# Gym rats: are men in locker rooms more modest than they used to be? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196 "2006-11-13T04:42:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/61 "2015-10-15T17:43:37Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Get over it. He may have, but since he last posted on this board in 2010 we’ll likely never know ;). ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/62 "2015-10-15T17:45:38Z")
> [@piperjohn2](#): > > I know I am dating myself, I graduated in’58. We not only took showers after gym we swam naked as well at the local “YMCA” then I went into the USAF during the entrance physical you lined up naked for your “Turn your head and cough” > > I sit in my easy chair now and watch the HS’ers run across the street and the guys have more cloths on then the gals do. As a sufferer of SSA it’s disappointing, even though young trim bodies of both sexes look great. I think it’s more fear of the “HOMO” label that forces guys to wear longer and longer and longer shorts, when practicality suggests shorter shorts would be more desirable. Or are today’s teens afraid the male equipment is going to fall out the leg opening and somehow show, or are today’s teens more endowed then those of previous generations. > > Personally I think the shorts on the market today look ridicules, you might as well have long pants on when the “Shorts” are below the knee. What’s a sufferer of SSA? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/63 "2015-10-15T19:22:03Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > I have always found this level of obsession with “stinky and sweaty” to be utterly bizarre. OF COURSE we get sweaty at times. Get over it. Remind me not to sit next to you on the bus. Or are you under the impression that your old unwashed sweat doesn’t make you stink? For myself, I have to shower after heavy sweating because my sweat makes my dermatitis break out if I don’t wash it off. I was in high school in the mid 60’s and not only did we have an open shower that we were required to use, but we didn’t get a towel until we were done with the shower. So after the exercise was done, we went to our lockers, stripped, locked the lockers, and walked nonchalantly naked to the shower room. After the shower, we walked by the towel booth to get a towel, which we could then wrap around ourselves if we desired, but by then it seemed a little pointless. My swimming lessons at the Y were always with bathing suits (because the pool had bleachers, presumably for meets or something), but my first year in college I had to take a swimming class which we took nude. It’s very interesting to me to read the responses from the younger guys who never went through that kind of experience. Somehow it seems like their loss, and when they struggle with not being nude in the locker room they look very uncomfortable to me. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/64 "2015-10-15T19:41:29Z")
My high school and college PE classes and organized sports in the 70’s and 80’s involved communal naked showering on a routine basis. People used to be required to shower before entering the city pool. Since then, I’ve rarely been in any situation involving communal showers other than co-ed at nudist places. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/65 "2015-10-15T19:59:31Z")
I think the question of whether zombies take communal showers is kinda mute. They are going to stink no matter what. P.S. I graduated high school in '82 and we took showers. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/66 "2015-10-15T20:04:19Z")
Increased modesty has been my experience as well. I’m probably projecting, but my guess is that it is body shaming. People have been conditioned to be ashamed of their naked bodies. I think it’s a real bummer. I have young kids and I volunteered to look after the boys in the locker room after swim class (they need somebody to make sure they’re all accounted for and safe). Half were reluctant to change at all - they wanted to go back to school with their wet trunks under their pants. Others waited for the two private change rooms to be open or did that weird shuffle where they put a towel around their waist and try to change under it. I’d say about 5% changed openly. It’s not like I want to look at cock, but I think it’s sad that somehow nudity is something to be afraid of. We all have the same stuff. Be proud of it. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/67 "2015-10-15T20:09:15Z")
I graduated in 93 and we did not take showers. I don’t think they were ever used. It’s crazy because we got very sweaty and some people had P.E. first period! I don’t know why they didn’t make us shower. Now when I go to the gym, I see the same as everyone else. Old guys are as naked as possible for as long as possible. Young guys are scared of their shadows. And guys in their 30s through 50s generally just do their business and don’t care what others things. This entails _gasp_ being occasionally naked. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/68 "2015-10-15T20:41:07Z")
I think the trend has accelerated since this thread went dormant nearly ten years ago. I grew up around the military, an organization that used to be rather nonchalant about the whole locker room nudity thing. (Think barracks, boot camp, etc.) Well, I’m back working around the military now after an absence of some years, and even in the gym on base there are now individual showers which hardly ever get used - I think people just go home to change. There’s even a sign on the steam room saying that nudity is not _allowed_ - people _must_ wear clothes! I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/69 "2015-10-15T20:44:21Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I think the trend has accelerated since this thread went dormant nearly ten years ago. I grew up around the military, an organization that used to be rather nonchalant about the whole locker room nudity thing. (Think barracks, boot camp, etc.) Well, I’m back working around the military now after an absence of some years, and even in the gym on base there are now individual showers which hardly ever get used - I think people just go home to change. There’s even a sign on the steam room saying that nudity is not _allowed_ - people _must_ wear clothes! I just don’t get it. I would be uncomfortable in a steam room with full nudity. I think a towel or bathing suit is appropriate in that situation. But underwear in showers and things like that are ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/70 "2015-10-15T20:47:15Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > I would be uncomfortable in a steam room with full nudity. I think a towel or bathing suit is appropriate in that situation. But underwear in showers and things like that are ridiculous. I would understand if the sign said use either a towel or shorts if you’re sitting on the bench. But no - it explicitly says that clothing must be worn and no nudity is allowed. This is in a steam room within the single-sex locker room. I dunno - maybe I’m just too used to the German version. ---
**Author:** ![Lightray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightray/32/391_2.png) [@Lightray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightray)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/71 "2015-10-15T21:35:11Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > What’s a sufferer of SSA? Since he necro’d the thread to talk about _male_ modesty, and mostly discussed boys’ shorts and floppy penes, I’m going to guess SSA = “Same Sex Attraction”. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/72 "2015-10-15T22:02:13Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > P.S. I graduated high school in '82 and we took showers. I graduated in 1985 and we were _supposed_ to take showers every day, but many of the smaller/fatter/shyer kids would mostly dodge doing so despite the occasional nag from the instructors. Except during swimming when our head P.E. teacher would _demand_ everyone take one to rinse off the chlorine from the pool and would stand at the gym door to monitor and enforce his decree. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/73 "2015-10-15T23:04:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I think this is a lot of it GREAT username for the first person to post after a zombie resurrection. > [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > I graduated in 93 and we did not take showers. I don’t think they were ever used. It’s crazy because we got very sweaty and some people had P.E. first period! I don’t know why they didn’t make us shower. > > Now when I go to the gym, I see the same as everyone else. Old guys are as naked as possible for as long as possible. Young guys are scared of their shadows. And guys in their 30s through 50s generally just do their business and don’t care what others things. This entails _gasp_ being occasionally naked. I graduated in 94 and can say the same thing. The only time we were even supposed to shower in gym class was after swimming, and even then many of us skipped it. Those who did it generally just rinsed off with our swim trunks still on. I have had the same thought about old guys, too. In fact, I’ve joked about having come up with a mathematical law that the percentage of total time in the locker room spent naked is directly proportional to a man’s age. I don’t do anything awkward like try to change underwear under a towel, but in general I make a reasonable effort to minimize time spent in a state of undress. (E.g., the first thing I do after removing my underpants is put on my other pair.) Old guys, on the other hand, seem to do the opposite. I’ve seen old guys come into the locker room, throw their gym bag on a bench, and immediate strip completely naked, before even choosing locker or opening their gym bag. I think it’s because there’s a paradoxical effect of the increased emphasis on sex in our society. Back when sex was kept under wraps, and couldn’t be talked about in polite society, it was more compartmentalized. Sex was considered something that happened only between a husband and wife behind a closed bedroom door, so if genitalia were exposed in some other context–locker room, kids going skinny dipping down at the swimmin’ hole–it wasn’t considered sexual. Now, however, with sex being a more public aspect of society, these things have become sexualized. And since most people don’t want to think about or have sexual interactions with total strangers of the same sex, they’re uncomfortable with nudity in a locker room. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/74 "2015-10-15T23:49:01Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > In H. Allen Smith’s _The Complete Practical Joker,_ he mentions an infamous stagehand from the days of Vaudeville who would walk through the women’s dressing room. He’d yell “Close your eyes, ladies, I’m coming through…” I wish to honor you for your knowledge of an H. Allen Smith book. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/75 "2015-10-16T00:01:40Z")
I graduated in 1992 at a private school and I recall three people taking showers after PE (and one of those wasn’t able to because they weren’t turned on). They still were required at the local public school, to spare me from that is one reason my parents pulled me out. As for long shorts, they’re what in style so I buy. I still remember the 1980s shorts, and we wore pretty short shorts in gym, which was fine. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/76 "2015-10-16T00:04:44Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I think it’s because there’s a paradoxical effect of the increased emphasis on sex in our society. Back when sex was kept under wraps, and couldn’t be talked about in polite society, it was more compartmentalized. Sex was considered something that happened only between a husband and wife behind a closed bedroom door, so if genitalia were exposed in some other context–locker room, kids going skinny dipping down at the swimmin’ hole–it wasn’t considered sexual. Now, however, with sex being a more public aspect of society, these things have become sexualized. And since most people don’t want to think about or have sexual interactions with total strangers of the same sex, they’re uncomfortable with nudity in a locker room. Agreed. Society is becoming increasingly prudish. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/77 "2015-10-16T01:17:44Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > Agreed. Society is becoming increasingly prudish. Maybe cautious? With camera phones everywhere, and people being idiots, I’d want to limit my exposure these days. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/78 "2015-10-16T01:30:51Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > I graduated in 93 and we did not take showers. I don’t think they were ever used. It’s crazy because we got very sweaty and some people had P.E. first period! I don’t know why they didn’t make us shower. > > Now when I go to the gym, I see the same as everyone else. Old guys are as naked as possible for as long as possible. Young guys are scared of their shadows. And guys in their 30s through 50s generally just do their business and don’t care what others things. This entails _gasp_ being occasionally naked. I’m an old guy, but I’m naked for about three seconds when I strip down before the shower (the time it takes to drop my drawers and cover myself with a towel) and a few more seconds when I’m drying off after the shower. I haven’t seen any of the other older guys parading around naked either. Almost everyone at my gym wraps himself in a towel for most walking around purposes. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/79 "2015-10-16T01:46:05Z")
> [@piperjohn2](#): > > I know I am dating myself, I graduated in’58. We not only took showers after gym we swam naked as well at the local “YMCA” then I went into the USAF during the entrance physical you lined up naked for your “Turn your head and cough” > > I sit in my easy chair now and watch the HS’ers run across the street and the guys have more cloths on then the gals do. As a sufferer of SSA it’s disappointing, even though young trim bodies of both sexes look great. I think it’s more fear of the “HOMO” label that forces guys to wear longer and longer and longer shorts, when practicality suggests shorter shorts would be more desirable. Or are today’s teens afraid the male equipment is going to fall out the leg opening and somehow show, or are today’s teens more endowed then those of previous generations. > > Personally I think the shorts on the market today look ridicules, you might as well have long pants on when the “Shorts” are below the knee. oh great, another old white person who thinks how things were in the 1950s was perfect and should never change. it ain’t your day anymore, grandpa. get over it. > [@Sattua](#): > > Agreed. Society is becoming increasingly prudish. fuck that. I go to the gym to exercise, work out, and go home. what the fuck difference does it make to you or anyone else whether I get completely undressed in the locker room before or after? Jesus christ. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196/80 "2015-10-16T05:49:49Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > oh great, another old white person who thinks how things were in the 1950s was perfect and should never change. it ain’t your day anymore, grandpa. get over it. > > fuck that. I go to the gym to exercise, work out, and go home. what the fuck difference does it make to you or anyone else whether I get completely undressed in the locker room before or after? Jesus christ. Well it obviously makes a great deal of difference to you. Tell us why, or get over it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gym-rats-are-men-in-locker-rooms-more-modest-than-they-used-to-be/380196.md?page=5)