Prompted by: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/2025/11/naked-locker-room-end/684907/
Today, the only naked bodies that many Americans will likely ever see are their own, a partner’s, or those on a screen. Gone are our unvarnished points of physical comparison—the ordinary, unposed figures of other people. In their place, we’re left with the curated ideals of social-media posts, AI-generated advertising, and pornography. The loss may seem trivial, but it also may change how people see themselves. Without exposure to the normal variety of bodies, we may become less comfortable with our own, more likely to mistake common characteristics for flaws—and more inclined to see every bare body as an inherently sexual object, making nudity even more charged.
I'm 60. I was in U.S. public grade school in the 70s and early 80s.
Starting in Junior High, which was grades seven and eight, we were all required to take Physical Education (P.E.) classes, and we were all required to change into P.E. uniforms. The dress code for the school otherwise was minimal.
We changed in the locker room in front of each other, that meant we were nude in front of each other. This was true for girls and boys, of course, we had separate locker rooms.
Furthermore, after class, we were required to shower, which we also did together.
For both junior high and high school it was very much like this. Rows of lockers and open showers at one end. There were high windows along the ceiling to let the steam out.:
It took two or three days for everyone to get comfortable with being nude in front of each other, and that was the end of the problem. It was a small hump to get over, and everyone did, easily. By the end of the week we were all goofing around naked in the shower, like you may have seen in movies or wherever.
I'm curious about your experiences, and whether you think it's harmful or beneficial for kids to be forced to get nude in front of each other for this purpose.
10-20% of the population is LGBT in some manner. The idea of forcing kids to change in front of each other comes from a world where we had not problem assuming everyone was straight. That's why it was no big deal for boys to see other boys naked and girls to see other girls naked. But it's not 1950 anymore. And just like traditionally we wouldn't force girls to change in front of guys, we shouldn't force kids to change in front of other kids they might be attracted to or those who may have attraction to them. Plus the gendered changing rooms cause all sorts of issues for trans kids.
It's a whole lot of headache for very little benefit. Putting kids through that much trauma just isn't worth it because, in the abstract, it might be ideal if kids were more comfortable with their bodies.
"Force all the kids to get naked around each other" only works if you ignore the 20% of kids that aren't straight or cis.
This is still reinforcing the idea that sexual attraction is intrinsically linked to nudity, as well as just excusing inappropriate behavior by altering the environment instead of the actual behavior. Putting aside the gender and sexuality debate entirely, because I want it to be clear that showering is a practical matter and shouldn't be sexualized in the first place, body positivity begins and ends with people accepting themselves and ending the bullying and teasing is a completely different discussion.
People have been completely ignoring the practical aspect of this whole thing this whole thread, BO is a serious problem for people after exercise. Not a lot of schools have the space or resources to have individual shower stalls. Plumbing is expensive, those post showers are a single water hookup and a single drain for 6-10 showers versus one each for stalls.
We do need to address issues regarding acceptance as a society, but introducing strawmen just ignores the issue at hand.
Oh, now you don't want to link sex and nudity? On the one hand, you intrinsically link sex with nudity when you separate changing rooms by sex. That's the entire reason we have separate changing rooms. And then on the other hand, when I point out that this creates real issues for 20% of the population, you had waive it away saying those vitally important issues can be just dismissed out of hand, crassly dismissing the needs of 20% of the population as "a straw man."
You need to check your privilege.
Connecting sex to nudity is not natural. I didn't choose to separate changing rooms by sex. It would be better if they weren't, for the reason you imply.
Young kids have no problem being naked in front of each other. But, we unnaturally connect sex to nudity, they get that message their whole life, when puberty hits and they start to understand sex, that's where the embarrassment comes in.
You're absolutely correct, connecting sex to nudity is the deeper problem. It all goes away if we'd stop doing this, even for the 20% of the population you mention.
But, we're going in the wrong direction. We're making the whole thing worse, not better.
Agreed, my wife is not from the US and doesn't have the stigma of nudity being inherently sexual. It's a trip when she just whips out a tit to feed our baby anywhere, my inner American cringes but my rational side knows that what she's doing is natural and right.
I didn't even mention separate changing rooms. You need to go fuck yourself.