News of the Nude, Feb. 2026
Volume 38: Legal battles, lost resorts, naked hikes, and women reclaiming the nude self-portrait
Welcome to the latest News of the Nude! As the news cycles seem to accelerate and the daily grind of life leaves you with little time to parse the stories and find the ones that apply to body freedom and nude expression, this little monthly compendium of nude-focused news is designed to help you do just that. And we haven’t yet missed a month for 38 months straight! 🤯
If you enjoy this monthly dose of nude news, you might think about joining our discord server and checking out the #news-of-the-nude channel, where we and the community share relevant nudie-newsy items in real time as they crop up throughout the month—and then chat about the stories right there. How cool is that?
This month brought with it a small but highly relevant slate of stories touching on nude rights in Vermont, the loss and potential loss of cherished nudist spaces, nudity and health, and the lineage of female nude expression in art. Plenty to dig into. Have fun! 🚀
News of the Nude, Vol. 38 🪐
Vermont lawmaker introduces bill to criminalize public nudity
Vermont’s long-standing reputation for permissive public nudity may soon end. House Bill H.683, introduced January 14, 2026, would make it a criminal offense to expose the pubic area, genitals, or buttocks in public view statewide, with penalties of up to six months in jail or a $500 fine.
Sponsored by Representatives Gregory Burtt, Michael Tagliavia, and Kenneth Wells, the bill would amend Title 13 of Vermont law and extend to private property visible from public spaces. Limited exceptions would remain for designated clothing-optional areas and permitted events, leaving municipalities authority to carve out specific exemptions.
Vermont has historically been an outlier, allowing nonsexual public nudity so long as a person does not disrobe in public view. That permissive framework began narrowing in 2025 when Burlington enacted a citywide ordinance banning most public nudity while preserving protest and event exemptions. H.683 would replace Vermont’s patchwork of local rules with a uniform statewide criminal standard.
As of early February, the bill awaits action in the House Judiciary Committee. Planet Nude is continuing its original reporting on the proposal and tracking opportunities for public testimony as the session unfolds. 🚀
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Nudist Camp for Sale: The Rise and Fall of the Florida Naturist Park
Once a 220-acre anything-goes nudist enclave, Florida Naturist Park is now a fragmented 58-acre property struggling to find a buyer, as reported by the New York Times this week. Founded in 1959 by Thomas Ward Gulvin—a segregationist whose deeds barred Black ownership for decades—the park mixed libertine nudism with scandal, lawsuits, and internal turmoil. During its 1960s heyday, bodybuilder and photographer Dick Falcon helped shape the Sunshine Beach Club into a visual icon of American nudism. His staged images of fit, sunlit bodies lifting weights, playing sports, and lounging lakeside appeared in numerous nudist magazines of the era, helping cement the park’s reputation nationwide. A 1963 film, Naked Complex, was even shot there.
Today, the aging property sits zoned for nudism, surrounded by suburban sprawl, but its future is uncertain. The Times article above presents it as both relic and reckoning—a reminder of nudism’s postwar peak, its contradictions, and the difficulty of sustaining rural naturist communities in modern America. 🚀
Nudists’ fury as resort bosses cut off power after they refused to put clothes back on
Olive Dell Ranch in Riverside, California, is once again making international headlines—this time in Ireland—amid an escalating dispute between residents and the property’s owners. According to the Irish Star, electricity was allegedly cut off after residents refused to comply with a recently imposed “textile” policy requiring clothing in shared spaces at the long-standing nudist resort. Residents, many of whom are seniors, say the power shutoff has affected medical devices and basic utilities. Their attorney argues the policy change amounts to civil rights violations, while health officials have reportedly intervened and ordered power restored. The group is now seeking significant damages, alleging negligence, elder abuse, and breach of contract.
Olive Dell has appeared with striking regularity in international news coverage in recent years, most recently around the ongoing tensions between management and residents. 🚀
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Archaeologists in race against time to save shipwreck uncovered by storms on edge of nudist beach
Winter storms have exposed part of a 17th-century shipwreck at Studland Bay in Dorset—on the edge of one of Britain’s most popular naturist beaches. Maritime archaeologists from Bournemouth University raced to excavate the timbers before tides and waves could destroy them. The remains are believed to be part of the Swash Channel Wreck, likely the Fame of Hoorn, a Dutch merchant vessel that sank in 1631. The site is protected under the Protection of Wrecks Act, and dendrochronology testing will determine whether the newly uncovered 20-foot hull section matches previously recovered fragments now displayed at Poole Museum. While this story isn’t really about naturism, that didn’t stop many of the outlets reporting it to use the naturist angle in their headlines. As a result it was all over my Google alerts for a few days. I still found it to be an interesting and worthy story! 🚀
‘Not for ogling’: forget Titian, Botticelli and the male fantasists – only women can paint great female nudes
In this piece for The Guardian, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett argues that the history of the female nude in Western art has been dominated by male fantasy—and that women artists have long been reclaiming their own bodies from that tradition. Writing alongside the release of her novel Female, Nude, Cosslett traces a lineage of nude artworks and self-portraits by women including Paula Modersohn-Becker, Suzanne Valadon, Frida Kahlo, Emma Amos, and others.
As it is framed in this Guardian article, rather than presenting the nude as an object for consumption, these artists frame it as lived experience—aging, motherhood, race, disability, desire. The essay positions female self-portraiture as both aesthetic and political: when women depict their own naked bodies, authorship and subject merge. 🚀
I Hiked a Snowy Mountain Naked – Here’s What It Did to My Body Image
In this thoughtful first-person feature, Men’s Health writer Jamie Carson documents hiking Blencathra in the Lake District nude to explore research linking social nudity with improved body image and wellbeing. Drawing on studies by social psychologist Dr. Keon West, the article explains how communal nudity can reduce social physique anxiety and increase body appreciation. Carson reflects candidly on his own history with body transformation culture and the lingering pressure to maintain an ideal physique. The experience, he writes, shifted his perspective — from seeing his body as something to perfect to seeing it as something that carries him through life. For a mainstream fitness publication, it’s a rare, measured, and surprisingly research-driven look at naturism and mental health. Kudos to Men’s Health for going there. 🚀
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February out.
That does it for this month’s News of the Nude. Thanks for marinating in the sauce with us. See you next month. 🪐
I wish I had the funds and resources.