Men who do the "underwear towel dance" at the gym: why?

To be absolutely fair about it, kids in regular PE classes hardly ever raise much of a stink anyway. The teacher explains some team game, you break up into teams and get a couple of games going, but it’s unusual for an individual student to be actually doing anything for more than a few minutes. You could get by without showering, no problem.

In other news, the incidence of obesity in the US today reached a shocking new high.

You realize that the UK is nearly as obese as the US right?

Yes, I do, and given that I live here and am commenting on the towel dancers (and shower underwear wearers :eek:) I see here I’m guessing there is a similar trend occurring with probably the same impact.

Contract to Sweden where everyone is happy to get naked and shower together, and the incidence of obesity is far lower. In fact if you look at the stats the countries closer to the bottom of the fat league (not including Japan and Korea) are all the nudity-positive ones.

I’m not clear why you’re so determined to argue with me on this point Justin - can’t you just accept that there’s no positive benefit for society (short of long term) for this kind of personal prudery? Or are you going to appeal to some kind of highly culturally specific American notion of personal space/rights that means you’re all immune to the negative impacts?

I’m not arguing with you, being more comfortable with nudity would be a good thing. But you’re making leaps not supported by the evidence.

Showering after gym class in the US is pointless as few students work up that much of a sweat in gym. Then citing this as a partial cause for “American obesity” is weird as the US isn’t that much fatter than the UK. And finally, it is weird when a guy does the towel over the shoulder thing at the gym and walks around naked. Why carry the towel at all?

Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa - let’s unpick this bundle of intellectual twine that you are presenting to me. You’d be right to criticise the argument that you’ve outlined above, but that’s not what I’m saying. To break it down:

  1. It seems we’re in agreement that generally greater acceptance of appropriate nudity is no bad thing. Hooray.

  2. For reasons that aren’t clear greater numbers of younger (and by that I mean under 40s) people seem to have issues with being nude, even in places where it’s functional and necessary (like a changing area).

  3. Because of 2, at school age there is a greater unwillingness (or a total eschewing) of showering after PE. This is a bad thing for very clear reasons (hygiene and trying to reduce levels of skin infection, smell) and probably for others that can’t be conclusively proven (I’m not sure it’s helping body image, it continues to conflate nudity with sex which I also am not clear is a good thing either).

  4. PE lessons in schools (American ones at least, we’re trying to get better at making PE vigorous in the UK) don’t generally get kids worked up enough to be sweating.

  5. If 4 is true, then PE in US schools is not doing its job. You can’t experience beneficial exercise without breaking a sweat. Fact.

  6. Rates of obesity are going up in the developed world, with the US having the highest incidence. I find it hard to believe that 4 and 6 are not linked.

  7. The countries in the developed world that have lower rates of obesity are ones that DON’T have issues with public nudity, such as Scandinavia and Italy.

  8. I’m not saying that being comfortable with nudity is the sole cause for lower rates of obesity (because that would be absurd) but if you’re happy to get naked and shower I think it follows that you’re more likely to get involved in vigorous team sport. Sweden is a good example of this, they are very nudity-positive and also a very active nation.

So, in conclusion, being happy to get naked in front of others isn’t some kind of panacea, but I can see how it can be a contributing negative factor in public health for both hygiene and fitness reasons.

Can we agree on this or are there still points that need to be examined further?

Back in my (high school) days, we alternated swimming with gym, so you had no choice but to get nekkid at least every other day. Sure, there were towel-dancers, but as noted before, they paradoxically brought more attention upon themselves.

And you haven’t seen nothing until you’ve seen two naked guys in a fistfight. :smiley:
mmm

Because he might need it where he’s going?

A towel is standard equipment in a locker room. Why wouldn’t you walk around with one? No real man enters a towel snapping combat zone unarmed. :slight_smile:

If I were headed to the shower, I wouldn’t really want to wrap my clean towel around my sweaty smelly underparts. On the way back? Who cares really?

The last time I saw it, the guy was coming back from the shower with the towel over his shoulder and he was dripping everywhere. His freewheeling manhood was his own business, but I was absolutely disgusted that he was barefoot.

That guy with the towel over his shoulder would be me (except for the dripping everywhere part). I dry myself off in the shower stall, then throw the towel over my shoulder (as opposed to, say, swallowing it - the towel hampers in my gym are near the lockers, not the showers) and walk back to my locker where I get dressed. After I’m dressed I give the hair on my head (which always seems to stay damp) one last swipe with the towel, comb my hair to make myself gorgeous, and toss the towel in the hamper.

I never did understand wearing sandals in the shower. Real men shower naked.

(Anyone who has seen me naked knows that the “gorgeous” comment was a bad joke.)

I’m also not clear what the issue of being barefoot in the shower is. Even if someone has athelete’s foot that’s only shared in standing water like a bath, not in showers (where the water drains off immediately).

I don’t know what your gym is like, but every one I’ve been to (which admittedly, only numbers 2) has had a seriously grimy floor. It just doesn’t look like you’d want to walk on it barefoot after getting clean.

Athlete’s foot is mildly contagious. It can be spread through direct contact with the infection and by skin particles left on towels, shoes, floors of shower stalls and around swimming pools, and even pedicure shops. Walking barefoot in the shower at the gym or around the pool may increase your chance of contracting athlete’s foot.

Plus, my gym smells has kids that use the showers and nasty adults too and sometimes the stall smells of urine. I prefer my flipflops come in contact with that.

As for towels, well, I prefer my privacy. When I bend over to grab stuff from the bottom of my locker, the rest of the locker room doesn’t need to see the black hole of Calcutta. Nor do I want to see someone else’s cash & prizes at eye level when I’m putting my shoes on and they have to get by me. Cover that shit up.

(well, I am, but I’m gay and therefore in a minority, and I don’t make it obvious when I catch a glance)

And you had to ask?

It’s not even the athlete’s foot that’s the real problem – ever seen those Lamasil commercials with Digger the dermatophyte? Which is worse: wearing flip-flops into the showers, or walking around for months with crusty thick yellow toenails because you didn’t?

It’s a corollary to the “Firm Handshake” rule.

Every man in my gym walks around barefoot. Never seen the flip flop thing there.

We sure live a world with lots of variation.

Clearly I haven’t been reading my copy of the manual that came along with my penis or I’d know that not wearing flip flops in the shower was a crime against masculinity. Or something.

That’s not it. The UTD pre-dates cellphones.