Inspired by another post here, despite never actually taking a fully nude shower in the PE Locker room in Middle/High school (if you did took showers you took them with your underwear or swim trunks on) I remember both among my classmates that getting an erection in the boys shower was a fear for obvious reasons, that if you were naked around a bunch of other naked men in the shower and got a boner you’d be called gay and ostracized for the rest of your time in school. There were even tips I heard about how to prevent yourself from getting an erection in the locker room from these classmates.
Now here’s the thing, I only ever heard about that fear in my middle/high schooling and never actually heard anyone other man bring it up both in college or online, so I’m wondering if this was just a couple of insecure classmates who brought up this idea and made me wary of it for the rest of my life. It got to the point when I was 19 taking a nude shower in the locker room for the first time ever I was super apprehensive about it despite the fact I wasn’t at all afraid of being seen naked, just the accidental erection part.
Were those classmates an isolated incident or was this an actual schoolyard rumor across the country?
We had to shower nude with other guys when I was in high school in the 1960s. I never heard anyone express such a fear. I mean, getting an erection at random among other guys was just inconceivable, even though some guys were accused of being gay. (And even though years later several of those suspicions turned put to be true, I never heard of any of them or anyone else getting an erection in the shower.)
Well, spontaneous boners are a thing during puberty. You’d be walking along and purely randomly you’re suddenly pogo-sticking, trying like hell to hide it. For me it was like age 11 and it was super annoying. Never in a group naked setting though and I can’t imagine I spent many cycles worrying about that specifically (it is oddly specific).
Never worried about it, and never saw an erection in three years of gym class. I did worry about it when I did a bit of art school modeling, and took the obvious precaution a few hours ahead of time.
Don’t think the possibility of such a thing happening ever occurred to me. In any event, it never happened to me nor did I ever hear of it happening to any other guys.
Though I was gay (and deeply closeted at the time), I never got an erection in the shower, or even in nude swimming. Neither did anyone else, except for one guy who was showing off in the locker room. It was impressive, and earned him the name “Ten Inch.”
Several years ago, three towel-clad guys in my chorus performed this song:
Never had to take one but I would think more guys would worry about being growers (or at least non-showers) than getting an erection. as someone else stated, they do happen out of nowhere. I remember some tv shows or maybe movies with the premise of the accidental boner while being called to the front of the class, but I can’t recall that being a concern either.
Constant spontaneous erections and showering with other guys in gym were certainly parts of my high school life, and while I was self-conscious as hell about many aspects of my self, I can’t say I had any thought of those two events happening at the same time. Showering with other guys seemed to be a most effective inhibitor of spontaneous erections, at least for me. Nor do I recall it being an issue for other guys, nor a topic of locker room conversation.
I’m glad I never even thought the two events might overlap, or I would have had yet another thing to worry about at the time.
I’ve always wondered about exactly that situation. I’m straight—if I’d had to shower with objects of lust—the girls from gym class—would I have been able to avoid getting hard? I guess being self-conscious would counterbalance it some. Plus, there’s always cold water.
And seeing so much of it all the time would make it less “special.” When we were in Boston we heard that back in the day, lobsters (which I love) were so plentiful that they fed them to prisoners. Sounds great! But the prisoners complained because nobody wants to eat the same thing day after day after day.
I actually did sometimes worry about that when mixed-sex skinny dipping during college, since like most 20 year olds I was continually horny. But I never had a problem, nor did I witness it in any other guys.
Definitely just isolated to those classmates. The more usual apprehension comes from fear of inadequacy. Most people simply fear that others will see how small their penis is. This is especially true during the puberty years, as all the boys are going through puberty at different times. So, the late bloomers will be even more shy about being naked around peers. The funny thing, is that even averaged-sized and above-average sized males have this same anxiety. No matter their size, most men are going to be concerned that it’s too small. I think once you hit 9+ inches, you’re no longer shy. And above 10, you start to show off.
Actually the early bloomers too. In the middle school showers almost all other boys were hairless with those little boy ‘buttons’ down there, while I had pubic hair and a rather adult schlong; it was mortifying as hell.
It really wasn’t that at all, at least not for me. I was also gay and deeply closeted when I was in high school PE in the 60’s, and what did it for me was pure unadulterated fear – fear of the shame of being found out. I made double extra sure not to even look at any “objects of lust” even though one or two of them were subjects of fantasies when I was alone. Also, I don’t remember ever having a problem of spontaneous boners at any time, because I was taking care of myself on a regular and frequent basis.
I should add that it helped that I wore glasses even then, and without my glasses in the shower things were fairly blurry.
In the 70s we had lots of experiences with mixed gender nudity. Skinny dipping, saunas, even showers in the dorm. No fear of erections that I recall. The only erection I ever noticed in a public place was a guy in the shower at a Chicago YMCA. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t accidental.
I guess I never answered the OP. I don’t think I’ve ever had a surprise erection—we’re not counting waking up in the morning with one, right? That’s not to say if I spent 10 seconds thinking about that cute blonde in English class that I couldn’t inadvertantly summon one—but my body never spontaneously gave me one. So I was never afraid. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an erection in a locker room etc. from anybody.
Straight guys like me never looked at other guys because people might think we were gay. We started compulsory showering in 7th grade and it was a big deal at that age but as we got used to it. We heard that the girls never showered—not sure what that was about.
We had to shower nude after PE, in the '80s. One not-so-popular guy had maybe a semi-boner for a second there (I didn’t see it), and the taunting and downright (misdirected) gay-bashing that resulted (which I did witness) cemented the idea in everyone’s head that having a hint of wood in the school locker room would be a social death sentence.