communal showers

We can dance around the issue but Mr. Fire Stick hit the nail on the head -- conversations are easier in one large room, easier to clean, and to check out the other guys. Not all guys check each other out and it's not just gay or bi that do. I know several straight guys that do it -- it seems to be human nature for most.

Yup -- communal showers are more condusive to conversations!

I worked as a counselor at a YMCA camp for a couple of summers. At night, after the kids were asleep, most of the counselors (a few had to stay behind to "baby sit", obviously) went to the communal showers just as a way to relax and chat with each other. It was one of the few opportunities we had during the day to really let our guard down and just chat.

Sure, we took notice of each other's packages, and even made comments from time to time -- nothing really overtly "gay", just guys chatting, who happen to be naked.

The strange part was that in the morning, when the kids took their showers, they were all in swimsuits, too nervous for the other boys to see them naked -- and, even then, it was a very quick "get wet, shampoo, done" sort of deal, no talking. There's a real generational gap there (as mentioned in other threads).

If I found myself in a communal shower with you, the conversation would be VERY friendly.

the communal never really bothered me that much. i had nothing to be embarrassed about and if anyone wanted to sneak a peek, i'd usually see anyways... i played sports all of my life and chances are that i've showered in a communal shower more times than at my own house. you get used to it...
now i work at a gym that still has a communal shower, but it's not a big deal for me. i shower in the staff locker rooms... they never bugged me that much though

I agree with everything you said. The gym USED to be a very social place for men to go before the "every guy in the locker room/shower/sauna/steam room is a gay pervert out to rape me" hysteria set in (especially with the younger guys). I especially agree with your comment about communal showers making it easier to carry on friendly conversation. I have had some awecome conversations with other guys when using a communal shower. I wouldn't know if these guys were gay or straight, and I really couldn't have cared less. All that mattered to me was that they were cool interesting guys to talk with. I found that talking with other guys in the communal shower removed any awkward uncomfortable feelings that I may have had (in the distant pass) about being nude around other men. When you talk to other guys, you realize that they are just guys who are the same as you. I mentioned in another thread that I have noticed that guys that use gyms which have ultra privacy such as stall showers with curtains (like my current gym) never talk to each other or even look at each other - not even outside of the locker room. If you try to strike up a conversation with some guys in the steam room or locker room (nothing sexual) you end up getting a look like . In my younger days (when guys were less paranoid) I used to make a ton of friends at the gym. Whenever I walked in I would know at least a few guys working out. I would then usually run into them at a pub or restaurant and chat with them for awhile. Eventually we became pretty good friends and hung out sometimes. It's a real shame that things have gotten into the sad sorry state that they are in today.. I think guys of the older generation knew something that today's generation doesn't in terms of communal showering and more open locker rooms (which were normal in the past). Familiarity with other guys builds bonds of friendship, trust, and mutual respect. Hiding from each other breeds fear, paranoia and distrust which is so common in today's locker room. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I long for the good old days.

Have no fear. The world is full of males who have a penis attached to their body. We all have them and it is a form of male bonding to see others in a shower situation.

Nothing to Fear.

Been There Done That. High School and in the U. S. Navy.

Not bothered at all by them. Its really common place here to have communal showers at school/gym/pool. Just the way its done.

Exactly. Standard in Britain. Use them every day.

Schools have communal showers. Can't remember first time I used one - it's just the normal thing. Gyms/pools have communal showers usually. A few state-run pools now have showers used by both sexes (so you keep your costume on).

People keep saying the newer generation is too shy for open showers - yet they are flashing their stuff all over the internet it seems. I think there is a large portion of the young 18 - 20's crowd doing vids, cam's etc. They arent alone in that of course.

Is that an acting out because they are too shy to be open in public? Or does one have nothing at all to do with the other?

Yes, I know on cam and via web you can be private and not have an identity - not show your face, but if your so bold as to masturbate over the web at a point where your video can be saved by someone and transmitted to who knows where - yet you are afraid to jump in the shower really quick at a gym - it just seems like something is a little off.

The web is also no human contact, not saying go to the gym for some action but are we moving toward fears of openess and reverting to shyness and shame about our bodies? I dont belong to a gym and haven't seen what its like now so all the news about a shy generation/movement is new to me.

Shrinks across the country must be having a field day with those bizarre behavioral inconsistencies...

Even some of my (prospective) online gay sex buddies admit to not being able to work out at the gym because they couldn't be naked in front of other guys (regardless of sexual orientation).

...then they inundate my email box with close-ups of their fully-erect schlong, complete with the cum load, not to mention their butthole and more junk...Vulgar nudity behind the camera lens is OK, but casual, innocent live nudity is not.

I feel that we have regressed to a black-and-white era when in movies the couple would have sex only in the dark, and with the man on top still wearing his black nylon socks...

Yikes!

It depends where you live. I had no idea that they were so shy there in the USA, but here in Europe it's just a common thing. At the beginning a little awkward, but afterwards nothing strange... Keep that please in mind, because I'm young and dare to shower, also most of my friends.

Hung Muscle, I have no doubt that you would be a brilliant conversationalist, but I am sure I would be too distracted by a certain prominent feature of yours to look you in the eye....

Yes it was natural for everyone in those communal showers. As a matter of fact in those days if you didn't shower everyone thought you might be a weirdo. And yes, it was kids to old fogies taking showers. You got naked you showered you got dressed. And males talked to each other while showering and dressing. Wasn't a attitude of let me get out of here before someone tries to pack my mud.

This has been a normal activity for me for most of my life. I spent a year at boarding school when I went to High school. Then I was an athlete and rugby player. We had a coach when I was in high school, who encouraged us to j/o before a game, to calm the nerves. We all did it, some in the open and some privately, and it was a normal part of our preparation. And the teacher was never there for these sessions. I think it must have worked, because we won the legue a few times.

I spent a few years in the army, and worked for many years in mines. So communual showers were a near daily ritual for me my whole life, up to a few years ago.

Also as an openly gay man living in these macho environments, I have never had any problems with my straight collegues. Although I do not know what they thought or said behind my back.

I think it is because it is not a sexual situation, and is not seen as such. Even our communual j/o sessions before games were strangely asexual.