Gym Weirdness
Ahh, I knew the gym would distract me from that mess. Today’s observations:
- I counted three people wearing jeans. THREE! People who wear jeans to work out always remind me of the stupid kids that would forget their gym clothes in junior high. Please, just go to Kmart and buy some $3 cotton shorts.
- Of course, what’s acceptable workout wear to one person might not go over so well with everyone else… like the little old Asian man’s sweatpants that read “SHIT HAPPENS” really big down the leg.
- Sometimes people have obsessions with particular parts of their bodies that you just can’t help notice. Today’s exhibit was “Tricep Man”. This guy worked just his triceps for, like, half an hour straight. He wasn’t a big bodybuilder either, just a normal skinny-ish guy. Granted, he had huge freakin’ triceps, but coupled with his scrawny legs he looked like an alien. (Another common obsessive type are the girls who do nothing but work on their abs.)
- The reincarnated Mahatma Gandhi goes to my gym, which is cool. He wears big yellow Hawaiian-print jams, which is not.
- Personal space is a very tricky issue at the gym. In the early evenings, it can get pretty crowded in there. I try to maintain my distance, though, given how little some people wear, how little I know them, and how much I (or they) smell. Most everybody else seems to follow the same unwritten guidelines. Today, however, I was on the floor doing my crunches and stretches, and when I stood up I noticed that this girl was sitting right behind me. She didn’t have her back to me either; she was facing me. Like one foot away. With lots of other space around. I don’t even know how long she was there. She could’ve reached out and given me a massage. It was really creepy.
- Question: do guys get naked in the locker room? I mean, I know they shower and stuff so they must get naked at some point, but do they make a big show out of it? I swear, both gyms I’ve belonged to (here and in London) have been full of women who just love to walk around the locker room in the buff. I just don’t have that level of comfort with public nudity. Maybe it’s an “outside-the-U.S.” thing. Is it?
I feel so much better now! 🙂
Tricia
October 6, 2002 — 1:33 pm
I enjoy the gym commentary; always amusing, Kris.
I’ve never seen women really walk around naked much in lockers rooms, but if movies are any indication, American men do.
Linda Leanga
June 22, 2005 — 3:42 pm
I know what you mean, The women’s locker room at my gym is like a nudist colony! Almost all of the women like to strut around totally nude the entire time their in the locker room. I’m actually happy for them that they can be that comfortable being nude in front of other females, and I guess thats a lot better than being ashamed, the human body is a beautiful thing! My husband says the men are much more conservative, and do not strut around nude like the women do.
Cindy
July 19, 2005 — 12:05 pm
Well, I live in the USA, and at my gym the women are also very happy to walk around totally, completely and utterly nude, I mean not one single stich from head to toe! And most of them have no problem standing there having a conversation with me or other complete strangers while totally naked! Almost all of them will do their hair and put on their makeup before they would ever think of getting dressed. It doesn’t bother me, and it is a nice and easy way of seeing how you stack-up against other women! However, I have not yet mustered up the guts to bare all like the majority of the other ladies from my gym have.
Linda Leanga
July 26, 2005 — 5:36 pm
Here is something I am curious about…
After I first saw this thread, it got me to thinking back to locker room showers and nudity in high school. My mother went to high school in the early 1950’s, and she told me numerous times when I was a kid that when she was in high school in the 50’s that showers were mandatory after gym class, but that even if they weren’t, she and all of the other girls would have just showered on their own. She had always said that in the 40’s and 50’s that it was a completely natural and comfortable thing for girls and women to be nude in front of each other in the girls locker room, and that nudity in the presense of your female peers was something that you never would have given a second thought to. And that no-one really even bothered covering up with a towel.
When I started high school in the mid 1970’s showers were still mandatory after gym class. And in this case, if it were not mandatory, I and many of the other girls would not have been showering in the nude in front of each other! I found it to be very embarrassing, and I know that some of the other girls did as well. We tried to get showered up and then dressed as fast as we could. We were not so casual about our nudity in the locker room like the girls of my mothers era were.
I have to beautiful teenage daughters who are in high school for the last couple of years. I was aware that even though showers are no-longer mandatory in most schools these days, that my daughters always choose to shower on their own after their gym classes, but I had never asked them if they found it to be embarrasing being nude in front of the other girls. So after I saw this thread I decided to ask my daughters what there thoughts are about nudity in the girls locker room, and how most of the other girls handle the situation.
When I asked my daughters if they found it embarrassing to shower and just be nude in general in front of the girls in their gym classes they first looked at me like they didn’t understand the question, or like I was an alien or something! Then the second responce was “god, mom, it’s just girls in there, why should it embarrass us?” The way they described it, they and all of the other girls in their gym classes view things exactly the same as the girls of my mothers generation did. That it is completely normal for females to be nude around other females, and why in the world would any girl not want to take a shower after her gym class? My daugters also expressed that no-one bothers covering up with a towel, much like my mother described in her day. Mind you, my daughters dress very conservitively in public, and are modest around boys. But they say that it is 100% comfortable and normal to be nude in a girls locker room.
So I am wondering if there are differing views about locker room nudity amoung different generations of females?
I will admit that my mothers generation, and my daughters generation handle the situation much more maturely than I did/do! I can see that views can differ from generation to generation, but I wonder why my generation did not view it the same as the girls of the generations before and after mine?
So if any of you ladies can tell me how things were or are in your generation relating to nudity in the girl’s/women’s locker rooms. And if you can tell me why you think there is a differing view, I would be very interested in knowing what your opinion is! Thanks, and take care! Linda
Kris
July 26, 2005 — 11:43 pm
We had mandatory showering in junior high, I remember. I was knew at the school so it was all very foreign to me. I just remember on that first day watching all the girls wrapped up in towels stroll past the female PE teacher, go into the showers, do one lap of the area, and then come back out. They’d say their names and the teacher – who was too embarrassed to even look up from her list – would tick them off. I remember that I was actually kinda surprised. I mean, yeah, getting nude is gross, but so is walking around all afternoon smelling sweaty. As was the case with most decisions in junior high though, I just decided to go with the flow…
Linda Leanga
July 27, 2005 — 12:39 pm
Kris,
Thank you for the reply, it sounds like the girls in your gym class were much like the ones in mine. And my daughters say that they agree with you about it being gross to be sweaty all day long! I guess I should be happy that they are mature about it, and have good hygiene!
I’m still curious though about the different generations views on it. Maybe I’ll ask my mother again about her day?
Linda Leanga
July 29, 2005 — 12:06 pm
I had lunch with my mother today, and I asked her again why she thought that the women of her generation were not embarrassed by being nude in front of each other in the locker rooms. She said that she thinks it was the whole wartime thing, that there were much bigger things to worry about, like if your father or brother were going to make it back home alive from Germany or Korea. And she said that the notion of being embarrassed by another female seeing you nude in the locker room wouldn’t have even been a blip on the radar screen! She also said that back then the idea was to make sure that no men or boys would see you nude, but that a girls or women’s locker room was a place that you could be nude without it being sexual, that there was an innocent “fun” of sorts by bonding with other girls, and not caring if you were nude. I don’t know if I myself will change my locker room routine or not, but I can understand the thinking a little better now I guess. It’s just difficult to accept that my daughters are more mature than me apperantly!
Kaley
September 7, 2005 — 4:07 pm
Linda,
I have to say that I’m with your mother and your daughters on this.
Taking a shower after gym class was the only part of gym class that I liked. I don’t mean that in a sexual way, it’s just that a shower was relaxing and felt good, whereas the class it’s self was not something that I enjoyed.
But I do think that it is kind of fun in a non-sexual and totally innocent way to be nude among your girlfriends in the girls locker room.
Even the most shy girl adjusts quickly to the idea of being nude in the girls locker room, usually, anyway.
Like your mother and your daughters said, being nude in a girls or women’s locker room is no big deal.
I miss the days when you could walk around nude without a care in the world!
kara
September 9, 2005 — 2:46 pm
Hi, i’m 13 and i dont know how i ended up reading this site but someone wanted to know about what girls my age think about being naked in front of each other so here goes….
for me, it’s like totally no big thing. the camp i go to we all started showering together, all girls of course, like when i was 10. and if anyone thought anything about it, it was kinda cool that you could run around totally nude and not worry about it. i totally agree with the person who said it was a bonding experience. it really was and it is with the girls on my volleyball team at school now. i dont know if i can really explain it, but if another girl has seen like my vagina somehow im closer to her or something or weve had shared something that you could never share with a guy.
anyway i like it, being nude with other girls i mean. ive gone skinny dipping wiht my friend katie when her parents aren’t home and were sure we’ll not get caught or anything and we’ve laid out nude in her backyard too.
anyway, that’s what i think. i think its like a girl power thing.
Kris
September 9, 2005 — 5:09 pm
Yeah, I’m totally closing this discussion. It’s really weirding me out. I have no idea if these are actual women discussing being naked or just 40-year-old men living out fantasies.
And P.S. Unless your method of getting dressed is way different than mine, no woman in the locker room is seeing your VAGINA. Go read your health textbook again, whippersnapper.