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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsNude swimming in school
Fascinating history. Those of us under 50 don't know about it, but it was a nearly universal norm in the 50s and 60s.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-xGt_HUSSyQQ/naked_swimming_in_school_pt_1/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-eznEFMp6odU/naked_swimming_in_school_pt_2/
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-uNxNnywZ3tU/naked_swimming_in_school_pt_3/
What was your experience? If you're under 50, have you heard of it? If over 50, did your school have it?
ButterflyBlood
(12,644 posts)I'm quite amazed this was ever allowed. Like wow.
Bucky
(53,755 posts)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)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)adults could indulge their homoerotic fantasies without being looked down on. It was a simpler time.
eyewall
(674 posts)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)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)By the time I got to high school in '76 the practiced had ended and swim trunks were required.
RebelOne
(30,947 posts)bluedigger
(17,073 posts)And we wore trunks. I'm 52 and I never heard of such a thing. Is it regional?
geardaddy
(24,923 posts)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.
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)I have never heard of this. Nobody swam naked at the public pool.
kazakevi
(5 posts)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)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.