My first experience with communal open showers was when I was in the 5th grade of school. We were all required to shower after phys ed class. It was not a problem for me as I had been going to camp for years where once a week we all went to the lake with a bar of soap (Ivory because it would float if dropped) and no bathing suit for scrub.
We only had a tub at home in the 60's so my first communal shower experience was either PE at secondary school or swimming lessons at the local community pool. They were gang type showers with about 4 heads on each wall and the water was never that warm but the games master insisted that everyone took a shower and always stayed to make sure we all trooped through. Never remember any erections but i'm sure they happened despite the cool water.
In my opinion, it is only due to the generally prudish upbringing that most people (in the UK at least) experience that makes us even discuss this item. In many countries (not all of course), nudism is accepted without question or thought. Many years ago I lived and worked in South Korea and it was the norm to attend a communal bath. Admittedly, it was sex segregated but I made regular visits to the huge baths there where there could have been 500 or more people all naked bathing, having massages and skin scrubs. No-one took any notice of each others nakedness. It was just normal and natural and, in my view, that is how it should be. It amazes me that in the 21st century we have to search for places where we can be our natural, naked self without having to think about embarrassing or offending anybody.
My first time was way back when I was in secondary school, after swimming we would all enter the change rooms, strip off our speedos and walk to the shower area at other end of the room and just shower while chatting, lots of yelling and looking at each other, was comfortable and fun.
Later the school had a camp at Lake Eppaloch in Victoria, similarly they had a room full of showers that we would all enter at end of each day and clean up. This was the first time I can remember seeing one of the older students naked, he was tall very muscular and seemed to be covered in hair from head to foot as well as being very well endowed. It made a number of us younger kids feel inadequate as we were what we thought much smaller in that area, little to no pubes etc and we couldn't help staring at him and discussing later.
eventually we grew into our bodies so to speak and realised that all were different and it was great just being naked.
It is a shame that the communal showers are mostly gone, causing what seems most guys even in an all male environment are ashamed to be seen naked.
Luckily the pool I go to still has the common change room as well as a room next door ( open wall) that has showers on 3 walls with no partitions. Some guys still go in their swimming attire and then do the towel dance to change but a number of us just strip off, enjoy a shower while chatting and washing and then walk naked back to get changed.
It is good to be able to still enjoy this freedom, be naked and natural in a masculine environment, yes we notice what a guy has hanging, body hair etc but that is normal , relaxed on promotes comraderie.
I feel sorry for the younger guys that seem to be ashamed of their body,
I know what you are saying KCnaked guy.
As a kid seeing an "old" person (to a little kid 20 is old) naked in the shower if you weren't used to seeing dad or others naked was eye opening.
To a little kid, seeing a hairy naked guy in shower can make them stare, all that hairy body and down further what at the time may have seemed a gigantic penis from what we were used to .
It was a great time back then, no body shame, naked in those situations was natural, usual and expected.
Fit/unfit, tall/short, smooth/hairy, small/average or WOW penis it was all seen , accepted as part of manhood comradery.
At the rate it is going we will be back to the old neck to knee swimming costumes of yesteryear.
Mine was at 13 with my step dad and his cousin when we went swimming . We all got took our trunks off and got in the showers. This was the first time Id seen them naked and broke down barriers of being naked with others. From then on I got naked regular
At the rate it is going we will be back to the old neck to knee swimming costumes of yesteryear.
Already happening. For the past few years, my niece and her husband have rented an inflatable water feature for the kids attending their Labor Day (US) party. Usually 30 - 40 kids under 14yo and pretty evenly mixed between the boys and girls. I've noticed the girls are wearing 1 piece or 2 piece (bikini) suits. The boys are wearing trunks that come down to their ankles and a mixture of long and short sleeve rash guard T's. Only 2 boys did not wear the rash guards.
First communal open showers for me were when I learned to swim at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in the very early 1960s, when I was 8. We werent Jewish, but we became members for the swimmingthey had indoor and outdoor pools. Gang showers were all I experienced from then on, in Arlington VA in the high school I went to and the in the dorms at Virginia Tech (or VPI, as it was known then) in the early 1970s. It never occurred to me that there was any other to way to do it. I only ran into individual showers later on, in this or that health club I joined. Seemed like a waste of building material.
BTW, we wore suits throughout. :-(
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