There is a problem. Well, I guess it's my problem. I have images burnt in my brain that I wish I could erase. I am sure my kids do too. Mostly because of being members at the Y.M.C.A. I know some people make think I am shallow, or overboard. But, honestly, shouldn't people try to make a effort to cover up when small children are around? ( or me?) Today, I walked right into the locker room and I could not look away fast enough when a older, non fit naked lady walked right towards me, in which anyone standing outside of the door could have clearly seen her. It is really difficult to train yourself to look at the floor when I walk by the Sauna and right there, in plain sight would be a old naked lady, sitting right in front of the window. It has happened more than I could count. We have dressing rooms, and even corners, but it seems like I am the only person who has a problem with this. I did not want to have the image of some nude person bending over, or what kind of scars they have. Even if I had a pristine fit body, I would still cover up. I know in other countries, nudity is no big deal. But what about the innocence of children? It's hard to keep Viv to refrain from making a comment, too.
The boys are having just as hard of time in their locker room. Their stories are grosser than mine. They have a steam room with a sign on the door saying you must wear a towel. But hardly anyone obeys. The fact is, I doubt those benches get cleaned often. Modesty should include not only young people but old. I know some people when they get older, that get past being embarrassed. All of the prodding and poking over the years by doctors, properly had something to do with that. I for one, believe that when I get older, I am going to make a effort to be modest no matter the circumstance. I just wish other people felt the same way.
5 years ago
4 comments:
Thanks for the compliment on my photo of Riquewihr. This was the little French village that was filled with the little girls rolling their hoops down the cobblestone streets with wooden sticks, the little old woman with the black shawl carrying her loaf of bread in a basket under her arm, and the old fellows in the berets whittling corks in front of the winery. Any minute, I expected to see James Bond's little red Lamborghini come roaring around the corner, run into the wooden vegetable cart, and go tearing off into the distance up the hill with the bad guys in their black Mercedes hot on his tail. It was right out of a picturebook, the sheep being herded down the street by the little boy and his miniature collie.
Silly old man. But older people learn not to care about modesty because after years of doctors and nurses and all the people you need to show parts of your body to, you just kind of give up. I'm not talking about me (I'm still young) but I have seen it a lot with older people.
Our gym is the same way. People walk around buck naked too... It grosses me out too!! Ray never takes our girls in the mens dressing room!! They might be scarred for life! LOL!!
Wow. It's too funny that I came across your post here.
Up until the age of 13 I had never learned how to swim, and my mother never did learn how to at any time. I knew that the next year that the high school that I was going to go to required all freshman to take a swimming class, and I wanted to learn how to swim before that so other kids wouldn't make fun of me.
So my best friends mom started taking me with her to the YWCA a couple of nights a week so she could teach me how to swim.
Just as we were going to head back into the women's locker room after my first swim lesson from her, I spotted a girl that I knew from school who was just coming out of the locker room to swim. My friends mom went into the locker room while I talked with the girl from my school by the pool.
The showers were in a separate shower-room, but the showers were all lined up against a wall with no stalls or privacy of any kind.
I knew that my friends mom was in the shower-room, but I just assumed that she would be showering in her swimsuit. So I walked into the shower-room in my swimsuit, and to my surprise she was showering in the nude. We both looked at each other kind of in shock. I was shocked that she was nude, and I think she was shocked that I wasn't.
A couple of nights later my friend went with her mom and I to the YWCA. As soon as we entered the locker room after our swim my friend and her mom both took off their swimsuits right away and hung them on the hooks just outside of the shower-room, so I knew that they were going to be showering nude. So I faced my fear and took off my swimsuit and hung it next to theirs and showered in the nude myself. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, so from then on I just always showered nude after each swim lesson at the YWCA.
Well, it was a blessing in disguise that I got used to the nude showers at the Y, because the next year my high school required all students to shower after both gym and swimming classes, and again, with no stalls or privacy of any kind. I adjusted to the showering situation at school from day one, whereas some of the other girls had a bit of embarrassment at first.
To be honest, I don't think that children are really that shocked by nude adults in the locker room? At least not the girls, I can't speak for boys.
I think that my shock that first time with my friends mom wasn't that the female body shocked me, it was mostly that it was my friends mom who I knew so well, and fully dressed at their house all of the time.
Now as an adult I have a membership at the YWCA in my neighborhood. The closest high school has swim-teams but no pool, so the girls swim-team uses the YWCA pool, and I think that the boys team may use the YMCA a few miles away?
I am quite often in the locker room at the same time as the schools girls team, and those girls do not have to shower in the nude, but almost all of them do by choice. Granted, those are teen girls, not little girls, but they must not be freaked out about nudity.
Ashley
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