If by “required” you mean socially, so as to not be known as the stinky kid who didn’t shower after gym - yes. If you mean the school/instructors demanded it - no.
So it comes back to an old French proverb, one I’ve found applies to so many situations:
“A man doesn’t look under the bed unless he’s hidden there himself.”
I take pole dancing classes, which means I hang out with strippers. Nudity at the “gym” is pretty much de riguer. I’ve lost all modesty and have been known to whip off my shirt or change shorts right in front of casual acquaintances, where it’s really inappropriate. I’ve become so desensitized to seeing mostly nekkid strippers all around me, that I don’t think twice about changing in front of people. I can’t imagine anyone being rude enough to stare/ogle while it happens. Not that I’d notice if they did. 
I have a message for towel-dance guy–You’re the only guy I can remember in the locker room. Everyone else is just background. But you stand out. I think, hmm… why is he so self conscious? The same goes for shower-with-underwear guy. I’ll be in the shower with 10 guys and I couldn’t pick any of them out of a lineup. But the guy with the underwear really stands out and is memorable. I see him in the workout area and think, There goes shower-with-underwear guy.
It strikes me as odd that the techniques they use to be more discreet in fact make them much more noticeable.
However, I really wish shaving-at-the-sink-naked guy would wear a towel. Or at least step back a bit so his junk isn’t pressing up against the counter.
Never seen this behavior. I go to the YMCA gym, not as often as I should perhaps. Been going for over 10 years. Could it be a regional thing?
I think’s it’s more of an age thing; younger guys (in general) are more likely to do it that older guys. I can’t recall seeing anyone more than a few years older than me doing it. Certainly not anyone over 40.
I can understand the derision for the towel dance, but it’s possible to go too far the other way as well.
If I go to the gym and am looking for a locker, you can be sure I’m going to avoid the aisle where the 55 year old naked guy is bending over to pick something up off the ground or using the entire aisle as his personal drying space. Would it hurt to be a little respectful of people wanting to use the same area?
Nowadays, the boys just douse themselves with Axe body spray.
My gym has a rule against cell phone use in the locker rooms – and it’s followed, as far as I’ve noticed. I had assumed most gyms had the same rule.
I think the PE observations up-thread are right about the biggest factor. My PE teacher in junior high was a former drill instructor, so we definitely worked up a sweat. Everybody showered after gym – no exceptions allowed.
I don’t - I’m 24, and when I took a swimming class in college a few years ago, I was literally the only male out of a dozen or so in the class who got nekkid in the locker room. The rest either waited for the one stall or just went home wet.
But I do see it both ways - at my gym I see grown ass men (40+) who just strip to their underwear and then put their street clothes back on. 
I hate those guys. And I’m sure as fuck not going to sit on a bench when I know you’ve had your nasty balls on there for the last hour, or however long it takes them to get dressed after they’ve had their thirty conversations with everyone in the locker room.
I don’t do the towel skirt dance if I’m just in a locker room full of guys, but I take my toddler daughter to the community pool once a week for swimming lessons, and we have to change in men’s locker room with a bunch of other dads and toddlers, so I consider it good manners to not show my wiener to other people’s kids. Some dads just get fully nude and it doesn’t bother me that my kid can see that, but I’m sure some people are bothered by it, so I play it safe and keep it covered up. It’s not like it’s a huge problem for me. I’d say it’s about 50/50 nudies to towelies in there.
If you’re peaking in the locker room then they would definitely feel uncomfortable. It’s best to limit yourself to discreet peeking.
I’m sorry, I just thing that the look of disgust on your face is so comical. Next time I’ll use a towel. :evil grin:
In all seriousness, when I find myself in a locker room, I’m more interested in changing into/out of my sweaty gym clothes and taking a shower (or using the sauna, if one’s available). If it bothers you that I’m naked, don’t look. For my part I do not “parade” around the gym and find it insulting that seeing naked, old and flabby me upsets you so. I’m not in the gym to provide (or derive) entertainment, but to change clothes, attend to my hygiene, and maybe sit in the sauna. I’m not the naked guy who shaves with his junk pressed against the sink, either. That’s just gross.
Of course, I’ve noticed some guys who seem more interested in spending a lot of naked time in the locker room. Maybe they secretly thrill that they’re nekkid and nobody can say anything about it because it’s okay to be undressed in the locker room? Who knows? I’m sure as hell not going to ask him.
I haven’t peaked since 1982.
Pole dancing skills acquired, all modesty lost…I guess there’s only one thing left for you to do 
Probably a combination of a lot of things. A greater awareness of homosexuality - the more you’re aware of it, the more you realize that being naked among others of your own gender doesn’t necessarily mean that no one’s checking you out. At a stretch, the kids from a Christian school that an earlier poster said had no problem being naked maybe hadn’t ever really thought that there were gay people in their midst.
Fewer people having spent time in the military. You can’t be too body shy if you’ve been in the military.
Less comfort or experience with any kind of communal living, of which being naked in front of others is surely a byproduct. Family sizes shrink, but houses grow larger - where siblings used to vie for space in the same bathroom on busy morning, now many kids have always had their own bathrooms, and may not have any siblings. I’ve read that colleges are having to build more single-person dorms because students these days are increasingly horrified at the prospect of living closely with someone.
That (if it’s not too much a hijack to say so) is what bothers me, more than whether or not someone does the “underwear towel dance”. It can be maddening as hell, but there’s something to be said for having a period in your life where you sleep on a bottom bunk and have to wait your turn for the bathroom in the morning.
A whole dorm for just one person does sound excessive!
Any article about school showering I read recently
Basically kids don’t shower at school anymore.
My high school was built in 2002, and it had gang showers. They just weren’t used at all by PE classes. We weren’t even supposed to go into the locker room that had the showers (always referred to as the “varsity locker room,” with a haughty emphasis on the “varsity”), let alone use the showers (not that I think anyone would have wanted to).