I went to boarding school when I was 14 and the showers there had no curtains. I was scared at the thought of getting naked in front of whole heap of guys having never done it before.

If anything, I discovered that my cock was a very normal size . Some guys had huge ones - others not much at all. But if you didn't man up and have a shower in the nude every morning with the guys, then everyone thought that there must be something wrong with you and you would be ridiculed.

Day 1, straight into the shower and everything was fine.

Our gym class required showers after class, and we did so from elementary school through junior high and one year of high school. I endured a lot of humiliation in those classes. But it was due to the fact I wasn't a jock and that's all the gym teacher ("Coach" as you say!) only had time for his athletes. My most horrific childhood memories come out of those gym classes. But even as a quiet nerd, the nakedness of showers and getting dressed never bothered me because I was brought up with it in those schools. It was "normal".

I do agree that for reasons unknown to me, "normal" has become no showers. I remain puzzled as to the reasons for the shift. I don't claim that one is better than the other, but I do wonder why it changed. I wise friend of mine claims it's because of rising standards of living where boys in a family no longer shared rooms: complete privacy became the norm as opposed to daily exposure to at least one other person. And it then expanded to the schools. I don't know if he's right. I can easily imagine boys being mean to one another when naked causing scars. But I also think today's boys/men in the U.S. are WAAAAYYY too hung up on nudity.

Just my opinion, of course.

Never had to shower in school, but I went to Boy Scout camp for a week where there were open showers for the boys (adults showed seperately). The first time, there was lots of laughing and making fun, but after a couple of days, it was just normal. We never thought anything about it.

That's fucking hot, dude!

We had open showers, and it didn't bother me. But I can imagine that some would feel differently.

I certainly ejoyed seeing all the naked boys too. Amazing how man sized a high school boy can be.

To me, Kent, your generation has been raised with an overly puritan view of the body. We now equate nudity with sex and exhibitionism. Sometimes people get naked for reasons other than showing off, but that point is missed all too often anymore. If everyone's naked, no one's at a disadvantage. If you see others naked from time to time, you learn that we are all basically the same with some interesting differences.

To say that group nude showers caused the Penn State incidents is a huge overstatement. If that were true, every one of my male high school classmates should have become a pedophile, because we all showered together from the 6th grade on.

The Penn State activities actually COULD be used to argue for open showers. If there were private stalls, no one would have ever been able to know what happened. Predators are going to find a way where possible so better that no private spot was available. The open stall allowed it to be spotted. The issue was that no one correctly reported what they saw.

I was definitely NOT a jock in school and didn't have to take showers and would have been very embarrassed if I had to. However, I'd like to think I'd have been more comfortable with my body if I had. I know I've become more so after finding camming and the internet.

I love going to gyms and in the shower looking at great asses

I appreciate the interest in this thread and the comments pro and con on the issue.

I would just make two more points based on recent posts. Seems to me that there is nothing about the shower room experience which tells us that we are all the same. Not in a physical anatomical sense. One of the embarrassing things at the middle school level is still having a kid sized dick, when guys around you are already sporting man sized dicks. There are lots of developmental differences at that age.

As for the Penn State incident, my comment was more about the macho athletic mentality, than about the layout of the shower room. But I certainly agree that an open shower area probably made it very much easier to be observed by a passer-by.

Thanks again for all the comments pro and con.

loved it when my buds and i were all seniors and we had man sized dicks and the freshmen were around with their tiny boy dicks!

I've been a serious mountain bike racer for a very long time and a lot of the races are held in state parks and such. After the races the competitors always take advatage of any shower facilities that may be available. It can be very hard not to get very hard when your body is pumped with all the hormones and shit it produces during a race. All I know is that when I'm done racing, I'm horny as hell. And the showers are full of hard bodies from 18 (actually younger but Ben won't let me say that) to 70. Every one of them fit strong and healthy. And way tan. Wow, talk about a public shower.

That gave me a charge too. By the time I was 17, I had a big one. It really was fun letting the young guys with boy dicks see it. It was also a turnon to think that they probably also figured that I was using my man dick for sex. Which of course I was.

Got a hardon here from your description of that public shower. A bunch of naked men, all pumped and sweaty from exercise, is sweet to see. Love those open showers!

I've never been averse to getting naked in front of anyone. I don't see what the big deal is. I have a cock, balls, all the normal equipment. Yes, I like checking out what other guys have.

Every year a friend of mine has a big pool party. About 5 or 6 people (men and women) skinny dip. The rest of the fuddy duddies wear swimsuits. I am a rabid exhibitionist, so I love having people look at my cock.

The RAGBRAI - bike ride across Iowa showers were great for this too !!