Reply #3: Can you imagine if any school tried to do that today?

[ThomCat]

The moment any adult saw any child nude there would be immediate lawsuits. No school district would even consider this today.

I've heard that this was done, back in the day, for hygiene reasons. But I've never head a good explanation for why boys in bathing suits are particularly unhygienic.

I've heard that it was because the filters on the pools couldn't handle all the lint and threads from the suits, but they handled the lint and thread from the suits the girls wore, so that doesn't seem to hold up.

I've heard that, after two world wars, it was an effort to get boys over any sense of modesty and used to following orders, so that they would be more comfortable going into the military after high school. But were people really thinking about young boys as military fodder and trying to prepare all boys for the military? Somehow that doesn't sound right to me either.

So, I don't know. :shrug: