YMCA swimming pools

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ICMa said:
Boys were required to be naked at YMCA swimming pools till 1950s. What do you think about?
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Some of my friends had swimming naked in their all boy catholic high school in the nineties.
 
Roy5 said:
I went to a summer camp run by the Y as a child decades ago, and every morning we had to take a morning dip in the lake - in the nude. We didn’t think anything of it.

Then, in a private high school I attended, we showered after sports, also in the nude.

We think of being less prudish today, but in some ways we are the opposite.

My guess is that the change may have come about in large part because of more attention given to homosexuality. When I was a kid, I wasn’t even aware of gays. Even when, as a teenager, I became aware of gays, it received no public attention as it does today. So, we paid nudity among males no particular attention.
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Probably that was healthier back then???
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Good observation about being more/less prudish - the reality can be quite surprising. I was recently looking at a 1920s/30s issue of a magazine for municipal managers and engineers. It had an article about the operation of public swimming pools, which included a photo from behind of a man, entirely nude, having his feet checked for signs of infection by a lifeguard in the dressing room prior to be allowed in the pool.

And I agree, it’s the increased prominence of homosexuality which is probably responsible for today’s heightened sensitivity about male nudity.
 
In the early 80’s boys swam nude in the pool at my DH’s all male Catholic HS. For all I know they still do.
 
the Y in Erie PA had the boys swim nude for their lessons every Saturday in the 1960-70’s. ugh.
in high school in the 70-80’s the girls and guys had separate locker rooms but each just had group showers – very embarrassing to some of us, very normal to others of us.

I always wondered why these naked encounters were forced on everyone, comfortable or not.
 
BobObob said:
Here’s a source. I’m not sure if it’s 100% accurate though.

historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=3100
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An early casualty of gender equity was males-only nude swimming in the downtown pool. Men and boys had been accustomed to swimming au naturel at the YMCA, not only in Seattle but in Ys everywhere, since the 1890s. The practice may have evolved from problems created by the long, wool swimming suits then in fashion, which apparently shed so much they gummed up the pool filters. Later, nude swimming was justified on the grounds of hygiene. A handbook in use at the Seattle Y in the 1920s required that “A good soap bath must be taken before entering the swimming pool” in the same paragraph that specified “The wearing of swimming suits or supporters will not be allowed except by permission from the director” (Information for Members).
Instead of the YMCA changing its rules about male nude swimming, to accommodate the addition of female members, perhaps the female members should have been required to accept the rules which were already in place requiring nude swimming in the pools. The new female members could have been given the option of either wearing swimsuits, or swimming nude just like the male members did.

I think the females of today probably would not have as much of a problem with males swimming nude at the YMCA, even if they were sharing the same swimming pool.

Today’s females are more likely to accept the fact that simple non-sexual male ( or female ) nudity is not immodest or indecent.
 
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