Naked swimming in school

[dmutah]

Found this youtube documentary about what naked swimming was like many years ago.

Naked Swimming In School Pt. 1

Naked Swimming In School Pt. 2

Naked Swimming In School Pt 3

[brandon]

The first video asks why nude swimming at public pools ended some time between 1970 and 1979.

My guess is that women probably demanded equal access to pools (because there were probably 18 hours of men's swims and 2 hours of women's swims scheduled at most public pools.)

That doesn't explain why the practice ended in schools though.


I'd just like to point out to all the people who blame the internet for people writing "to much" instead of "too much" that maybe "to much" was once perfectly acceptable:

[mrj001]

Cool videos.  My high school used to have mandatory nude swimming back in the 1960's and possibly until the 1970's.  Long before my time.  But some teachers would talk about it.

[ailsaman]

Interesting documentary and does raise quite a few interesting points, indeed why if it is just all boys (or girls) is there any need to wear trunks?
 
I can imagine though it is asking for trouble though if you've got windows, naked schoolboys and girls outside... 

[genxnaturist]

Hi,

Great find and good Documentary.  My dad often would mention how such was common.  When he went to YMCA, you had to be nude.  Likewise when my dad was in college same time.  Actually my dad told me this story that happened to him in college.  He would often go swimming nude at college.  They had two pools one for guys and other for gals.  Anycase one day he went in as normal only to surface to see himself surrounded by female swim team.  What happened is they were doing repairs to female pool and he didnt see notice because it had fallen down.
Main reason for having nude swimming from what my dad told me and few others were too fold.  It had to do with sanitary reasons.  Sure, saying about sand is well lame.  But reality is not all families would wash there cloths as often as they should.  ALso schools could save on chlorine.

Michael

[aepplerqueen]

nice find, but today I can't imagine a nude swim at school!

Its a problem: today a teacher is not allowed to take a shower after sports with his/her student
so you can imagine what would be said, if naked swim would be allowed

[crasher35]

It's a real shame how much more repressed society is. At the same time, with all of these reports about sexual abuse betwwen students and teachers, I don't think any school in their right mind would allow this ever again. People are much too sensitive about this kind of thing. At least that is the case in the U.S.

[Eric]

Back then, bullying was just seen as a part of life rather than a problem to be dealt with too.

Back then, sexual abuse just wasn't talked about.

Back then, sex segregation was a non-issue and it never even occurred to many people that some kids in an all-boys class might be gay.

[Ed]

It's a real shame how much more repressed society is. At the same time, with all of these reports about sexual abuse betwwen students and teachers, I don't think any school in their right mind would allow this ever again. People are much too sensitive about this kind of thing. At least that is the case in the U.S.

I think you'd find that society was much, MUCH more repressed then than it is now. This just wasn't seen as something to get repressed about at the time.

[brandon]

I wonder if a new non-denominational private boys school in the United States had a mandatory nude swimming policy and mentioned it in their admissions materials, what percent of parents would strike it off their list for that reason.

I wonder if the police would show up within the first week.

[crasher35]

Back then, bullying was just seen as a part of life rather than a problem to be dealt with too.

Back then, sexual abuse just wasn't talked about.

Back then, sex segregation was a non-issue and it never even occurred to many people that some kids in an all-boys class might be gay.

Yeah. Those are all VERY good points! I didn't think about all of that.

[ailsaman]

nice find, but today I can't imagine a nude swim at school!

Its a problem: today a teacher is not allowed to take a shower after sports with his/her student
so you can imagine what would be said, if naked swim would be allowed

I don't ever recall our teacher showering with us after sports, but at swimming we all changed together and when we came out we had to take our trunks off as we were going throught the showers, so in actual fact nude swimming wouldn't have actually made much difference - we had no girls

[Fitz1980]

Interesting documentary and does raise quite a few interesting points, indeed why if it is just all boys (or girls) is there any need to wear trunks?

From what I've heard it was only the boys who swam nude.  The idea in those days was that boys don't have modesty, while girls need their privacy, or at least the "good girls" should want their privacy.

I'd imagine that it started in the days when physical education (P.E.) was only for boys in school.  Girls took Home Economics (home ec - where they learned about cooking and sewing) while the boys took PE.  Educators rightly noticed that it made more sense to swim nude.  Less dirt for the filters and less worry about the school having to provide swimsuits & have them cleaned.  Plus swimming naked just feels better so the boys mostly didn't mind.

When feminism started making in roads girls wanted equal access to the gym facilities at school.  That started with sex-segregated PE classes.  Boys would play basketball, baseball & lift weights while girls would do gymnastics & stretching exercises.  For swimming they divided the pool time between the boy & girl classes.  Girls wore suits because "proper lady's protect their modesty" while boys didn't because "that's how we've always done it before & boys don't care."  I'd imagine that also had to do with the fact that female coaches were few and far between in those days.  So there was little worry about boys having a female coach while girls stood a good chance of having a male coach. 

Around the 1970s you had a "perfect storm" of events to kill the nude swimming at school.  Title IX and other feminist movements killed gender segregated PE classes since girls often got the short end of the stick in such situations.  The gay rights movement made boys aware that gay people weren't just some rare thing that happens in San Francisco; but the boy standing next to you in gym could be gay.  Awareness of sexual harassment by teachers made them afraid that they might end up in jail or court if they supervised naked boys.

[genxnaturist]

It might not have been as wide spread for females to go nude when segragated, but I have talked to many women who told me that in college or local YMCA they did swim nude.  So it wasnt just guys, just might have been less common.

[Fitz1980]

Technically that would have been the YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association) the female offshoot of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) before they chose to integrate and they all just became "The Y."