# Swimming in the nude?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 15, 2010, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909 "2010-09-15T23:42:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/21 "2010-09-17T17:28:06Z")
You can only imagine what ecstacy and horror that was for gay teens. I wonder if nude swimming led to the bath houses (“you fantasized about it in 10th grade swim class, now you can act on it!”). ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/22 "2010-09-17T18:12:12Z")
> [@EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](#): > > …I can’t believe he would go naked in the first place… glass window or not. > > I don’t know if that was commonplace but that certainly seems odd to me. At least now they wear speedos. Why not? Coed health clubs were unheard of back then and he would’ve already been naked in the lockerroom. ---
**Author:** ![EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac8455/32.png) [@EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EVERYNAMEISTAKEN)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/23 "2010-09-17T20:34:35Z")
I wanted to edit my post to clarify that the second line was to the OP but oh well. ---
**Author:** ![EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac8455/32.png) [@EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EVERYNAMEISTAKEN)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/24 "2010-09-17T20:35:43Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > > [@EVERYNAMEISTAKEN](#): > > > > …I can’t believe he would go naked in the first place… glass window or not. > > > > I don’t know if that was commonplace but that certainly seems odd to me. At least now they wear speedos. > > Why not? Coed health clubs were unheard of back then and he would’ve already been naked in the lockerroom. I guess it seems rude to me… even if it were a men’s only health club. The locker rooms are different, because it’s expected there. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2010, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/25 "2010-09-18T05:34:57Z")
[QUOTE=EVERYNAMEISTAKEN] I guess it seems rude to me… even if it were a men’s only health club. The locker rooms are different, because it’s expected there. [/QUOTE] What you’re missing is that it was expected in many pools as well. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/26 "2010-09-19T07:19:45Z")
> [@SanDiegoTim](#): > > I entered Loyola Academy in 1962. Nude was the order of the day. > > Maybe the priests liked it (I know, that was bad). > > Seriously, the only problem with nude swimming, at least for me, was chafed genitalia. The water wasn’t deep enough. There’s the old joke about the French swimmer who swam nude in races and who complained that the pretty girls cheering him on slowed down his time because he scraped against the shallow bottom. “Then why did you not use your famous back stroke Pierre?” “Ze bridges! Ze bridges!” ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909/27 "2010-09-19T17:05:33Z")
There’s an episode of Dead Like Me where an elderly man (Shelly Berman, I think) dies in a men’s swim facility, where the men swim nude. His nude spirit hangs around for quite a while, visible only to the Reapers. In one scene, he walks through a troup of Girl Scouts. Even Mason thought that was “just plain wrong!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/swimming-in-the-nude/553909.md?page=1)