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Bucky

(53,755 posts)
2. I had the same reaction. But the myopia is ours.
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 12:49 AM
Apr 2012

We're products of a society that sexualized all nudity and sexualized youths who were just swimming, after all. I liked the point about how the practice in school made a lot of boys get over their shyness and just have fun swimming around. It's something I think I missed in growing up.

Art_from_Ark

(27,247 posts)
3. I'm over 50 and none of my schools even had swimming pools
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 02:19 AM
Apr 2012

And such a thing would have been unheard of at the local municipal pool. So I was shocked when I was told by a friend who had spent time in Germany that kids 7 and under were allowed to swim nude in public pools there.

In my junior high and high school, boys showered together after gym class, but I hated that with a purple passion.

dimbear

(6,271 posts)
4. Well over, and this was an available option at our Y. The thing is back then,
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 02:43 AM
Apr 2012

adults could indulge their homoerotic fantasies without being looked down on. It was a simpler time.

eyewall

(674 posts)
5. I was invited to go with a friend to the YMCA, when I was 7,
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 04:34 AM
Apr 2012

but my father said if I did, the minute I went inside I would have committed a mortal sin and would surely go to hell if I was killed by some twist of fate that night. That's because swimming at the Y was done naked, and my father was a creepy catholic. This was in Ohio, 1957.

kazakevi

(5 posts)
13. Nude swimming at the YMCA
Sun Sep 16, 2012, 04:57 PM
Sep 2012

That is so funny that nudity is a sin, when in fact it was nearly universal that private Catholic Schools that had pools required nude swimming for all of the boys for most of the 1900's. We had such a private school in Dearborn Michigan and starting in the 6th or 7th grade to 12th grade all boys swim teams and boys swim classes were done nude, without swim suits. They also required soap showers before class. I do not understand why this was not thought to be an issue for the girls swim classes. It has always been an unsolved mystery for me.

 

baldguy

(36,649 posts)
6. The boys swam nude in my junior high school, in '74 and '75.
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 06:57 AM
Apr 2012

By the time I got to high school in '76 the practiced had ended and swim trunks were required.

bluedigger

(17,073 posts)
8. All our swimming lessons were out at the lake.
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 08:57 AM
Apr 2012

And we wore trunks. I'm 52 and I never heard of such a thing. Is it regional?

geardaddy

(24,923 posts)
9. I'm under 50
Tue Apr 10, 2012, 10:45 AM
Apr 2012

but my brother is over 50 and we didn't have a pool in our school. I don't think he ever had to swim naked. I would have heard about that.

kazakevi

(5 posts)
12. boys nude swimming in public schools
Sun Sep 16, 2012, 04:51 PM
Sep 2012

I grew up in a wealthy suburb of Detriot. Ever since 1928, starting in 6th or 7th grade all of the schools had swimming classes and required nude participation for all boys swim classes and boys swim teams. It was also required that a soap shower be taken before swim class. The water qulaity toady suffers somewhat despite better filtration technology and greater maintance expenses since many use the pool as a bath tube and wear dirty gym shorts then feel the need to take a shower AFTER swimming. This is just the total reverse of what logically makes sense.

kazakevi

(5 posts)
11. boys nude swimming in public school
Sun Sep 16, 2012, 04:44 PM
Sep 2012

I grew up swimming nude in our public schools in Michigan. All of our junior high schools had swimming pools and required nude swimming for the boys. WE had nude swimming all the way to 12 grade. About the time I graduated suddenly this national tradition was discontinued and i could never figure out the explanation behind this. Nude swimming promoted better hygiene and cleaner swimming water for everyone. It used to be that it was easy to see clearly to the bottom of the pool. Today we have expensive and massive filters, but the quality of the water suffers since many people do not take a soap shower or wear clean swim suits.

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