In Germany they most definitely are. As are bathing trunks / suits.
Um, yes and no, more exactly. In the general area around the sauna room itself, pool sandals are encouraged and allowed because of the problem of foot mushrooms being transmitted. Inside the tiled wet steam room, they are also usually allowed.
Inside the hot dry Finnish sauna, they are not allowed, because at 90 C, they could melt or emit chemical gas. They could also transfer stuff from outside to the wooden floor. So you slip out of your sandals outside the door, and step into the sauna; when leaving, reverse.
The sauna at Gold’s Gym has the same rules as the Wellness Center at MUSC: a towel or swimsuit necessary; no street shoes. (In spite of the last requirement, some come in the sauna completely dressed for a workout, racketball, or whatever.) I can see one good reason for wearing something over the genital and rear areas: health. If you don’t shower good before entering the sauna, you may be spreading germs that exist in your anal area and genital area unless you cover those up. Likewise, if you sit bare-assed, you may be catching those germs if someone did not obey the rules.
In a proper finnish dry sauna, temps. are 90 C. Not many bacteria survive that. You sit on your towel, not on the wood, both for hygiene and because the wood itself is too hot. (There should also be a cleaning routine after the sauna is closed, but I don’t know the Hygiene laws in the US.)
You don’t spread germs from your genital areas by being naked, or prevent them by wearing swimsuits. If anything, the swimsuits can carry germs because they are only at body temp. unlike the wood, and could carry germs from one place to the other. But catching germs just from being naked? Nope. Otherwise, everybody would get infected on a toilet seat, which they don’t.
One reason that some health clubs/gyms have begun enforcing some covering in saunas/steam rooms is because of unwanted sexual behavior that happens when men are naked. A problem at a gym near me is that some men go to the sauna to hook up, and some men do touch themselves in the presence of others. In NYC its not uncommon for gay men to guard sauna doors while other guys hook up (and I’m talking about places that are not considered gay bathhouses)…
THe bathing suit rule is more than just an issue of modesty/discomfort, regardless of what a gym/hospital etc. is willing to admit.
Thank you for the amusing mental picture. Now I can’t avoid imagining creminis sprouting from between my toes. German “Fusspilz” is called athlete’s foot or foot fungus in English. Mushrooms are not fungi generally. They’re the fruiting bodies of some fungi (Fruchtkörper).
Please don’t think I’m making fun of the foreigner. I am simply amused by the phrasing.
My gym has a single coed steam room right by the pool, with swimsuits required. I’ve been to many other locations of the same gym chain (24 Hour Fitness) and they were all like that.
Damn, fungus was the latin-root word, the scientific name, I was trying to think off, and couldn’t remember. Sometimes I’m too quick to type to look up the word in Leo dict.
In German, Pilz is the general word for species of fungus, not only the fruity bodies.
I fail to see how swimsuits are a magical barrier; if people hook up for sex, you have a problem with lacks of sauna attendants, in my opinion - people who walk around to make sure everything is okay, nobody has keeled over, nobody is reading newspapers (that give off chemicals in the heat), nobody is bothering people general, to pour water onto the coals of the sauna, to clean up…
I’ve belonged to several gyms with saunas and/or steambaths. None of them had or has an attendant, and people read newspapers and magazines in the saunas at Gold’s, the JCC, and the Wellness Center all the time, despite signs telling them not to. There’s a sign at Gold’s telling patrons not to wear street shoes in the sauna (along with the newspaper warning), and just today somebody was in there with street shoes reading the newspaper. Nobody’s enforcing those restrictions, and I’m not about to say anything. He’d tell me to butt off. At the Wellness Center, a few years ago somebody did stay too long and passed out, but was noted in time before he died.
Ah, so it’s a difference in laws (again). Here in Germany, saunas are required to have at least one attendant, who has passed a course certifying him to know about the subject (though it’s a rather lame and easy course: how to sauna correctly, why cool-off times or problem of overheating, why no newspapers…).
I guess that also contributes to difference in attitude: because the attendants prohibit any sexual games, saunas and steam rooms are completly harmless, suitable for families and women (with women-only days to avoid those guys who can’t keep their eyes to themselves in the presence of naked women), places for health, to be found in public swimming pools and sports facilities as well as holiday hotels in the countryside.
Yabut… this is a small midwestern town…none of that goes on around here:D
As a followup… they are still enforcing the rule and have a warning sign that is even bigger and more permanent.
My gripe has to do with the comfort situation so I’ve taken to using a pair of bikini underwear (I can’t find my Speedo from the early 80’s)… so far no complaints. I’d almost welcome one and the opportunty to shove my junk in their face and make them look real close to make sure it isn’t a swim suit.
You are really having two discussions then. What would reasonable men on the Straight Dope think the men’s sauna SOPs be is one question, and what does your small Midwestern town think they should be is another.
In your small town, it really doesn’t matter what you or I think. If they want you to wear a three piece suit, and that’s what the social moirés of your town support, than that’s what it will (and possibly should) be.
What do I (we) think here? I’ve been in the military for 25 years, where petty embarrassment issues are pretty quickly dispatched. In the sauna here at the Pentagon, I can assure you there is no “touching” and there are no suits worn. I think it’s very odd to wear one.
Nekkid, of course! I don’t get the point of the swimsuit, but I suppose we’re caving to the no showers after PE class contingent. Next we won’t even be allowed to shower nude at the gym!
Believe it or not, some gyms have shower stalls with doors that you can close behind you after you walk in. I wonder what people are doing in there that they need such privacy.
Awhile back a public swimming pool in England banned nude showers in the men’s changing room because a local primary school also used it for swimming lessions. IIRC the female teachers that were supervising the boys complained about the presence of nude adult men, but I might be confusing that with another article.
If you have to ask, you’ll never know.
Slightly off topic but I’ve seen signs in saunas warning that anyone caught peeing on the hot rocks will be expelled forever. Really?! What kind of person would even consider such a thing? WTF?!
The taxpayers paid to build a sauna at the Pentagon? What other amenities are there?
Gold’s has curtains that you can close and the Wellness Center at MUSC has some shower stalls with doors.