From shame to confidence. How about you?

This is my first post, I hope on a new angle for the topic.

At school i was terrified of the changing rooms and the thought other boys would see me naked. I would even be reluctant to go on the beach in a family setting.

Fast forward a few decades and I am the one comfortable with walking from the gym shower to my locker naked. I am happy on a nudist beach and on holiday will try and take a photo posing naked somewhere risqué or notable, like the top of a mountain. In later times I have even had massages and get a major thrill from someone other than my partner watching me approach and reach orgasm.

I have gone from being embarrassed about my body to being proud of it and enjoying the arousal that such openness can bring.

Is that common or is it just me?

No, you are not alone. I also had conflicting feelings in my childhood about showing myself naked in the shower after exercising with the other guys, but it passed relatively quickly and I soon felt comfortable doing it. Today I have no reservations about walking naked on the beach, because I have been an enthusiastic naturist for many years and spend every vacation in a naturist park, mostly on the Mediterranean. When it happens in lonely bays to watch others or are watched by others, I am proud to be able to show a nice erection.

Like many, middle school gym was the start of regular nudity with my peers. Most were likely nervous about as they stripped down and entered the shower room that first time. We all survived that day and within a week or two everyone had gotten used to it and it became just a normal part of life.

In the coming years, there would be other normal situations involving group nudity. For each of those, any nervousness quickly faded and they too became normal.

It would be a few years after that first group shower in 7th grade before I lost my virginity. That event changed me in one regard. I became comfortable and confident in situations with group nudity and almost looked forward to them. I was now a fully functional male and was proud to show off my body.

Yes, like you, I went from being self-conscious in the locker room, eventually to enjoy being naked in front of people I don't know well.

One experience in particular let me know how far I'd “come”… A retreat for polyamorous people had some attendees still dressed, and some naked. A young lady I'd met at an earlier gathering had herself stripped down, and was offering outdoor massages by donation. She asked me if I would like to undress and receive one, and with a lot of people watching, I did just that. Mostly seated, they continued watching while she caressed and massaged my back, hips and legs.

By the time she asked me to turn face up on her table, I was hard and saw a string of pre-cum from my leg to my glans. When her hands made their way to my belly and pubic hair, I thought she might offer to masturbate me to orgasm, with everyone watching. She didn't, but that would have been fun.

And I've always thoroughly enjoyed the just-for-two experience of a masseuse, someone I may have just met, seeing me naked, and watching and feeling my cock get completely hard, as she strokes me to a climax.

I rid myself of my bodily shame when I first visited a nude beach, at age 33. When I first consummated my relationship with another male, I couldn't get an erection. My teacher had the perfect solution: a back and neck massage. A transcendent experience awaited.

I love being naked and I enjoy letting others see me naked as well

I worked outside all day here naked as always. Unfortunately all alone. Mowed for a while then worked in the garden. With this heat I slip into the shop shower quite often to cool off. At 70 I'm sure not body beautiful but don't care and being naked around others is no big deal.

There is a NUDE beach near Austin TX that I enjoy frequently.

I'd be embarrassed to go there as there would be reports of the Pillsbury doughboy sightings.

I have gone from being embarrassed about my body to being proud of it and enjoying the arousal that such openness can bring. Is that common or is it just me?

It's certainly not just you. School showers were mandatory in the UK and being the only circumcised boy in the class I had a terrible angst about being nude, especially having a notably flared glans. I was even uncomfortable in briefs as I felt the rim of my glans showed through too much. Although I still get a mild panic attack & adrenalin rush when I first strip naked in front of others, I'm now over discomfort and shifted into ‘shy exhibitionist’. I think I love being nude in front of others so much now because of my past phobia. It's so much more liberating to feel comfortable nude when it was so harrowing in the past! I felt ‘naked and exposed’ in the past, but now I just feel liberated nude and pleased if people like to sneak a look

I was small compared to the “ big dicks ” in Jr. High / High school, but learned that I am average to most. After this, I don't really care.

The first time anyone but my mother or my father saw me naked, was my younger sister. She did not know that I was in the shower, the door was not locked and she came bursting in. When she saw me, I think she was more embarrassed about it than I was. She quickly closed the door and ran back to her room. After I got out and dried myself off, I wrapped the towel around my waist and lower part of my body. Then I left the bathroom. To get to my room, I had to pass by her room. The door was slightly ajar and she saw me walking by. She said that she was sorry that she did not knock on the door first to see if I was in there or not. I told her not to worry about it that I was okay that she saw me naked. Our parents were not at home and I asked her if she would like to take a better look at me naked. She said that she would like to if I would let her. I removed the towel and told her she could look at me. I did a complete 360° turn around for her and then walked to my room. After that neither of us were concerned about seeing the other one naked. No, we did not think about any sex with each other. All though I did get hard in front of her a few times when I was naked in front of her. Especially if she as also naked in front of me. She did not have her breasts yet and I looked closely between her legs most of the time. When she started to develop her breasts she would push them out really hard to make me look at them as well.

As for my bein naked in the locker rooms at school, it dd not bother me in the least bit. I did not really look at the other boys as sex objects and I do not think they looked at me as sex objects. So, it did not bother me at all.

As for being naked at other times in front of others, the first girl beside my sister to see me naked was when I was 14. I was living in France and was dating this very beautiful French Girl. Her and I once took off our clothes in front of each other. The only thing that we did that could be considered sexual was to feel each others bodies. After that, I did not mind being naked in front of anyone, boys or girls. Today, I like to be naked in front of others, but not in groups larger than 10 males or 10 females at a time.

Of course, when I am acting as a sub to another male, or group of males, I feel that it is only proper that I am naked in front of them. As for them being naked in front of me, it all depends on the situation at hand. If they are going to have any sex with me, I do expect that at least at that time they will be naked.

As for my sexuality, I am bisexual, about 20% to 30% gay and the rest of me is straight. I do like to submit to males and be Dominant or submissive to females.

Yeah started out a bit shy but then open showers at my University hostel got me over that.

I like the freedom of being naked on my own but when I am naked and being looked at I feel so self conscious and embarrassed that embarrassment turns to humiliation especially if the onlooker makes any kind of comment as now I can not lie to myself and think they are not really looking.

That humiliation just gets me so arroused, I am creating my own embarrassment and so the circle goes on.

Was sent to boarding school at age 12 and lived in dorms, 5 years in school, 2 years in college. Walked around naked and showed my stuff. Yes there were guys who covered up and varying degrees of cover. Take a shower, walk to your room with a towel, so what. I have a small dick and no problem showing it.

I like the freedom of being naked on my own but when I am naked and being looked at I feel so self conscious and embarrassed that embarrassment turns to humiliation especiall if the onlooker makes any kind of comment as now I can not lie to myself and think they are not really looking.

Why do you women make it so complicated for yourselves? Not every man who looks at a naked woman thinks of sex right away. Rather, we like to admire you as the most wonderful thing that nature has produced. We are just happy to see you. I am sad when a woman like you see this as a humiliation. You should be happy about your beauty.

I had prudishness hammered into me strongly but very inconsistently as a kid, and I think that's part of what makes it so awkward and difficult. The rules seem random. Becoming a nudist was just part of me ditching all of my programming and becoming an adult, thinking hard about what I actually believed in and what I had to back it up. And I've had great success in helping others ditch their anxieties as well, since the seemingly monolithic psychological barriers are, in reality, just an intricate web of paper-mache.

Yes, I had shame about my body when I was a boy and young teen. For a while I also had a somewhat disfiguring skin disease. When I was in hospital at 12yo, one smiling nurse did say to another in front of me, 'Underneath all [that disfiguring stuff], he's quite nice-looking, isn't he?'! That gave me a momentary good feeling. I don't think I was wholly undressed at the time, but now I wonder how much of me they were looking at - I can't remember! But I do remember the compliment! And within a few years, I had outgrown my skin disease.

(I have written previously about when I was about 15yo and was examined by a panel of dermatologists. At one point, I must have been practically naked!)

These days, many years later, I still wouldn't be a nudist even if you paid me. Not that anyone would want to see me that way these days, I imagine!

- Ken

I think that is common, lots of people have anxiety about their body but as we get older realise its the only one we are going to get and there is nothing wrong with it.

I was lucky to be always be one of tallest and naturally lean and had a father mad into boxing and sport so I followed suit from a young age.

I acted confident as teen but had the same issues as original poster for a time.

I was a bit uncomfortable/ anxious about being in my briefs, undressing or naked around others. My feelings began to subside in high school as locker rooms and showers became common. In reality, it was college living in dorms/ resident halls with 2 or 3 guys every year only having 2 communal bathrooms & open showers per floor completely ended any anxieties or embarrassment of being naked.

Since childhood I've been very shy to be naked, it was only my parents, elder sister and the doctor who had seen me fully naked. Till date I could only muster up the confidence to be naked in front of my wife as the next person. My ex gf has seen my penis but not fully naked.