In jr high there was open showers, coach wanted us to shower after a 45 min gym class. I had a problem with this due to religious teachings and flunked the class due to it. I do not think it would bother me now, but I am not involved in any sports that require this.

I do not think there was any problems where I went to school, but I was ridiculed harder due to this. Was not fun. Some of the guys who did shower at first quit doing so after a couple weeks when coach would not stop the teasing that was going on.

Not sure I understand the degradation issue here. Did other guys make fun of your dick? Did the coach? It strikes me as odd that the coach showered with the boys. Sounds like he might have been a bit of a twink hunter.

You say that people were hurt by open showers, and those that don't agree are speaking from only their own experience. So are you. If you had a bad experience with open showers, I'm sorry. I hope someday you can leave that part of your life behind.

For me, it was no big deal. Every guy showered. Our PE was physical and we did sweat. Part of the education I took away was that there a lot of guys with a lot of different sizes and shapes, but we were all pretty much equal. I never felt inferior to those guys whose dicks were bigger than mine, nor superior to those with smaller dicks than mine.

Can't say I ever enjoyed the towel-snapping swagger that some guys exhibited, but I largely avoided and ignored them.

I do think we have over sensationalized nudity to the point that you and others of your generation have very few experiences where you have been naked with other guys (or women have been naked with other women) in non-sexual circumstances. I think it adds to an unfortunate increase in our already too prudish society.

I certainly don't want people to force people into uncomfortable circumstances. I wish that everyone could find such circumstances just another part of life without embarrassment or pain.

I still remember how I didn't like to have to get nude in front of other guys in the shower rooms long ago (1961-1967). I also remember how it secretly excited me, especially when the guys teased me about having breasts like a girl and needing a bra. I was interested in psychology from an early age, and I fancied that the psychological purposes of open showers (for boys, at least) were to identify certain boys as homosexuals (because they got erections in the shower room); to enable others to "prove" they weren't homosexuals (because they didn't get erections in the shower room); and to give boys an outlet for their hostility and malice (by making fun of other boys who had small penises, big breasts or butts, and whatnot). I always thought it was a bad idea, even back then when there was no question of guys butt-raping other guys in the shower room and shit like that.

Our gym classes often ended to close to the end of the period to make it to our next class on time, so rarely did we shower after. Having said that the whole physical ed class was a joke. We often played games that everyone knew the rules too. I dont remember learning anything in that class other than i was not a jock. If they want to call it somthing they should call it exercise period or physical game period. That is what i hated about the class.
Did it scar me, maybe but come on, we all have scars. Maybe the jocks scars are that they will have sore knees and shoulders when they are 60 and i wont.
I aree that the younger people are too worried about being naked in front of others. People just need to learn to suck it up and deal with life!

Reading through the latest few posts here, a couple of points strike me. The needless embarrassment that is caused by open locker and shower rooms exacerbates and encourages the larger behavioral problem of bullying in the schools. And the posts indicate that there are people who nevertheless seem to believe that this is no big deal, and guys should just suck it up and move on.

As for "suck it up and move on." Bullshit! "Fix it" is the reasonable and thoughtful attitude. The athletic shower room problem at least is easily resolved with modern facility designs and revised school policies. There are by the way, also two schools of thought among the young guys in those locker rooms. There are the cool macho guys who DO the teasing and bullying, and those who are BEING teased and bullied. No problem for the macho guys. Great fun actually! Not fun for the others.

The people who think it's no big deal and that guys should just move on, were probably not generally among the group of guys being bullied. Whether it commonly leaves real scars later in life is debatable, but irrelevant. It certainly causes psychological pain at the time it happens. And unnecessary pain to children and young people should not be tolerated.

I'll never understand the macho male mentality that thinks that men getting naked together is not only acceptable, it's even desirable. But we don't have to let these macho jerks make policies that inflict embarrassment and pain on children in the schools.

I think the answer here is to treat the cause, not the symptom. People are embarrassed about getting naked because our society deems in "wrong" and connects it to sex.

The reality is, everyone is born naked, it's a normal and natural thing. People come in all shapes and sizes. That's normal too.

It's time for America to wake up and stop being so backward. Seeing a boob or cock should't be a big deal, but somehow we make it into one.

Maybe I'm from an older generation. I played sports in highschool and we always showered after practice. No one ever made a comment or teased anyone. Sometimes guys would make comments about other guys girlfriends but never any sexual teasing about your physical makeup and that is the way it should be, in my opinion.

I find absolutely nothing wrong with community showers. All through middle school and high school all the boys were made to shower together after Phys Ed classes. Nothing ever happened in these showers. I think parents and children are becoming far too sensitive these days. Hell if we forgot our swimming trunks we were given the choice of swimming naked or failing that days course.

Respectfully, the fact that some people think OTHER people are too sensative these days is irrelevant. People ARE sensative about state enforced public nakedness these days as they should be.

"Nothing ever happened" ??? We're not talking about improper physical contact here. We're talking about embarrassing and improper public nudity.

Older guys just don't get it. The way they did it in the old days was degrading and improper. We need to move on.

What's so improper about a bunch of guys (older or younger) showering together? If you go to LA Fitness or Bally's you don't have personal shower facilities. I never found it degrading or embarrassing to shower with my fellow school mates or at the YMCA showering with other men. My guess would be that you are embarrassed by your physical attributes. So you're suggesting that we should invest many more tax payer dollars to upgrade our schools so that every boy or girl can have his or her own personal shower facility.

P.S. I was neither the one being bullied or the one doing the bullying.

Hey, I'm an older guy, and I do get it. It's degrading to be required or expected to get naked in front of other people when you don't want to. Just ask any girl or woman whether she would think it was a big deal to have to strip in front of a bunch of male f---heads she didn't like!

Point taken!

I vote for either private stalls, or showering wearing a loose bathing suit, if there are showers to be had by high school students or younger. There are enough embarrassing things to worry about growing up, without being required to get naked in front of other people, especially when the body is changing so dramatically (and all at different rates) and the other people are about the same age.

In Jr and High school we always had large open shower rooms. I really didnt thing anything about it but did enjoy seeing other guys naked. At 13 I had my first bj from twin brothers.
So at school just felt comfortable being naked in the showers.
Go to a pvt gym now with open showers and its still great. Find more men are horny after a good workout and even like to stroke in the showers. Sometimes 4-5 are doing it. Rare anyone ever comments on it. Just seems kinda natural and seems to be very male bonding.