showering nude?

[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 , 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.