My locker room drama started and ended with the showers. Sixth grade P.E. (“Phy Ed” if you’re from Minnesota) found me at the end of a long line of body-conscious girls wrapped in thin towels, each awaiting her turn to wash off the sweat from dodgeball. Despite the fact that huddling against a wall staring at boys didn’t really work up a sweat and, more importantly, that everyone would see you naked, showering wasn’t optional and our gym teacher stood by the door with a clipboard making sure no one skipped out on their hygienic duty. As I waited my turn, I watched the girl in front of me. She walked up to the shower, flashed her towel open in a quick five-second burst and then quickly stepped away, blushing and unwashed. But she got her name checked off the list and nobody saw if she had pubic hair yet, so I did the same. Plus her bangs, fluffed and aqua-netted a la Debbie Gibson (first tape I ever owned, woot woot!), survived unscathed. That was important to me since my bangs combined with my big plastic glasses were my protection. When the cool kids decided to hawk loogies on me – the same cool kids by the way who now friend me on Facebook causing me to mourn the fact that while you can “poke” someone and give them a “noogie” there is no app for hawking booger juice – my bangs and glasses provided a geek forcefield that kept the sticky wetness off my actual skin.
Fast forward many years through high school, gymnastics, community theater, dance and many other opportunities to drop my towel – but I never did. I was the master of clutching my towel with one hand and wriggling out of a wet swimsuit with the other. Then I had children – four of them – and my body was not my own anymore. I became self-conscious in a whole new way with stretch marks and saggy breasts. In addition, I choose to wear underwear specific to my LDS faith. Like many Muslims and Jews, we wear certain items of clothing that symbolize our commitments to God. They have the added benefit of making us stand out in a crowded locker room. Afraid of questioning or disapproving stares, I moved into the bathroom stalls to change thereby introducing a whole new degree of difficulty called Don’t Drop Your Cellphone In the Toilet.
And then one day, there I was wrapped in an itty-bitty gym issue towel, lined up at the shower stalls again. At our YMCA there are only three stalls but a whole wall of open showers and yet all of us women – old, young, mothers, teens – waited for the private booths. I was running late and had to pick up my son from preschool. Those of you with children will understand that there is nothing more harrowing than missing your child’s bus or pickup. Not only does the abandoned child commence hysterical crying exactly two seconds after his commrades-in-paint-smocks have left but I swear the teachers, irritated by lateness, add to the horror by saying things like, “Well, if your mom doesn’t come soon the janitor will just have to put you in the toy closet for the evening ha ha!” Never incur the wrath of a Preschool teacher is all I’m saying.
After a few anxious minutes of watch checking and toe tapping, I decided that this was it. I was done with the towel. I stepped out of line, hung it on a peg and turned on the shower. Making a quick decision to face the wall and showcase my cellulite rather than advertise my inattentiveness to bikini line maintenance, I didn’t see what the line was doing. But a few seconds later the shower next to me turned on. I looked over to see a woman with whom I’d just done TurboKick. Catching my eye, she laughed and blushed and mumbled about how silly it all was – “it’s not like I have anything you all haven’t seen!” – and we got clean. Soon another shower turned on. And then another. I glanced around at all of the saggy and smooshy, the Mormon and the atheiest, the taut and the wrinkled, the pregnant and the post-partum. And you know who cared? Nobody.
You can thank Turbo Jennie for snapping this pic, yes, inside the locker room. And yes I wore those knee socks to work out in. They even have little fuzzy balls at the top. They’re awesome.After that, the locker room dynamic changed considerably for me. I no longer agonized about changing in a stall. (Although Gym Buddy Allison chooses to do so, which led to an interesting conversation shouted over toilets the other day when she discovered a need to borrow a sports bra and I wasn’t sure which stall she was in and proceeded to pelt random strangers with it until I found her.) And while I don’t roam around starkers having deep conversations with strangers and blow-drying my pits, I no longer care if people see me tucking my mummy tummy skin into my pants or if they think my underwear is funny or even if they notice my strange predilection to matching my cute socks to my cute bras. Because we’re all more alike than we are different.
And also, now I never have to wait for a shower.
So, what kind of locker-room personality are you? Do you change in a stall and use a towel, just to be safe? Do you make a little fort in the corner of the locker room with your towel, bag and locker door? Or are you so comfy in your own skin that you go to Crunch Gym just so you can use their peepshow showers?
Always using the other locker room as a guy, you might think this post has no meaning to me. However, for a two week period at my fitness center, while the women’s locker room had some repair work going on, we all used one locker room! There were changing stalls, lots of people walking around in towels (You would have felt right at home, Charlotte), and really, perhaps it’s just my perspective, but it may have been the greatest two weeks of my life, but then I don’t get out much 🙂
I never had to shower in gym at school. I listen to the horror stories my 12-year-old tells me about her locker room and I silently thank God that I never had to deal with it.
I tend not to shower at the Y, unless I’ve been swimming–which I don’t do anymore, thanks to an onslaught of ear inections.
I usually dress at home and then go right home to shower afterwards.
When I do have to change there, I’m usually in the kid friendly side of the locker room with my 6-year-old…For some reason, changing in a room full of women doesn’t phase me, but toss me in the locker room with a couple of giggling preteens, and I’m suddenly aware of every stretch-mark, sag, and roll.
There’s no where to hide in the locker room, either. Turn towards the bathroom area, and I’m not only faced with the mirror, but with the possibility of people walking by…turn around and I’m flashing innocent people just entering the locker room.
I’ve become a smuggler. I’m quite efficient at getting dressed without getting undressed…with the exception of wriggling into the dreaded sports bra. And I refuse to cram myself into a bathroom stall in fear of going home with toilet clothes. (Although, “Sorry, Jennie, I can’t make Turbo becuase I dropped my socks in the toilet…” sounds like a reasonable excuse, right?)
I think I read Carrie at far too young an age… scarred for life, and I bet Stephen King never once set foot inside a girl’s locker room! We’re so good at psyching ourselves out, it should be an Olympic sport.
Great topic for a post!
I was painfully shy as a kid and in high school, but something shifted in college when I realized that NO ONE CARED what I looked like.
Now I find it weirdly freeing to be naked in a locker room. It’s so funny how context is so important: if you’re “caught” naked, it’s supposed to be profoundly humiliating. But if you’re “supposed” to be naked, it’s no big deal. Same bared skin; totally different emotional reactions.
What a weird society we live in!
Charlotte-Your last post was a doozy. Thank you.
What was your exercise regimen like when you were gaining weight? I am currently trying to gain a little weight, but I’d like to do it healthily, and I greatly fear reducing my exercise time/intensity. I definitely up my calories, but I exercise so much that if I’m eating super healthy foods, which I prefer to do for lots of reasons, I truly cannot get enough calories without feeling absolutely stuffed (even healthy dense things- nuts, whole grains, etc.) I know you’re not an RD/MD etc. just a BA (that’d be a badass), but I’d love to hear your input and/or to know more about your eating/workout regimen while gaining weight (and I promise that I will already heed any disclaimers about how obv it’s different for every body, every person’s body is different, exercise and nutrtional needs differ, etc. etc., blah blah) Thank you.
Love the socks Charlotte!
I refuse to get ready at the gym. I get dressed and showered at home. If I don’t have time to shower, I’ll just go to work sweaty…gross, I know. I’m way too self-conscious. I just couldn’t do it. I admire ya – way to step up!
I’m not sure if it’s because of my religion or that I’m just a huge prude, but I could never be naked in the locker room. It would essentially be the same for me as walking down the hallway naked…just can’t do it. I’m also very quick to look away if I see someone else naked. I think that’s my fear of someone thinking I’m sizing them up (so to speak).
I guess I’ll just stick to stinking until I get home…or 2 days later when my children let me take a shower!
We weren’t allowed to shower in the locker room at my high school because of a foot-fungus epidemic. Ha!
As my dear friend Allison would say, “How dare people walk around the locker room nude. As if I want to see that!!” I think she was more referring to the frightening old ladies that were changing after water aerobics. It truely was a terrifying sight. Not because they looked bad per se, but it was a glimpse into the future. I don’t want to terrify or offend anyone so I keep myself covered until I get to my locker, then I face the open door and change as modestly as I can. Lucky for me, our YMCA had several shower stalls, so I never had your problem. If I did, then I think I would drop the towel quickly, scrub down and cover up. I wear the magic underwear myself, and I expected weird looks, but no one seemed to notice.
When I was in High School, no one showered. We just toweled off and stank the rest of the day, I imagine. Now, however, I use the shower at my Yoga studio all the time. It’s not a big deal at all. I can see why people are self conscious going through the whole puberty thing, but once you’re and adult, it’s kind of silly, isn’t it? Nice work breaking down those barriers Charlotte!
– Dave
I’m a lucky city-dwelling Euro, my gym is a three minute walk away from my appartment! All i have to change at the gym is my shoes. Which is good, because I go to a trucker gym and even though there is a shower, it’s taped up and says “do not use”.
I have no problem using open showers or showing my body when I’m getting changed etc. I don’t wave my bits in peoples faces either though 🙂 but I certainly don’t try to hide myself. I just get on it with and mind my own business.
It’s not like I think I have a perfect body or anything. I am overweight with some varicose veins, stretch marks and cellulite (lovely image there!). All the usual stuff but even since I was a teenager I almost got indignant that I should be expected to hide my body from other women who have all the same bits as me !! It’s almost like a type of rebellion. Maybe I’m just an exhibitionist? I dunno.
I’ve just started reading Locker Room Diaries, so this post just jumped out at me.
We don’t have that enforced shower rule in the Irish school system, in fact I don’t think we even had a working shower in the ladies changing rooms at my school! We weren’t smelly or anything, just how much can you sweat when you spend the hour with “cramps” to get out of doing anything physical… :o)
I go through phases of being body-conscious. When I was training hard and dropping weight for competitions I loved showing off my abs and muscley arms. Now I’m more obsessed with hiding my ass and thighs to even think about showing off.
I’m not a fan of communal showers, but I’d use them if they were all that was available. And I’d have to agree with Regular Cinderella – I’m fine in front of women, it’s the size zero pre-teens who freak me out. The ones who have yet to understand how your body doesn’t stay exactly the same forever.
I don’t think I broke a sweat once doing P.E at school – just as well as nobody ever used the showers!
Weirdly I have no problem getting my clothes off in the changing rooms. I don’t flaunt it and I DEFINITELY don’t make eye contact with anybody when I’m starkers, but I’ll happily get it out in public. I went to a festival this summer and my best friend and I merrily showered nude together in the outdoor communal girls shower while most of the other girls kept their underwear ON. It really surprised me, given my history, how much more body confident I am than so many others.
TA x
nothing to add here 🙂
no locker room time for me NOW and waitforit I *always* got out of gym in middle school (and did marching band in place of gym in high school. I was THAT uncoordinated *not* into exercise).
Grew up in ballet class, so when I change in front of other people, I’m more concerned about whether they have a problem with it. I’m so not the lovely ballerina any more (not that I ever was – always on the too-sleek side, yaknow?), so I do think “wow, they don’t wanna see this”, especially with young people [nods at Cinderella].
That said, I make judgment calls about whether it’s ickier to remain sweaty or use the shower. I’m not above the PTA wash if things don’t look/smell/feel right.
I walk to the Y and back, so I shower at home. Easier than dragging a ton of stuff back and forth.
Way back in public school, I was always extremely self-conscious, especially when I was the first one to hit puberty. I was positive that everyone was checking out my boobs and body hair!
Ah, the middle school locker room. The most embarrassing time for an adolescent girl. We had athletics first thing in the morning from 7th the 12th grade, and unless you wanted to be sweaty and stinky all day long, you got over the shyness and took a shower.
I was the one who would change really quickly, facing the locker, so I could feel at least partially covered. We did have a couple of the blow-dry-the-hair-naked-types.
While in high school I don’t think this was a big issue since I spent tons of time in the gym playing football, baseball and wrestling. All piled into the communal shower after a game and not much going on other than an occasional prank. Usually one of the tribal elders would pick on a wee young one and put a Heat Balm in the kids Jock. Now that’s way too hot for that area of the body.
Today when using a gym there is different degrees of modesty where most get changed, grab a towel around them and off to the open stall shower. There is always an issue with “naked guy” though. This is the person that is completely naked and holding conversations with anyone that will engage him. He stands in front of the mirror by the sinks and even will sit and read a news paper like this is his nudist colony. I’m not sure what message this guy is sending, and it’s not always the same one. Maybe he’s just leaving his bait out and trolling.
Thank you for baring your soul yet again. Very good post.
I was in a bike vs. motorcycle accident during middle school- broke two arms & one leg. To this day, I count it as a blessing, being excused from PE for two years. How silly is that?
These days, I'm getting over the locker room hangup, but only because of the sweet little old ladies who finish water aerobics when about the same time as I finish workouts. If grandmothers (and a few greats) can shower and change in a room full of their peers, I need to get the heck over it.
I was an early bloomer and was wearing a C-cup bra by grade 5. Of which I was mortified (it was made worse by the fact that my mother bought me the most chaste and ugly bras possible, probably to avoid any over-sexed lace or peek-a-boo styles…)
However, that was a brief phase. I have 2 sisters (and one unfortunate brother), so modesty was at a minimum. I also swam competitively at a facility that had a top notch pool, but so-so locker rooms, so it was group shower or go home reeking of chlorine.
I never had to shower in gym class.
But at the gym, I have one rule: I’m not an anatomy lesson. Meaning that while I’m fine showering, whatever, the second a little kid walks in is the second I cover up/use a stall.
And if your child peeks into the stall (while I’m *ahem* using the stall) and stares at me until I finish, prepare for a lecture on respecting privacy and the benefits of teaching that to your child.
I’m somewhat in-between. I’m not someone who’s going to wander around the locker room starkers but I don’t search for a stall either. I’m happy to change in front of people and have a chat. I don’t think there’s anything to be ashamed of – we all have the same equipment and we all have flaws. Yes, even the pre-teens have flaws!
I have two younger cousins and I’m trying to get them past the whole “eeewwww naked bodies” thing they’re going through.
As a die hard stall changer, I find it liberating to be able to change out in front of others or even shower, but what I do have a problem with is the absolute overly nakedness– blow drying hair naked? brushing your teeth naked? digging through your gym bag, naked? Really? You can’t slap a towel or pants on to do that? I find it creepy. IMO, I feel there is no need for exhibitionism in the Y locker room.
Char – GREAT POST!!
In school, I don’t recall having to take a shower and getting the checkmark passing. I tend to leave the school year memories behind me.
Before going to work on Saturday afternoons, I have just sweated through 2 classes taught by Jennie. I don’t have time to shower and the kids don’t mind me stinky. (Staff doesn’t mind either, cause I’m the supervisor! haha) I throw on my clothes as quick as possible, not because I’m late, it’s cause I don’t want anyone to look at me and judge my body. (Eeww! I hate writing that! It’s honest and raw!) When I do need to grab a shower, I’m a stall girl. I can’t help it! I think it’s my mommy-tummy that I get hung up on. I work hard for the body I have, but just don’t like to show it off in the locker room. I love the water temperature at the Y. My shower at home usually the cold needs to be turned down every 2 minutes or so and it’s very irritating! I just don’t have the spare change laying around to get it fixed.
Also, since I was in the picture, not knowing Jennie was taking it, I thought I would post a little somethin’-somethin’. Now I have another goal this year to reach, showering at the Y, NO STALL!!
🙂
Such a good story! That’s awesome that you started getting everyone to use the main showers.
I am very unselfconscious when it comes to being naked- I don’t parade around but I don’t care about showering in front of people or anything. Makes life a whole lot easier!
My new gym doesnt have a locker room, but at 24 hour fitness naked people would sit on the becnhes, which is disgusted both for everyone else and for them. way to catch a disease- for sure.
I back my ass into the corner and change facing everyone else, but thats just because I dont want to moon everyone. Im not self conscious, I am just conscious of everyone elses eyes.
Never showered in PE. never sweated enough to need to. faking cramps was pretty hard work though.
Kelly Turner
http://www.everygymsnightmare.com
um, yeah. I think you know how I feel about locker room nudity — topless most of the time, and I’m not about to change in a stall. I think it is so funny that you took pictures with a cell phone in your locker room… I would freak out if I saw someone doing that!
I am somewhere in the middle. When I went to the gym, I would stand facing my locker and very quickly change into my workout clothes, figuring everyone else was busy doing the same and paying no attention to me.
Showers at the gym I went to were all in stalls with curtains. The stalls had hooks high up on the wall, theoretically out of the reach of the shower spray. So after my workout I would take off shoes & socks, put on flip flops, grab my knapsack and head for the showers. Safely behind a curtain, I would strip off, shower, towel off, put on my underwear, wrap my towel around my waist and then go back to my locker to finish getting dressed.
We were not forced to shower after gym when I was in school and I was never that enthusiastic a participant so I didn't work up much of a sweat. I dropped gym class as soon as we were no longer required to take it. I can't tell you how happy I was about that; it was such a relief!
Love this post! It’s so great that you inspired the other women to let it all hang out, so to speak.
When I was pregnant I belonged to the Y, and would shower after my swim. (Swimming was so necessary, it was the only thing that helped me defy gravity, lol) and had ZERO body-consciousness. For the first time. (My pregnancies were the only times in my life that I didn’t feel ashamed of my body.)
These days I tend to shower and change at home, for a variety of reasons. I don’t like lugging all my stuff to and from the gym. I’ve also read too many nightmare stories about germs on the locker room floors. Plus, since I teach there now, I feel a little odd about hanging out naked with clients in the locker room.
The gym I go to ONLY had personal showers so this is an non-issue for me. When I frequent other gyms I actually shower in my sports bra because it helps get the sweat smell out of it. Strange, I know.
First things first. LOVE THE SOCKS. I have a whole collection of what I call Silly Socks: socks with funny graphics on the sides, socks that light up (really)striped socks in weird colors. I LOVE THEM. And since the only shoes I wear regular socks with are my cowboy boots, it’s like it’s my funny little secret!! 😀
My current gym is only about 2 miles from my house, so I just go home and change, and frankly I prefer it that way. If I HAVE to shower in a semi-public area for some reason, though, I’m not shy. I don’t parade around, flinging my bits in everyone’s face (I HATE those people), but I would totally use the shower with no door. (When I danced, I did a couple of shows where I literally had to strip-change right in the wings, with stagehands running around me and the two ladies who were helping me change. After that, I had NO modesty left. Ha!)
This post is my fave of the day! I could so relate to the whole showering after gym thing. Fortunately, as a late teen I went to swim with a more mature woman from my ward (read, church)at the local pool’s early morning lap swim. The showers were open, and so were the women, especially my friend. It was not a big deal for her or the other women there, and I guess I figured that if it didn’t bother them, it wouldn’t bother me. And it hasn’t since.
I take a perverse kind of pleasure telling myself that I’m making other women’s days when they see me at the grocery store without my hair or make up done. I guess the same could apply to the showers at the rec. center. This also applies to wearing swimwear. I make other women’s day!
I work at a university and use the university gym which is only about a block from my office. It’s pretty bare bones- there two shower rooms (not stalls) and no changing rooms.
It was definitely weird to shower and change there at first, but then it just clicked, “We’re all doing it and no one cares.” It was liberating.
Now I think it’s strange to see someone struggling to change her clothes without showing any tiny bit of skin. It makes me wonder if they have an interesting piercing or tattoo or something ;).
And I definitely am not going to change in the toilet stall. A woman’s body is not gross. The toilet is gross.
But I do relish the time I get to spend in complete privacy in my home shower. And I’m still not as brave as the ladies who shave their legs in the communal shower. Maybe one day… no, probably not.
with my new semester i will have a new schedule… which means that I have 30min from the end of practice that’s 8 mi off campus to the time my first class starts. it will be interesting joining the after practice shower rush.
2 things-
1) As always… fantastic
2) I thought I was the only person with the FACE/BUTT towel. Got it as a gift from aunt on the first Christmas I lived alone. I read it fast and thought she got me a towel that called me a ‘butt face.’ No joke.
Charlotte you are adorable – this is such a fun read! I was on the swim team in highschool and while I didn’t flaunt my stuff, I wasn’t overly prudish either (except a certain time of the month). Sorry if that’s TMI, but I do remember stuggling into my really tight suit in the really tiny stalls after taking care of business. Not fun!
I’ve never had an issue with nakedness in the locker room, but I’m pretty sure it’s a product of being on swim teams from a very young age. Now I usually have a towel around my waist and just go topless.
I also tend to go home to shower. I like to have cooled down and stopped sweating by the time I shower. But in our locker room, young and old seem to be very easygoing with regards to nakedness. It took some getting used to for me!
i never showered after gym in middle school or the one semester i took it in high school. didn’t feel the need. i did change in the corner facing the wall, though. i became the master of changing stuff under a t-shirt.
in college, we had private stalls in the dorm. where it got tricky was after hockey practice/games. at home, it wasn’t a problem since my dorm was basically right above the rink. on the road though … i guess i was just lucky i never really played freshman year as i found excuses not to shower.
it changed somewhat sophomore year when i got my first boyfriend and … *gasp* … actually showered with him. after that, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal to shower with 20 other women.
at the gym now, i don’t care. we only have private stalls and i’ll walk over there naked (but back in my towel ‘cuz i’m wet). i don’t wander around flaunting my nude butt, but at the same point, i don’t hide as much as i used to.
i also never get a different locker room when i play hockey, either. i’m just smart about it and show up in the clothes i need to and try to avoid needing to shower at the rink. i’ll deal with my smelly self on the 20 minute car ride home.
it is kind of funny seeing the other guys in the locker room though. i always keep my head down, minding my own business while putting on my equipment. some guys will stay and change out their boxers with me in the room; others don’t. i’ve had guys come in the room and walk right back out to the other room. i always say, “i don’t care if you don’t” because really, i’m sure they’ve seen whatever i’ve got and i’ve seen whatever they’ve got. big deal.
There are stall showers and open showers at my gym. No one ever uses the open showers because there is never a line for the stalls.
I think I’ve become more self-concious about my “screening method” than about what I’m hiding behind it. When getting dressed, I hold the towel with my teeth while using my two hands to get dressed “behind” the towel. That might seem pretty weird, that is, if anyone even notices. It always crosses my mind though.
Ok, I can’t believe I’m the only one to ask this but… Charlotte, what is Morman underwear?
Personally I don’t have an issue with getting naked in the changeroom but it’s purely a transition phase – not a state in which one has conversations with fellow gym goers.
I’m not very modest. When it’s convenient (like when I’m leaving work and have to pee anyway and have my gym bag with me), I change in a stall, but if I make it to the gym, I just get undressed down to my nekkies in front of everyone. I don’t go talking to anyone, but I’m not afraid to do what I need to do. I don’t shower at the gym though – I’m always on my way home and I’d just rather not have to tote everything around.
Never had to go through the humiliation of public showers in gym class, and everyone on the diving team showered in their swimsuit and changed after.
Damn. Flashback to school locker rooms and the required shower – unless you claim that it was a “r” day. You didn’t need to shower if you were having your period. (excuse me, I think I needed it more then).
Now? I head in after a workout, strip down, and stand there cooling off and drinking my protein drink. Then walk to the showers. We only have “private” stalls – with glass doors. But I have no problem being nekkid in the locker room, and most of the women don’t seem to either.
Oh, I am so out there. So here’s my real comment though. I clicked on the LDS link because I thought it was going to link me to your special underwear! What’s wrong with me?
Oh my gosh, totally loved this! Honestly, I had never had much experience until I started swimming a few months ago. Day one: random naked women walking everywhere, bending over, casually drying themselves off. I was shocked! I swore I would NEVER be one of those people. But, after having a few similar experiences of almost being late to pick up my preschooler – I just have learned to get over it. I try my best to not be blatant and casual, but I also can’t wait around anymore for private changing stalls!!
interesting… lately it depends on how i’m feeling that day about myself, but I’ve been dealing with alot. Normally, i don’t mind changing…
I love this thread! Thank you for relating your story to us!
I’ve never heard of having had to shower in SIXTH grade gym class.
We had to shower in gym class starting in the seventh grade, which was the start of junior high. My schools district required students to take gym class every year, and they also required post gym class showers from the seventh grade through the twelfth grade.
I got used to the nudity issue pretty quick in the seventh grade, and I never had any problem with it from then on. I just viewed it that we were all girls with the same parts, and that there wasn’t anything sexual about the nudity, we were in the locker room to get cleaned up and that was all. Also, most of the other girls in my gym classes were pretty comfortable with their nudity, so I didn’t see any reason not to be with mine?
And in high school I was on the girls swim team and volleyball team. We always showered after games and practices, and in the case of the swim team we were required to shower nude before we were allowed to get in the pool, so everyone just showered nude after swim practice too. It’s wasn’t a big deal.
The Y that I swim at now has nothing but communal group showers, and if you follow their rules (which most of the ladies do) you are required to take a nude shower there too before you go for a swim. So I’ve literally showered in group showers thousands of times in my life.
Not to make fun of anyone else, but I have to laugh (in my own mind, that is) when I see other women showering in their bathing suits or going in a toilet stall to change clothes. I guess that I just got so comfortable with locker room nudity years ago that it now seems silly to me when women hide from each other in the locker room. No offense intended!
Kimberly
Oh, I forgot to say that it’s interesting how those other women followed your example. I’ve often thought that most women, or at least many women, would kind of like to be more open with things like locker room nudity, but that their afraid to offend other women.
On the first day of school in the seventh grade most of the girls seemed to be afraid to make eye contact with any of the other girls in the locker room showers. But after a few days everybody realized that we were all nude, and there wasn’t any reason to feel ashamed, and after that the nudity was no longer an issue.
Kimberly
For me, group showering in gym class started in the fifth grade. That was back in the late 1980’s though. I doubt that they still require showering in grade school anymore? I don’t think that anyone was too traumatized by the group showering? More than anything, most of us girls just giggled about our state of nudity in front of each other. What can I say, with the exception of one girl in the class, we were a bunch of hairless and boobless 10 year old girls. Being naked in front of each other was hilarious to us. We also thought that it was funny that the gym teacher would stand there watching us shower. She didn’t do it in a creepy way. She was just making sure that we weren’t horsing around too much.