Back to the topic at hand:
This is something I witness every time I use my current athletic facilities at my university. It does bug me (sorry, but it does and that's how I feel) because I feel there are larger issues at stake. I have been on both sides of this issue, so I think I have a pretty clear perspective on it. Before my 20s, I used to avoid showing myself around other males because of my incredibly low self esteem and introverted nature. When the time came that I had to man up and use the open shower (because they were all open back then), I dropped the towel and my modesty and never looked back. It was such a feeling of confidence and liberation. It made me feel like one of the guys, and gave me a feeling of acceptance among men for the first time in my life. I never had a strong male role model in my life because my father was absent in my formative years, and my older brother went completely off the deep end - I still don't feel close to either of them to this day. I think that this was a large part of the problem I had with my self esteem and modesty issue around other males. I always felt unworthy and down on myself, especially around other men. That was over 20 years ago now, and I do think that this whole situation is symptomatic of a larger problem with young men being feminized (as I was by my single mom and sister) and being made to feel ashamed of having a dick and balls between their legs.
To this day, I prefer to use gyms that have open facilities rather than gyms that indulge this neurotic paranoia and sense of shame that young men seem to have today. I'm looking for a new gym this summer, and I'm planning to join the local YMCA. Why the YMCA? It's because I like their more relaxed and open atmosphere in the men's locker room. I prefer to be in an environment where men can be men and feel relaxed enough to be naked around each other. Their 18+ male locker room has a sauna, steam room, hot tub and
open shower as well as a lounge with a TV in the locker room. Use of this locker room comes at a premium, so I would imagine that guys with a modesty problem would elect not to pay a premium to have access to facilities that they won't use. There are plenty of other gyms in town that indulge over modesty to the nth degree, so they are more likely to go there. I used to belong to one of those ultra privacy gyms, and I can tell you that I absolutely
HATED the cold atmosphere there. In my experience, gyms that offer ultra privacy are also ultra cold and ultra unfriendly. I'm hoping at the Y, there will be guys like me who also enjoy non-sexual same gender communal nudity.
Cheers!
