I say this as a stauch hetero, but if I have to look at naked men, why oh WHY does it ALWAYS have to be the 300lb-turds who can’t see their own dicks? I sure can see them. :eek: Some modesty or self-consciousness might be apropriate in these circumstances. Alas, that trait seems to have died off a long time ago with these folks.
I do the towel dance because I always pop a boner at the gym.
I thought that’s why everyone was running around with towels over their naughty bits?
Man here. I’m not super self-conscious in the locker room, I don’t do the towel dance, but I’m a younger man, and here’s the crucially important part: I understand locker-room nudity to be a transitory state. Emphasis on transitory. Older guys, I’m talking to you.
Every single health club I’ve been a member of - the locker room always has a clan of old men that just “let it all hang out”. In a bad way. As in, “hey, I’m done with my shower, time to brush my teeth at the gym sink. No reason to have a towel around my waist, I’m dry already, right? So I’ll just stand at the sink, wrinkled penis and saggy balls flopping around while I brush vigorously. Who could mind that?”
My last health club had TVs and couches in the locker room. And this was the worst. They had rules, of course - no sitting bare-assed on couches, for obvious reasons. But the old guys would just lay down a towel, then sit there fully nude for hours at a time.
I ain’t got nothing against the human body (mine is far from perfect), I’m not afraid of “TEH GHEY”, but Jesus, old guys. Most of us don’t want to see that. Throw on a pair of shorts or find a nudist camp. No reason you have to be brazenly nude at all times.
The towel dance is always mentioned as being self-consciousness / prudishness, but I think at least a little bit is considerateness. I’m not self-conscious about my body. Ask me to strip, and I’m okay with that. But I also operate on a default assumption that others don’t WANT to look at me naked, so I might towel dance to save 'em the imposition.
InTheWater, I want to respond as a gay man to your posts.
I agree it’s dumb, but for a different reason. It’s dumb to segregate based on gender. We should have co-ed locker rooms.
Separating out the gay men and women into their own locker rooms would be silly, because you’re just putting people together who have the same sexual interests. Probably would turn into a big orgy! 
(or, at least a gay man can dream, can’t he?)
This is the main issue, for me.
I went to boarding school. We walked around the dorms and the showers naked all the time, and i feel no embarrassment about being naked in front of other guys, nor about having other guys naked around me.
But my perception is that plenty of people don’t feel the same way, so if i’m in a public shower or locker room, i generally try to minimize the time where my junk is exposed, simply because it means that i’m less likely to make other people uncomfortable.
Uh unless you’re shaking your dick at me how can lockerroom nudity be excessive?
I’m supposed to worry some guy might be able to catch a glance if he is intently looking? That isn’t my definition of rubbing it in people’s faces 
People keep saying that it’s the wrinkly old guys who hang around naked in the locker room. Is that because people care less as they get older? Or 40 or 50 years ago was it the norm for everyone to brush their teeth and lounge around in the buff, and these guys just never got the new modesty memo?
If you aren’t gay, then what’s the difference.
Also, your fat-shaming is inappropriate.
The UTD sort of cracks me up too. It’s like they assume the papparazzi are standing right behind them ready to snap away as soon as your genitals are visible. I don’t notice the guys that get naked to change, but I notice the UTD guys.
I walk naked into the shower because I don’t want to wrap my clean towel around my sweaty body, but I walk out of the shower with my towel wrapped around me. When I get to my locker, I hang it over the door and get dressed. I’m facing the locker anyway because that’s where my clothes & bag are, so it’s not as if I’m waving my cock around the room, but I don’t make much effort to hide it or hurry up, or anything. I just get dressed.
There’s one guy who uses one of those bath sheets, which he always has wrapped around his body, but since it’s so big he has it just under his nipples and it goes all the way down to his feet. He looks ridiculous, like some kind of sultan, or something.
ETA: Oh- flip flops are a must. There’s no way I’m walking around, and standing in the shower where I’m certain some guys pee, in my bare feet. There are plenty of guys who walk barefooted *into the bathroom *and stand at the urinal or go into a stall like that. There’s not enough EEEEWWWWWWW in the keyboard.
If you’re swimming strenuously, core body temp can rise enough that there is not any “shrinkage” going on. This has caused me some moments while wearing baggy trunks and attempting a flip turn, for example. yikes.
Racing suits (“Speedos”) help keep everything where it should be so there are no surprises. Now, “shrinkage” can be useful for getting the Speedo on in the first place. It was with the first generations of the high-tech bodysuits, too, but I’ve never tried the more modern versions so maybe they now design them somewhat better for men’s bodies.
Onsen culture may be informative.
I don’t want to look at another’s penis nor really my own. Which is why I got fat so I wouldn’t have to look at my penis. I really don’t care if you can see my penis or not.
Your shame-shaming is inappropriate.
I think this is it. Many people are not comfortable with this. I could give a rats ass if your lusting over my wanker.
The other issue would be size. Penis Envy is still an issue with many men. Thus, if you have joehangslo and pinkywillie, there may be some Epeening and embarrassment.
Psh I think it’s the other way around - our culture teaches us that the male body is fine and attractive in its natural state, whereas the female body needs to be adorned with all sorts of treatments and makeup and chemicals in order to look decent.
…
I don’t think you’re disagreeing as much as you believe; the impression I was always given was that the male body isn’t so much fine as it is hopeless; there’s no point in trying to make it pretty. The female body, however, CAN be made attractive- it just takes an obscene amount of time, money and effort to do so.
Also, a theory I haven’t heard mentioned thus far- it’s not about the teasing, it’s about the fear of the teasing. Junior high and high school remain a stone firmly lodged in the shoe of my mind, and though I had the sense to not bother with the social game, I saw what everyone else went through. It’s not about “they might see me naked”, it’s a more fundamental “they might see weakness”. Vulnerability on any front, in any way, is as much a (perceived) danger to the adolescent in the locker room as it is to the gazelle in the Serengeti.
I am guilty of the “underwear towel dance”, mainly because I know that men tend to be curious by nature, regardless of sexual orientation, and compare themselves in ‘size’ to other men… I have heterosexual friends even who admit to peaking while using the urinals, at the man next to them. I don’t feel comfortable with the thought that some men might be looking at me with the intent to compare, judge, or scrutinize. My body is for myself and my significant other to see, point blank.
Old thread, I know. Brains. Whatever.
Anyhow, I’ve been getting up earlier, and on a few days decided to head to the gym n the early morning, rather than right after work.
No more of that after Monday. That morning, I actually saw an oldster with a hairdryer aimed at his nards. And graybeards pretend to be Greek Olympians, taking up precious locker room space by stretching in the buff in the changing/locker areas. And, while I was shaving, having a likely Buick owner, towel wrapped around his shoulder, saddle up to the sink next to mine, lift up his junk, and plop it down right on the sinktop. Nope.
Yeah, later in the day, I’ll see the occasional naked oldster in the locker room. It’s not that they’re naked, but rather, they tend to be quite a bit more exhibitionist about it. They’ll wrap their towels around their shoulders rather than their waists, shave in the buff, wander around and chat with others, ignore the “towel or swimsuit required” signs in the steam room and sauna, and dress from the top down rather than the bottom up. They haven’t heard of the “last off, first on” concept.
I wonder if there’s some generational differences on what people see as the role of a locker room. Men under 50 might see the locker room as a place to change clothes and take a quick shower, while older men seem to treat it as a place to hang out and socialize. The locker room seems much more crowded early in the morning, when the majority of patrons are seniors. Even then, it’ll seem like there’s just as many people in the locker room as there are actually working out; almost as if some older men go to the gym just to hang out in the locker room for an hour or two. (I know that’s somewhat common at JCCs; old men will visit just to schvitz.)
Yes but if you want to steam your balls, great to the steam room.
Preening the junk for an hour in the locker room its just that.
Preening.