culture of showering after class

This is bugging me for a bit now, so I have to ask.
Might be some cultural difference in different places and times, but here's the thing..

I don't know how they did things when and where you were young, but when I was growing up, after p.e. class at school you were obligated to shower afterwards, no getting out of it. And no private cubicles, either. It was strip down naked, get in the communal shower all at once. Nobody really liked it, but that was how it was and everybody wanted to appear all adult and mature so nobody really complained.

Now for years, I believed that most adults when showering communal, it didnt really bother them. Like I suppose some are a bit shy about it and avoided it if possible, but most just did it with no prob.

So what have I been noticing the last couple of times after group lessons in the gym? Well, the dudes just kept their shorts & briefs on... like, they showered with their underwear.
I was like.. all at once.

I'm a bit shy myself about these things, it's not like I enjoy haveing my junk be anything but covered up in company, but you know, it's been my upbringing that showering, sauna, etc that just done naked.

So now I've been told that it's pretty much the (informal) norm now here, at schools and gyms and the like, that people have become a bit prudish and shower with their underwear on nowadays...

Is this a local cultural thing here? Or is it the other way around and the fact dudes showered naked in company is the abnormality?

So how did you guys do it when you were young? Did you shower after p.e. in a group or had a private shower? And now as adults, how 'normal' is communal showering considered? Is it something that would bother you?

 

I haven't been convicted of a crime, so I resent having to use prison showers.

That said, if circumstances require, you've just gotta get on with it and I certainly wouldn't wear underwear in the shower - why is that even a thing?

 

Why would it bother you?

 

I like to sing "Nelly the Elephant" and associated dance steps when showering.....technically it is still communal, but its amazing how often you get to shower alone with this approach

 

Because gymnasium means place where you're naked

 

And a shower is what you do after.


Seems to me that OP wants to see mens junk. No problem op,there are loads of people out there just like you, and we are glad and accepting of you all the same

 

Its only a problem when you bring the camera..

 

I wear shorts in communal showers so as not to make others feel inadequate or intimidated.

 

there's shower facilities at my bjj gym. i take advantage after every class. i would say 90% of people do at my gym, but we have good facilities. there are stalls, and not all have curtains. so it's pretty communal. i don't have a problem with my own naked body or others'.

 

I wear trunks, shower cap, flipflops and verruca socks in the shower. The fire alarm went while I was showering once and I'm not getting caught out in the carpark with inadequate coverage again.

 

Funny, a while ago in another MA forum the same question came up and the whole thread went wild.

I don't like communal showers, but I do use them anyway. Naked, without shorts.
I don't like being naked in front of others, but I also think: It's taking a shower.
You shower naked.
So you shower naked after practice as well.
It's not like people are staring at you or checking you out.
Not usually at least

That said I don't use the shower every time after practice (when my Sensei takes me with him in his car, I don't have the time for example, because he wants to get home), so I can see why don't shower at all.

I prefer to do it though.

Or: On Saturday I was on a seminar. Afterwards nearly everybody went to a restaurant so end the evening.
I was one of two people to take a shower at all - that I thought even more weird, then showering in undies.

 

From a girl's perspective, I've never seen anyone taking shower with something on...
And if I go to a sauna and go to the shower enclosure (when there are two showers) with a man, I just turn my back to him and whatever (though I would have a problem if I felt someone was staring...). And I always thought (and from what I see), man usually have less trouble with being shy etc...

That said, from what a friend told me, with some boys around 10 years in our dojo, they take really long to shower, because, although there are two showers available, each of them would go in the shower room separately, undress, take the shower, put something on, exit and only then would another boy go in... I was like "What?" It was taking them forever! (and of course, they didn't like the idea of using the empty women showers...)
I had no idea men would shower with undies on in a shower exclusively for men...

 

I just throw another question in that came up in the other forum, and I thought it to be sort of interesting - what about a seminar that goes over a weekend and there's only a mixed communal shower?
Anyone here has experience with that?

 

You split the time. Normally women go first since there's normally fewer of them. Also, chivalry.

 

Guess that's a possibility.
In the other forum it was mixed showering.

Out of curiosity (well and boredom) I looked for the other thread and realized there are actually more than one thread like that.
Weird.

 

People on the internet being creepy, who'da thunk it.

 

I think it wasn't about being creepy, but more about matter of fact.

In one thread the subject came up because a teenager didn't want to shower with others at all, because it's so disgusting and what not.

The other "side" of the argument was really down-to-earth and logical, saying it's about getting clean.

To be honest, in that particular thread wasn't much in between those two sides.

In the other similar threads the subject of showering together was only broached when the example with "we only have one communal shower" came up.



Note to self: Get more hobbies, so threads like that don't keep you up!

 

Hi Chadderz, you caught me! But only if they bring the crisco. Speaking of, did you bring any?

But seriously, I can't 100% verbalise why it bothers me exactly, but some of it is:

a) It's always a bit alienating when a cultural norm you just had to conform to has changed when you werent looking. It makes you feel old and out of the loop. I'm also just curious about how much is just my personal upbringing and local culture

b) Showeing with underwear? That's like sleeping with shoes on or eating fingerfood with cutlery. Absurdity.

c) I'm not that comfortable about showering communal, but like a lot of other people I dealt with it by being nonchalant and casual about it. By covering up, it makes the whole thing more awkward and self-conscious then less in a way.

d) I actualy rather not see other men's junk. So you'd think that waring underwear would be preferrable, right? Exept, dudes like to wear those hip fashionable boxers it seems, busy prints and bright colours. Not wearing anything else on your body, it draws attention to it y'know. And wet clingy cotton being what it is, the entire thing turns into a tragedy

e) Now I either get to feel weird and awkward being the only one naked, or get to feel weird and awkward wearing underwear in the shower, or feel weird and awkward waiting around in the lockeroom until I'm alone.
I resent being in this situation.

that's not a situation anyone would like to be caught in. Hope it wasnt freezing outside or anything..

the cultural bias is that women are supposedly less confident about their bodies and more prudeish then men.. yet somehow, it seems that men are a lot more timid and silly when it comes to being naked among peers.

 

Meh there was showers and old swimming pool where I used to live and old men 55+ would shower naked even though there are specific rules about not doing so. It was weird because they spent a long time in the shower and they were making sure their junk was very clean :S

 

Guys 'offering' to shower with female training partners is creepy.