We had a complaint about a female employee who allegedly spent too much time nude in the locker room at our gym. But she was in her 40s which I don’t suppose most of us here would consider old. The employee was pretty clear that she didn’t spend a lot of time nude in the locker room, just enough time to shower and change, but that she was more comfortable being nude there than a lot of other employees. She argued that as an hourly employee she simply didn’t have a lot of time to waste hanging out in the locker room as she had a finite amount of time to get there, work out, and return to the office. We found her argument compelling.
If they brought their own hair dryer and were somewhat discreet about it, then fine.
But the guys in my gym are using the public hairdryer and putting their foot up on a table or whatever to really get under there.
That’s crossing the line into inconsiderate and disgusting IMO. (And yes, my disgust doesn’t trump anyone else’s freedom, but you’re still a jerk if you do gross out stuff in public). No one needs to do that.
Even if someone is in the locker room for a regular amount of time, they may still be nude more than is customary. It’s normal to blow dry hair, put on makeup/shave, look at your phone, chat with other people, etc. in the locker room. But doing those things while nude has a greater likelihood to make other people uncomfortable. Like with stuff at the sink, I would imagine that most people would prefer the person next to them be covered up appropriately rather than nude. Aside from the issue of genitals pressing against the edge of the counter, it’s common for people to be uncomfortable having a nude stranger so close. It doesn’t seem too inconvenient to have a towel around their body instead of being nude. Obviously nudity is unavoidable in the locker room for changing and showering, but some people will be nude much more than is customary.
It’s a figure of speech, get over it.
My doctor told me to blow dry my crotch and under my boobs after i shower. There’s a blow drier there. If i showered at the gym, i would likely use it. It’s not as if I’m touching the blow drier with anything but my hands. I’m really struggling with what you think they should be doing. Hiding in a corner with an extension cord dragging across the floor so they can use their own blow drier without your needing to see their balls? Really?
Anecdotally, at least for me, it isn’t dated. Though I haven’t been back to my local YMCA since the pandemic started, before then, it was absolutely the case in my Y’s men’s locker room that there was a group of guys who would shower, and then hang around in the locker room, chatting with each other, naked and in no particular rush to get dressed – and all of them were age 60+.
Anyone under that age who used the locker room either (a) didn’t shower there, and didn’t strip down in the locker room, or (b) got dressed quickly after showering.
I first learned about the age divide with men and nakedness in locker rooms from an old guy who was telling me about the young men who seemed to be ashamed of their bodies and were always trying to cover up, fwiw. He was old enough to have had to swim naked in PE class as a kid.
This describes me, exactly. It’s a combination of social conditioning and indifference; in my mid-50s, I’m neither boastful of nor ashamed of my body, and I’ve seen enough other bodies not to be perturbed by a glimpse of another man’s penis. There are certain spaces where nonsexual nudity is acceptable - the doctor’s office is one, and the locker room is another.
I do kinda laugh at the ripped 22 year old who’s hammering out 250 lb bench presses in the gym, but turns into a shrinking violet in the showers.
I remember once, at the first gym I ever joined, a YMCA, I finished my workout and went into the locker room and there was an old guy just sitting on a bench, reading a magazine, totally naked. I opened up my locker, grabbed my towel and soap, went back to the showers, took a shower, dried off, came back to my locker, got dressed, went over to the mirrors, combed my hair, zipped up my gym bag, and left–at which time the old guy was still sitting there reading his magazine naked.
I’m a Gen-Xer, and while I don’t do anything crazily modest like try to change my underwear with my towel around my waist, I generally try to minimize the amount of time I spend with my genitals exposed. For example, when I arrive in the locker room, first I’ll look for an empty locker, then put my gym bag down on the bench, open it, and set my gym clothes out. Then I’ll take off my shirt, hang it in the locker, and put on my gym shirt. Then I’ll take off my shoes, then my pants and hang them in the locker. Then I’ll take off my underpants and put on my gym underpants, then my gym shorts. That kind of thing.
The difference with the old guys is that they seem to almost intentionally maximize the amount of time they spend naked. I’ve seen old guys come into the locker room, plop their gym bag down on a random bench, and immediately strip down completely naked. Then they start hunting for an empty locker, then they hang their street clothes in it, then open up their gym bag and start rummaging around getting their gym clothes out. Then and only then do they start getting dressed again. I really don’t understand that mentality. It’s like their #1 priority is being completely naked for as long as possible.
I am 64. Starting when I was in summer camp at age 10 and then in junior high (what you call middle school now) and high school gym class, we would change in a locker room with no privacy and nobody cared. It was just normal. In my junior high and high school the showers were community showers, not individual stalls. Nobody stared, nobody cared. After all, isn’t that why you have one locker room for boys and a different one for girls?
My question is why are young men so self-conscious to be naked in front of other men who don’t even give a shit about them? In my gym I have seen a couple of younger guys change their pants under a towel. To me that is much more attention-getting than someone just doing what they need to do.
I’ll tell you what I think is really weird, is the one guy in my gym who clips his toenails in the locker room, and another guy who shaves his pubic hair at the sink. With shit like that you don’t think much about guys who get naked to take a shower.
Things like blow-drying your crotch are things you might do after every shower, so if that’s your habit, OK. It doesn’t really affect anyone else, but it’s a little more noticeable than, say, putting your underwear on. Whatever.
But some more personal parts of grooming, like toenail cutting, are not done as part of the daily dressing routine and probably are best done at home, especially if you leave your toenail clippings on the locker room floor for other people to step on. It’s kind of a social more, like women who wear skimpy bikinis on the beach but would not go in the beach in a bra and panties. The underwear might even cover more skin but it just isn’t done.
P.S. Two years ago I was chatting with an Air France flight attendant who said that people who clip their toenails on the flights are shockingly frequent.
I think these guys…
…and this guy aren’t all that far apart on the spectrum.
The naked guy lounging thing is more than a little gross. Some locker rooms have couches and loungers that aren’t built to be wiped down and having naked ass on them isn’t super pleasant. Naked man ain’t wiping shit down when he’s done with it.
I put more stock in the gives zero fucks argument than the it’s a generational thing argument. If it were generational they’d at least be a little more conscientious about where they leave their ass prints and pubes.
Yeah, the guy biding his time on the bench is a little odd. Once I’m done with my workout I’m done being in the gym. I don’t think of it as a hangout, and if I did, I wouldn’t sit around naked reading a magazine. If he were sitting on a towel or something I wouldn’t think it any more than just odd, but sitting his sweaty ass on a bench that someone else will sit on is out of bounds. (Then again, sweaty guys use the exercise equipment all the time without wiping it down, which I also find nasty.)
I do agree that he ought to put a towel between his bottom and the shared bench. Ick.
I have to think that the guy reading a magazine doesn’t have anyplace nicer to be. He may feel like once he’s dressed, he’s supposed to leave. I dunno. I’ve never camped out in a changing room.
I think this is the key as to how anyone feels about nudity. Whatever the attitude about nudity was when and where you were growing up is going to greatly influence your feelings about nudity as an adult. Feelings about nudity and sexuality are going to be culturally defined rather than absolutely defined. There is no right and wrong about nudity. Different cultures will have different attitudes about what is right and wrong.
For example, if you were having lunch with a coworker in a park and they stripped nude and started sunbathing, most of us would find that shocking and the coworker would likely get a visit from HR. But if you lived in Germany, that’s just a normal occurrence. A sunny day in Germany will have many office workers sunbathing nude on their lunch breaks in their city parks.
Continuous nudity in the locker room is not inherently bad, but it is culturally not as common anymore. Certainly there was a time when that was the norm and 99% of the men would be 100% naked at all times, but that’s not the case anymore. The cultural convention now is just whatever minimum nudity is necessary to change and shower. Otherwise, the common convention is to at least have a towel on.
Somebody earlier mentioned “checking your phone” in the locker room.
Not at my gym. It’s posted. Forbidden. End of story. No phones out for any reason. Step out of the locker room into a nice spacious hallway for any phone activity.
Signs say violation of the phone rule will result in expulsion and loss of membership.
On my first trip to Germany to visit a German friend, we went to her sporting club to play badminton (that is a whole other story). Afterwards, she said, “We’re going to the sauna.”
I figured there was a men’s and women’s.
“No, just one. I’ll see you there.”
“What should I wear?”
“ Nothing!”
And so she and her coworkers and I sat naked in the sauna with me trying to maintain eye contact.
My brother, nephew and I will be staying for three days in a railfan B&B a few miles from Horseshoe Curve. I didn’t give a damn about the sleeping arrangements – years of Cons and Burningman have given me a certain amount of flexibility in that regard – but brother asked if we would each have our own bed. Nephew, OTOH asked if he would be in a separate room.
For the latter I had to answer, “It says 2 rooms, 1 queen, 2 twins. I can’t guarantee the distribution but I assume it’s more or less even.”
To be fair, I think he was sitting on a towel, but I still think it’s strange. Who wants to hang out in a YMCA locker room naked reading a magazine? This was a nice suburban area so I think it’s unlikely he didn’t have any nicer place to be.
Not to pass judgement on the crotch blow-drying thing, but isn’t that why God invented towels?
*unless you’re beyond gorilla-hairy, in which case complete public exposure is inadvisable.