fyi, this is pertaining to a local athletic club (in the Midwest, usa) and mostly adult locker rooms:
Doing an informal poll (well, just my wife), I discovered that males and females apparently behave quite differently in their own locker rooms. My wife says that most women in her locker room are pretty much all covered up (with towels) at nearly every step of their way: to showers, from showers, in shower area, and just before dressing.
However, in the men’s locker room, I would say that kind of behavior is the minority. I, for example, walk from the shower to my locker (where my towels are, I don’t have a towel with me, as I usually come from the pool) while not covered up (it is only a few yards). But a large number of other men do the same, or far more. Most men do not seem to cover up that much. (Something I do not enjoy seeing: men shaving for a long time at the sinks totally naked, which unfortunately happens not infrequently.)
We have no trans people in either locker room (to the best of my knowledge). Are women just inherently more modest than men (among their own gender)? Why the big difference in locker room behavior? Is this a cultural thing? Or, is this not typical? Any LR people from other parts of the world seem similar (or different) locker room behavior?
My wife confirmed what your wife says long ago, but…
The only time I’m naked in the men’s locker room is for the brief moment when I grab my towel coming out of the shower, or when I drop the towel to put on my clothing, and my pants are first. I don’t make a great effort to hide, but I don’t parade around naked either.
Strong cultural influences at work. American women are generally quite prudish. For the men there is somewhat of a culture that nudity in the locker room is acceptable but there are degrees of comfort between men.
Go to other cultures (Austria, Germany, Scandinavia) and you’ll find quite different cultures with respect to comfort being naked.
Tennis and swim club. The behavior seems to vary depending on generation. Old farts are more likely to walk around with it all hanging out. Those a bit younger seem to be more discrete. Personally, as I’ve aged, I’ve noticed that I seem to care less and won’t bother covering up if it’s soo much of a hassle. I used to be really self-conscious about it.
The club rules don’t allow anyone under 18 in the men’s and women’s adult locker rooms.
Tennis and swim club. The behavior seems to vary depending on generation. Old farts are more likely to walk around with it all hanging out. Those a bit younger seem to be more discrete. Personally, as I’ve aged, I’ve noticed that I seem to care less and won’t bother covering up if it’s soo much of a hassle. I used to be really self-conscious about it.
The club rules don’t allow anyone under 18 in the men’s and women’s adult locker rooms.
Yeah, I was going to say, my impression is it’s an old man thing to just hang out in the locker room nude. Don’t really see it so much otherwise.
I can’t speak to what goes on in women’s locker rooms but there definitely seems to be generational differences in who’s naked in the men’s locker room and who isn’t. The older guys seem more likely to be walking around, hanging around chatting, shaving, etc. with nothing on, not even a towel, while the younger guys (think teens to 20s, or maybe even 30s) seem far more likely to cover up everything, even using a towel to hide their junk while getting dressed. The guys in their 40s and 50s (I’m in this group) seem to be a bit in the middle. I don’t wander and hang around nude, but I’m also not concerned if someone gets a look at me while I’m getting out of the shower or getting dressed/undressed.
Strong cultural influences at work. American women are generally quite prudish. For the men there is somewhat of a culture that nudity in the locker room is acceptable but there are degrees of comfort between men.
Go to other cultures (Austria, Germany, Scandinavia) and you’ll find quite different cultures with respect to comfort being naked.
In your experience, do some of these of other cultures also react to trans people in men’s or women’s locker rooms differently than americans seem to do?
I can’t speak to what goes on in women’s locker rooms but there definitely seems to be generational differences in who’s naked in the men’s locker room and who isn’t. The older guys seem more likely to be walking around, hanging around chatting, shaving, etc. with nothing on, not even a towel, while the younger guys (think teens to 20s, or maybe even 30s) seem far more likely to cover up everything, even using a towel to hide their junk while getting dressed. The guys in their 40s and 50s (I’m in this group) seem to be a bit in the middle. I don’t wander and hang around nude, but I’m also not concerned if someone gets a look at me while I’m getting out of the shower or getting dressed/undressed.
Yes, that seems about right in my experience. I’m 53, not going to make some extra effort to cover up, but then again I’m not going to parade around naked either.
As others have said this matches up and I’ve heard similar reports from men and women. Generations also treat this differently. I work in a big box gym with big locker rooms so I witness this daily,
On the other hand I find team dynamics quite different. In college we didn’t care. And I coach now and our old stadium had small locker rooms and we coaches were in there with the players. After games the players didn’t care about being naked getting undressed or walking to the showers past us.
That’s for a competitive male team. No clue how competitive women’s teams act in their locker rooms and I don’t plan on asking my youth players but maybe I’d ask their coaches.
I think they’re a couple of factors at play. Definitely generational. It seems to be older generations that parade around completely naked. I swear some of the guys are in the locker room for an hour or more completely naked. I am no prude by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems strange to me to gallivant around in the manner that they do.
Which leads into gratuitous and exhibitionist nudity. Based on some of the behavior that I’ve seen, I think that a significant portion of these naked dudes get a thrill out of it. For example, the locker room at my last gym had almost a sallyport like entrance. There were a not insignificant number of old men who seemed to purposely position themselves so that they could be seen from the common area in the gym while they were naked in the locker room. It got so bad that gym management painted a line on the floor and put up a large sign saying do not cross if you weren’t dressed.
My impression from talking with female friends is that nudity in the women’s locker room is more normal and organic. There is very little gratuitous nudity. Out of the shower. Pulling on undies. Things like that. I can’t recall any female ever telling a story about a completely naked woman standing with her vagina inches from another naked woman’s face while talking sports or politics This is quite common in the men’s.
I think they’re a couple of factors that play. Definitely generational. It seems to be older generations that parade around completely naked. I swear some of you guys are in the locker room for an hour or more completely naked. I am no prude by any strikes me imagination, but it seems strange to me to gallivant around in the manner that they do.
Which leads into gratuitous and exhibitionist nudity. Based on some of the behavior that I’ve seen, I think that a significant portion of these naked dudes get a thrill out of it. For example, the locker room at my last gym had almost a sallyport like entrance. There were a not insignificant number of old men who seemed to purposely position themselves so that they could be seen from the common area, the gym while they were naked in the locker he got so bad that gym management painted a line on the floor and put up a large sign saying do not cross if you weren’t dressed.
My impression from talking with female friends is that nusity in the women’s locker room is more normal annd organic. There is very little gratuitous nudity. Out of the shower. Pulling on undies. Things like that. I can’t recall any female ever telling a story about a completely naked woman standing with her vagina inches from another naked woman’s face while talking sports or politics This is quite common in the men’s.
There were a not insignificant number of old men who seemed to purposely position themselves so that they could be seen from the common area,
I seem to remember the comedian Colin Quinn telling a story about toweling off at some gym in LA with one leg up on a bench, bent over and somehow looking behind him and realizing the locker room door was propped open exposing himself to the gym area whilst simultaneously making eye contact with the singer KD Lang who was working out.
Strong cultural influences at work. American women are generally quite prudish. For the men there is somewhat of a culture that nudity in the locker room is acceptable but there are degrees of comfort between men.
Go to other cultures (Austria, Germany, Scandinavia) and you’ll find quite different cultures with respect to comfort being naked.
In your experience, do some of these of other cultures also react to trans people in men’s or women’s locker rooms differently than americans seem to do?
No experience, sorry.
In some of those cultures, it’s perfectly acceptable for men and women to be naked together in a sauna, so presumably they wouldn’t care about trans people being in the sauna naked too.
My impression from talking with female friends is that nusity in the women’s locker room is more normal annd organic. There is very little gratuitous nudity. Out of the shower. Pulling on undies. Things like that. I can’t recall any female ever telling a story about a completely naked woman standing with her vagina inches from another naked woman’s face while talking sports or politics This is quite common in the men’s.
That’s bullshit. So porky’s and revenge of the nerds lied to me??
In my experience, men usually wear towels around their waists if they are coming to and from showering. That you don’t seems odd. If you have towel in hand and drying yourself off after shower, just seem natural to wrap it around waist afterward. But its not an issue either way and do see both behaviors, just that wearing a towel is more the norm than not.
And yeah, there is always that dude that shaves at the counter naked, rubbing his junk up against the sink counter.
My impression from talking with female friends is that nusity in the women’s locker room is more normal annd organic. There is very little gratuitous nudity. Out of the shower. Pulling on undies. Things like that. I can’t recall any female ever telling a story about a completely naked woman standing with her vagina inches from another naked woman’s face while talking sports or politics This is quite common in the men’s.
That’s bullshit. So porky’s and revenge of the nerds lied to me??
I have no idea if it’s changing or I’m just in some weird bubble, but my daughter and her friends on the soccer team would be in the bathroom together and (I think) even take showers together in the hotels at soccer tournaments and such. They didn’t seem to think being naked in front of one another was a big deal. I guess I don’t know how much they were keeping covered up while in there together, but obviously not at all if they were actually in the shower together.
Working high school basketball games, the facilities have changed quite a bit over the years. In the past, you would use the girls locker room for a boys game if there were two locker rooms, and boys for a girls game. Almost all of the girls locker rooms I have changed in over the years had stalls in the showers, there was very few open showers. All of the boys locker rooms were wide open.
Now, at some schools, there are enclosed stalls for both dressing in the locker area and the same in the shower area. Almost all have some type of stall for the shower areas, except for the older, non renovated schools.
I’m like AutomaticJack. I don’t walk around naked, but I don’t hide in the corner either. I don’t understand people standing at the sink and shaving completely naked. Or the old guy with one leg up on the bench, butt naked, talking to the other old guy and not getting dressed. I just don’t get it.
