Naked Swimming in Schools, YMCA...

[tomhere]

(Update March 2015) STILL AVAILABLE TO WATCH ON YOUTUBE.

The history of naked swimming in American schools, YMCA...
Part 2
Part 3

I these

[beachboy1]

Hi Tom,

It's very interesting, I think I came across this documentary somewhere else too... it was so normal once, not so very long ago.  I hope one day everyone can enjoy this freedom and feel good about it.

[JeteyeMa]

Thanks for the links Tom. Unfortunately some of my nude-phobic male friends won't be convinced that nudity is healthy by this, but it's one more tool in the kit.

-Jet

[kavikanudist]

When I was a little kid I learned how to swim at the YMCA. My dad took me there a few times a month and it was always just men and nude. That was about 1975. Between swimming and the locker rooms that was part of my introduction that nudity was ok.

[mikeisnude]

wow,, very interesting.  I had no idea it used to be so common, kinda makes me feel like I missed out even though I wasn't even alive at the time. 

[Gman707]

 when i was young nudity was common in the gym and no one thought anythong of it. Our local pool had seperate rooms for men and women and the men alk swam nude.  It was just treated as natural.

I was chatting to my girlfriends son a few months ago about gym class and weather or not he had showered afterwards. He looked at me gone out and said no cos there are no showers there l. He goes to the same highschool as i did and when i was there we all finished gym, took off our vest and shorts and went for a shower. The showers were much like the ones in in the documentary and a teacher would stand at either end and make sure we showered. After that youd wander back to the comunal changing area and dry off. There would often be a certain amobt of horse play and towel snapping before everyone got dressed. No one ever thought anything of it. It wasnt a sexual atmosphere and no one thought the teachers were perving at us cos we were all boys

. For me the locker room is a social aspect of the gym. You cant bond with your friends during a workout but you can chat in the shower and while you get dressed. When i was a kid/teen me and my freinds went swimming and played squash together. That time in the locker room was where we connected, where we bragged about victories and ribbed about failures. It brought us together and no one even thought twice about the fact that we could see eachothers junk( or anyothe guy who hapoened to be in the changing room). If anything it helped us become more comfortable, not only with each other but wit our selves. Now my local pool has chanched to private booths and that social element is missing when i go to the gym. Its such a shame that we are misding out on that natural experience.

[beachboy1]

when i was young nudity was common in the gym and no one thought anythong of it. Our local pool had seperate rooms for men and women and the men alk swam nude.  It was just treated as natural.

That's interesting you had been when you were young, I'd not swum nude in a public pool until earlier this year, well not in England at least, there are not so many places you can go. 

I'd heard nude swimming was normal in Manchester into the mid-1970s.  I wonder when you went.  It looks like a nude swim has been taking place somewhere in Manchester with two pools since 2007, maybe the same one you were at.  Here is a funny article about it, with lots of comments:

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1043430_outrage_over_naked_swimming

TJ

[Bill]

when i was young nudity was common in the gym and no one thought anythong of it. Our local pool had seperate rooms for men and women and the men alk swam nude.  It was just treated as natural.

That's interesting you had been when you were young, I'd not swum nude in a public pool until earlier this year, well not in England at least, there are not so many places you can go. 

I'd heard nude swimming was normal in Manchester into the mid-1970s.  I wonder when you went.  It looks like a nude swim has been taking place somewhere in Manchester with two pools since 2007, maybe the same one you were at.  Here is a funny article about it, with lots of comments:

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1043430_outrage_over_naked_swimming

TJ

Hmmm....wait I got it the bathing suits in Manchester must be water proof so no water comes in contact with the genital area.

[nakedrobot]

I know now that my local YMCA has two separate dressing rooms for men.  A family dressing room for kids and parents and those who don't want to go nude. Plus an adult dressing room where nudity is more common.  You definitely see more nudity in the adult dressing room.  I stopped going to that one because I was getting creeped out by the way guys were looking at me.  Turn to find out that there were complaints about our local YMCA for what I was feeling.

I also know that there is an undocumented lawsuit against the YMCA for male predidation on other males and not doing anything to address the issue in the adult locker rooms.  I know this for a fact because a very close friend of mine is the one handling the case and he submitted the papers to a YMCA national board member himself.  Nudity isn't the problem in the dressing room it is male cruising.

an excerpt from the Courthouse News Service.   This was this guys 3rd and worst incident.
"A short time later, after a workout, Keister entered the sauna. No one else was in the sauna when Keister entered.
     "Soon, another man entered the sauna and sat down while Keister was reading a newspaper.
     "Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, the man reached over and firmly grabbed Keister's penis, yanking on it, and would not let it go.
     "Shocked, Keister grabbed the man's arm, pried the man's hand off his penis and yelled in disbelief.

If you wan't to find the whole article you can google YMCA male dressing room issues and you can't miss it. It's at the top.

I stopped being a part of the Nude dressing room before I found out about this lawsuit.  When I heard about it, i connect some dots to things i witnessed. I was a little oblivious to my surroundings.  Turns out my YMCA is going to be a part of this lawsuit.

I am all for nudity... that is why I am here.  There are some things that happen that do not help the Naturist movement. Unfortunately this is one of them. 

[ailsaman]

when i was young nudity was common in the gym and no one thought anythong of it. Our local pool had seperate rooms for men and women and the men alk swam nude.  It was just treated as natural.

I was chatting to my girlfriends son a few months ago about gym class and weather or not he had showered afterwards. He looked at me gone out and said no cos there are no showers there l. He goes to the same highschool as i did and when i was there we all finished gym, took off our vest and shorts and went for a shower. The showers were much like the ones in in the documentary and a teacher would stand at either end and make sure we showered. After that youd wander back to the comunal changing area and dry off. There would often be a certain amobt of horse play and towel snapping before everyone got dressed. No one ever thought anything of it. It wasnt a sexual atmosphere and no one thought the teachers were perving at us cos we were all boys

I don't think I would have had a problem swimming naked, after all we'd all be the same and it's not like we'd not seen each other getting changed anyway so did it really make that much difference putting trunks on?

We didn't have a lot of choice whether we showered either, coming out the pool we had to go through the showers and the teacher making sure as we went through that we'd taken our trunks off and showered and yes there'd be a bit of messing about but it was just what we were used to.

Interesting reading the comments on that newspaper article about nude swimming. quite ironic actually reading how people commented how more un-hygenic it is to wear swimming costumes, goes to show the benefits of not wearing one then.....

[Gman707]

In the early 80s south reddish pool in manchestet had a a seperate pool for men and women so it  an issue. Kids in perticular were commonly nude but my dad  wasnt prudish either.  The sight of a naked male just wasnt unusual or anything you thought twice about.

[ailsaman]

It brought us together and no one even thought twice about the fact that we could see eachothers junk( or anyothe guy who hapoened to be in the changing room). If anything it helped us become more comfortable, not only with each other but wit our selves.

Kids in perticular were commonly nude but my dad  wasnt prudish either.  The sight of a naked male just wasnt unusual or anything you thought twice about.

and as I remember our PE teacher back in primary school saying when we had to start showering, 'it's just a willy, you've all got one' and pretty soon we all got over the embarrassment of seeing all our classmates' bare bums and willies in the showers.

wonder why everyone is so prudish nowadays?

[Saltimbanque]

The videos posted above don't work anymore, but I found them on youtube. Very facinating! To be honest I feel like this is a loss of innocense. It's such a shame.

[NudieDaniel]

Another version

part 1



part 2



part 3

[JT]

I can remember my dad talking. About. Nude swimming at the YMCA when he was a kid. He liked it, never really got why they stoped. I think it would be kinda cool, but there would.  Be so many people again ste it