As a participant in a number of team sports growing up, I’ve been exposed to all manner of modesty and exhibitionism. Some teammates would rather go home dirty than shower in front of us. Others were almost agressive in thir insistence on displaying their physique.
We even had one guy that would frequently perform The Weenie Slap at the drop of a hat. Walking back from the shower naked, he’d place his palm flat against his genitals, scissor the base of his weenie between his index and middle finger and vigorously sweep his hand up and down. The rest of the weenie, struggling to keep up, would slap back and forth against the back of his hand with a loud, quite audible “whapwhapwhapwhapwhap”.
My experience is that it’s much more common in younger men. I’m 22, male, and heterosexual, and I’ve never been bothered by being naked around other people, but I noticed in high school and college that many of my male roommates and friends were very uncomfortable about it. In contrast, men in my parents generation seemed to be much less concerned. It was also pretty amusing to me that my female friends seemed much more comfortable being in various states of undress around me than my male friends did.
I’m male and 22 and there is no way I would be naked in a gym’s locker room. Hell, there’s little possibility that I’d even CHANGE in the locker room. I’d just drive or walk home in my sweaty clothing and take a shower there.
In middle and high school, I always wore my gym shirt under my normal shirt or did the maneuver where you put on one shirt and take the other one off at the same time and would usually wear shorts underneath my pants as well.
As far as women go, I’ve noticed this is an age-related thing. In my clubs locker rooms, we’ve got the masters rowers (usually late-twenties to early fifties) and the juniors (high school age) girls changing in the same area. The juniors generally use the stalls to change in and will actually wait until one is free before changing. The women don’t really care and just change in the locker room. I most people eventually grow out of extreme modesty…
I forgot to mention that I am not even comfortable taking my shorts off at the beach, or in front of other people (aside from family like my kids or husband) if I am wearing my swimsuit underneath. The whole act of just taking off my shorts is something I just can’t do in public, and have to do in a stall somewhere. But I have no problem wearing the bathing suit, or anything.
I have no problem undressing at the gym. I figure, we’ve all got the same equipment, if you want to see mine, that’s your deal. My gym does have separate stalls for showering however - group showers might give me pause, but probably not too much of one.
I do walk from the shower to my locker after showering wrapped in a towel, however, mainly for politeness, I guess.
I am entirely un-selfconscious about being nude, especially in a locker room situation. It’s a perfectly appropriate place to be nude. I use the workout room here at work, so I’m usually alone in the locker room. However, once in a while someone will come in to use the bathroom while I’m getting out of the shower or getting dressed.
You would think I was rubbing up against them the way they act when they walk in and I’m naked. They hurry in and out all worried-like. It’s humorous to me because I’m the one who’s naked, why are they so embarassed?
Back when I danced it was common for me to be in a locker room full of unashamed naked women. Dancers sit around and chat or have a bite to eat while in the nude, or partially clothed. It’s absolutely no big deal to them. Having gotten used to that it always suprises me when my girlfriends hesitate to change clothes or be naked in front of me. I think nothing of it, but evidently most people do.
People who make an effort to keep their bodies in shape usuallly have an exhibitionist streak. If you go to South Beach, Miami, the girls seem to wear as little as possible, and clearly enjoy showing off-lees so the guys. However, what is the big hangup about being naked? That is what locker rooms are for.
The more I think about this, the more I realize that my hangup isn’t even about being naked really- it’s about undressing; it’s the physical act of removing clothing that I can not do in front of other people. Which, to grant you your point, is definitely what locker rooms are for. But I still can’t do it, and I have no idea why or where it came from.
As a 30 year old male, I can’t even explain it even though I went through it…
In high school, we didn’t have to shower, so no one did. Just slap on some deoderant and change back into your street clothes.
I was also on the swim team, we showered off the chlorine in our speedos, slapped on shirts and changed speedos.
On top of it all, I’m somewhat of an exhibitionist, but for some reason, beign naked in a locker room just seems weird. I think I’d feel BETTER if there were women around.
When I lived in Japan, they had female locker room attendants at the gym - usually older women. Freaked me the hell out the first couple of times, me standing in the changing rooms in all my glory while these ladies old enough to be my grandmother went around mopping the floor. It’s just part of the culture there, though - you’re not supposed to notice them, and they’re not supposed to notice you. Surprising how quickly you get used to it, really.
I don’t mind being nude in a locker room, but I get really annoyed at women who make a big production of it.
I also get annoyed at women who sit on the benches/stools/seats, naked, without putting a towel down first. I just think pressing your naked crotch up against a public facilty surface like that is nasty, and it skeevs me out when other people do it. I mean, I put down a towel, so I’m not worried about catching cooties or whatever - it just grosses me out - like eating peas of a knife. Doesn’t hurt me, but I hate watching people do it.
I find the towel guys a little weird, but it’s their life. I remember being self concious as a high school freshman/sophomore, but I think that at that age there are more worries about the size of unit compared to others, pubic hair growth, etc.
I never wrap a towel and never think about being nude - it’s a locker room. We’re all guys. BFD if another guy sees you nude.
When I used to do a lot of whitewater rafting we used to laugh at the kayakers who would always be flashing bare asses when changing into wetsuits.
Hm. Female, 24. When I was living in the college dorms, standard changing procedure was to drape one’s bathrobe over one’s shoulders and change facing the corner. It was okay to be seen in a bra, but not in panties.
I was only in the gym a couple of times–accompanying a roommate who wanted to learn to swim, but didn’t want to go alone because she was afraid she’d drown and no one would notice (hmm…). The locker room had private showers and a room with taps on the wall; only one girl was in that room, and she was vigorously washing her genitals–splaying her knees, pulling things around for better access, etc. It was truly surreal.
In junior high I was a bit shy about being naked in a locker room but any reservations I ever had were throughly squashed after joining the Army.
From the asshole check during my pre-enlistment physical–being lined up in a room with 30 others, bent over spreading your ass cheeks, while a doctor went behind us saying, “yep, got one, got one” (when we asked what that was about the doctor explained that we all had assholes…couldn’t join without one)–to the open showers at my 1st duty station (it was a large room with 3 shower heads on one wall…after PT there would be 20 guys in there standing in line to shower (with many jokes about turtles & racial stereotypes on cold days) have left me completely unabashed about stripping and moving around in any locker room.
Female, 40. In the locker room of my gym, I’ll get nekkid if necessary with no problems, but usually I’ll change with my front turned towards the locker. We also have private showers and I’ll wrap a towel around myself as I walk to them (big locker room).
One hang-up I do have is that I don’t like to dry myself off in front of other people! Rubbing the towel all over my new-toned bod–I dunno.
In HS it was not a problem–no showers were available to anybody but sports teams, and they hadn’t invented sports bras, so you kept your underwear on the whole time. Our gym was so pathetic and our workouts so bad we hardly ever broke a sweat anyway.
