Naked at the YMCA

[Gramme]

The Highgate mans pond is a big pond part of a damned stream, ( it is soft water as well, London water is generally hard) the female pond is smaller but totally discrete and surrounded by trees. I believe the women are allowed to swim and sunbathe naked. The male pond has public access on three sides so nude swimming is out of the question. In the large changing area men could lie in the sun naked and sunbathe. This went on for years, maybe a century. then in the 1990s some nasty, busybody, a lawyer i believe, wrote to the Corporation of London and complained. So the nude sunbathing was banned. After much protest an area of a few square meters was put aside for nude sunbathing. It is surrounded by a high metal wall which blocks out the sunlight. This was and is the only nude sunbathing area in any metropoltian area in the whole Uk. There were also at least three male nude swimming clubs allowed to use pools facilities in London swimmng pools after hours. All banned now, This is the so called Uk, which is a so called paragon of freedom of choice, it is all nonsense. The Uk is progressively becoming more and more controlled. This is with the so called so called Socialists as well, and as we know British conservatives never, never, never, change anything the Socialists have done. There was a famous ancient nude bathing area in Oxford called Parsons Pleasure it was on a river, I believe. What happened? it was closed in the nineteen nineties. After centuries and centuries of being open and causing no problems.
i think the truth is that British females do not like males associating together and will use whatever means no matter how spiteful to shut all-male institutions down. The politicians like this as well because associations of males tend to be free thinking and revolutionary. It is all political. But very sad for all that.

 

[B_Nick8]

I found this old post card advertising the YMCA in the 1930s. If anyone doubts that nude swimming was the norm, this should put the question to rest.

 

[englishmale]

Excellent post Gramme, very well thought out and argued. As you rightly observe both left and right wing policital parties are hostile to public nudity. I think you re right about women having a problem with men associating with other men as well, it really seems to trobule them.

 

[Pecker Check]

I like others' inputs to this thread. Austin beautifully describes what was good about bygone days when American males learned to be comfortable when naked together. And Xenon tells me something I didn't know, something that makes me sad -- young Brits have become much like their Yank counterparts. There are plenty of Silver Daddies threads commenting on the "towel dance" our young men do in gym locker rooms (if they even take off their clothes at all). I doubt that today's prudery will have much effect on the evil that goes on between some men and boys, but I'm sure it will deprive many boys and men of something meaningful.

 

[D_Doe_Ray_Mi]

I used to swim naked at the YMCA in Detroit with my dad, brother & other men & boys in the 1960s. Showered together too. Once visiting my sister in college in MI in late 60s I went to university pool and all the guys in the swim gym class were naked in the pool. It was a cool experience for a young teen w/o an older brother and an old dad. In the 60s & 70s we all showered naked together after gym, sports, etc. in Jr High, High School & college. In college dorm, I walked naked with my towel over one shoulder down the hall to the gang showers/restroom every morning as did others. Totally healthy, normal and important bonding and self acceptance experience. In Psych grad school I wrote a thesis on, "Birthday Suit Therapy". Lots of research supports that we are more authentic, real and peaceful when stripped of our guises. Metaphorically, re: clothing, & intellectually & emotionally too.

I suspect that the current pervasive fear of nudity and unreasonable modesty in men has some roots in single mothers raising sons, general lack of male mentoring in our society, internet images depicting and suggesting a new norm that many fall short of, homosexuality being so much more out in the media, misperceptions in young men that nudity = sex, greater awareness of pedophilia and unrealistic portrayal of sexuality & relationships in the media, i.e. movies, television and internet.

 

[houtx48]

I found this old post card advertising the YMCA in the 1930s. If anyone doubts that nude swimming was the norm, this should put the question to rest.

Is that you on the swing?

 

[B_Nick8]

Is that you on the swing?

Don't be silly. That's my great-grandpa.

 

[ConanTheBarber]

Is that you on the swing?

You're one letter off, lllllllllllladdie.

 

[gymfresh]

There were also at least three male nude swimming clubs allowed to use pools facilities in London swimmng pools after hours. All banned now, This is the so called Uk, which is a so called paragon of freedom of choice, it is all nonsense.

I don't think any of the nude swim clubs were banned; for several years I belonged to Gymnos, which met at at assorted sites around London, and occasionally attended GLS (Gay London Swimmers), which met at the University of London pool.

The difficulties of finding or training lifeguards; the frequent shutting down of leisure centres for renovation work, necessitating a scramble to find new venues; and the vagaries of councils and their assorted fee structures for off-hours use of facilities are what complicated things.

 

[Gramme]

Gay nude swimming clubs in London were closed down by imposing more and more complex and pointless and difficult rules. Health and safety was the purported reason but the real reason is a growth in interferring nosey Puritanism in the Uk. In fact it is not Puritanism because Puritans probably approved of nude bathing ( not mixed bathing obviously ). The British mock the Germans and French on all matters politic and social but the truth is that it is the Uk which is the peculiar country. Talk about the beam in ones mans eye and the mote in the other fellows eye.
In Birmingham, in the UK a protest by 'Mothers' stopped an all male nude swimming club using a swimming pools facilities after hours. Their reason was 'Hygiene' , really! Never mind the fact that their children piss and shit in the swimming pools all the time. Many British children are not properly toilet trained because modern British women do not know how to look after their children. (apparently these females send their children to infants school and expect the teachers to teach toilet training ), This is a true story. Why was it more hygenic if a man wore bathing trunks or less hygienic if he swam naked.
Women really do not like all male associations. British men are too frightened and too cowed to protest. That is what I think.

 

[223790]

Nude swimming doesn't happen at my Y because the pool is unisex. However, in the premium men's locker room, everyone is quite comfortable with nudity. Guys use the steam room and hot tub nude, and there is an open shower.

 

[houtx48]

Don't be silly. That's my great-grandpa.

Sorry my mistake..........

 

[B_thickjohnny]

Do you think that, in those bygone days of nude swimming at the Y and/or other clubs, there was a preponderance of pervs hanging around? More of the Jerry Sandusky's picking up young boys etc? I mean, was it worse then than today but just swept under the carpet and THIS is the real reason you don't see all male facilities anymore? I'm not supporting this or encouraging it in anyway, just curious. I was molested by an uncle when I was younger as my parents would leave me in his care from time to time. They (my parents) didn't give this a clue. I wonder if this happened at the Y - parents would drop off their sons for a swim and not even think that older guys would be there hovering over them doing lord knows what. Today, however, with all the media attention to the Catholic Church, Boy Scouts, organizations like Jerry Sandusky's Second Mile, parents are more aware of the potential harm and thus teach their sons to dress/undress only at home, never hang out with adult men, etc!

 

[Dave NoCal]

The only guy who ever might have come onto me at the Y (It was semi-subtle and I was clueless) was a guy my age I already knew from high school.

 

[D_Hugh_G_Nutz]

I believe that today's views on nudity have had a negative impact on us. It has actually led to more Sandusky type issues since nudity is now such a forbidden thing.

 

[hairyman101]

i have noticed just in my small town ......men wear shirts in the summer...... use to be summer was shirtless......esp if you have a nice body.

 

[589569]

Check out a Korean Spa. I have one 85 miles from my location. Wet areas are sex segregated and strictly nude. Very low cost also, and it's open 24/7. Here in VA it's Spa World. spaworldusa.com

 

[rockdj79]

I used to hope for some sort of interaction at my local YMCA when I was younger. It never happened, until I went into a steam room at a non-Y gym. I used to walk around with an erection all the time. But I was always a freak like that

There were a couple of hot times in the communal showers, but it was a lot of waiting around for nothing most of the time...which is why I stopped cruising. Sure sounds hot in my head. The. I did it and just felt kinda creepy. I guess my fantasies will have to suffice.

 

[ftlauderdale_frank]

Great posts from everyone. I grew up in the NE and at our local YMCA, we always swam nude. In this time there were YWCA's for women and the YMCA was always men only. All the locker rooms, workout rooms, whatever....you could usually see a few guys naked. It was no big deal and everyone did it. Some years later I was living in Indianapolis and worked out at the Indy Athletic Club. Again all men only and it seemed that everyone there went naked. I witnessed guys in the weight room naked, swimming and even a few playing basketball. The showers were great big gang showers.
To me this was a much more simple time and because it was the norm everyone felt comfortable. Today our youth are filled with all these crazy images of what they should look like, so if they do not, most are embarrassed to be nude infront of others.
I wish it was different. I have been to spa's all over Europe, Mexico, Canada and USA. Fun when everyone is naked. I think a much more enjoyable experience.
Just my thoughts on the subject. I do understand with all the media coverage of Sandusky and the others, some are concerned, but in the grand scheme of it all, these incidents are few and far between. KEEP SEX out of these places and reserve it for the bedroom. Men who prey on others at the gym have contributed this problem.

 

[hung]

I never had the opportunity to visit a YMCA. There were no such sites in the area where I was born and raised. My first experience at a Y was the night before my physical to join the U. S. Navy. I was there to sleep and did not even think about using the pool. I was taken to the physical site the next morning and sworn in the U.S. Navy the next afternoon and put on a Plane for Boot Camp in San Diego.