Introduction to communal nudity

[Xen]

In looking at websites I have seen mention of schools and YMCAs which had compulsory nude swimming.

In my school most boys were embarassed at having to take a communal shower nude, far less at having to swim naked (there wasn't a swimming pool so that would have been difficult!).

If anyone reading this went somewhere where nude swimming was compulsory I would be interested to hear whether such an enforced introduction to communal nudity was easy or difficult? Did you become more or less comfortable with it as you got older ? Was this nude swimming important in leading to you being a naturist today ? Why do you think that your all schoolmates have not become naturists ?

[Xen]

In looking at websites I have seen mention of schools and YMCAs which had compulsory nude swimming.

In my school most boys were embarassed at having to take a communal shower nude, far less at having to swim naked (there wasn't a swimming pool so that would have been difficult!).

If anyone reading this went somewhere where nude swimming was compulsory I would be interested to hear whether such an enforced introduction to communal nudity was easy or difficult? Did you become more or less comfortable with it as you got older ? Was this nude swimming important in leading to you being a naturist today ? Why do you think that your all schoolmates have not become naturists ?

[Mississippi Naturist]

As a young boy in Vicksburg, Mississippi all swimming in the indoor pool at the YMCA was nude for us kids. My wife says that it was not for girls. I'm 69 so we are talking about the "olden times" back in the 1940's.

I don't think it affected my attitude toward nudity. It was accepted as the way things were done at the "Y".

[luvnaturism]

I grew up in a small town in Illinois where the only swimming pool in town was the indoor pool at the high school. During the summer it was used for community recreational programs, with different times for boys and girls. Girls were required to wear suits; boys were not permitted to wear suits. No one asked why. It was just the way things were done.

I didn't swim there myself until high school (early '50s). Once the weather got cold PE was in the pool twice a week. I was a very shy kid, and thought being nude in the pool would bother me. However, by the time we were to swim we'd already had a couple of months of nude showers after PE, plus the normal nude horseplay that goes with boys locker rooms. Swimming nude was no big deal, but it did introduce me to wonderful feelings of freedom. To this day skinnydipping brings that same joyful freedom that I associate with my earlier days.

I never knew any boy who was bothered or offended by manditory nude showers or swimming, though perhaps some simply didn't talk about it. Many years later a classmate told me that he had hated nude swimming, which was a great surprise: I have clear memories of him always being in the center of the fun on pool days.

The college that I attended didn't have a pool, so I often swam at the YMCA...nude always. No one thought anything about it. I was past 30 before I ever wore a suit at a Y.

Today I find in myself a great deal of wholeness about myself as a male human being. Others, including counselors, have verified my self-impression of having a healthy sexuality. I am convinced that those many hours of being nude around others laid a valuable foundation.

In recent years I've had the opportunity and the inclination to participate in family naturism. Now I find that it aids my spirituality, helping to complete my wholeness in another dimension. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

[Guest]

Growing up Catholic ..Modesty was ingrained in me.My fears of showering naked as I entered high school were soon overcome as it was something that had to be done.I also had "bashfull kidneys" which caused alot of uncomfortable times.My first exposure to naturism was while I was in my late 20s while I was doing a painting of a scenic beach and a well tanned young couple came and enjoyed the afternoon at the beach . It was so beautiful and idyllic that I was hooked although it took me a couple more years before I got up the courage to remove my clothes at a nude beach and experience that wonderful feeling of freedom.

[nudeatheart]

I grew up in Houston and went to junior high and senior high school in the public school system. For the boys swimming was required to be done nude. No one questioned why; it was just that way.The only explanation I ever heard was something to do with the filtration system. I have heard that the girls were allowed to wear suits. There was never any planned sharing of the pool amongst the genders.(There was one time when the girls were to have the pool the second half of the hour.The boys almost did not get out in time.) I have also heard that some of the girls had found vantage points where they could sneak peeks at the boys; but did not hear hear this first-hand.

[Xen]

Thanks for your replies.

Obviously the enforced nude swiming didn't put you off naturism (or else you wouldn't be on this website !) but interested to see that only one of you - nude at heart - seems to have gone straight from schoolboy nudity to being a naturist. Out door bare seems to have had a long gap and it's not clear about the first two. Was there a close link between your teenage nudity and your beomming nudists ?

I spoke to a friend in the UK at the weekend and he said that at his prep school (ages 8-13) swimming was always nude - and this included the teachers and any visitors - do you know if this insistence on total nudity was usual ?

[nudeatheart]

To be honest with you I did not go straight from the schoolboy nudist to full-fledged nudist. It has not been but maybe the last ten or twelve years that I became interested in "social" nudity. As I have stated before, along with countless other single guys, it has been very difficult to find a club/resort that will give us the time of day. I am still looking.

[mel]

I also attended junior high in the mid 60's and pool class for the boys was swimming nude. The first day in 7th grade was nervous since I didn't know very many of the guys, but you get used to it real fast and it just seemed normal. I was raised on a farm with 3 brothers and we and our friends always swam nude in the river on our farm. I have always liked being nude, but only started sociality the last couple years. Like so many others, my wife is not into it so it makes it harder.

[Trailscout]

For those of us who went through a prudish phase, it would be helpful to understand what caused it and perhaps learn how to prevent it in the next generation.

I think that our society puts so much emphasis on looking good and being sexy that it raises doubts in the adolescent about whether he or she measures up. This seems to be especially true for girls.

Nudity on television is a double-edged sword. It may teach some to think of nudity as our normal state, but all too often, nudity is only seen in a sexual context.
Women particularly seem to be torn between displaying their bodies to attract men, while wishing to avoid the gaze of men who are looking them up and down like a prize-winning heifer.

As I entered my adolescent years, I began asserting my independence, seeking time alone to read, work on my hobbies, and daydream. I sometimes resented any intrusions on my private times. Wearing clothes when my parents were around was one more way I had of putting distance between me and the adults in the house.

I do not believe that prudishness is inevitable for the adolescent. Why should it take us to our twenties or thirties to regain the confidence to be content in just our skin? What can be done to avoid the broader problem of teen alienation from their parents?

Let me begin the discussion by offering the opinion that those parents who are nude nearly continually in their home and who take their kids regularly to nudist resorts are more likely to innoculate their children against adolescent prudishness.

Television and peer pressure are powerful enough to undo a parent's hard work to break body-shame. I think it's time for parents to take a firm hand with television use in their homes.

I have read reports that show that in families that spend the evenings at home together, the parents have greater influence over the formation of their children's values than the children's peers do.

[Guest]

You're so right, Trailscout. Children raised in a nudist home will grow up without the hangups about nudity. Although, not being raised that way I can't speak from personal experience. They won't be embarrassed with their own nudity or fascinated by anyone else's. I believe that they will be less inclined to get into porn because they've already seen all there is to see, although they hopefully haven't seen the sexual part of nudity in nudist clubs and resorts.

All children should be raised in nudist homes. Of course, we know that this won't happen. Most people raise their children to be very prudish about their bodies and to be very curious about other people's bodies. My grandkids are being raised to be very modest around one another.

My dad was not a nudist; he was an exibitionist who enjoyed exposing himself in the home to anyone. My mother was very prudish. I was extremely shy about my body with everyone except two of my brothers. I grew up being very shy.

Getting into social nudity last year at age 55 has helped me to get over my shyness, but it wasn't easy working up the courage to do that. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

[Bob S.]

Trailscout,

Teens go through many phases in their journey through adolescence. They are asserting their independence and individuality. Usually, that means disassociating themselves with their parents and trying to be more like their peers. It's a tricky balancing act, but with understanding parents and good friends, it is one that can easily be oversome.

Realizing that, if a teen's friends are all textile and prefer to distance themselves or even joke about the nudist lifestyle, then the teen will do so also. If anyone caught the MTV show, "RealLife" (I think) where they interviewed the son of the owners of Desert Shadows Nudist Resort in California, you will see that Alex (the son) remained clothed at all times they shpwed him. He much preferred his friends outside of the park and I'm not even sure if he had any friends within the park.
He wanted to be exactly opposite of what his parents were. He even commented that he wanted to live some place where it was cold and rainy all the time just so he didn't have to see "another naked person."

So in order to prevent the "prudish phase", teens must have nudist peers and ample places to be naked with them. And understanding parents who will give them space to grow.

The only thing that growing up in a nudist household does for the children is teaches them to respect their body and others' bodies and allows them to view the naked body as something natural and not just as a sexual object. To raise good, moral children requires parents who spend quality time with their children and who have a firm yet fair disciplinary technique.

And children who respect and really care about what their parents think and say will place them at a higher eschelon than their friends, but it still doesn't mean they will follow in their parent's footsteps.

Bob S.

[Trailscout]

Bob,
I went to a high school where some of the kids dropped acid, cut class, smoked pot, shop lifted, had casual sex, and got drunk.

My brother and I did not do any of that. Why didn't we roam the streets with the wild ones instead of the well-behaved? All the kids, both wild and behaved, were our neighbors and classmates.

In retrospect, I walked in my parents' path, but not in their footsteps. My hobbies are different, I am much more outgoing than my parents, and I have worshipped in different congregations from my parents since I was 16, although I stop to visit theirs once in a while. I took the nudist path further than they did, but perhaps the nudity-tolerant upbringing they gave me contributed toward that.

[Bob S.]

Why does one child choose a life of drugs and crime while another chooses to go on the straight and narrow?

Sometimes, it is simply their personality type. Do they tend to follow others or are they leaders? Sometimes there is even groupthink, or an idea that seems better the more people that are involved.

Usually though, it is the parents who can guide their children through everything. Parents who are available to their children, have taught them a good moral sense, and have fair, consistent discipline with their children.

Also luck and circumstance play a part. Luck in that your kids will never have to make that decision. Circumstance in how close to the druggies, or whatever bad people you want to use, are to your home. Also in circumstance is income, where you live, and who you know.

Bob S.

[Gary Naturist]

At summer camp in the Boy Scouts, everyone went swimming in the lake nude. I would usually get an erection when nude in anyone's presence for more than a couple of minutes. Same thing in the communal showers in high school. Others didn't seem to have the same problem. While I liked the feeling of being nude, I was very fearful of being found out.

My erection problem continued through my twenties and definitely limited my involvement in nudism. The problem gradually disappeared, and as it did, I increased my involvement in nudism.

Gary