I belong to another forum and a question was posed the other day that often comes to my mind as well. I go to a gym that has an open locker setup with partitioned showers that do not have curtains. Has society evolved to where it is not OK for guys to be naked in front of other guys when there is a specific reason such as changing in/out of street/gym attire before/after your workout? I mean, guys that are around my age still seem to do, what I consider to be appropriate, which is go to there locker and undress completely without much regard to there surroundings, grab a towel and head off to the shower naked. I saw a younger guy(mid 20's) was actually in the shower with his boxers still on and then proceeded to wrap a towel around his waist(and wet boxers) to walk back his locker. Once he was there, he tried to change his underwear under the towel! And he is not the only one, I have seen other guys do that too....are we too that point in society where we are so homophobic that guys cant just be guys? To be honest, I think you draw more attention to yourself trying not to be seen. I know that I had a phobia of locker rooms when I was in my 30's but I stayed away from them...plain and simple...I knew that if I were to be in them...that I would be exposing my body parts to people and I, in general, felt uncomfortable doing that but I did not go into them. Sort of like going into a cigar bar....you know there is going to be cigar smoke there and you know you are going to smell like a cigar when you leave....so you dont go in if you have issues with that.
On another note, it is rainy and cloudy here and this is not what South Florida is supposed to be about.
When I was a kid we swam naked at the Y pool. In high school, swimming classes were naked, and everyone took a shower after gym class. You walked naked to the shower and then into a drying room where you were given a towel. You left the towel there, so you walked naked back to your locker. Nobody thought anything of it. Now, we realize that one man may see another as a sexual object. I can understand both the straight man who doesn't want to be seen naked by a gay man, but also a gay man who may not want to be seen naked by other gay men because he feels he doesn't measure up as a sex object. I live at Easton Mountain, a retreat center in upstate New York, where, in warm weather, I let my seventy-two year old body swim naked in our pool and shower in our outdoor showers. I enjoy being naked and think it's unfortunate when others are so uptight they feel they have to keep covered. Thank you for bringing up this topic. Its something to consider. (Do you live near the nude beach that's between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami?)
ReplyDeleteHey Man....did not see your post until tonight...thanks for posting. Yeah, I live not too far from the nude beach there. Your webblog is awesome.
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