22-year-old Monika Rostvold stripped down to a flesh-colored thong and nipple pasties on campus at Texas State University, San Marcos, hoping to prove a point about sexuality.
The student who from a distance appeared to be wearing nothing, also cut herself off from the outside world by putting on a blindfold and wearing headphones.
Fellow students gathered around her during the nude vigil and flooded social media with images of Rostvold.
Rostvold, who is studying for a Fine Arts degree, said later that exposing her body so publicly was in fact an attempt to de-sexualize it.
Speaking to campus radio station KTSW, she said: “My body is beautiful, natural, this is what it's supposed to be. I'm trying to take away it being a sex object.”
She also noted that her strategy for not getting distracted during her display was to 'zone out' and ignore everything around her.
Rostvold looked up nudity laws before and judged that so long she covered her nipples there would be no problem.
Speaking to DailyMail, she stated that if it had been legal, she would have gone further.