Forced Nudity Growing Up

When I was 8 yrs old I went to YMCA swimming lessons; there we were all wearing suits, later when I went to high school, boys were all required to swim in the nude, but the girls (in separate swim times) did wear them. Why was that? I wondered. But then we boys weren't completely nude; we had to wear this ridiculous rubber skullcap.

One time a (suited) girl came in from the girls side, got a look at us. She sure left in a hurry. We thought it was hilarious.

For me it was swimming lessons at an all-boys secondary school in the mid-1980s. Brief moments of nudity were inevitable in a crowded changing room before and after the lessons, with minutes either side to get changed - slightly embarrassing, but it all felt natural, although self-consciousness about my development increased as I grew older. Two other types of situation do stick in the memory though:

In the first year at the school (aged 11-12) at the end of each lesson the teacher instructed us to remove our swimming trunks at the side of the pool before going into the showers, the explanation being to ensure we got all the chlorine washed off. This felt very strange at first, but it became the norm and we thought little of it.

The other occasions were less frequent, but a different teacher sometimes made the swimming session ‘trunks-optional’. The class rarely took up the option, but a couple of times the more confident lads led the way and others followed. It was never forced, but peer pressure played a part.

Seen through the lens of 1950s/60s/70s (the teachers' generation) nude swimming at school/gym/YMCA, that was possibly accepted as normal. At the time, slightly strange but not a big concern. From the perspective of today, much more worrying.

I grew up in a YMCA pool outdoors and coed. I missed all the fun of swimming nude with women instructors. My parents both learned to swim in the COED poo.

Seen through the lens of 1950s/60s/70s (the teachers' generation) nude swimming at school/gym/YMCA, that was possibly accepted as normal. At the time, slightly strange but not a big concern. From the perspective of today, much more worrying.

And society is supposed to be evolving to more enlightened heights of understanding. It is a mystery to me how the communality of morals about this otherwise inconsequential issue evolved from a non-issue into something that can now be blown all out of proportion.

In the first year at the school (aged 11-12) at the end of each lesson the teacher instructed us to remove our swimming trunks at the side of the pool before going into the showers, the explanation being to ensure we got all the chlorine washed off. This felt very strange at first, but it became the norm and we thought little of it.

@blokeinbeds - These are such inadequate explanations for forced nudity, with hindsight. The teacher was worried that your swimming trunks (or you) might not get thoroughly cleaned? And you could not have removed them less publicly in the showers? Perhaps female members can recall being similarly stripped as a teacher watched? I suspect very few will; protection of young boys lagged so far behind that of young girls.

The suggestion that such actions were innocent for the time and are being misjudged now against cynical modern standards should be measured against the widespread historic infiltration of paedophiles into jobs giving them access to children. Yes we were generally more innocent then. But there was also devious minority in schools etc who were very far from innocent and beneath all our Radars.

protection of young boys lagged so far behind that of young girls.

The suggestion that such actions were innocent for the time and are being misjudged now against cynical modern standards should be measured against the widespread historic infiltration of paedophiles into jobs giving them access to children. Yes we were generally more innocent then. But there was also devious minority in schools etc who were very far from innocent and beneath all our Radars.

What a world view. So grim and dark, as if we are surrounded by nothing but perdition and predators.

One of the greatest disappointments people of my age and time have to live with is seeing how virtually everything is now looked at askance, with no trust in others and by attributing nothing but uncharitable and noxious intentions to what otherwise never caused a stir in previous times. It seems everything must presently be judged being subject to nefarious intentions and designs.

What a sad evolution to experience.

When we entered seventh grade the boys went to one school and the girls another so I was in an all boys school where the configuration was large classrooms down the center with smaller ones on both sides and two corridors separating them. The basement had the locker/changing rooms in the middle with several steps up to the floor of the shower room across one corridor and a walkway across the locker room to get from one side of the building to the other. The gym teacher would stand outside the door to the shower room where he could see both the locker room and shower room with a good view of all the naked boys in the showers and walking past him to and from the locker room. That walkway was also the only way for teachers to get from one side of the school to the other. There were several female teachers who timed their crossing to coincide with shower time but one older woman who had a habit of standing there talking to the gym teacher during our whole naked session. We kind of got used to thinking of her as our grandmother. After a while some of us, most of us, showed our dis-appreciation toward the female teachers by carrying our towels over our arms so we were in full view showing them everything including hard-ons if we had 'em.

One of my old playmates of the lawn sprinkler days, calls me often now that her husband died so I asked her if they had any situation like that over at the girls school. No, they didn't normally take showers after gym class.

What a world view. So grim and dark, as if we are surrounded by nothing but perdition and predators.

One of the greatest disappointments people of my age and time have to live with is seeing how virtually everything is now looked at askance, with no trust in others and by attributing nothing but uncharitable and noxious intentions to what otherwise never caused a stir in previous times. It seems everything must presently be judged being subject to nefarious intentions and designs.

What a sad evolution to experience.

@agracier – you write as if the decades of abuse we both lived during simply never happened. As if adults did not ever abuse the kids they had access to, many later ending up in jail (if still alive) whilst their employers issued retrospective blanket apologies and paid compensation.

UK members will not have forgotten this charmer, who dominated kids TV for decades, volunteered to work around vulnerable young children in hospitals and young offenders’ institutions, even blagged his way into becoming the unqualified chairman of a high security mental hospital and received a medal from the Queen, dying just before the balloon went up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Savile_sexual_abuse_scandal

The report states "within the recorded crimes there are 126 indecent acts and 34 rape/penetration offences."[6] Alleged offences took place at thirteen hospitals as well as on BBC premises, according to the report.

I’m sure many teachers etc were innocent, but some were most definitely not. Let’s not try to remember the past with a dewy-eyed sentimentality that denies the horrific experiences of so many who endured such predators. Adults undressing other people’s kids deserves the very highest scrutiny, and that includes how we interpret the past when they reigned unchecked.

I’m sure many teachers etc were innocent, but some were most definitely not. Let’s not try to remember the past with a dewy-eyed sentimentality that denies the horrific experiences of so many who endured such predators.

Why not say that just about all teachers were and are innocent? That would be closer to the truth. No need to insinuate that society is beset by a plague of predators and unsavory teachers. That is giving in to the worst impulses generated by tabloid media and their shameful practices of outrage manipulation.

It has, in some countries more than in others, become a sign of the times to trust nothing and no one and imagine all kinds of horrid goings-on in activities that were normal and accepted not all that long ago.

Western society is not only becoming very prudish and disapproving, but also suspicious and fearful of far too many things.

Why not say that just about all teachers were and are innocent? That would be closer to the truth. No need to insinuate that society is beset by a plague of predators and unsavory teachers. That is giving in to the worst impulses generated by tabloid media and their shameful practices of outrage manipulation.

Because I'm not qualified to make the judgement that ‘just about all’ were innocent, and I suspect you are not either. What I do know is that abuse in those supposedly innocent times was very widespread precisely because society was so innocent about it. I personally know of many cases, of teachers in my school boys knew to keep well away from. Of Head Teachers bundled off to early retirement to bury their crimes.

I cannot trade word generalisations or statistics with you. I can only say we must not assume those undressing kids for trivial reasons were just about all innocent.

I cannot trade word generalisations or statistics with you.

It is becoming very depressing to note, as this wonderful 21st century of ours wears on, how distrustful and full of uncharitable and worst case scenario thinking our collective minds have become. It seems we must, by definition, assume the worst.

I would not say forced, but very common for me growing up, just the way it was. I was always given baths, mother always made sure I was undressed before she even started to fill the tub. Very vivid memories of her sitting on the edge of the tub adjusting the water temp as i stood there stripped and on display. After bath time if it was very hot out I would be put in a very short white t shirt for the evening. I was embarassed in a way but maybe feelings of being compliant is more accurate. Adding to my feelings was the fact that i was a very late bloomer, but i think this is a big reason that she thought of me and treated me as a little boy well into my teens

I would not say forced, but very common for me growing up, just the way it was. I was always given baths, mother always made sure I was undressed before she even started to fill the tub. Very vivid memories of her sitting on the edge of the tub adjusting the water temp as i stood there stripped and on display. After bath time if it was very hot out I would be put in a very short white t shirt for the evening.

Growing up in rural areas especially, nudity around the home was treated as a non- issue, especially for boys, from what I have gathered. How old were you during these experiences? Was it just you and your parents, or other siblings?

All my pediatric exams were Forced nudity, especially during teenage years.

Growing up in rural areas especially, nudity around the home was treated as a non- issue, especially for boys, from what I have gathered. How old were you during these experiences? Was it just you and your parents, or other siblings?

My sister-in-law stayed with us overnight on her way from KY to ME. She was a New Years surprise about 20 years younger than my wife with a boy and girl from her 1st husband and 2 girls from the 2nd. The first 2 were about 15 & 14 and the younger girls about 12 and 10. They all slept on our pull out sofa bed in front of my TV chair. In the morning I was watching TV when the youngest girl got up to pee then the next girl then the older boy and girl. They were all naked and came back to help me watch TV without getting dressed except the boy who did get dressed but stayed around. they were not bothered a bit by sitting around naked. The younger girls both sat in my lap and fooled around just like you'd expect kids to do. My wife was aghast. Of course she still thinks they should put Janet Jackson in prison and she locks the bathroom door behind her even when I'm the only other one in the house. They talk about the milk man but I have a good friend who is and I was a TV repairman and we both have about the same experiences. I think I probably saw more naked girls in their own homes than boys and definitely more naked grown women, no men at all. Funniest was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up my wife's boss' bush at the top. She just stood there explaining what was wrong with her TV making no effort to hide or cover up. It was as if she wanted to show it to me. To my wife's consternation, many people just don't mind being seen naked by strangers.

Mothers seem to have little regard for their boys being naked at home even with little girls around while they do want their girls to cover up. I had two girls for playmates and we spent a lot of time together naked. We were never ashamed of it probably because it was of our own doing. They were quite interested in watching me pee because the mechanism could easily be seen and it never bothered me having them watch.

Nudity was such a taboo in my family and probably where I grew up that I didn't ever have communal showers or anything like that. I still to this day, midway through my 40s, can count on my fingers the number of people who have seen my penis in real life since I was a baby. That includes 4 I dated and 2 doctors in my adult years. But before I was 18, the only people who ever saw me nude were my pediatrician, my mom, my grandma, and my younger brother. My grandma and my brother didn't see me naked from 14 onward, but my mom and my pediatrician both would see my penis every year at my well child exam, right up through the age of 16. The exams didn't seem “forced” but rather normal. Though I'm certain that if I had objected, it would have been made clear to me that I was not being given a choice.

Nudity was such a taboo in my family and probably where I grew up that I didn't ever have communal showers or anything like that. I still to this day, midway through my 40s, can count on my fingers the number of people who have seen my penis in real life since I was a baby. That includes 4 I dated and 2 doctors in my adult years.

Interesting we are near the same age and I can’t even count how many people have seen me naked. I had a few different pediatricians, a Kindergarten entrance exam given “on stage“ in front of other kids and parents (I described this in a post somewhere) and then communal showers through junior high school shot that number way up. I’d say hundreds of people saw me naked in my childhood, including all the boys with the same period PE classes, coaches, pediatricians, nurses at the hospital all took my rectal temp, nurses at the doctor, mom, dad, grandparents, aunt, cousin, childhood friend I took baths with, babysitter, the assembly of parents and kids for entrance exams. That’s just childhood. Amazing how different experiences can be in the same country and same timeframe. This is why people that discount some posters experiences that are outside what they know as their “normal” are so annoying to me.

I grew up in a very rural community in a very strict and religious family. Fornication was a sin that was punished with my father's belt (and sometimes open hands or fists).

That being said - there were communal showers in Jr High and High School - no big deal as we boys often swam nekkid at the swimming hole down on the river. Sneaking down to watch the girls skinny-dip was a teenage goal that resulted in an ass-whuppin from my old man many, many, many more times than it did a brief view of boobs.

Sneaking down to watch the girls skinny-dip was a teenage goal that resulted in an ass-whuppin from my old man many, many, many more times than it did a brief view of boobs.

So, how did your enraged father find out about the boys sneaking out to watch the girls skinny-dip? Someone must have told him or maybe he was there too, looking for a quick view of some boobs or poontang?

From around 13 to 18 or 19 my Aunt forced me to strip naked for spankings , and i do remember getting spankings from her into my mid 20's at times

My first recollection of communal nudity was at summer sleep away camp where three were two or three shower heads in the bunk. It became old hat by the time I spent four years in a college dorm. The embarrassment in the early days was the year or two when we were going through puberty and who was ahead (or behind) the others in that transformation.

From around 13 to 18 or 19 my Aunt forced me to strip naked for spankings , and i do remember getting spankings from her into my mid 20's at times

For what reasons would she spank you at that age? You were an adult, so you must have acquiesced to some degree. Did you enjoy the spankings in some way?

I agree with some of the others that the nudity that I experienced growing up was not forced, but it was cultural for the time. I was born after WWII. I am a Babyboomer. My dad was a GI in WWII. When I went to the YMCA for swimming lessons as a little boy who was pre-puberty, we swam in the nude. My dad told me that it would be that when before I went for my first lesson. It was not odd, because it was very common in those days. In junior high school we began to shower after gym class or swimming class. We wore swimming trunks for our class, but we showered in “gang showers.” In Junior high most of us had reached puberty. In high school for gym and sports we showered in the “gang showers.” As we continued in high school, I did notice that some boys were more developed than others. I was somewhere in the middle. As I began college, the men's dormitories had gang showers too and no doors on the toilets, and rows of urinals with no little walls like we have today. It simply was what it was. Finally, I had a physical for the draft. We were many young guys naked together. I think none of it bothered me because it was a part of my growing up. Today, I feel that we are a more private culture. Boys do not necessarily share a bedroom with a brother or brothers. There are little walls between urinals in movie theaters, etc. There are doors on the stalls in public bathrooms. I also believe that it all did not bother me , because my father told me as I approached puberty that guys develop at different rates, and that early did not make those guys more of a man than those who developed more slowly.

So, how did your enraged father find out about the boys sneaking out to watch the girls skinny-dip? Someone must have told him or maybe he was there too, looking for a quick view of some boobs or poontang?

The first time he whooped my ass for trying to sneak a peek i was nowhere near the river. I was 12 and had been goofing off behind our barn reading some stupid SciFi novel (also forbidden). The story was that some girls were swimming and caught some boys looking . The boys ran off and when word got out he just assumed that i was part of the group.

At that point I made it my mission to get a peek - hell, I'd already received the beating, might as well earn it!

The story was that some girls were swimming and caught some boys looking . The boys ran off and when word got out he just assumed that i was part of the group.

At that point I made it my mission to get a peek - hell, I'd already received the beating, might as well earn it!

Damned if you did and damned if you didn't. So indeed, why not just do it anyway?

However, that kind of parental assumption about guilt without even trying to get at a more correct truth must have been enraging, maddening and infuriating. Any one who made such kind of assumptions lost all my respect. Enough to make one despise them.

Enough to make one despise them.

No argument from me

Well, as others have said, I would not considered it “forced”, just expected.

I shared a room with a brother. Shared a bathroom and sometimes the shower with my dad.

Physical exams were always nude, with my mother present.

Swim lessons at the YMCA were nude as was swimming for the YMCA camps.

High school showers after PE and sports.

College dorm had communal showers.

It's more a matter of when was I not nude !

Being a kid in the 60s and 70s is very different from today.

Forced nudity was during shower after PE class, at the doc, and during School Trips.

So as a kid or teen it happened pretty often.

Forced nudity was during shower after PE class, at the doc, and during School Trips.

So as a kid or teen it happened pretty often.

During school trips? In which way?

Aside from quickie showers in middle school (I had to hustle naked from locker to shower to locker again for fear of getting a spontaneous erection; thankfully that never happened, but other kids it happened to got teased), at university we had co-ed showers. Individual, private shower stalls, but you had to hang your towel on a hook and “risk” being seen as you entered and exited. That happened a few times. I wish I could say it had happened in a “fun” way but people were discreet. If I'd been exposed to a young woman for any length of time at all, I would have gotten hard immediately. That's just the way my body works!

Later, in my 20s, I showered with attractive, naked young women I didn't know - for instance at a seaside spa in Big Sur - and didn't get erect. I guess fear of looking like a perv is enough to keep willy in check. 😕