Forced Nudity Growing Up

Did you experience forced nudity growing up? I mean in situations like communal showers, supervised showers, medical exams etc? Did it embarrass you, did you become used to it and how did you feel about being naked in the presence of someone not in your peer group, ie doctor, teacher or matron? Are there any other examples?

Yes, I experienced what was probably a fairly typical list of forced nudity scenarios while I was growing up. Those included:

- Doctor's exams

- Changing in the boy's locker room for high school P.E. class (it was forced nudity because we were required to remove our underwear and put on a jockstrap instead)

- Required gang showers after high school P.E. class

- Group sports physicals in high school

I had the gang showers and doctor exams. Yes, we also got naked in changing rooms, but that wasn’t always forced apart from lining up for showers. Never had a group medical exam.

Nudity for the shower after sports at school. I never felt this nudity was forced, rather accepted. The teacher only checked twice, then almost everyone undressed completely. It didn't bother me at all, on the contrary.

I don't think the nudity at the doctor's office was forced, it was never complete, there was at least briefs left on my knees. It was usual and it allowed me to make my first medfet discoveries.

I was more modest at home after the onset of puberty, I hadn't liked my mom going once into the bathroom while I was bathing, as if she wanted to force me to show myself naked in front of her. I put a washcloth on my penis.

Not to be too pedantic about it, but back in the late 1950s when I joined a local YMCA in the US, swimming was only allowed nude. Obviously I wasn't forced to join the Y, but if you wanted in, then it was nude swimming, like it or not.

Actually it was no big deal, but that is how it was back then.

I never felt as though nudity was ever forced, just customary in certain settings like the Y, gym locker room at school, physical exams, etc. When I was growing up, group male nudity was perfectly acceptable, a guy thing. I had certain sleepover friends who were very casual about it, and some who were not so much. So there could be showers together, swimming naked in their pool when the parents were away, etc. I expected that going to the family doctor for a physical would at some point involve me being naked or at least have to take my underpants down for one purpose or another. My dad and I would go backpacking in the Sierras. He'd been in the navy in WWII and was very casual about nudity as there was no opportunity for privacy aboard ship. My mother raised me to wear briefs and PJs to bed; my dad just wore his T-shirt, so when lights out came on a camping trip I did the same as him. Of course we had gang showers in the dorm in college in the 60s, and the army in the early 70s. And of course those decades were when society explored all sorts of awakenings, especially sexual, so that there were ample opportunities to be comfortably nude around both sexes.

I never felt this nudity was forced, rather accepted.

I agree with everyone else that this type of nudity that we experienced was "accepted" or "customary" rather than really forced. I used the term forced since that was the original posters way of putting it. It really was simply expected of us and we complied, either because we didn't think anything of it at the time, or it was considered socially normal at the time.

I think my use of the word "forced" wasn't the best choice, although everyone who has responded has so in the spirit in which I was looking for. What I am meaning is situations we found ourselves in where we had to be naked in the presence of others.

I had similar experiences with locker rooms in high school. In my college fraternity pledging ritual we were required to strip and run nude through the town after the bars closed.

For me it was supervised showers after gym or during camping trips as well as supervision in the changing room after swimming lessons. In those cases the teachers as well as class mates would be present and sometimes parents as well.

Other occasions were of course physical exams. In that case it would involve a doctor or nurse and sometimes also a parent.

Nudity among close (school) friends was also not that uncommon....like showering or bathing together during a sleepover or camping trip. Sometimes this involved some kind of 'chicken' games like 'daring to show or touch' each other.

Becoming body conscious at a young age, there were many instances of forced nudity. Pediatric exams were the first and most frequent instance when I was a child, they nearly always started with stripping down to my briefs and being paraded down the hall to the scales to be measured and weighed. I might see other boys and girls on this journey, but I felt as if everyone saw me. Then back in the exam room, temps were always taken rectally on children, no exceptions, so down came the briefs, and the door may or may not be closed all the way, and even if it was, it could always spring open at any moment with the doctor arriving early or any number of other things.

During my grade school entrance exam, there were exam booths arranged on the stage of the auditorium that were open to the audience section so parents could observe. We all were stripped to our briefs and lined up. The very first booth was a rectal temp reading. Down the line they checked your genitals. Then the grand finale was 2 shots in the butt that made every kid scream. So you had that hanging over your head the whole time.

Having my tonsils out placed me in a pediatric ward where you were in a bed in a room with other kids and everything was done in the open... including, you guessed it, rectal temps taken throughout the day. Also they gave a lot more shots in hospitals back then, and always in the butt. The boys bathroom there was 2 toilets and a sink, no partitions or lock on the door, so you had to do your business with other kids and sometimes parents or nurses coming and going. Waiting to go at night meant the lovely nurse would escort you and stand there watching while you went.

School bathrooms were similar, no doors on stalls ever, sometimes no stalls, either. I got pretty good at holding it. Sometimes going during class MIGHT give you some privacy, but of course, no guarantees. Going during recess was worse than a hazing ritual if you had to go #2, the cool kids would make fun of you and watch without apology, unless a teacher or administrator came in and checked the stalls. Then the kids would be shooed out but, your teacher or an office aide just saw you sitting on the toilet. :/

Finally, junior high school showers were the last rite of passage. They even had a counselor come talk to my sixth grade class about it. Showers were mandatory, and although it was mostly only loosely enforced, on certain days the coaches would chain the door of the locker room shut, meaning it was time for a “shower drill”, another hazing ritual of a production where every boy in that period had to cram their naked body into the shower area with everyone else. All boys had to be naked and in the shower before we would be allowed out to change. This often drug on as certain boys would try to escape, hiding under benches, etc. The coaches would stand on top of lockers and search for violators. Finally once they all stripped and got in the showers we might get a lecture about hygiene shouted at us until we were all dismissed. Then it was a mad dash to the lockers trying not to bump anyone to get your clothes and shoes and get out of there.

Looking back, none of it harmed me, if anything it made me tougher and got me over myself and my body. I could go into a locker room and strip down without thinking about it now, and not feel self conscious at all. The toilets.. well let’s just say I’m glad most bathrooms now have doors and latches and some even have stalls that are fully enclosed.

My earliest experience was junior high showers. I dreaded them, I was afraid that other boys would make fun of me (there was nothing to make fun of, just very sefl conscious), and that I would get a boner. I recnetly reconnected with a high school friend. Turns out we had the same feelings, desires and fears. We have chatted about the boys we went to school with, and about their cocks and bodies. I loved seeing all the different bodies, but was always embarressed by mine

@agracier: ... but back in the late 1950s when i joined a local YMCA in the US, swimming was only allowed nude.

Did not know this, learned something new.

On a number of occasions, but one of the most memorable was when visiting my grandparents over the weekend, when I was 15. Casual nudity, for fun or relaxation, wasn't done, but domestic nudity, for hygiene, work, after chores cleanup, haircut, health related inspections and checkups, were among the few examples of me having too strip too my birthday suit. Getting measurements and adjustments for clothes was one of the most invasive, because the whole process involved special attention to the body and it's contours, configurations, and other private details, including habits and phases. Like what activities I would be prone too get myself involved with, or changes in the body that required a certain degree of discretion in public, and the room in my pants and breifs too maintain that level of descretion, let's say, in the classroom when an unwanted erection takes place. Anyway, that level of descretion in public, meant zero room for descretion, or argument, when Ms. Dec ries dropped by with clothes her son had outgrown that she wanted me too try on. Grandma was thrilled, and welcomed her opinion and insights on how too go about anticipating my rate of growth and development based on her own son's advance through puberty while wearing these clothes. I didn't exactly know what that meant until I finished trying on the shirts with them checking the fit and finish in the shoulders, tummy, torso, and arms. Next, the briefs and then the pants. When I picked up the underwear too go too the bathroom to change, Grandma scolded me for waisting her dear friend's time by walking back and forth through the house, between the bathroom and living room, on opposite ends of the house, that would deny them the opportunity too take measurements and gauge fit and room for expansion. I was going to have to try them on right there, having each and every undergarment fitted for size and shape. After initial measurements of inseam and girth, of course. Being a close family friend, who apparently had even changed my diapers a few times when I was an infant, meant I was out of line for being shy about grandma removing my clothes in front of her, with my resistance too grandma trying too lower my underwear in front of her, resulting in my going over grandma's knees for a bare bottom spanking, with my penis and testicles dangling between my legs in front of Ms. Devries. The ship had pretty much sailed on on modesty being invalidated, as it had become non-existent as far as I was concerned. I cooperated with grandma finishing the removal of my briefs from my ankles, having too apologize too our close family friend I had no memory of with a partial erection forming before her eyes. Having my genitals lifting, moved too this side, and that side, as I was instructed too hold the end of the measuring tape, while they were handling, moving, measuring, and discussing my anatomical dimensions and configurations, and how those numbers and predictions of future growth translated into form fitting clothes that looked decent for public participation. This left no part of my midsection unmeasured, u handled, and unfocused too their attention and discussion. It's kinda disconcerting having your boyparts handled and talked about in the third person, as though I wasn't even there too hear and understand, just my genitals, their expansion from being touched and held by for taking measurements, discussing growth through puberty and room for saluting, as they colorfully made reference too my erecting penis and tightening testicles, which got measurements in length, girth, and volume needed to occupy inside my new hand me down underwear, so they would know what to since, let out, or put aside for someone else too try on. Before trying on the first pair, grandma shot the rest of my male dignity too hell by having me bend over and spreading my buttcheecks wide apart so they could check my hygiene and not risk skid marks or otherwise soiling of those nice, clean undergarments. If I couldn't beat em, join them, I said too myself as I thanked Ms.Devries and Grandma for their compliments on my exceptional hygiene in the summer heat, with my scrotal sack stretched by Ms. Devries fingers pulling it towards her face for a closer look, Grandma shining a light on my anus and penis as she moved my fully erected penis from side too side, up and down, and into the hole of my eurethra, being exceedingly thorough as a cationary lesson on the penalties of disrespect towards my elders. My erection irritated Grandma as another inconvenience too getting finished with this task, but Mr. Devries pointed out she had the same issue with her older son at the department store fitting room trying on some new briefs for him, the store having an open packed policy on such items for customer convenience. She used the same solution on me, putting on a pair of briefs, holding forward the waistband with one hand while reaching into the fly hole in front too thread my dick through the opening, then my balls, with me struggling too keep a straight face and pretend indifference, which didn't fool anyone. It was actually more embarrassing having my junk protruding from the opening, than it was having them removed, making me feel less exposed, being completely naked, than I did with them on. It only goes downhill from there, but we were grateful for the new clothes, me less grateful for the reality check they gave me in reminding me that male modesty is a hoax perpetuated by the Feminist movement and privacy is an entitlement males do not posses in the real world.

Did not know this, learned something new.

The requirement was dropped sometime in the 1960s, in the mid 60s I think.

Mandatory nude swimming at the YMCA has been discussed quite a lot on Zity. Interesting subject. If you do some searching, you should be able to find more posts on the subject.

Mostly medical exams and gym showers but we also kept track of puberty at home using a journal/workbook that we got at a clinic we went to. That involved some nudity.

We had nude swimming classes as part of gym in high school. Actually, the swimming bit was voluntary. The first day of gym, the swimming coach would be there and he'd ask, "who here doesn't know how to swim?" That was code for who wants to swim for the semester.

He's take the volunteers down to the the pool and explain the rules. Curiously, he didn't say you'd have to be naked, he said come down to the locker room and "get ready and get undressed." I remember one kid, a big guy asked if it was true that the class would be in the nude. The coach pretended not to know what he said, and the kid said, "can I wear a bathing suit?" The coach just said no, and if anyone was uncomfortable with that, he could leave. That kid and another one out of about 30 boys left.

The first day I was a little late and I bumped into a friend who smiled and said "come on, let's go and get naked!" We entered the pool locker room. My friend enthusiastically threw off his clothes until he was in his birthday suit. We could hear the rest of the class laughing in the showers. I hurried to strip down and we took a shower with the rest. The water went off and we all went to the pool, standing at the edge. The teacher said, come on, just get in. Most of the class played volleyball; I was blind as a bat and enjoyed swimming laps and diving in the deep end and swimming underwater. Most of the time he left us alone; sometimes there would be a lesson.

No one seemed uncomfortable. A couple of kids practiced lifesaving and there was a lot of body contact. Once the coach had us play keep away, which involved a lot of good-natured pushing and grab ass. Teenage boys will of course say homophobic stuff about who's grabbing what, but it was in fun. All in all it was a good experience. It was cool to be free of clothes and see how my classmates were developing. Mostly we seemed to ignore the fact that we were naked. Only "sissies" were afraid to be naked in a group, it seemed.

Only "sissies" were afraid to be naked in a group, it seemed.

This was the attitude I experienced in junior high school gym class. If you were just casual, no one cared. If you were super shy about your body you were a sissy.

And it's pretty much how I feel when I go to a modern locker room and see grown men hiding behind a towel while they dress or go to the shower.

This was the attitude I experienced in junior high school gym class. If you were just casual, no one cared. If you were super shy about your body you were a sissy.

And if you were showing off, then you were gay ... it must have been difficult to strike just the right balance ... ha ha ha

Not sure I would say it was forced nudity, but I showered in communal showers all throughout high school and my first couple years of college. I was on my high school and college swim team and we showered before and after most meets and practice. I never felt awkward since it was usually just my other teem mates. One of the coaches was a male and came into the locker room at times but it always seemed like all business. I don’t recall anybody feeling funny about it, or at least I didn’t.

It’s worth reflecting on why nude swimming/showering was ever enforced and not just optional. I mean, if ‘we all look the same’ it does beg the question as to why you had to follow that rule or else go elsewhere. If being naked is so damned unimportant, why is it compulsory?

It’s also not credible that no one is looking at each other. The fact the clothed person isn’t allowed in suggests this is a group game of ‘I’ll show you mine if you show me yours’.

It’s really an opportunity to compare bodies and especially those bits we rarely see. Perhaps of value whilst growing up, unless you compare poorly with the rest. Amongst grown men in the YMCA as described, this is very hard to put an innocent spin on.

It’s worth reflecting on why nude swimming/showering was ever enforced and not just optional. I mean, if ‘we all look the same’ it does beg the question as to why you had to follow that rule or else go elsewhere. If being naked is so damned unimportant, why is it compulsory?

Old swimming trunks were made of cotton, and the fibers clogged up the filters. This is one explanation.

But here's another, if I WANTED to swim nude, I would be much less inclined to do so if others were allowed to wear trunks. It's not that I feel uncomfortable about my body, but going nude among clothed people is socially degrading. Going nude in an atmosphere of nudity is not awkward, however.

There was also a time in recent history that clothing was very expensive. I can remember when holy socks were repaired instead of thrown away like they are today. In those times, swimming nude would have been totally natural, as you didn't have a closet full of clothes and couldn't always afford extra clothing. We are so far removed from those times today, people don't comprehend any casual nudity outside of a sexual connotation. (Hence, your comments on innocence).

There was also a time in recent history that clothing was very expensive. I can remember when holy socks were repaired instead of thrown away like they are today. In those times, swimming nude would have been totally natural, as you didn't have a closet full of clothes and couldn't always afford extra clothing. We are so far removed from those times today, people don't comprehend any casual nudity outside of a sexual connotation. (Hence, your comments on innocence).

That's the world where I grew up, in the 40s when me and the two girls I played with in the lawn sprinkler ended up naked every time. You didn't have bathing suits unless your parents were rich and ours certainly didn't buy them for kids who would outgrow them by the next year. Also girls didn't wear tops until there was actually something to hide or a little later. Actually they were quite proud of those tiny swellings on their chests and were not ashamed to have me see them. Maybe that's why I love tiny breasts today. Of course their mothers noticed them too and soon they were covered by mandate. It was cotton underpants for us and they wouldn't stay up once they got wet so we spent the rest of the afternoon naked in the sprinkler and never thought anything of it. When they were fascinated by the thing I had for peeing and wanted to watch whenever I did it never occurred to me that I should hide that from them. I didn't mind if they wanted to watch. We were never ashamed until after their mothers forced them to hide their bodies from me.

Amongst grown men in the YMCA as described, this is very hard to put an innocent spin on.

One of the many non-sexual reasons why nude swimming was compulsory at the YMCA was that it was thought to prepare boys for the later, inevitable, military service. It was indeed a sort of ulterior motive and perhaps looked at from our present vantage point in time, not all that innocent. But it certainly was sexually innocent which is what I gather you are referring to.

In the military, no one should expect notions of modesty to be respected. There is no modesty in the military. Military life is a preparation for life in the field, for possible, probable combat. And that happens in conditions where a person's life can depend on losing all notions of modesty, of being able to take a dump next to others without flinching, take a shower wherever the opportunity presents itself, shave off pubic hair if the climate necessitates it and attend to wounds all over the body and live through debilitating bouts of diarrhea without worrying what others see happening.

That was the reality of war in the Great War and during the Second WW, If you wish to survive, forget about modesty.

That was one of the lessons that grown-ups wished to impart to youngsters growing up after the First and Second WW. And the easiest way was to start young. The YMCA was a good venue for such lessons.

There were other reasons why nude swimming was mandatory at the Y, the price of swimming apparel for poor families, one of the main target groups for the Y. This in the time when being poor actually meant being so poor parents were happy enough to be able to provide meals, let alone specialized clothes for non-essential activity like swimming.

There was also the issue with woolen swim suits clogging drains and filters that others can better explain as well as the general trend in medicine and health sciences that considered nudity a natural and healthy condition.

Some interesting points here. Yes I realise swimming trunks might not have been common/affordable way back then. A friend entering the military in the 1950s was issued with underpants and had to ask what they were for. He'd never owned a pair before.

I accept more the argument that it conditioned youngsters for the loss of privacy military service. And yes attitudes to nudity were different in less sexual times.

The ‘clogs filters’ in swimming pools is one I do struggle with. When you consider the vast water volume of a pool, then the tiny amounts of fluff from pants, would that be such a problem? Any more than body/pubic hair and general muck/Band-Aids that would be regularly cleaned from filters? In my school in the 1970s it was ‘the dye from trunks leaches into the water’ explanation. Like drops in an ocean. The startling pace of technology hadn't found a solution to these problems other than that guys should bare their bits. Remembering some of those sports teachers, I am not so sure these practicalities were the only motivations at work.

@BulgeInPants

If it was an isolated case then I'd agree with you that somebody's motives would need to be seriously challenged.

But it wasn't isolated, it was common throughout the organisation and so the policy must have been initiated and approved at a higher level rather than leaving it to the implied perverted whim of the individual pool manager. Additionally, pool users didn't seem to object or to stay away so at least in the early days it must have been considered a perfectly acceptable practice otherwise there would have been outrage.

Reminds me of the first PE lesson in secondary school when the rumour solemnly went around that you weren't allowed to wear underwear under PE shorts, the teacher would check and you would be in trouble if you did. So with a mixture of nervousness and excitement we all went naked under under our shorts. Of course the teacher never mentioned the rule, and certainly never checked, and so the practice lived on to haunt the next year's intake.

I was in the hospital for 8 months in a DD Ward. The nurses gave us our showers it was factory line. we never een the other kids but it was drag you in strip you give you a shower dry you off it was quick. it wasn't so much that we couldn't do it it was they wanted it done now so they did it m

Can anyone who believes the explanations that forced nudity was due to that era's clogging pool filters, unaffordable swimwear or dye leakage explain how the whole world's public swimming pools managed so well? These mixed gender places demanded that no one ever swam nude.

Likewise, has anyone ever heard of all female groups forced to swim naked?

It seems something else was going on in these male only environments.

It seems something else was going on in these male only environments.

Yes there was something else going on for the boys/men. It's been explained in a number of posts: the expectation of military service.

I gather you'd like to hear about darker, nastier reasons, but there were most likely none more than elsewhere in other environments.

I'd agree with @BulgeInPants that the reasons of pollution from lint and dye seem unlikely. As an analogy it's a bit like being told you should eat crusts to make your hair curly, or eat carrots to make you see in the dark. They aren't genuine reasons but they are popular myths made up to explain why we do what we do.

I'd also agree that from today's perspective the idea of compulsory public nudity is so far from today's norms that it could be challenged as suspicious. Maybe it's helpful to look at it as it evolved rather than try and imagine what it would be like if it was re-imposed tomorrow.

Swimming pools as we know them today have only existed for around 100 years or so. Prior to that if you wanted to swim you would do it in a lake, river or sea. Unless you were wealthy you wouldnt have any special clothes for this: you would either bring a change of clothing for the journey home, go home in wet clothes, or take off all your clothes before going in the water. Clothing commonly made of wool or other dense materials would become waterlogged, heavy and unpleasant to wear so it would make sense to swim naked. Mixed bathing, even partially clothed, was considered improper in those more prudish times.

There were public baths or bath houses which look very much like swimming pools to today's eyes, but these weren't for swimming, they were to get clean if you didn't have a bathroom at home ( a very large part of the population didn't ) . You went in dirty, as did everyone else, and came out clean(er). Again sexes were segregated and maybe it didn't really matter whether you were naked or partially clothes as you weren't swimming just bathing. If you did wear clothes then they ( and everyone else's ) would likely be filthy not just from bodily fluids but from the grease, soot and soil of daily working class life, as would the water be after a few hours.

And then into this environment the YMCA starts to provide pools for swimming as a leisure activity or physical exercise. One of the most important messages would have been ‘This is not a bath house! In order to keep the water pleasant and safe you need to be clean before you get in, and that includes any clothing'. The YMCA was inclusive to all, rich or poor, and a large proportion of poor people had maybe only one change of clothes, it was beyond the budget or planning of many to keep special clothing just for the activity of swimming. What was acceptable or even achievable in everyday cleanliness back then was far different from today's standards, so rather than have to police and exclude people for dirty clothes it was easier just to say ‘no clothes’. Remember this was likely how people were already accustomed to swimming outdoors.

And if someone were to ask ‘Can I wear these shorts in the pool?’ can you see how it's more effective, less offensive to say no because of the ‘lint and dye’ than because ‘your clothes are dirty, filthy, disgusting things’ ?

So if that's how it started, then why and how did it come to an end?

In no particular I'd suggest that it was a culmination of the following factors: synthetic materials made comfortable swimwear possible and people became accustomed to wearing these for outdoor swimming; increased standards of living meant that most people were lifted out of the kind of poverty that prevented them affording optional items like sportswear; similarly standards of personal hygiene increased so the clothing was kept clean; it was no longer improper for male and female to swim or bathe together. I don't see a big but unreported sexual misconduct scandal amongst the reasons.