showering nude?

[lph]

No, this is not as interesting as it might sound :D

I was just browsing a travel forum for Iceland, because we're headed there in June. Iceland is famous for its geothermally heated swimming pools. But several of the US posters mentioned that it was "no problem at all" to just shower and lather up first like the locals, in the nude.

It never struck me there was any other way of doing so. Is it uncommon in the States in gyms and swimming pools to have one large open shower room where everybody (of the same sex) showers together? Or is it usual with separate "cubicles"? Just curious.

Here you'll often find some kind of narrow side partition, but I think that's just so that they can fit the showers closer together without people feeling they're about to bump into each other.

[Blueberry]

My gyms have always had separate "shower stalls" much like toilet stalls, but with a curtain as the door. One then goes to the dressing area, and gets dressed. Some (nicer) shower areas have separate, curtained dressing areas attached.

I do think there is a mentality of getting dressed as modestly as possible, here. I'm sure you've observed that the US appears to be much less comfortable with nudity than the remainder of the world:p:o

[lph]

Thanks Blueberry! Is it customary then to wear a towel between the shower and the changing area? And are you expected to keep the towel around you until basic clothing is on? I know how to do this, from changing on public beaches, but in womens showers and changing rooms here it's considered acceptable to wear no clothes at all, as if you were at home in your own bathroom.

Sorry to be clueless, but you may be saving me from some major embarrassment if I ever visit the States and go swimming :p

[OakLeaf]

I think it's goofy too, but yeah, in the USA in gyms and pools it's customary to have separate stalls and to wrap yourself in a towel between shower and locker. Some older school gyms still have common showers. Some places have double stalls with a curtained changing area in front of the shower.

Everywhere I've been, if there's no curtained changing stall, you're not really expected to go through contortions to avoid exposing anything while dressing. Some people do, but they're the exception rather than the rule. It's okay to take the towel off while you're putting your clothes on. :D

[katluvr]

Actually at our pool (when I was swimming --or trying to swim w/ the tri group) the shower area has a few stalls and one "shower tree" that can be a group shower. I would do my hair there and rinse while in my suit then go change privately...but many of the women would strip their suits right there while talking to you. I don't think I am that comfortable with my body or maybe general nudity at all!

K

[GLC1968]

Ditto what the others have said. The only places that I've encountered non-curtained shower stalls or rooms was adjacent to pools that are pools only (like town swim clubs and the like). All the gyms I've visited had at least stalls if not full curtains and private changing areas.

I generally try to make a point of avoiding bending over butt naked or flashing my nudity in someone else's face. For the most part though, I don't bother to try and stay covered as I dress.

I will say that with the exception of a random older person (or perhaps a European person?), women generally don't walk around bare-naked in changing areas. They will usually hold off putting on makeup or doing their hair until they are at least wearing underwear.

[Blueberry]

I agree with Oakleaf and GLC.

What I've seen is that most people will pull on panties with the towel on, and then sort of face the wall until the bra is on. After that - no worries. I'm sure it varies from location to location (and I'm sure I've offended some people because I do try not to be in your face - but I get dressed comfortably). The walk from shower to locker with no clothing or towel on would be odd, I think.

[lph]

It really depends what you're used to. I can feel a bit self-conscious if it's been a long time since I've been in a common shower, but next visit I'm wandering around forgetting that I'm not wearing anything.

I think this might be changing a bit over here too, though. I know many schools have trouble enforcing showers after phys.ed., and I can see that at some of the pools that immigrants frequent people cover up more.

In summer I much prefer bathing without clothes altogether, I really hate wearing a clammy suit, so I love bathing up at my in-laws cabin in the mountains where I can skip the suit when nobody's around :) Not brave enough to go to the nude public beaches. They all seem to have someone sleazy hanging around.

PS. That was an interesting comment about maybe a "random older person". Was nudity more common and accepted before than it is now? Otherwise I'd think older people to be more conservative in their ways and dress rather than less.

[Irulan]

The efforts that I see of women to NOT be naked in the locker room just astound me. The difficulty of completely undressing and putting on workout clothes, and then after the workout reversing it, all with a carefully draped towel.... so that you never show boobs, or butt, or a little pubic hair...astounding. I think it's ridiculous.

So yeah, Americans are way too uptight about this stuff. It's funny, I can go 100 miles away into Canada, to the hot springs, and it's amazing the cultural difference over an imaginary line.

As for major embarrassment if you ever come to the states, not to worry. There are always some who just do whatever they do.

[VeganBikeChick]

I am one of those very modest people who wouldn't be caught dead walking around in the nude. I grew up in a very modest family and the thought of strangers seeing me naked freaks me out. I also think that others who saw me naked would stare and judge the whole time (like they don't have anything better to do, right?!) and there's been lots of press lately about cell phones and videos in locker rooms. I'd rather not have my large butt up on youtube :P

[channlluv]

San Diego is an ethnically-rich city, so there are all ethnicities of women in my gym. My Y has both a communal shower and separate stalls for people who want more privacy, although there's no room to change in them. You'd have to exit the shower or get your clothes all wet.

Some women are very modest and wear robes. Others walk around stark naked with maybe a wrap on their hair. It took me a little while to get used to it, but it's no biggie now. It only bothers me when someone sits bare-butt on the hot sauna seat. Ick.

I shower in the communal shower room, but I wrap a pretty sarong around myself when I go back to the lockers to get dressed, mainly because it's a big, open area between the showers and the lockers, with sinks and wall-to-wall mirrors, and an open-around-the-corner hallway to the main gym and I just feel exposed in there, and if I'm in the sauna, I'm on an extra-large spa towel with the sarong wrapped around me.

With their renovations last year, they added family changing rooms that are really nice, and thank goodness, because some of the women would bring their older, wide-eyed sons through to the pool area (which was only accessible through the locker rooms before the renovation).

One time I'd just finished showering and had wrapped myself in a sarong. There was a ten- or twelve-year-old girl from the swim team showering in the communal shower, too. As I left the shower area and turned the corner, I came face-to-face with a boy about eight-years-old. His mom, who had a toddler girl in her arms, was steering him into the shower! I stopped her and said there was a young girl in there and she gave me this "so what" look, and I said, "Look, if I were a girl her age (thinking of my daughter), I sure wouldn't want a boy his age to see me naked." And I just stood there blocking the entrance to the communal shower, towels and shampoo kit in hand, until they turned around and went to a private stall. And honestly, had they been a minute or two earlier, he could have been scarred for life seeing me naked. Geez.

Roxy

[pll]

It's not so bad! In the gyms I have been, there are separate shower stalls. With exceptions, people tend not to walk around naked between the shower and the locker section, but wrapped in a towel.

Only once did I encounter a shower "tree", in the change area by a pool in a state park. I had finished an organized ride. By the amount of giggling from girls and teenagers in bathing suits, I inferred that showering in the nude was not customary there (it is what it is... nobody was showering when I started), but several women from the same ride then did the same.

The only place in the US where women seem to walk around in the nude is the women's area in a Korean sauna I go every now and then.

[channlluv]

Okay, here's a women-only spa question for you, and it's something I encountered in Hawaii. When you go to a schmancy spa and there's a Jacuzzi there, do you go in naked or wearing your bathing suit?

I wasn't given instructions by the attendant, just given the robe and told to feel free to walk around naked because it's all women there and the custom, and I did go nude into the steam room and the hot sauna, but I wasn't sure what to do in the Jacuzzi, so I missed out on that. I hadn't brought a bathing suit with me, not knowing what to expect. (My first time at a real spa.)

What would you have done?

Roxy

[pll]

Personally, I am not a fan of jacuzzis, but if looking around did not help, probably in the nude (given the cue from the attendant). I love the hot sauna, though. I always take in a couple of towels, one on which to sit or lay down (if it is empty), one to cover my toes and shins when they get too hot. If there are people in the sauna covering themselves with a towel, I will do the same as the last thing I'd like to do is to make anyone uncomfortable.

[Crankin]

The modesty of women in locker rooms astounds me.
I guess I don't care.
I don't use the locker room at my new gym, but I did for about 20 years at 2 other gyms, here and in AZ. The crowd at 5:30 AM is pretty friendly and we knew a lot about each other. But, really, to go into a private changing cubicle to get dressed?
I wore a towel between the shower and my locker, but I took it off and was naked during the time it took me to get dressed. I think it's a sad statement that people are so embarrassed of their bodies. I usually dried my hair and did my make up while in my underwear.
I once took a shower and changed at a ski resort in NH when I was with a close friend. She went into the shower with her clothes on and I guess took them off in there :eek:. I just stripped and put my towel on and I was done and dressed long before her. In fact, I saw She Fly in the locker room, as I was half dressed after my shower :).

[Melalvai]

That was an interesting comment about maybe a "random older person". Was nudity more common and accepted before than it is now? Otherwise I'd think older people to be more conservative in their ways and dress rather than less.
I've also noticed that older women seem more comfortable being nude than younger. That always made me laugh because you'd think it would be the opposite, right? We generally look better nude when younger! I figured it was just that it takes a few decades to get comfortable with your body. I'm certainly more comfortable now, approaching 40 yrs, than I was when I was 20 or 18.

I was offended in the locker room this summer when I was there with my daughter and a woman was loudly criticizing people's habits of using the cubicle shower and the curtained off changing room, instead of the open shower and the rest of the locker room. My 16 yr old is NOT comfortable being naked in front of anyone, and while I'm ok with all of that when complete strangers are around I wasn't comfortable with it around her either. (That seems weird to me-- that I'm more comfortable being naked around strangers than around family. But there it is!) Anyway it wasn't that woman's place to be judgmental about it.

[Irulan]

Okay, here's a women-only spa question for you, and it's something I encountered in Hawaii. When you go to a schmancy spa and there's a Jacuzzi there, do you go in naked or wearing your bathing suit?

I wasn't given instructions by the attendant, just given the robe and told to feel free to walk around naked because it's all women there and the custom, and I did go nude into the steam room and the hot sauna, but I wasn't sure what to do in the Jacuzzi, so I missed out on that. I hadn't brought a bathing suit with me, not knowing what to expect. (My first time at a real spa.)

What would you have done?

Roxy

I would probably ask. I"m not a big fan of public jacuzzis myself, even "nice" ones.

We have a hot tub at home, and we never wear suits. I mean, it's ours and it's private. We let our guests/houseguests know this. After that it's up to them.

[Irulan]

I've also noticed that older women seem more comfortable being nude than younger. That always made me laugh because you'd think it would be the opposite, right? We generally look better nude when younger! I figured it was just that it takes a few decades to get comfortable with your body. I'm certainly more comfortable now, approaching 40 yrs, than I was when I was 20 or 18.

I was offended in the locker room this summer when I was there with my daughter and a woman was loudly criticizing people's habits of using the cubicle shower and the curtained off changing room, instead of the open shower and the rest of the locker room. My 16 yr old is NOT comfortable being naked in front of anyone, and while I'm ok with all of that when complete strangers are around I wasn't comfortable with it around her either. (That seems weird to me-- that I'm more comfortable being naked around strangers than around family. But there it is!) Anyway it wasn't that woman's place to be judgmental about it.

It's pretty rude to be loud and judgmental anywhere.

Teens are notoriously modest. I think that's pretty developmentally common, even in homes where nudity is a common factor. It's how they start to learn boundaries.

[channlluv]

My daughter has been coming with me to the Y for a couple of years now and she was shy about changing clothes in the locker room at first, but now she strips down just like everybody else, at 13. She's got a pretty healthy body image, I guess. Of course, when we're in there, we're often there alongside teens from the swim team who are just as naked as they day they were born, too, and completely comfortable around each other. I think she's taking her cues from them.

Roxy

[shootingstar]

This whole thread reminds me how little I use public fitness facilities and their communal /shared changing/shower facilities.

I just rarely use indoor fitness facilities because I haven't used the equipment/paid fees for their use.

As for public jacuzzis, I'm only familiar with co-ed ones which require swimming suits. I used to use them but found the warm/hot water dried out my skin.

[VeganBikeChick]

. I think it's a sad statement that people are so embarrassed of their bodies.

Some people can be very judgmental....and no one needs or wants to be judged.

[Biciclista]

hahaha I'm an older woman and feel very shy about public nudity too.
I remember having serious issues in the gym locker room, to the point of skipping showers. Now I'm 60 and a deterrent to going to a swimming pool is the locker room!!
It's in my head, I know that.

[pll]

Someone said that people would stop caring about what others thought if they realized how little others cared... In a gym, everybody is in their own small bubble, concerned with themselves. If some random person is judging other people's bodies, who cares, really, about that opinion? That person just needs a life.

[NbyNW]

I remember learning to swim at a YMCA that was an old brick building. I have no idea when it was built. My impression from knowing that part of town is that it could have been pre-war. The locker rooms had open showers. I remember thinking it was really cool that you could just press a button and hot water would come out for some set period of time.

We probably showered in our bathing suits and then dried off and dressed as quickly as we can. Probably more out of parent-enforced modesty than anything we might have felt or known at that age.

My Jr. High and HS also had open showers and those were probably built in the late 50s-early 60s. Showers weren't mandated, but to be honest, we rarely sweated in gym class.

[Wahine]

So here's an interesting observation...

I'm a Canadian living in the US. I am a member of our Masters Swim team and I go to the pool at times outside of masters as well.

I would say on the whole, Canadians are a bit more European in their attitudes about nudity but not much. You'll still see lots of Canadians going through the towel change dance in the locker room.

At our pool here in the US, we have an open group showering area and 3 stalls with curtains in the same area. When we come out of masters, there is always a rush for the stalls, because they have the best nozzles, not because of privacy. In fact, no one closes the curtains so we can all make eye contact while we chat and get caught up on our lives outside of the pool. We walk around naked with towels on our heads, do hair and make-up in our underwear.

When I go to the pool at public swim times the vibe is totally different. People use private changing rooms and I almost never see anyone showering naked with the curtains open on the stalls. And I often get a bit of stink eye when I walk naked through the locker room from the shower to the dressing area, like I'm doing something wrong.

So I'd say that a there is a ton of variablility from place to place and even in one place depending on the time of day!

[PamNY]

I remember as a teen being berated by older women for being modest in situations where public changing of clothes was an issue. And honestly? That was that. I will be as modest as I damned well please and a bunch of yammering, judgmental women aren't going to stop me.

It is rude and arrogant for anyone to suggest that modesty has anything whatsoever to do with negative body image. Personally I think my body is fairly terrific -- but being forced to parade around nude to satisfy someone else's idea of what is correct? Not going to happen.

ETA: I would make an effort to be polite when traveling abroad.

[Bike Writer]

It really depends what you're used to. I can feel a bit self-conscious if it's been a long time since I've been in a common shower, but next visit I'm wandering around forgetting that I'm not wearing anything.


PS. That was an interesting comment about maybe a "random older person". Was nudity more common and accepted before than it is now? Otherwise I'd think older people to be more conservative in their ways and dress rather than less.

lph, I can't speak for the poster who commented about "random older person" but when I was in high school our swim class had communal showers and no place for private changing back into clothes from swimsuits. You just did it in infront of your locker in the locker room. I don't have kids in the school system but my thoughts are that much more privacy is offered these days. I can't really explain why when morals seem to be so much more lax today than they were in the 1960-1970's. There are probably those who would take exception to the term "lax" and identify or label current standards with the term diversity or tolerance and maybe lax is not the best word but it is the one that comes to mind.

For certain, there is a more rigid standard in the USA than abroad, when it comes to nudity.

[lph]

This has been a really fascinating thread. Thank you! I forgot to mention that we have a common shower room at work, with four shower stalls. They're built with side walls, but no curtain. So whenever I ride my bike to work I'm showering and dressing in front of some co-worker or boss I may or may not know. That makes it that much more of a habit. But I agree with the person who said that one feels more self-conscious in front of people you know than in front of strangers. We even had a tiny sauna at work before, shared by men and women. There I would always wear a towel, at least around my middle, but I met both guys wearing nothing :rolleyes:, and guys intensely uncomfortable at my very presence there... (And every now and then some of us girls would invite a guy friend or two, bring fruit punch and serve "topless drinks" in there :D)

When it comes to what level of modesty is "right", well, obviously it's a personal question and depends on the surroundings. I'm happy that I don't have to fuss more with a towel than I need to for practical reasons. On the other hand I would feel very uncomfortable if I were expected to be less modest than I naturally feel like, like enforced nudity in that sauna for example.

And in the rest of society nudity isn't particularly acceptable, I mean most of us wouldn't strip down not even to underwear on a hot day at home or in the garden, no matter if we were only hanging out with female friends. So I guess accepted nudity at a common shower facility is the exception, not the rule. Sure, bare skin is natural, but we have been taught since we were tiny to keep our clothes on in public, and that sticks too. To each their own.

[Crankin]

Well, I guess I am one of those "random older people." We had enforced showering in middle school and HS, with individual showers, at least here in MA. Same thing in Miami when I moved there. The teacher stood outside the shower area and checked us off and we all tried to lie, by saying we had our period. Somehow, that excused you from a shower :o. I rarely sweated in gym, since I was so uncoordinated. But, after I flunked the President's Physical Fitness test (yes, I did), I got put in what was euphemistically called "Flab Lab." It was there that I discovered I was good at endurance things (we had to jog around the gym/locker room for 20 minutes to pass the test to get out of this class). I think it was the first time I actually sweat, and I was happy to shower.
My kids had to change for gym, but no showers.
And the things we did in Flab Lab had nothing to do with the stupid skills on the President's test, like shooting a basketball.

[Catrin]

This thread has been interesting to read. I knew that Europeans have a different level of comfort with nudity or partial nudity than Americans do, but I hadn't considered how that would play out in something as prosaic as a shower room.

While I don't mind standing naked at my locker changing, I do keep a towel around me until that point. I hardly ever have seen a woman at my club walk neekid from the shower to her locker, and it is always the same woman who does this...she is so skinny that it hurts to look at her, all of her bones are in sharp relief but THAT is something else.

[spokewench]

I think most women in America are prudes when it comes to being naked. But, that is the way it is. I go to work out from work a lot and we have a very large changing area, shower, and two stalls for toilets. I know some of the women are very uncomfortable when I am say in between bras in the changing area even though I try to always have my back turned towards them to keep their experience comfortable. I don't really understand this, but it is the way of America.

[lph]

It's funny that there should be so many different experiences and opinions about this even in the same town and at the same gym! It sounds to me as if the general acceptance of nudity in the US is low, while many of you here on TE find it unnecessarily low.

I won't judge, though I would be sad to see my towelless freedom go. I can vividly remember when I was about 20, doing a long-distance hike alone in France, and broke off my trip to visit a friend of my mothers. She ran a nudist holiday camp, and it would be obviously rude of me to walk around fully dressed. So I stripped off for the day I was staying there, but it was neither comfortable nor empowering. It was the friendliest, nicest family place, but I just felt out of my comfort zone. (Besides, I had been hiking in the sun for three weeks and had the whitest butt ever :D)

But now I know what that feels like too, and wouldn't want to inflict that on anyone else.

[skhill]

This has all been very interesting!

At the Y I use, we have shower stalls with curtains, and the norm is to wear at least a towel while walking around. A few change in the toilet stalls, but most of us are at the lockers, making some efforts towards modesty (facing the wall while putting on underwear/bra). However, there are quite a few older women who do walk around naked. It's kind of wonderful, how comfortable they are in their own skin.

[NbyNW]

People really can have different attitudes ...

Last winter I was at a mountain resort in Canada, getting dressed after my shower .... it was a small locker room so I couldn't help but notice that a mother with small children, juggling all of her things and her kids' things, had taken her things to a toilet stall to change.

Moments later, her little girl, maybe 5-6 years old, exclaimed in shock: "MOM! THERE ARE PEOPLE CHANGING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LOCKER ROOM!"

I couldn't her the mother's reply, but then the girl yelled back to her, "BUT ISN'T THAT RUDE?"

Which set off chuckling throughout the rest of the locker room.

[shootingstar]

It is rude and arrogant for anyone to suggest that modesty has anything whatsoever to do with negative body image. Personally I think my body is fairly terrific -- but being forced to parade around nude to satisfy someone else's idea of what is correct? Not going to happen.



I would tend to agree with Pam. I know that part of my modesty is how I was raised as a child. It was not religious upbringing but simply parents who grew up prior to the 1940's when still alot of Chinese women in China, did not show much skin unless they were Westernized.

So my parents carried over the same old fashioned standard when they immigrated to Canada in the 1950's.

I have a good body image that since I am aware many women in my age bracket probably envy me ..based on their comments to me. And cycling often has helped me alot in weight control.

But still, the most skin I even show are my legs in shorts. I don't even wear cropped tank tops...because I'm small up top.

So maybe I don't feel totally la-de-dah butt naked in a women's change/shower area...because I'm small busted... a hang over from teen years.

Ach,.....I haven't seen my sisters totally naked as a adults, except when they were babies and helped my mother by taking their baths, as the eldest kid. We're very polite to each other....we turn away from each other to change. :o But don't worry, doctor sister will smarten us up if she needs to examine us.

[Selkie]

Do what makes you comfortable and don't worry about it. IMHO, walking around naked, without a towel, in a single-sex locker room is acceptable and no one else should be shocked/offended by it. People can choose to towel up or go au naturel. If someone wants to look/judge, then that's their issue.

[goldfinch]

Well, I avoid making eye-contact when I'm not wearing any clothing....:cool:

For the random older person. It used to be a bit different, I think. Open showers and no stalls. Plus, The girls and boys had segregated health classes in school. And they had required showers, etc. Seems like my mother said some things, and perhaps I read things about how it used to be different? Foggy on details though.

Now, along with being uptight, everyone is concerned about safety. Especially for their kids. People don't grow up like that anymore.


We had segregated health classes and big open showers that were mandatory. I hated it as the girl that got boobs early. I had the same gym teacher from 6th grade through 10th grade, when gym ceased to be mandatory. She used to bring her girlfriend to work fairly frequently. They would pass out towels as we came out of the shower. Back in the 60s we gave no thought to her sexual preference. I didn't know she was gay until long after high school and met up with her a few times. Nice woman but the girlfriend at the gym was not appropriate. I think in our small town no one had a clue.

[pll]

We had segregated health classes and big open showers that were mandatory. I hated it as the girl that got boobs early. I had the same gym teacher from 6th grade through 10th grade, when gym ceased to be mandatory. She used to bring her girlfriend to work fairly frequently. They would pass out towels as we came out of the shower. Back in the 60s we gave no thought to her sexual preference. I didn't know she was gay until long after high school and met up with her a few times. Nice woman but the girlfriend at the gym was not appropriate. I think in our small town no one had a clue.

Wow. Talk about inappropriate behavior.

I attended a German school in South America and gym was always scheduled at the end of the day. For the day we had gym class, we'd wear a track suit all day. No showers, just go home afterwards. I was a bit shocked when I came to the US, but I did not know otherwise. I have to say that, at a university, if you are teaching, it is supremely uncomfortable to be greeted by students in the locker room. No thanks! In the university where I attended grad school, they have separate locker rooms for faculty and staff. I clearly see the reason now.

[Blueberry]

Do what makes you comfortable and don't worry about it. IMHO, walking around naked, without a towel, in a single-sex locker room is acceptable and no one else should be shocked/offended by it. People can choose to towel up or go au naturel. If someone wants to look/judge, then that's their issue.

Very well said!

[laura*]

I can't really explain why when morals seem to be so much more lax today than they were in the 1960-1970's. There are probably those who would take exception to the term "lax" and identify or label current standards with the term diversity or tolerance and maybe lax is not the best word but it is the one that comes to mind.

I think this (subject of this thread) is a result of the USA's increasingly diverse population. Decades ago, the wider community matched one's family unit. The red haired Irish kid was the odd one out. Today it's the Somali kid who doesn't fit any of the old labels.

Years ago, kids likely got used to sharing a shower with siblings, cousins, and so on. The comfort with this would easily translate to school where all the kids looked like one's relatives. Not so any more.

Somewhere I read an article about a study that found that in diverse/integrated communities "everyone" hides behind their home's closed doors.

...

Near here there's a skinny dipping spot in a river. It was popularized many decades ago by (presumably) kids from the nearby Baptist community / summer camp. Yes, the very conservative Baptist community! The one where I'm a bit on edge when I cycle through wearing cycling clothes!

[Crankin]

I don't know, I think, maybe from being a teenager/college student in the late sixties and early seventies, that things were way more open back then in certain ways. We treated young people more like grown ups, for one thing. Maybe this is just a reflection of my own upbringing, which was fairly progressive, but today the "lax" standards seem to border on the sleazy. I am the least prudish person around, even compared to my closer friends, and I think most of that has to do with the way I was brought up.

[Brandi]

It is so funny every time I look at the title of this post I am so drawn to it even though I know it is not what it sounds like. Makes me giggle.

[goldfinch]

I don't know, I think, maybe from being a teenager/college student in the late sixties and early seventies, that things were way more open back then in certain ways. We treated young people more like grown ups, for one thing. Maybe this is just a reflection of my own upbringing, which was fairly progressive, but today the "lax" standards seem to border on the sleazy. I am the least prudish person around, even compared to my closer friends, and I think most of that has to do with the way I was brought up.


My experience and feelings are the same.

[Aggie_Ama]

I didn't read the whole thread... What I find bizarre at my gym is the number of women who got into a stall of the bathroom to change clothing. I don't make it a point to look at anyone or make eye contact when I am changing but I do completely change in the open locker area. My body isn't the best body at the gym but I am not ashamed of it.

I do have one of those towel wraps with velcro I will walk around I shower. I usually pull on my panties pretty quick so I don't accidentally flash someone but I won't put on the rest of my clothes until my hair is dry. I find even after a lukewarm shower I don't cool down for a bit. FWIW I am 30 to give an age reference. I see all ages from 20-60+ headed to the bathroom to change.

[Sky King]

Well, I guess I am one of those "random older people." We had enforced showering in middle school and HS, with individual showers, at least here in MA. Same thing in Miami when I moved there. The teacher stood outside the shower area and checked us off and we all tried to lie, by saying we had our period. Somehow, that excused you from a shower :o. I rarely sweated in gym, since I was so uncoordinated. But, after I flunked the President's Physical Fitness test (yes, I did), I got put in what was euphemistically called "Flab Lab." It was there that I discovered I was good at endurance things (we had to jog around the gym/locker room for 20 minutes to pass the test to get out of this class). I think it was the first time I actually sweat, and I was happy to shower.
My kids had to change for gym, but no showers.
And the things we did in Flab Lab had nothing to do with the stupid skills on the President's test, like shooting a basketball.

HA, HA Part of our PE grade was based on taking a shower!! We had an large open shower. If you were having your period you took a "half" shower, meaning you kept your knickers on. The instructor stood at the entrance to the shower and you called out full or half as you went in and she marked it in her book.

I always find campground showers interesting, last summer's bike tour half of the showers took tokens that you had to get from the host and half took quarters. Sometimes, I just take two water bottles full of hot water into the stall and take a water bottle shower. I am not one who has to have clean hair when touring two bottles works just fine.

[malkin]

Do what makes you comfortable and don't worry about it. IMHO, walking around naked, without a towel, in a single-sex locker room is acceptable and no one else should be shocked/offended by it. People can choose to towel up or go au naturel. If someone wants to look/judge, then that's their issue.


This.

Also in an unfamiliar place I would (do) probably take cues from others and do what seems normal in that space, since I don't care very much. I will also wrap up more if I am freezing!

[jessmarimba]

I always find campground showers interesting, last summer's bike tour half of the showers took tokens that you had to get from the host and half took quarters. Sometimes, I just take two water bottles full of hot water into the stall and take a water bottle shower. I am not one who has to have clean hair when touring two bottles works just fine.

You just gave me awful flashbacks to scout camp. Wow. We had an outdoor shower setup, with 4 partitioned showers that were private with little dressing areas, but were open on the top and under the plastic walls. The center portion was inhabited by a horsefly nest or something - if you picked the wrong shower and turned on the water, they'd start swarming and biting. Definitely ran out of the shower naked and screaming on more than one occasion. Also, I had really long hair as a kid (down to my butt) and I wore it in braids at camp so it wouldn't turn into a rats nest. But at 7, with no mirror, I couldn't part it by myself. So I would unbraid half, wash and condition, then rebraid and switch sides. My counselor once yelled at me because she thought I wasn't washing my hair in the shower since I always went in and came out with it braided. I was so insulted I threw a temper tantrum and made her smell my hair :)

We never showered in gym though. Our school was built in 1930 and the locker room was never updated, the girls showers were disgusting and were pretty much used as equipment storage. I imagine the guys showers were probably nicer because the sports teams would use them.

[channlluv]

...Also, I had really long hair as a kid (down to my butt) and I wore it in braids at camp so it wouldn't turn into a rats nest. But at 7, with no mirror, I couldn't part it by myself. So I would unbraid half, wash and condition, then rebraid and switch sides. My counselor once yelled at me because she thought I wasn't washing my hair in the shower since I always went in and came out with it braided. I was so insulted I threw a temper tantrum and made her smell my hair :)
...

That is so darn clever. Seriously. What a smart way to handle not being able to part your hair yourself.

Roxy

[lhayes]

I don't post here much, but have been reading for years--feel like I know some of you!

At any rate, I grew up swimming and playing sports (am 51 now) and never thought anything of walking around a locker room full of naked girls. High school, Y league, age group league, and then college. My non athlete roommate came into the locker room after a college meet once and was astounded that we were all naked--and she was a nursing student!

Started back swimming in my late 30s and was astounded at the women who brought young boys into the locker room at the Y. One lady took a picture of her son in the locker room, and I am certain I am in the background in some state of undress! I got more modest at that point! Now in the very nice gym that I frequent, I see most women trying very hard not to be seen in anything but a fully clothed state. I go with that just to be polite, but it strikes me as funny.

While visiting a friend in LA (I am in NY) we went to a Korean spa where all the women are naked in hot pools, saunas and such, and then were massaged and 'scrubbed' in a communal room with others. It was interesting, and not the least bit uncomfortable for me. When in Rome....
Laura H.

[AppleTree]

hahaha I'm an older woman and feel very shy about public nudity too.
I remember having serious issues in the gym locker room, to the point of skipping showers. Now I'm 60 and a deterrent to going to a swimming pool is the locker room!!
It's in my head, I know that.


All this brings back such (maybe not so good) memories of junior high school gym. We also used to try to get out of showers by claiming we were on our period, and if we thought we could get away with it, would walk into the shower room, get our arms and legs wet and call it good. :p

[Eden]

There really are different attitudes world round....

I just came back from Japan, where we visited an onsen (hot spring spa). There are still places there that have communal bathing for all sexes and this one did in one of the baths. I didn't end up sharing with any men - mainly because I wanted to use the one outdoor bath and that one was sex segregated on a time schedule. The women's time in it was at the same time that the big indoor bath was both sexes. When I did go in the big pool at a shared time I was the only one there anyway.....

I did bathe with plenty of other women though, there and at several other places that had communal bathing (one was a Buddhist nun - I thought for a moment I went into the wrong changing area, because they shave their heads and at first glance I thought she was a man....) and swim suits or towels were not allowed in the pools. Basically people are polite. No one even really looks at you intentionally, much less openly stares.

As far as our work locker room goes.... we only have 4 shower stalls. Each one does have a little curtained vestibule, but really, it is much more rude if you do change in there..... we all have to share and we all need to get to work, so if it's politeness you are worried about, take your clothes off before you get in there and clear out as soon as you are done showering and have dried off enough to not drip every where. I solemnly promise that I don't see more than pink/tan blobs without my glasses on, so I'm not looking at you.

[Pax]

I don't post here much, but have been reading for years--feel like I know some of you!

At any rate, I grew up swimming and playing sports (am 51 now) and never thought anything of walking around a locker room full of naked girls. High school, Y league, age group league, and then college. My non athlete roommate came into the locker room after a college meet once and was astounded that we were all naked--and she was a nursing student!

Started back swimming in my late 30s and was astounded at the women who brought young boys into the locker room at the Y. One lady took a picture of her son in the locker room, and I am certain I am in the background in some state of undress! I got more modest at that point! Now in the very nice gym that I frequent, I see most women trying very hard not to be seen in anything but a fully clothed state. I go with that just to be polite, but it strikes me as funny.

While visiting a friend in LA (I am in NY) we went to a Korean spa where all the women are naked in hot pools, saunas and such, and then were massaged and 'scrubbed' in a communal room with others. It was interesting, and not the least bit uncomfortable for me. When in Rome....
Laura H.

Very similar to my experience (I'm 51 too).

I've never liked wearing clothes, as a child I took them off all the time to run around nekkid, as a teenager/young adult I wore as little as the law allowed, now as an older adult I still don't like wearing clothing but make allowances for other people. The gym remodeled a few years ago and went from shower trees to separate stalls, since the new norm at the gym seems to be to cover up, I wear a towel in the locker room now.

[GLC1968]

I was the person who commented on 'random older person' and by that, I meant it was usually someone older than about 65 who clearly didn't care what other people thought about them. It's not that they were flaunting themselves, but more that they just think about it. I do think it's probably partly due to maturity, but probably also due to comfort with being there. I mean think about it, how many 65+ year-olds do we know who workout regularly at a gym? Maybe most of those who do, have been doing so all their lives and therefore, the locker room is a very comfy place for them? Who knows, I'm just throwing out ideas here...

I will say that I am much more comfortable being naked in a locker room now than I was when I was a teen. I don't think it's body image as much as it's 'social norms'. When I was a teen, all the girls were modest. None of us walked around naked. It may have been different had I been on a swim team in HS, I suspect. Now I find that if everyone else is naked, I don't care if I am too. If everyone else is doing the 'towel dance', then I try to be a bit more modest myself. Social pressure. I like it when other people are comfortable around me...always have. I will go out of my way to ensure that I'm not making someone else uncomfortable, but I'm weird like that. :p

[badger]

It's a mixture here. There are pools with an option of open showers or stalled, and there are those with no stall options - such as the one I go to. Some women take their suits off to lather up, others just seem to "rinse" or lather over/around their suits (which to me seems a bit daft).

I would normally towel up from shower to change rooms because there are often small children. It's not because I think they should be hidden from nudity, but I hate that the little boys gawk at you because, I guess, they're not often used to seeing women other than their mothers naked.

Once in the changing area, most everyone lets everything hang, but I've noticed that young tweens go into stalled change rooms.

In Japan, peoplebathe in the nude with others (obviously same sexes). What bothers me about the whole thing is you sit on these little stools to wash yourself, and I'm all paranoid about my bits touching the same place some other person's bits touched. I'd want to disinfect first...

[withm]

A recent issue of Adventure Cyclist Magazine had this article about riding in Iceland, where the subject of "naked showers" comes up. The writer mentions being publicly chastized for not cleaning certain parts of his anatomy sufficiently prior to entering the geothermal pools.

You can read it here:

http://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/20110809_Adventure_Cyclist_Wallack.pdf

[Biciclista]

thanks for the article, Withm! I really enjoyed it. EEEK!! what a crazy ride.

And I would not put it past me to change in a bathroom stall. . .(in other words, I would if i had the opportunity)

[Irulan]

I work out at a smaller facility, and it tees me off no end that people use the toilet stall for changing instead of the changing area. The changing area has curtains, chairs and hooks but they are small is all. It's not like we don't have a changing area.

[lph]

I skimmed through the article, and I'm looking forward even more to going to Iceland now :D I've been there before for one summer, but that was as a dirt poor student with very limited options to do things.

While I've never seen anyone inspect (or chastise!) anyone here for their showering routine, swimming pools here are big on everyone showering and washing well before entering the pool, and they have a point. At the pools where people don't wash well in advance, more skin particles and hair go into the water and they have to use a lot more chlorine to keep the water clean enough. I hate that, the chlorine smells and makes my skin dry and irritates my eyes.

It's been very interesting reading this thread, especially the posts mentioning how social norms have changed over the years.

[Biciclista]

I want to know how they knew he didn't clean his butt. (re: the Iceland article)

[Jolt]

I want to know how they knew he didn't clean his butt. (re: the Iceland article)

It sounds like they had somebody actually observing people showering, so the "observer" didn't see him clean his butt. In other words, I don't think it was that anyone saw dingleberries :p.

[Blueberry]

In other words, I don't think it was that anyone saw dingleberries :p.

I just snorted tea all over my computer:p:D:eek:

[Biciclista]

I just snorted tea all over my computer:p:D:eek:

no kidding! Showers in Iceland are apparently NOT for the shy.

[malkin]

It sounds like they had somebody actually observing people showering, so the "observer" didn't see him clean his butt. In other words, I don't think it was that anyone saw dingleberries :p.


"Shower Observer" What a job!

*snort*