Sauna/Nudity/Dilemma

Off Topic
1

During the week, I work out at my job’s gym. I workout, shower quickly, get back to work. On Saturdays I work out at a Sport and Health gym; I take my time and they have a suana/steam room. I love taking a long sauna and steam after working out.

Here’s the thing: I much prefer to sauna naked, which is how you’re supposed to do it. To be very clear: I’m a happily married, heterosexual 48-year-old dude with two kids. And when I say sauna naked, I don’t mean prancing around or displaying my junk; i simply mean sitting there on a towel reading Men’s Health.

I’ve noticed that about a third of the guys in the sauna are naked or almost; the others have a towel wrapped around them – which I just find restrictive and uncomfortable. And yes I sometimes get some unwanted vibes from gay guys cruising the sauna, which is annoying. But I don’t have a problem with gay guys – I think being gay is totally normal. I don’t like sexualizing public spaces, but the presences of gay guys doesn’t set me off as it does for some – I think i’m confident enough in my dudeness that this doesn’t threaten me.

So the dilemma is this: I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, and it almost seems like a generational thing – guys my age are often naked in the locker room; younger guys often aren’t. But saunaing clothed or wrapped in a towel is a drag – and I don’t think guys should be uptight about being naked in front of other guys. But maybe I’m not getting it. Is being nude interpreted automatically as a signal that I’m gay and looking for some man action? I once visited a Gold’s Gym where it was homo central in the sauna – but that’s not what I’m talking about. This is by and large a normal gym with your occasional Sauna cruiser but usually just reguar guys. I want to be respectful of other guys, but I also want to enjoy my one day of leisurly workout-followed-by-a-sauna.

Thoughts?

2

I hate seeing free flying penises. I will just say that flat out. I hate walking into the locker room and seeing older people walking around with their junk out. Yes, it may be a generational thing because I notice some older people do seem to enjoy being naked in there.

I think the problem is that most people who like to be naked…are the last people anyone really wants to see naked.

3

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I hate seeing free flying penises. I will just say that flat out. I hate walking into the locker room and seeing older people walking around with their junk out. Yes, it may be a generational thing because I notice some older people do seem to enjoy being naked in there.

I think the problem is that most people who like to be naked…are the last people anyone really wants to see naked.[/quote]

Sounds like you’ve got some repressed homosexuality going on there. If you were totally straight it wouldn’t bother you.

4

[quote]MassiveGuns wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I hate seeing free flying penises. I will just say that flat out. I hate walking into the locker room and seeing older people walking around with their junk out. Yes, it may be a generational thing because I notice some older people do seem to enjoy being naked in there.

I think the problem is that most people who like to be naked…are the last people anyone really wants to see naked.[/quote]

Sounds like you’ve got some repressed homosexuality going on there. If you were totally straight it wouldn’t bother you.[/quote]

I think you miss my point. Most of the people I see do this are in pretty bad shape and they are not simply getting dressed or drying off. They are using that time as if the locker room is a nudist colony.

Everyone who doesn’t want to see that is not harboring repressed homosexuality. However, please let us know where you earned your Psych degree. Medical school?

No?

Oh, so you are just another guy on the internet making brash split second psychoanalysis of people.

Right.

5

Professor – While my attitude is more like who-gives-a-fuck-if-someone’s-naked, I know what you mean: it’s simply unpleasant to see old overweight dudes naked. I’m not a cut and buff young lion, but I’m in decent shape – and if I were really out of shape, I’d not parade around naked out of consideration for others. But nor would I hide myself out of shame.

And for that matter, if I were totally buff, I would not wear nipple hugging Underarmour get up or run without a shirt either – flaunting your ripedness is obnoxious as well. I’m trying to figure out some middle ground. If everyone’s going to think I’m a raging homo for saunaing naked or if this is going to make others uncomfortable, then fuck it, I’ll put on a goddamned towel. But part of me wants to say in response: it’s a naked dick, grow up, deal with it, who gives a shit anyway, we’re all guys. Maybe I’m simply too Europeanized.

6

[quote]walkersc wrote:
Professor – While my attitude is more like who-gives-a-fuck-if-someone’s-naked, I know what you mean: it’s simply unpleasant to see old overweight dudes naked. I’m not a cut and buff young lion, but I’m in decent shape – and if I were really out of shape, I’d not parade around naked out of consideration for others. But nor would I hide myself out of shame. And for that matter, if I were totally buff, I would not wear nipple hugging Underarmour get up or run without a shirt either – flaunting your ripedness is obnoxious as well. I’m trying to figure out some middle ground. If everyone’s going to think I’m a raging homo for saunaing naked or if this is going to make others uncomfortable, then fuck it, I’ll put on a goddamned towel. But part of me wants to say in response: it’s a naked dick, grow up, deal with it, who gives a shit anyway, we’re all guys. Maybe I’m simply too Europeanized.[/quote]

I don’t associate being naked with homosexuality. I doubt anyone else does either. It doesn’t even phase me mentally at all to simply see someone naked changing clothes. However, there is a HUGE difference between that and walking around holding conversations and lagging in the locker room for 40min nude. I see some of these people in there the entire time I am lifting…and they are STILL naked.

Yes, it is about being obnoxious and blow drying your balls in the hand dryer over the sink for 10min is pretty damn obnoxious.

This is NOT simply about ever being naked. this is about making being naked your THANG to do in the locker room.

7

I agree with PX here and I agree that it’s, in part, generational.

One of the gyms I go to is a YMCA. It’s a haven for geriatric folks who walk the treadmills, socialize, and hangout in the locker rooms naked. Not to get changed and freshen up, mind you, but to stand around and socialize-- oh, and they happen to be naked.

I’ve seen these guys in the locker room having conversations, come back a half hour later, and they’re still in there still butt naked. It’s like powdering their balls is THE social thing to do.

My wife has told me it’s true with the old ladies, too.

Now, in the case of the YMCA, there have been problems with pedo’s. The staff knows this, the parents know, and the kids suspect. There are some real creeps who fucking powder their balls wherever they can-- it’s like they mark territory. I threw a gym bag out one time because I came into the locker room to find this homo-creep-pedo (known) legs-a-straddled over the bench that my bag was under powdering away while all the extra powdered my gym bag like a pastry. I fucking laid into him about his dick powder. He’s since been remove from “The Y” (not because of that, though).

My kids aren’t allowed in the locker rooms there (they’re on swim team). They change in the ‘family change rooms’ which are like big bathrooms.

8

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I think you miss my point. Most of the people I see do this are in pretty bad shape and they are not simply getting dressed or drying off. They are using that time as if the locker room is a nudist colony.

Everyone who doesn’t want to see that is not harboring repressed homosexuality. However, please let us know where you earned your Psych degree. Medical school?

No?

Oh, so you are just another guy on the internet making brash split second psychoanalysis of people.

Right.[/quote]

I’m with Prof X on this one, and I think he hits the nail on the head with “They are using that time as if the locker room is a nudist colony.”

I have no problem being around a naked dude. I was in the Marine Corps so I would say I had my fair share of time being around nude men and at the same time making homosexual jokes during those times. Sitting in the head with 30 guys all taking a shit at the same time with no walls or doors on the toilet stalls is an interesting experience.

However, there is a HUGE difference in when everyone takes a shower, gets out, wraps a towel around them and gets dressed-- to what the gym I go to is like. There are guys who take ALL friggin day it seems to get dressed that walk around nude, have conversations with others guys nude with a towel in their hand. Why? Because they like being nude in public, for whatever reason. Not calling them gay, but they like to be nude around others. I don’t have a problem exposing my body, but I do what I go to do and get dressed.

I don’t understand why a towel is restrictive in a sauna? Do you feel restrictive with a blanket when sleeping? I once knew a guy who complained about how he couldn’t be nude in the sauna he went to, years later, he was a registered sex offender… true story, just saying…

EDIT: Sorry Prof and Steely, ya’lls post weren’t there before I posted. Basically repeated what you two said, reiteration can help I guess anyway :slight_smile:

9

[quote]Evolv wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
I think you miss my point. Most of the people I see do this are in pretty bad shape and they are not simply getting dressed or drying off. They are using that time as if the locker room is a nudist colony.

Everyone who doesn’t want to see that is not harboring repressed homosexuality. However, please let us know where you earned your Psych degree. Medical school?

No?

Oh, so you are just another guy on the internet making brash split second psychoanalysis of people.

Right.[/quote]

I’m with Prof X on this one, and I think he hits the nail on the head with “They are using that time as if the locker room is a nudist colony.”

I have no problem being around a naked dude. I was in the Marine Corps so I would say I had my fair share of time being around nude men and at the same time making homosexual jokes during those times. Sitting in the head with 30 guys all taking a shit at the same time with no walls or doors on the toilet stalls is an interesting experience.

However, there is a HUGE difference in when everyone takes a shower, gets out, wraps a towel around them and gets dressed-- to what the gym I go to is like. There are guys who take ALL friggin day it seems to get dressed that walk around nude, have conversations with others guys nude with a towel in their hand. Why? Because they like being nude in public, for whatever reason. Not calling them gay, but they like to be nude around others. I don’t have a problem exposing my body, but I do what I go to do and get dressed.

I don’t understand why a towel is restrictive in a sauna? Do you feel restrictive with a blanket when sleeping? I once knew a guy who complained about how he couldn’t be nude in the sauna he went to, years later, he was a registered sex offender… true story, just saying… [/quote]

No, I don’t feel restrictive with a blanket when sleeping, but then again, the point of sleeping isn’t to sweat profusely. If it were, as is the case with the sauna, then yeah, I’d find it restrictive. But I do sleep naked because I feel clothes are restrictive, so perhaps that’s a better analogy. As for your last point linking being naked in the sauna to being a sex offender…dude, that’s just offensive.

10

[quote]walkersc wrote:
No, I don’t feel restrictive with a blanket when sleeping, but then again, the point of sleeping isn’t to sweat profusely. If it were, as is the case with the sauna, then yeah, I’d find it restrictive. But I do sleep naked because I feel clothes are restrictive, so perhaps that’s a better analogy. As for your last point linking being naked in the sauna to being a sex offender…dude, that’s just offensive.
[/quote]
I’m not calling you one, I apologize if it came across that way. That was a bad similarity to make, you’re right, my mistake man.

11

I don’t think of male nudity in the change room/sauna as anything other than people going about their business.

But I will say some of the older guys do some really fucked up things in the change room. I saw a man probably in his 60’s blow drying his genitals with the community handheld blow dryer.

12

Reason # 1,325 for a home gym.

13

Could it be a cultural thing? In our gym (in the Netherlands) it’s very normal for guys & gals to be naked in the sauna (yes, mixed). Doesn’t have any sexual connotations at all. Of course, outside the sauna you wear a towel or bathrobe.
So have some difficulties to understand what’s the problem with being naked in the sauna, be it with other guys or girls. Actually it would be more weird not to be. So maybe it has something to do with American norms being a more restricted?

14

Some people have no class. Flaunting your junk without any regard for others is plain ignorance.

I used to train at the Philly YMHA back in the 80’s. My training partner was gay, but we both waited to take showers until we got to our respective homes. There were so many “flaunters” and gay “vultures” in the locker room that even my gay friend felt offended and violated.

Gay, straight, old, young… have some fucking class.

<— EDIT: Damn. Seems odd to be so preachy with THAT avatar.

15

[quote]NicoT wrote:
Could it be a cultural thing? In our gym (in the Netherlands) it’s very normal for guys & gals to be naked in the sauna (yes, mixed). Doesn’t have any sexual connotations at all. Of course, outside the sauna you wear a towel or bathrobe.
So have some difficulties to understand what’s the problem with being naked in the sauna, be it with other guys or girls. So maybe it has something to do with American norms?[/quote]

As far as the sauna, I think it is as simple as “flaunting nudity” vs “being nude while simply doing what you need to do”.

If I see some guy naked in the locker room when I get to the gym and then 45min later he is STILL naked, I start to think that person is really strange.

16

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Some people have no class. Flaunting your junk without any regard for others is plain ignorance.

I used to train at the Philly YMHA back in the 80’s. My training partner was gay, but we both waited to take showers until we got to our respective homes. There were so many “flaunters” and gay “vultures” in the locker room that even my gay friend felt offended and violated.

Gay, straight, old, young… have some fucking class.[/quote]

Exactly. The showers are a haven for bacteria and disease anyway so unless someone is headed to work right afterwards or going out, I just don’t understand why so many of these guys choose to shower at the gym when you are safer at home.

However, apparently any guy who doesn’t want to see free flying dicks is a “latent homosexual”.

Oh, the irony.

18

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

<— EDIT: Damn. Seems odd to be so preachy with THAT avatar.[/quote]

Your avatar is the internet equivalent of the old guy in the locker room with his leg up on the wall, drying his gray-haired beanbag with the fucking hand dryer.

It’s just like that, only more pathetic.

19

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Some people have no class. Flaunting your junk without any regard for others is plain ignorance.

I used to train at the Philly YMHA back in the 80’s. My training partner was gay, but we both waited to take showers until we got to our respective homes. There were so many “flaunters” and gay “vultures” in the locker room that even my gay friend felt offended and violated.

Gay, straight, old, young… have some fucking class.[/quote]

…apparently any guy who doesn’t want to see free flying dicks is a “latent homosexual”.

Oh, the irony.[/quote]

LOL! Well the OP did say he reads Men’s Health in the sauna.

20

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:

<— EDIT: Damn. Seems odd to be so preachy with THAT avatar.[/quote]

You need to draw in a hair dryer so it looks like your flappy wanker is flappin’ in the wind.