Segregated Nudity At The Y.M.C.A.
This group is for males who remember when or wish nudity was back in the Y.M.C.A.. But not just nudity. Segregated Nudity. This group is based on the blog, https://www.gasguys.wordpress.com
- created by JosiahWeber
A reference to naked swimming at the YMCA on mainstream 1960s TV
Return to DiscussionsI had a rerun of Leave It to Beaver on TV a little while ago and heard a very fun reference to naked swimming at the Y. Wally and Beaver were discussing Wally's white dinner jacket that he'd wear to a dinner dance, and Beaver intimated that it looked dorky. Wally rationalized that it doesn't look dorky when all the other guys are wearing the same. To which Beaver agreed (my words) "yeah, it's sort of like when all the guys are swimming at the Y not wearing suits"). Yep, it doesn't look out of place when we're all doing it. A fleeting reference but a bit surprising on a show like that. I think nude swimming at the Y lasted another 10 or 15 years (this was a 1961 episode). Fun.
Back then swimming at the YMCA naked was a normal and a wildly acceptable activity between boys. Making a reference to it just shows how mainstream this was at the time and nudity was not an issue in the right environment, like at the YMCA or in the school locker room that had communal showers. It was never thought to be sexual but just an active that was done naked at the time.
i never understood the YMCA i was a member of was coed in the mid 70's but right up the street was a YWCA , there are time where the sexes should be separate and yes there is a difference between males and females no matter how society wants to spin the BS.
I'm surprised that nudism would have been an episode topic at all in a 1960s sitcom. Maybe got some parents interested in exploring for themselves.
I remember a couple of sitcoms, probably in the 70's, running the old joke of "I thought you said it was a DUDE ranch!" But the My Three Sons episode was when Ernie was young, and I think still black&white.
Maybe one of the writers was a nudist.