by suggestion all the emotions of which the soul is capable brought into touch with each other. Thus there awakes far back in the mind a sense of harmony or health of the Soul itself – the stirring within us of some divine and universal Being – to be capable of feeling which is indeed the most excellent prerogative of Man; a sense which we endeavor to express by the word Beauty, and the conveyance of which is the highest message of Art.

We shall not I think go very far wrong if we say that in the free sane acceptance of the human Body, in all its faculties, lies the Master-key to the Art of the future.

In 1892 and revised in 1904 Carpenter wrote “Health a Conquest,” that appeared within the 1921 fifth edition compilation of a number of his articles. He reflected on his 1890 experiences in India and wrote:

Certainly the exposure of the skin to the sun and air is one of the most important conditions of health; and I believe that what we call ‘catching cold’ is greatly due to our everlasting covering it, and so checking the action of its innumerable glands.

In 1903 Carpenter wrote Love’s Coming-Of-Age. He references the notorious, fictional, but always present and objectionable “Mrs. Grundy.” In it he describes the healthy attitudes that youth have toward the body, albeit the challenges they face.

Our public opinion, our literature, our customs, our laws, are saturated with the notion of the uncleanness of Sex, and are so making the conditions of its cleanness more and more difficult. Our children, as said, have to pick up their intelligence on the subject in the gutter. Little boys bathing on the outskirts of our towns are hunted down by idiotic policemen, apparently infuriated by the sight of the naked body, even of childhood. Lately in one of our northern towns, the boys and men bathing in a public pool set apart by corporation for the purpose, were – though forced to wear some kind of covering – kept till nine o’clock at night before they were allowed to go into the water – lest in the full daylight Mrs. Grundy should behold any portion of their bodies! and for women and girls, their disabilities in the matter are most serious.

Till this dirty and dismal sentiment with regard to the human body is removed there can be little hope of anything like a free and gracious public life. With the regeneration of our social ideas the whole conception of Sex as a thing covert and to be ashamed of, marketable and unclean, will have to be regenerated. That inestimable freedom and pride which is the basis of all true manhood and womanhood will have to enter into this most intimate relation to preserve it frank and pure – pure from the damnable commercialism which buys and sells human things, and from the religious hypocrisy which covers and conceals; and a healthy delight in and cultivation of the body and all its natural functions, and a determination to keep them pure and beautiful, open and sane and free, will have to become a recognized part of national life….

But however things may change with the further evolution of man, there is no doubt that first of all the sex-relation must be divested of the sentiment of uncleanness which surrounds it, and rehabilitated again with a sense almost of religious consecration; and this means, as I have said, a free people, proud in the mastery and the divinity of their own lives, and in the beauty and openness of their own bodies.

A book that is not a book

In 1904 Elbert Hubbard had 100 copies of Whitman’s Song of Myself printed and bound at Roycroft. This may have been for what would have been the 85th anniversary of Whitman’s birth or in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of the book’s first publication in 1855. Copy #37 was prepared for Carpenter’s 60th birthday. It was hand illuminated with “This little book is a token of regard to Edward Carpenter from.” It was then signed by seven significant individuals whose names read like a roll call of early twentieth-century reform.

William Johnson, likely the one from Coventry, NY, known as “Pussyfoot” for his prohibition work in Indian territories of Oklahoma, leader of the Anti-Saloon League, and active in the temperance movement, who traveled globally with the World League Against Alcoholism.

Elbert Hubbard, director of Roycroft and leader in the Arts and Crafts movement in the USA, who challenged the social norms of clothing of the time and in 1898 and 1908 published Carpenter, Morris, Salt, Shaw, and Wallace’s Hand and Brain: A Symposium of Essays on Socialism.

Charles H. Kerr, whose family moved from Georgia to Wisconsin via the Underground Railroad, a publisher who produced International Socialist Review along with radical, socialist, feminist, temperance, and labor histories, publishing Clarence Darrow, Isadora Duncan, Jack London, and Upton Sinclair, and sympathetic to the Industrial Workers of the World.

Alice B. Stockham, MD, who in 1892 became the fifth woman to earn a medical degree in the USA, an OBGYN who established her own publishing company to produce progressive literature, supported equal rights, dress reform, birth control, and sex education, promoted tantra sex, befriended Havelock Ellis, opposed tobacco and alcohol, and was defended by Clarence Darrow in 1905 for sending the 1903 edition of her book Karezza on marital couples sex and health education materials through the mail, a case that cost her dearly.

Clarence S. Darrow, attorney in the Scopes Monkey Trial and in Alice B. Stockham’s trial, and an early supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Oscar L. Triggs, expert on Walt Whitman, who met William Morris of the Arts and Crafts movement in the UK in 1883 and twice visited Merton Abbey Mills, a site of Morris’s socialist activities, who may also have met Edward Carpenter while in the UK, and who later became a founding member of the Industrial Arts League in 1899 and founder of the first Morris Society, 1903–05, in Chicago.

(Laura) Jane Addams, founder of Hull House in Chicago, feminist, charter member of the NAACP, suffragette activist, founding member of the American Sociological Society in 1905, the first woman to receive an honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale University in 1910, co-founder of the ACLU in 1920, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1931, later inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame.

On the closing page of the book is a statement printed in all uppercase letters in red ink:

SO HERE ENDETH THE “SONG OF MYSELF,” AS WRITTEN BY WALT WHITMAN. DONE INTO PRINT [THIS IS NO BOOK, WHO TOUCHES THIS TOUCHES A MAN.] BY THE ROYCROFTERS AT THEIR SHOP, WHICH IS IN EAST AURORA, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK, U. S. A. COMPLETED IN FEBRUARY, ANNO DOMINI, MCMIV

The square-bracketed line comes from Whitman’s “So Long!” first published in 1860. One line later he writes, “It is I you hold and who holds you,” followed by, “Dear friend whoever you are take this kiss, I give it especially to you, do not forget me.” Whitman’s voice remains startlingly present.

In the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass, the final poem included in the volume was “So Long!” Did Oscar Triggs, the Whitman scholar, suggest this square-bracketed notation? Did it enter the citation through Elbert Hubbard or even the Roycroft typesetter? Was the passion between Whitman and Carpenter known, and this note offered as quiet assurance? The 1924 and 1950 editions of Leaves of Grass include an introduction by John A. Kouwenhoven that ends with the same words found in the brackets. They were well known Whitman words and intentions.

Copy #37’s red ribbon page marker remains pressed in place at sections 28, 29, 30, and 31. The end of 28 and the beginning of 29 dwell on “touch,” and section 31 opens with “I believe a leaf of grass in no less than the journey-work of the stars.” Whitman’s life work became the compilation he titled Leaves of Grass. He wrote from his mind’s eye of the world he embodied.

It is fitting that the Roycrofters declared, “This is no book, who touches this touches a man.” To hold this item is to be with Walt Whitman and Edward Carpenter, along with Jane Addams, Clarence Darrow, Elbert Hubbard, William Johnson, Charles Kerr, Alice Stockham, Oscar Triggs, and the unnamed Roycrofters who produced it. This remarkable document now resides at the Western Nudist Research Library in Temescal Valley, California.

Editor’s note: The Roycroft edition mentioned above now resides at the Western Nudist Research Library thanks to the author, who acquired and donated the volume but characteristically did not mention that detail in the text. Carl Hild’s decades of collecting, research, and preservation have substantially shaped WNRL’s holdings, including rare international naturist publications and early documents that push back the accepted timeline of American social nudism. In recognition of this work, the library formally established the Carl Hild Collection in his honor last summer.

In a parallel gesture, in 1914, nearly 300 individuals signed The Address to Carpenter for his 70th birthday. The signatories included at least three future Nobel Prize recipients and an Academy Award winner for Best Screenplay, alongside a remarkable cross-section of reformers, artists, and intellectuals.

Jane Addams, who had also signed Carpenter’s 60th birthday greeting, was among them.

Photographer Alvin L. Coburn, who famously photographed Bernard Shaw posing nude as Rodin’s The Thinker, signed the address, as did Shaw himself.

Sanshiro Ishikawa, later associated with nudism in Japan, was another signer. According to Daniel William Schnick’s 1995 thesis at the University of British Columbia, Ishikawa returned to Japan in the 1920s, embraced anarchist positions after World War II, and participated in nude bathing at hot springs in defiance of prohibitions enacted in 1872. A 1970 article by Chushichi Suzuki described Ishikawa’s view of “nudity as the symbol of natural freedom.”

Gwen John, who modeled nude for Rodin, added her name. So did John Nicholson, whose poem about nude bathing appeared in the April 1894 issue of The Artist and Journal of Home Culture.

Poet Alfred Noyes signed as well. His story The Return of the Scare-Crow, published in the United States as The Sun Cure in 1929, centered on an attempt at sunbathing. Cecil Reddie, reportedly influenced by Walt Whitman and early German FKK culture, was included, as was painter Henry S. Tuke, known for his love of nude sea swimming and paintings of boys by the shore.

Several signers were closely aligned with Whitman’s circle and with broader movements for sexual equality and communion with nature, including Frank and Mildred Bain, Leon Bazalgette, John Burroughs, T. W. Rolleston, Horace Traubel, and J. W. Wallace.

Taken together, the nearly 300 names form a striking panorama: artists, Dames, humanitarians, Knights, Nobel laureates, politicians, prohibitionists, Quakers, royalty, suffragettes, socialists, Theosophists, Trotskyites, unionists, vegetarians, and writers. It reads like a roster of progressive thought at the turn of the twentieth century.

Carpenter responded with a thank you note on 1 September in which he wrote about coming to be conscious of The Victorian Age in 1860 and that it was “a strange period of human evolution.” He goes on to give some examples of the things that “marked the lowest ebb of modern civilized society”

…the starving of the human heart, the denial of the human body and its needs, the huddling concealment of the body in clothes, the “impure hush” on matters of sex, class-division contempt of manual labour, and the cruel barring of women from every natural and useful expression of their lives, were carried to an extremity of folly difficult for us now to realise….

If the world or any part of it should in consequence insist on being reformed, that is not my fault. And this perhaps after all is a good general rule: namely that people should endeavor (more than they do) to express or liberate their own real and deep-rooted needs and feelings. Then in doing so they will probably liberate and aid the expression of the lives of thousands of others; and so will have the pleasure of helping, without the unpleasant sense of laying anyone under an obligation.

In 1916, Carpenter wrote My Days and Dreams – Being Autobiographical Notes. In it he expressed himself and described his life and what was important to him. From his 1873 trip to Italy:

The Greek sculpture had a deep effect. The other things, pictures, architecture, etc., interested me much from an historical or aesthetic point of view; but this had something more, a germative influence on my mind, which adding itself to and corroborating the effect of Whitman’s poetry, left with me as it were a seed of new conceptions of life. The marvelous beauty and cleanliness of the human body as presented by the Greek mind, the way in which the noblest passions of the soul – the tender pitying love of Diana for Endymion, the haughty inspiration of Juno, the heroic endurance of the fallen warrior, the childlike gladness of the faun – were united and blended with the corporeal form – or rather scarcely conceived of as separated from it; the emotional atmosphere which went with this, the Greek ideal of the free and gracious life of man at one with nature and the cosmos – so remote from the current ideals of commercialism and Christianity! – to become aware of all of this in the midst of that “delicate air” and delightful landscape and climate of Italy, was indeed a new departure for me.

Carpenter wrote an article “Back to the Wild” promoting social nakedness in nature in 1921 after “swimming wild,” i.e. skinny-dipping, at Lyme Regis in the UK, not far from his own backyard. From the Sheffield Library Archives, “Back to the Wild” by Edward Carpenter from The Free Oxford: A Communist Journal of Youth, October 1921 comes:

There is a strong prejudice…that the uncovered body is not a fit object for decent people to look at! Yet, take it how you will, the prejudice (for I can call it by no other name) is a strange one, and suggestive of something out of joint in the order of our so-called civilisation. That the most elaborate and perfect product of animate creation should be taboo, that it should be forbidden from sight, on no account to be ever seen in public, is an extraordinary dispensation, and one which baffles explanation. 🪐

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The Cool Cottontail is the second novel in the Virgil Tibbs series by American author John Dudley Ball, also known—less famously—by his nudist nom de plume, Donald Johnson. Compared to his award-winning In the Heat of the Night, it’s not surprising that Cottontail, first published in 1966, never achieved the cultural staying power as the former. Removed from the racial tensions of the deep south in In the Heat of the Night, and placed instead in a fictional nudist camp in Southern California called Sun Valley Lodge, this Virgil Tibbs detective procedural treads playfully into pulp territory.

Calling the novel pulp is not to say it’s a bad book. If anything, The Cool Cottontail is a brisk and engaging read, and in some ways a more compulsive page-turner than its better-known predecessor. The vintage 1960s southern California setting evokes all sorts of warm, nostalgic vibes. The plot centers around the investigation of a murdered “cottontail” who was found floating in a nudist camp pool. The titular cadaver is already “cool” to the touch, but the novel’s nudists—always portrayed as upstanding and good—attempt resuscitation anyway.

Detective Virgil Tibbs, true to form, is pretty cool himself—characteristically restrained and always holding his cards close to his chest throughout the investigation. As a confident Black police officer during the civil rights era, Tibbs represents an anomaly, a kind of moral litmus test for the people he encounters. Their reactions to him quickly reveal whether they are decent or cruel. This device can feel formulaic at times. It becomes easy to identify the bad actors by the way they prejudge Tibbs, and before long you may find yourself anticipating the story’s general trajectory.

Still, if the plot occasionally feels transparent, the protagonist does not. Virgil Tibbs is a quiet figure, and when he does speak, his words carry weight. Popularly cemented by Sidney Poitier in the film adaptations, Tibbs emerged as one of the first Black detectives in American popular culture to command authority without apology or caricature. He is observant, patient, and perpetually underestimated—a combination that allows him to notice what others miss. Like Columbo and other great screen detectives, he reveals truths that were present all along, hiding in plain sight.

At the same time, Tibbs remains a figure shaped by the limits of his creation: a Black man navigating the civil rights era as imagined by a white author writing within it, rendered with dignity and care—and remarkably progressive for the time—but still filtered through a polished idealism where prejudice is present but manageable, and Tibbs’ intelligence and restraint are always enough to prevail.

Of course, in detective fiction, the hero must always ultimately prevail. In In the Heat of the Night, that victory is qualified and uneasy—Tibbs solves the case, but the deeper question lingers. Has anything truly shifted in the people around him, or are they even capable of change? The Cool Cottontail offers no such ambiguity. Its resolution is clean and affirming, a straightforward happy ending that leaves little emotional residue. One could imagine an even lighter denouement—Tibbs skinny-dipping alongside the nudists at Sun Valley Lodge—but that would run against his nature. Tibbs remains deliberately aloof.

The novel also allows itself a few twists. In one of my favorite moments, Tibbs gets to whoop some ass in a climactic karate fight before catching the killer. John Ball, trained in aikido himself, describes the action with delightful precision. Whether he’s writing for nudist magazines and reporting on the governance of organized nudism under the name Donald Johnson, or in his more commercially popular novels and novellas, Ball’s prose is as easygoing and unadorned as an actual nudist. Ball’s books—and Johnson’s alike—always tended to be short. The man wasted no time with frivolous adjectives.

Perhaps the downside to such precision prose is that some characters, particularly among the nudist community, feel broadly sketched, their goodness bordering on idealized. If the nudists seem flatly kind-hearted at times, at least one of them jumps off the page as a little more compelling. I’m referring to the character Linda Nunn, daughter of camp owners Forrest and Emily Nunn. She is described by the author very much in the image of real-life 1960s nudist figure Linda Shockley, who was the real-life daughter of real-life California camp owners.

The parallels between fiction and reality extend further. The novel’s fictional Sun Valley Lodge is a dead ringer for the once-popular Oakdale Ranch, even matching its location at the base of El Cajon Mountain north of San Bernardino. As a Southern California–based naturist myself, inhabiting the same physical landscape this book describes sixty years later—and with the benefit of some knowledge of nudist history—the novel reads like a fascinating time capsule. It’s a chance to see where Ball took inspiration for a story written during the golden years of nudism, set squarely in its western epicenter. Ball references streets in Pasadena that are minutes from my old apartment, presumably not far from where he himself once lived. If you’re familiar with Southern California AANR resorts, you’ll also catch nods to Glen Eden and Olive Dell, two clubs that are still around and still nude today—well, sort of. Olive Dell’s a long story, one with its own murder mystery.

While the book clearly benefits from treading in territory that was personally familiar to its author, Ball also appears to have either experienced or researched every facet of the setting. The result is a dynamic mystery that feels intimate and watertight. Like his hero Virgil Tibbs, John Ball is unyielding in the accuracy of his details, and focused above all on entertainment. The Cool Cottontail has lived on my shelf for years, and it will certainly be one I go back to and re-read every few years—with any luck, in close proximity to the Glen Eden pool. 🪐

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Or is it?

It’s no secret I’m a fan of Godzilla and other giant monsters, so of course if a comic promises kaiju action I’ll pick it up. But the nudity, for two of these comics at least, came as an unexpected surprise. I mean I get it, it’s like the old jokes about the Incredible Hulk needing the most elastic pants ever whenever he transforms from Bruce Banner. Characters growing to giant size and the occasional awkwardness that ensues isn’t old at all. This is just that joke on a much larger scale, and I’m more curious than anything else about how each of these three comics handle the same thing.

In the first two comics, this joke is brief. In issue two of Jenny Zero (2021), written by Dave Dwonch and Brockton McKinney, illustrated by Magenta King, colored by Dam, and lettered by Dave Dwonch, we open on our titular character Jenny Tetsuo having transformed into a giant alien form, not unlike Ultraman, but completely nude.

Some context: Jenny is the daughter of deceased superhero Mega Commander Zero. She was once involved with the giant monster fighting team he was a part of, the Action Science Police. After her father’s death, she left the team, fighting her grief and anger with booze, drugs, sex, and her super rich best friend whose fortune she was living off of until the ASP came back begging for her help against an incoming monster.

It’s basically Ultraman, but gritty and mature, and not exactly to my taste. The art is nice, though.

Transformed, Jenny is pissed off, but not necessarily embarrassed. More than anything, she’s shocked to learn that she has her father’s powers, something kept hidden from her all her life. When it comes to the jadokai (as the monsters here are called) she was sent to fight, she takes them down violently and happily. She is also, well, drunk, so keep that in mind for the scene too.

From what I can tell having skimmed the other issues (this second one is the only one I own), this incident is never addressed again, it’s just a thing that happens to Jenny and she moves on from it quickly, as does the story. She’s also seen nude in the first issue briefly after a fling with a guy she meets at a club, and I feel like both scenes are just a little gratuitous more than anything else.

Let’s look at an actual Godzilla title next! Caroline Cash wrote and illustrated a short, ten page comic in IDW’s Godzilla Vs Chicago (2025), wherein a woman drinks something sketchy from a bodega as Godzilla attacks the city. The drink causes her to grow to Godzilla’s size, and she winds up taking on the king of the monsters to protect her city. No embarrassment here, just a bit of aloofness and attempt to wear a flag out of practicality, it seems.

This is more fun than Jenny Zero was, largely due to the cartoony art style and the lead’s chill attitude towards everything happening. I love how she ends up beating Godzilla.

Finally, we get to the main reason I started writing this. Naked Kaiju Woman is written, lettered, and published by Adriano Ariganello, illustrated by Rafael Chrestani, and colored by JP Jordan. There are two issues released, both of which were funded through successful Kickstarter campaigns by Ariganello’s Pesto Comics. Frankly, I’m shocked that I did not come up with this comic myself.

The comic turns what was a momentary gag in Jenny Zero and a short encounter in Godzilla Vs Chicago into its full-blown premise: Claire has the unusual ability to grow to colossal size and strength, losing her clothes in the process, and uses this ability to protect her city from giant monster attacks without a hint of embarrassment or modesty. Her fellow citizens have differing opinions on this, and the first issue focuses on that: protesters call her a slut and billionaire CEO Tilo Trost shows up at her door to personally tell her to stop fighting.

I really love this first issue. For one thing, Claire doesn’t want to actually hurt or kill the monsters she fights, and does her best both to subdue them and to reduce the amount of collateral damage caused in doing so. Her sympathy for them is right out of Ultraman and early kaiju films. It reminds me of the famous quote from Godzilla director Ishiro Honda: “Monsters are tragic beings. They are born too tall, too strong, too heavy. They are not evil by choice. That is their tragedy.”

Trost and the protesters (led by a charismatic priest) have Claire questioning herself, but in the end she finds unexpected support and continues to fight nude, as it’s who she is and she doesn’t want to hide that. It’s a truly nudist theme!

This element does vanish in the second issue as a new character is introduced: Zayden, a man with the same abilities as Claire, someone who seems to understand her better than anyone else. This leads to a whirlwind romance between the two, one that ends in quite an unexpected way.

While I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first issue, I like Claire a lot as a character and I’m excited to see what the next issue brings based on the final page tease. I think there’s ample opportunity to have more fun giant monster action and for nudity to be a more involved part of the story and themes.

I do also feel like there’s room for improvement with the art. While the nudity here (or in the other titles) is never really sexualized, Claire’s proportions remind me more of a Barbie doll than a real person, and the action lacks weight. There’s also so much bloom lighting going on in the coloring, and I’d like to see the colors themselves go in some more expressionistic directions, but that’s a matter of personal taste more than anything!

Are there any other comics that handle this trope which I might have missed? Did you pick up Naked Kaiju Woman? What are your thoughts? 🪐

Leave a comment

The following text is an excerpt from Nudetopian Nightmares: Seeking a New Garden of Eden, 1933–1955, a new historical work by . The book explores a series of little-known nudist, naturist, and back-to-nature experiments that emerged in the United States during the interwar and postwar years, many shaped by overlapping currents of religion, health reform, utopian thinking, and social experimentation.

This excerpt focuses on Floyd M. Gurley, an eccentric figure whose attempts to merge Christian fundamentalism, nudism, vegetarianism, and prophetic belief placed him at the far edges of American nudist history. His story reflects the kind of overlooked archival material Danielson frequently uncovers for Planet Nude readers.

We’re publishing this excerpt both for its standalone interest and as a window into the broader scope of Nudetopian Nightmares, which brings together dozens of similarly strange, revealing episodes from nudist and naturist history.

Nudetopian Nightmares is a 268-page softbound volume and is currently available directly from the author. Copies can be ordered for $20 plus shipping by contacting Olaf Danielson at storolaf@yahoo.com. 🚀

Men are from Mars, Gurley is from Venus

Historically, nudist or nudism is a person or practice of being naked and associating with other people. In Europe, the term naturist evolved differently. In the Twenties it was used to refer to women not using makeup. It later came from the French term first used at Île du Levant, and their term naturiste or naturisme is a way of life involving a collective practice of nudism and based on the idea of returning to the “natural state,” like a woman not using makeup would. An English derivation of “back to nature-ist” was undoubtedly shortened to just “naturist.”

In North America, the term “naturist,” however, had nothing to do with nakedness. It was “invented” in 1930 by American writer Henry Chester Tracy in his seminal ecocriticism work American Naturism. In his book, he uses the term naturists to describe those who feel and enjoy nature and wrote about it from the standpoint of literature and philosophy of life. This was in contrast to “naturalists,” who wrote about it in terms of pure science. So, when did the definition change to involve nudity?

In the early to mid-Thirties, naturopathy became all the rage in America. Naturopathy, or “nature-cure,” was associated with non-traditional but more mainstream health ideas and practices, like vegetarianism, organic gardening, and sunbathing and fresh air. More controversial ideas included fruitarianism or drinking only coconut water. First, people went to sanitariums for the nature cures, like Yungborn in New Jersey, but others devised the idea of going back to nature.

Naturism was typically associated with people trying to live like Adam and Eve in a tropical environment, and eating what they thought a wild ape would eat.

So, simplified, the term naturism evolved from a merger of nudism with naturopathy, but like everything, it kept expanding. Soon it promoted everything from socialism and avoiding drinking water. Many discussed the creation of a super race of people, immortality, or involvement with esoteric religion, from sun worshiping to more, and even sun-aided reproduction without having sex, apparently following the footsteps of Adam, Eve, and Jesus, which also had a metaphysical and religious feel to it.

There were many strange men with odd beliefs, and one of the oddest was the “God of White Thunder.” Truth be told, Floyd M. Gurley never claimed to be from Venus; he just claimed to be the only human to ever have visited the planet. Later on, he even threatened to sue a man who had written in a newspaper that Venusians roamed the Earth. Apparently, everyone knew that Floyd had been the only person from Earth who had actually ever been to Venus.

He found it a somewhat preposterous assertion anyhow, since Venusians could not simply walk the streets of the Earth’s cities. They were fourteen feet tall, had greenish skin, and did not wear clothes. As such, they would have trouble blending in.1

There are two newsworthy people of note that claimed to be from Colony, Kansas. One was Dr. Dean Brooks, a psychiatrist who has one motion picture credit—playing the doctor in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Dr. Brooks also gave permission for the famous movie to be shot at the Oregon State Hospital.2 The second was Floyd Gurley, yet another man who appears to have found that fine line between genius and mental illness. Apparently, the pair also have mental illness in common.

There is not much written about Gurley except in some esoteric biblical archaeology journals, UFO texts, and editorial comments, but what is known might make an even better movie.

Gurley’s early life is confusing to contradictory. In his high school years, he disappeared; family and friends placed ads worried that the frail lad’s heart would give out. They did not need to worry. The police had arrested him in Wichita for the production of alcohol. It was a frequent situation for him.

In 1934, at the age of 28, after his fiancée married another man, allegedly, Gurley burned the new couple’s house down. He fled to San Francisco, quickly becoming an expert on trolleys. Arrested and extradited back to Kansas, Gurley confessed to the crime after Harry O’Reilly, the District Attorney and the State Fire Marshal, nearly drowned the handcuffed man in the bottom of a toilet bowl. He had to be resuscitated by a physician.

He was sentenced from one to four years to the reformatory. Prior to going to jail, young Floyd married Frances Brassfield, the fourteen-year-old younger sister of the woman whose house he had allegedly burned down, after he got her parents’ permission. Talk about future family gatherings being uncomfortable.

Odd things started happening after he was incarcerated. Signs and writing made with rocks on Osage Hill began appearing, pronouncing proclamations like “The White Thunder God is here.”3 Gurley did not serve his full prison term, as he was out and about at least by 1935, when he was reportedly operating a gold mine in Colorado.

It was after his gold prospecting that Gurley became the Right Reverend and began preaching the gospel and his form of devout Christianity, albeit a naked one.

Gurley led a colony of fundamentalist naturist Christians into South Florida in 1936 or 1937 who felt they needed to return to living the way God had commanded them, like Adam and Eve, and raise their families away from the filth of American cities. They settled on twenty-three of the forty “Isles of Eden” located in the middle of the Ten Thousand Islands at the mouth of the Everglades, southeast of Marco Island.

It is unknown how he recruited his faithful. A man named James R. Latham, reportedly en route from the Bahamas to Tampa, stopped by these islands in 1937 on a report from a native eight-year-old boy. The residents observed the Sabbath, and the group was led by Rev. Gurley.

The group raised chickens, did crafts for the Seminole Indians, and ate only raw vegetables and fruit (what were the chickens for?). They did not pray in their church, but besides the author commenting on the naked and comely young women singing in the choir, nothing more was said about the visit.

I do not know if this was a fictionalized account, as Gurley was prone to fiction, or if it was true. There are some corroborating but extremely vague sources about a colony of nudists living down there that were driven out soon after arriving by bugs and the weather. I tried to make contact with the Marco Island Historical Society, but they did not return my messages.

Gurley was a staunchly conservative Christian, as evidenced by what he wrote in his magazine, The New Eden. It is a quite strange late-Thirties magazine that tried to blend deep Christianity and naturism. The two covers available have naked women on them. Copies are extremely hard to come by.

After the war and his writing days, Gurley ended up back in Chase County, Kansas. By all accounts, he was a chicken breeder and a writer under his other names: the White Thunder God and Pat Reid, a nom de plume.

The one book credited to “Pat Reid” was titled White Thunder God. Per the Penn State Library, it is an “odd Christian eutopia set in Mexico with a history going back to the formation of the Earth. Quetzalcoatl was John the Baptist. They were raw vegetarians; even panthers did not eat meat. They were nudists, and the group was in contact with Venus, which is more advanced than Earth spiritually and technically, with some of those advances available to the people of the eutopia.”4

After his unsuccessful nudist colonization project, assuming it was not just another fictional account, he bought and managed the Ozark Telephone Company in Colony and also became the leader of the state’s Anti-Saloon League. He was running for the U.S. Senate under the Prohibition Party in Kansas until his jail time and other shenanigans came out. He won the primary in 1950 but pulled out ahead of the general election.

He was a living contradiction. He penned both chastising letters to Mississippi newspapers extolling the value of nudism in a fight to make it illegal there and wrote letters to Hawaiian officials calling a naked statue featured in a museum filthy and pornographic.

His most famous, or infamous, work was an oft-quoted “scoop” written in a 1940 issue of The New Eden. He claimed that a Russian pilot during the First World War had seen what appeared to be Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat. This led to needless archaeology expeditions and much false reporting. Unfortunately, it was not until 1986 that Gurley fully admitted the details of the story were the work of imagination, though he also told Ark hunter Eryl Cummings that he had received some information from a Russian immigrant.5

Using his White Thunder God moniker, Gurley wrote thousands of terse letters to the editor, most never published. He even predicted Kennedy’s assassination almost to the hour nine months before it happened, reciting a Native American curse. Receiving notoriety for that, in 1965 he made five subsequent predictions, none of which ever happened.6

After a while, it is difficult to actually believe anything he wrote, and to do so takes a lot—really, a lot—of alcohol or hard-core drugs.

Despite the Kennedy prediction, I have serious doubt about two of Gurley’s other claims. I do not think he visited Venus, and I also doubt he was the White Thunder God, but now I am not so sure.

In 1958, while inspecting a connection at the top of a high pole, the manager of the Ozark Telephone Company was attacked by a giant bald eagle, which grabbed his left arm in its talons and tried to carry him off. The bird did not succeed, but Gurley required many stitches and took three days off to heal.7 Then again, maybe this was proof he was who he claimed to be.

Gurley and his wife Pat (buried Pansy) were nudists for decades and long-time members of the Kan-Tan Club in Burlington. I assume Pat was his second wife, and not a nickname for Frances. They moved to New Mexico and then to Hawaii in the Eighties. She died in 1986, and Floyd in 1991, aged 84.

No obituary survives. They are both buried in Colony, Kansas. Both headstones are simply marked “Aloha.” Sadly, no mention that he was the White Thunder God was engraved in the granite. Maybe the “Aloha” was meant to say hello, not good-bye.

It is quite clear that, like many included in this work, an autobiography would have made an interesting read. Possibly Mr. Gurley spent so much time penning complaints to newspapers that he simply forgot to write it. 🪐

Find more forgotten naturist histories in Nudetopian Nightmares.

Email Olaf to order directly.

Email Olaf

The science fiction writer John Varley passed away late last year. While Varley, a multiple-time winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, was well known and respected among his peers and science fiction enthusiasts, his reputation never really spread to the broader public. The most well-known piece of media associated with his name is the made-for-public-television adaptation of his novella Overdrawn at the Memory Bank, and that mostly from its second life on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Which is a shame, because Varley really does deserve to be known better, and particularly known better by nudists. He uses nudity in his works frequently, in ways which are both deeply thoughtful and highly unexpected.

Apologies here, but I do have to indulge in a little sci-fi wonkery to lay out what makes Varley’s vision so interesting. Many of Varley’s novels and short stories take place in a fictional framework loosely known as the “Eight Worlds” series. Never an obsessive about continuity, Varley’s Eight Worlds works share more of a premise than a completely mapped out and rigid canon. But it is a fascinating premise.

A few hundred years from now, after humanity has already begun spreading out in the solar system, Earth is invaded. The Invaders are a species that evolved on a gas giant, and has a completely different relationship to space and time than humanity. They can also manipulate space and time in ways that mankind is biologically incapable of understanding. These Invaders group sentient life into three categories. There are beings like themselves that evolved in similar conditions, such as those living on Jupiter, with whom they get along fine. Then there are cetaceans, intelligent sea life such as whales and dolphins, who they think require their protection. Everything else, including humanity, are categorized as vermin. And these guys take “save the whales” very seriously. To rid the planet of its vermin and protect the cetaceans, in a single day they cause everything on Earth ever made by human hands to vanish into thin air. Within a year, almost every human on Earth has died of starvation. The remainder of humanity, spread out tenuously across the solar system, are forbidden to return to Earth or approach the planet Jupiter. Humanity has to adapt to survive.

One of the largest outposts of this remainder of humanity is on the Moon, where people live in sealed cities below the lunar surface. In a climate-controlled environment with limited resources, the lunar society evolves into a clothing-optional one. Some people will wear clothes as a sign of luxury, state officials like police will wear sashes for identification, but everyone else just largely goes about naked. But while this nakedness is presented in a very matter-of-fact way in the books, there’s much more to it than that.

Varley’s writing could be described as hard social science fiction. Varley’s worlds explore how the extreme conditions posited by most science fiction could possibly change people and society.

In Varley’s world, not only is society’s relationship to clothing remarkably different, but so is the relationship to the body itself. Cloning, genetic tweaking, and uploaded, backup copies of minds have made people’s bodies into something like commodity goods. If your body is broken or you’re unhappy with it, just get a new one. People in Varley’s universe can choose their age, choose their sex, and have any number of bodily adjustments made, cosmetic or otherwise. Those who work in zero gravity in Varley’s stories will routinely have their feet replaced with a second set of hands. A teacher may have himself genetically tweaked to be the same biological age as his students to better relate to them. If someone matures beyond a fashionable age, they can just dispose of the old body and download themselves into a new clone that puts them back in their prime.

As a result of all these possibilities, the Lunar society depicted in Varley’s works evolves into one where not only individuality, but individualism, are highly prized. This is explored in his deeply unsettling novella The Barbie Murders, where a reactionary cult forms that completely rejects individuality. Members are altered to be physically identical and genderless, and must renounce all sense of self. And, in the mostly undressed society of the moon, they stand out even more by all dressing identically.

There’s also a bit of culture clash in Varley’s novel The Ophiuchi Hotline, when some lunar residents have to travel to the hyper-capitalist planet of Pluto.1 There, the nudity of the visitors from the moon is seen as not shameful, but laughable. Pluto is envisioned as something like St. Louis in the late 19th century, made fabulously wealthy from being the gateway to the riches of the outer asteroid belts. On Pluto, ornamenting yourself as ostentatiously as possible is the way to show off your social position. To walk around naked is to announce that you’re some rube from the backwoods come to gawk at the big city. Nudity has social meaning, just a different social meaning than what we’re used to.

Nudity, in Varley’s writing, is used metaphorically to explore a world where the relationship of the self to society, and the self to the self, has radically shifted. In many ways, nudity is the baseline metaphor of his work. What Varley understood was that the meaning of nudity is a social meaning. And that metaphorical nudity gives him opportunity to brilliantly consider just how far that meaning can be stretched.

If you’re not a science fiction fan, or if all of this sounds a little too geeky for you, rest assured that one of Varley’s greatest strengths was that he was a damned good writer. Even non sci-fi buffs can enjoy his work. He puts sentences together one after the other in ways that keep you from looking up from the page for hours on end.

Varley’s career spanned over thirty years, so there’s a lot out there to enjoy. If you want a good starting off point, his novel The Ophiuchi Hotline is highly recommended. If you want just a taste, his short stories Options, The Pusher, and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank should all definitely be on your list. His short stories have been anthologized in multiple collections over the years, and have now been mostly gathered into The John Varley Reader. Pick up a copy for your next nude beach read. 🪐

More reading:

If you missed Disrobed the first time around, or you’ve been waiting for the right excuse to revisit one of the quirkier and more charming cultural artifacts to come out of the pandemic era, this month offers a clean opportunity. The award-winning nudist comedy is back online for a fifth anniversary streaming series, presented by Troy Matthew Peterson Productions in partnership with the Southern Californian Naturist Association (SCNA), marking the latest chapter in a project that has continued to shift forms over the past several years.

The premise lands quickly and then keeps tightening the screws. Eric, polite and tightly wound, finally joins his fiancée Skye for a virtual family happy hour. He can’t figure out why she’s so nervous. As each family member logs on, the reason becomes clear: Skye’s family are nudists, and she’s already told them Eric is one too. As clothes come off and expectations settle in, Eric has to decide whether love is enough to get him through the call.

This film version of Disrobed was created at the height of the pandemic and premiered in January 2021, when Zoom had quietly become a dominant cultural stage. The format turned out to be unusually well suited to the story, amplifying the discomfort, timing, and intimacy baked into the original play, while also opening the door to possibilities that went beyond the stage. The film screened at multiple virtual Fringe Festivals, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and earned three Worldwide Comedy Award nominations for directing, writing, and performance. Five years later, it’s returning intact, still funny, still awkward, and still unexpectedly warm.

How to watch

The fifth anniversary screenings run every Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday from this week thru February 1. (Note: times below are listed in Pacific Time)

Thursdays (Jan 8, 15, 22, 29): 7:00–11:00 p.m. PST
Saturdays (Jan 10, 17, 24, 31): 5:00–9:00 p.m. PST
Sundays (Jan 11, 18, 25, Feb 1): 11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m. PST

Tickets are $8 (plus Eventbrite fees) and are sold through Eventbrite under DISROBED – The Fifth Anniversary Screening. All screenings are online.

Get your tickets

How the four-hour screening windows work

Each listed screening corresponds to a four-hour viewing window, not a four-hour program.

When you buy a ticket, you receive a private streaming link to the 55-minute film. You can start watching at any point during the four-hour window. Once that window closes, the link deactivates. There’s no fixed start time, no live chat, and no obligation to log in at a specific moment. Press play when you’re ready.

The structure mirrors how the film originally screened during virtual Fringe runs while keeping the experience time-limited and shared.

A brief history of Disrobed

Disrobed has unusually deep roots for a Zoom-era comedy. Its lineage traces back to Tom Cushing’s 1931 one-act farce Barely Proper, a meet-the-parents comedy set in a nudist household. Cushing reportedly understood the problem immediately and subtitled it “an unplayable play,” knowing that full-frontal nudity made it nearly impossible to stage in conventional theater spaces.

Nudists proved him wrong. Over the decades, Barely Proper survived as a cult favorite within naturist circles, staged repeatedly at nudist clubs, conventions, and gatherings where the premise could actually be realized. In the late 2010s, that tradition was revived and updated as Disrobed, first appearing on stage at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2019, and then again in 2023, both times sponsored by SCNA.

When the pandemic shut theaters down, filmmaker Troy Peterson saw an opening rather than an obstacle. Working with writer Steven Vlasak and SCNA, he adapted the play into a filmed virtual event that leaned into the realities of online interaction instead of fighting them. The result became one of the more durable and inventive pandemic-era comedies to come out of the naturist world.

Across its many iterations, the project has repeatedly adapted to new audiences, new technologies, and new cultural moments, without losing the core tension that made the original premise work. That adaptability has kept Disrobed moving, resurfacing in different forms as the conditions around it change.

A look ahead

If you’re reading between the lines here, you might have picked up that this fifth anniversary streaming run is also a signal that Disrobed is still evolving. A feature-length film adaptation is currently in development with plans to shoot this Spring in California, and I’m involved in that project as a producer, working alongside Troy and the creative team as it takes its next step. We’re actively exploring ways for more people, particularly within the naturist community, to get involved as the feature moves forward. If you’re curious, interested, or want to stay in the loop, you can reach out directly at disrobedinfo@gmail.com.

For now, the anniversary screenings offer a good chance to revisit a story that sits at a strange intersection of theater history, pandemic media, and nudist culture. Awkward silences included. 🪐

More to explore:

If there is a record for the person arrested the most and in the most places for dressing indecently, it might possibly name “Nature Boy, ” Willis (Willie) Ray Willey. Usually, he wore a pair of old Khaki shorts or, in 1933, a wrap made out of a mountain lion hide. From 1918 until his death in 1956, he never wore a shirt, and it was not until he was laid in “state” in Spokane during his funeral that a T-shirt was finally put on his upper torso. In 1951 he was quoted as saying, “I have not worn a pair of shoes or clothing, other than these shorts, since 1918 - too much trouble and bother. Besides, clothes ain’t healthful.”

Although called the first American nudist and a naturist by some, quite typically, he wore only shorts and, occasionally, in the winter, rubber boots. He was also famous for his polar bear plunges in the Spokane winters, which, of course, were naked.

He was born in 1884 in Mount Ayr, Iowa, along with his twin brother, Willard Roy Willey, and quite a few siblings. Somewhat of a sickly child who reported to have never liked to wear clothing, he headed west to Spokane, where he tried his hand at farming. As a young man, he was told that he would feel better if he wore less clothing. He gradually worked himself down to nearly nothing, grew a beard, and from that point onward, except for one instance, he was illness-free. More on that later.

In 1921, he travelled back to Iowa after his mother died, and while he was gone, he lost his forty acres due to conflicting reports. During the decade, he was frequently thrown in jail for trespassing on his former land. He spent much effort creating his lore. He was an expert at self-promotion.

In 1933, he made a new pair of trousers out of a cougar pelt and decided to get out of Spokane for a time and travel across the country to the World’s Fair in Chicago and took off in his 1904 Reo automobile. His plan was to sell photographs of himself along the way and at the fair to pay for his trip. He stopped in Portland and was arrested for indecency. He was the first person convicted of wearing nothing but suntan shorts. Like Portland, Willey was not met with open arms in many of the cities he visited, and usually he was arrested for “indecent behavior” and thrown in jail and later driven to the city limits and told to leave. Once reaching Chicago, he spent quite a bit of time in jail, barely even attending the Exposition, despite there being a nudist wedding and a nudist exposition also there. Because of his arrest, he was forced to cut his beard. He got ill while he was in jail.

After being released, Willey headed on to Iowa to visit family and hopefully escape further persecution and ill health.

Usually upon first visiting a town his presence would bring excited reports to police of “a crazy man walking around naked in the snow.” The police would then respond appropriately. In Portland, he was arrested for trying to convince a young woman to disrobe, or at least that she would be healthier if she wore less clothing. The police believed her story.

He converted an old Model T into a traveling home and filled it with all sorts of animals and traveled around the country, earning nicknames like the “Original Flower Child” and an “Early-Day Hippie,” spreading his philosophy and way of life long before Woodstock. After his untimely death, Willie was referred to as “Spokane’s Ambassador of Good Will.” He talked potential people of potential suicide off the Spokane bridge, and he would appear out of nowhere and lift people’s cars up so they could change flat tires. Kids were always playing with his menagerie of animals.

Dr. Arthur E. Lein, head of the Spokane County Health Department, says Willie’s skin has become leathery and board tough. “Thirty-two years of rugged living has developed a layer of ‘insulation fat’ which increases weather tolerance.”

Willie died in 1956 at the age of 72 from an automobile accident, still in top shape. He outlived his twin by 23 years, again proving that his lifestyle was superior. I find it odd that not a single mention of Willey was made in any nudist magazines of the era. Where he had demonstrated for decades the benefits of living with little clothing on, and his health was widely noted, they all missed a golden opportunity. Likewise, none of the early naturopathic and later naturist promoters mentioned him, probably because his method of living simply gave them nothing to sell. One man described him, “anything that grew out of the ground, he could make food out of it, the guy had no sin in him.”

There was a book written about Willie, entitled “The Life of Willie Wiley,” by Keith L. Yates in 1966, ten years after Willie died. It is an interesting read. Where a few nudists in the Thirties were arrested for being naked in private, Willie was arrested for being “indecent” in public by wearing only short pants. It was more for his efforts than the traditional nudists to get reform for many of the nation’s crazy indecency laws of the period. After paying for his burial in 1956, the City of Spokane, in 1991, dedicated a rock in the local river to him. That seems like an odd tribute to a man who appears like few others. 🪐

More reading:

Planet Nude has always treated podcasts as part of the same ecosystem as our writing, comics, and reporting. They’re places where ideas get tested out loud, sometimes more freely and sometimes more messily, but often with a clarity that only conversation allows. This month, we’re excited to be bringing The Naturist Vibe into that mix.

Hosted by Gabriella Quinn, known as , and , The Naturist Vibe has kept up a fairly consistent weekly output since it began in June of 2025. Thematically, the podcast sits at the intersection of naturist culture and the wider world, exploring stories shaping today’s nudist movement while also asking how nudity appears in mainstream life, media, and politics. At its core is a consistent emphasis on ethical naturism, not as a slogan, but as a set of values that shape how communities function and who they make room for.

Dan may already be familiar to Naked Age listeners. He recently appeared on the show to talk about Sky Farm and the longer arc of ethical naturist organizing, a conversation that overlaps naturally with the work he and Gabby are doing on The Naturist Vibe. Bringing the podcast to Planet Nude felt less like a new addition and more like a continuation of an ongoing dialogue.

Going forward, Planet Nude will publish a monthly recap highlighting recent episodes of The Naturist Vibe. To kick things off and celebrate their arrival, we asked Gabby and Dan a few questions about the project, their approach, and what they hope listeners take away. 🚀

Interview with Gabby and Dan, Dec 2025

What inspired you to start The Naturist Vibe, and what makes it stand out in naturist media?

Gabby: For me, The Naturist Vibe was born out of a need for honest, modern, and deeply human storytelling in naturism. I became a naturist in 2023 and immediately noticed a gap. There were plenty of spaces to talk about naturism, but very few that tackled the real issues, the lived experiences, the awkward moments, and the bigger cultural questions. I wanted a platform that connected naturist and mainstream conversations while grounding everything in ethical naturism. Our show stands out because we don’t shy away from the hard stuff. We talk about safety, diversity, consent, inclusion, and the future of the movement in a way that feels fresh, relevant, and rooted in real experience. Plus, we bring humor, transparency, and a modern lens the naturist world has been missing for a long time.

Dan: What inspired me was the opportunity to help reshape how naturism is discussed and understood. I’ve been a nudist all my life and an activist for many years, and I’ve seen firsthand how outdated narratives and a lack of modern storytelling hold the movement back. The Naturist Vibe gives us a chance to bring clarity, honesty, and a bit of levity to complex conversations many avoid. What makes our podcast stand out is that we bridge generations, experiences, and perspectives. We aren’t repeating the same old naturist messages. We’re exploring how nudity shows up in everyday life, challenging assumptions, and pushing for ethical naturism in spaces that need it. Together, we bring lived history, fresh perspective, and a willingness to tell the truth, which is something rare in naturist media.

You often talk about “ethical naturism.” How do you each understand that idea, and how does it shape the show?

G: For me, ethical naturism is about intention, responsibility, and community care. It means practicing nudity in a way that honors consent, safety, representation, and the emotional wellbeing of everyone in the space. It also means acknowledging the gaps that still exist in our movement, from lack of diversity to outdated norms that exclude younger people or people of color. Ethical naturism is not just “take your clothes off and be free.” It’s about how we show up, how we treat each other, and how we build environments where everyone feels welcome. On the show, that guides every conversation. We connect naturist stories and mainstream topics back to the values that matter: respect, inclusion, accountability, and transparency. If a topic challenges the movement, we lean into it instead of looking away, because ethical naturism requires honesty.

D: Ethical naturism is the commitment to keeping naturism rooted in its core principles rather than letting it drift into exploitation, gatekeeping, or convenience. I’ve been in this world long enough to see what happens when ethics aren’t part of the conversation. Spaces get unsafe, communities get divided, and the culture becomes misrepresented. Ethical naturism means being clear about boundaries, creating genuine community, prioritizing the wellbeing of participants, and staying true to the philosophy rather than letting outside influences distort it. On the podcast, that perspective helps ground us. We take the issues seriously, even when we bring humor to the conversation. Every episode is shaped by the idea that naturism can evolve, but it should evolve without losing its integrity. We want listeners to walk away understanding the difference between nudity as a lifestyle and nudity without ethics behind it.

What conversations do you feel naturism needs more of right now?

G: Naturism needs more honest conversations about inclusion, safety, and representation. Too many spaces still avoid talking about race, gender dynamics, power imbalances, and the ways certain communities feel shut out or overlooked. We also need more dialogue about how to modernize naturism without losing its core values. Younger people are interested, but they aren’t going to step into environments that feel outdated or unwelcoming. We should also be talking more openly about accountability, especially when clubs or individuals behave in ways that go against ethical naturism. These conversations might feel uncomfortable, but they are necessary if we want naturism to grow in a healthy and sustainable way.

D: I think naturism needs more conversations about responsibility and the culture we are creating for the future. We often talk about the lifestyle in very surface-level ways, but we don’t dig into the ethics, the governance, or the long-term health of our communities. We need discussions about consent culture, clear behavioral standards, and how to keep naturist spaces safe without becoming overly controlling or exclusionary. We also need to talk more about innovation. How do we update systems, clubs, and practices so they reflect the world we live in now? Naturism can evolve, and it should, but only if we are willing to have the deeper conversations about what we want that evolution to look like.

Is there an episode you feel really captures the heart of your project?

G: Challenging Social Norms Parts 1 and 2 capture the heart of what The Naturist Vibe is all about. Those episodes push beyond surface-level naturist conversations and dig into how society shapes our relationship with nudity, body image, safety, and community, while also calling out the rigid norms that exist within naturism itself. They reflect everything I care about: questioning outdated narratives, confronting uncomfortable truths both inside and outside the movement, advocating for ethical naturism, and connecting real-world context back to our naturist spaces. These episodes show our commitment to honest dialogue and to building a movement that isn’t afraid to evolve.

D: Challenging Social Norms Parts 1 and 2 really represent the core of our mission. They show how naturism intersects with broader cultural issues and how much work there is to do in reshaping perceptions. Those conversations go deep into why naturism matters, why ethics matter, and how society’s assumptions hold people back from exploring a healthier relationship with nudity and community. They also highlight the balance we try to maintain: thoughtful analysis, honest critique, and a genuine desire to help naturism move forward.

What do you hope new listeners notice or take away when they tune in?

G: I hope new listeners notice how real and grounded our conversations are. Naturism can be beautiful, freeing, and transformative, but it also has flaws, blind spots, and growing pains that deserve attention. I want people to walk away feeling informed, seen, and invited into a space where honesty matters as much as body freedom. If someone hears an episode and thinks “Oh, naturism can actually be ethical, modern, inclusive, and thoughtful,” then we’ve done our job. I want listeners to feel empowered to question old norms, learn something new, and see themselves reflected in a movement that is evolving.

D: What I hope stands out is the balance between authenticity and accountability. Naturism isn’t just about being naked; it’s about community, philosophy, and how we treat one another. When people tune in, I want them to hear conversations that are genuine and informed but also unafraid to challenge the status quo within the movement. If listeners come away with a clearer understanding of ethical naturism, a deeper appreciation for why this lifestyle matters, and maybe even a willingness to rethink some long-held assumptions, then the podcast is doing exactly what it was meant to do. 🪐

More to explore:

I feel like I don’t really need to explain who Spencer Tunick is, or his photography. He should be familiar to most Planet Nude readers, but just in case:

Since 1992, Tunick has been photographing nude figures in public spaces, typically in large masses known as human installations, indicating a move into installation and performance art on top of his photographic documentation. His work has a humanistic and environmental focus, emphasizing the clash between nature and culture as his website states. He’s also a co-founding curator of the Don’t Delete Art campaign which fights against censorship on social media. The 2000 documentary Naked States, directed by Arlene Donnelly, focuses specifically on Tunick as a younger man traveling the country on a mission to take a nude photo in all fifty United States, a project which takes five months on the road.

Here in the documentary, we see Tunick young, ambitious, hungry, and eager to prove himself as a serious artist. It opens with him shooting in New York City and getting arrested, apparently for the fifth time since he started shooting nudes. The legal case regarding this arrest looms over him during much of the documentary. Throughout the trip, we see his confidence swing like a pendulum.

Tunick is frequently bold, just walking up to strangers and asking them to pose after rolling into town, something I know I wouldn’t have the guts to do. I struggle asking my own friends who model for me regularly if they could do new nude poses for figure drawing!

The only conflict we see resulting from his brazen approach is at the South Dakota bike rally, a section of the documentary where everyone but Tunick himself is convinced that walking into this setting was a bad idea. One man gets incredibly angry over Tunick asking his daughter to model.

We also see Tunick constantly doubt himself, often questioning whether the models he spoke to will even show up, if the weather will be right, if what he’s doing is even worth all the effort. This side of him hits close to home, and I think any artist will recognize themselves in these moments, as it’s practically a part of the creative process.

I’ve seen some reviewers complain about how Tunick comes off here, but to me he’s just like so many of my friends and peers going through college and trying to make some kind of living off of the art they make. Art makes you weird, I guess.

In one scene, we see him talking on the phone with a journalist from a news magazine that he determines is a tabloid he doesn’t want to work with. This is followed immediately by him waking up his partner Kristin Bowler, excited that the very same magazine did an article about him. She’s confused and frustrated over this contradictory excitement, and so was I, but when you’re really hungry for publicity, you’ll take it wherever you can.

As an aside, it’s stated early in the documentary that Bowler is working on watercolors during the project, but we never see any of her work at all, and I can’t help but feel a little disappointed by that. Tunick is the subject here, but seeing how long she’s been with him, I was hoping for more about her and her work as well.

It’s also incredible how there’s generally no real plan for the shoots themselves: he picks a spot he wants to shoot at, finds the models, and then figures out what to actually shoot from there. It’s so off the cuff for such a huge project, especially given the constant possibility of him getting arrested again.

This isn’t the case for the group shots though, especially the thousand people gathered to shoot at the giant Phish concert. If you’re looking to find out what his real process was back then, you’re unfortunately not going to get much of that here.

The work also really differs from what we know from Tunick, with only a few shoots (particularly Burning Man and the Phish concert) involving large groups of people. There’s also a scene at Gunnison Beach at Sandy Hook, a shoot which then-president of Tri-State Metro Naturists, Dan Speers, helped facilitate. As an aside, the next episode of Naked Age will be all about Speers, including going into detail about this very shoot!

Surprisingly, Tunick has a hard time here: we see him rant about never wanting to become a nudist after the shoot, despite undressing on the beach. I find this hilarious considering just how big a part of his audience is made up of nudists, and I’ve seen so many nudists discuss participating in his shoots as a mark of pride.

It does come as a surprise, though, how the people on the beach hardly listen to Tunick or his directing. It all comes off to them as a game, much to his frustration, and I wonder what led to that difference compared to how other folks respond to posing for him.

The best parts of the documentary come from the models themselves. One model comments on how watching Tunick shoot reminded him of a line from a Leonard Cohen song about how the light shines through cracks in the world. Another softly expresses how therapeutic it was after someone had jumped and raped her six months prior to the shoot. It leads to a weird contrast, though, because Tunick never discusses it at all, and we don’t really see him interacting much with the models outside of directing them for his shoots. The work is what he seems to care about, and that side effect of the way it affects the models he works with doesn’t seem to concern him at all.

My favorite moment comes from a 65-year-old model named Reg, who had a blast posing and offered a fascinating insight: “People think they’re revealing themselves when they take off their clothes. They’re not, they’re revealing themselves when they put clothes on.” I found that to be such a beautiful statement.

Naked States was followed by two others produced by HBO and directed by Donnelly: 2003’s Naked World and 2005’s Positively Naked, neither of which I’ve seen, but it sounds like watching these together would be great for getting a better sense of how Tunick and his work evolved through those years. The documentary is available on DVD, and I’m honestly surprised it’s not on HBO Max, considering HBO produced it. 🪐

Celebrity nudism stories don’t cross my desk all that often, and rarer still are ones that feel legitimately rooted in real naturist spaces rather than tabloid hyperbole. So when People Magazine reported this week that Blues Traveler’s John Popper met his now-wife Sherri more than twenty years ago at a nudist “colony,” it was hard not to lean in. The detail reportedly comes from the renowned harmonicist’s appearance on the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast, where he casually dropped the story while announcing their recent-ish marriage—apparently a revelation even his own Wikipedia page hasn’t kept up with, despite their more than twenty-year relationship.

Popper described their first meeting in 2003 at what he repeatedly calls a “nudist colony” in Hammond, Indiana. The invite, he says, came from now-disgraced porn actor Ron Jeremy, which already places the anecdote in a certain early-2000s cultural time capsule that’s absurd enough to make you smirk. Popper remembers noticing Sherri because, among all the nude attendees, she was the only one clothed. “The eye wants what it can’t see,” he joked, adding that he ended up “stealing her from Ron Jeremy.” However, based on the dozens of assault accusations that have since surfaced against Jeremy, Popper probably saved her more than he stole her.

For me, the geography of this story raised an eyebrow or two. There’s no nudist venue in Hammond to my knowledge (though one may have existed in 2003, but there isn’t much evidence online to support the notion). The 92-year-old Lake O’ The Woods Club in Valparaiso is only about twenty-five minutes away by car, and seems like the most plausible match. The language here is also worth pausing on. “Colony” is a tabloid staple—an old-fashioned framing that lingers mostly in headlines written by people who have never actually visited or even really imagined a real nudist space. Of course, lepers and ants live in colonies; nudists tend to cavort in “resorts” or “parks,” and if it is the Lake O’ The Woods Club Popper recalls, then a better description would be to say they met in a beautiful, verdant strip of natural, nude-friendly land with a gorgeous reservoir (I’ve spend a lovely afternoon there myself, and it’s one of my favorite clubs in the country). Alas, I’ll allow Mr. Popper the misnomer in this case, as one imagines the memory has picked up a bit of mythic polish after two decades.

Update: Several readers have politely noted in the comments that the nudist venue Popper referenced was almost certainly not Lake O’ The Woods. Instead, they point to the neighboring Roselawn institutions Ponderosa Sun Club and Sun Aura—two non-AANR clubs known for adult-oriented events such as the long-running Nudes-A-Poppin’ pageant. Both venues sit just south of Hammond and have well-documented histories involving adult-industry figures, including Ron Jeremy. Given that context, and given Popper’s own account, these readers make a compelling case that his 2003 encounter likely occurred at one of those clubs rather than at Lake O’ The Woods.

Look, I’m not a huge Blues Traveler fan (although their song Hook is a legitimate banger, IMO), but as a geriatric millennial, their influence on popular music when I was growing up was undeniable, and I still get goosebumps sometimes when I hear that dude wail on the harmonica. (I’ve never been able to play one without making most people around me start violently slapping their ears). I was sad to learn that Popper has suffered significant health setbacks in the last year, and I hope that he has a better 2026 and perhaps rediscovers the joy and relaxation that nudism can bring to healing. Stress kills.

For Planet Nude, this story marked a rare two-for-two week in celebrity nudism reporting, after we shared a couple days ago that Charlie Sheen’s new Netflix documentary revealed that he spent part of his childhood in a nudist household. But I won’t complain, it sure beats another story of a beach or club closure. 🪐