showering nude?

[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 , 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 )

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 . 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 )

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.

[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 . 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.

[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.

[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.

[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/reso...st_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)