Poll: Mixed Gender Showers

[Connor Lonske]

Your poll is missing the "no it would not work because the men would get constant boners" option.

i'd probably get a boner in a shared shower anyways. :v good thing i've never been in that situation

ontopic, i don't see why coed showers would be bad assuming people can control themselves. i likely wouldn't but i never plan on using any shared shower so whatever.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Whatever chips away at the bizarre, puritan body shame we all culturally suffer from. At least here in the States.

 

[Chemical Alia]

I studied in Heidelberg, Germany for a summer semester in 2005 when I was in college. For the first two weeks, I was living in a super old and dingy building that was used as dorms for the students at that university (also all international students), before they moved me and a handful of other lucky girls into a private apartment down the road for some reason.

Thinking back, those bathrooms were all coed. At first I thought that was really strange, but really how it worked out was that there was a door to the bathroom itself with sinks and toilets, and a door to the shower room. Girls and guys still did the actual showering separate, and a common courtesy policy was adopted by the students in which they'd watch the door when some people of either gender were in there showering. I always got dressed in my room, and we all brushed our teeth/dried our hair together in the bathroom.

Something tells me that'd probably be how it goes down, unless people start raising their kids without the stigma attached to it.

 

[PissOffRoth]

I think it might be a little late to start braking down some gender barriers for most people when they are in college. Teaching gender neutrality should start at a younger age.

Also, associating nudity and genitalia with sex is hardwired into the brain. It would require extreme amounts of indoctrination to overwrite that. It's just not feasible.

I agree that this should be a thing from the very beginning. Many MANY children are taught by their parents, probably unintentionally, that sex is taboo, that it's embarrassing. That's what happens when your kid asks you about it and you say "I'll tell you when you're older."

 

[Ashadowpie]

it depends, open stall showers like at a gym or jail? definatly divide it, you know how many people would get sexually assulted? doing something like that is just asking for it. with the bathroom thing its the urinals, i would never want to walk into a bathroom with a guys dick out while he's taking a piss. thats just disgusting. if there were proper closed stalls with urinals then i would be totally fine with it if both sexes used the same bathroom.

wtf is up with urinals anyways? its like peeing in public almost. some of then dont even have dividers so you stand next to other guys peeing.

 

[Yopaz]

I grew up in a society where sitting in a heated room, naked, sweating, with complete strangers, is considered having a good time. Since I was raised by a single mother and didn't want to go alone, as a little boy I shared the showers with women. I was a massive perv from an early age though, so I probably shouldn't have been there.

But seriously, nudity is only as big an issue as people make it. I saw some people on an anti-porn crusade claiming that a child witnessing nudity leaves a trauma equal to child abuse. It fucking doesn't. Some cultures just make a bigger deal about it than others. I'm not sure mixed-gender showers are the answer, but some people just need to stop being such prudes.

[small]Actually, they might have a point after all. Maybe that IS the root of all my problems...[/small]

I'm going to agree with the serious part of your post here and say that trauma from nudity sounds like complete bullshit. I have been in your situation too when I was a kid and while I am kinda messed up now I don't think that's because I sometimes had to shower in the presence of women when I went to the pool... I realize I make a pretty bad case here...


OT: I think a lot of people would be uncomfortable with this. I know there are some people on this site who wont go to the gym or the pool because they have to share with people of the same gender and I used to be uncomfortable about that myself until I really took a firm grip on myself. I have body issues and thus I'm not comfortable about my own nudity. I would get rid of my bathroom mirror if I didn't have to shave every now and then.

Some are against this for religious reasons. There have been schools where certain students have boycotted P.E. because they would have to shower with other girls present and demanded stalls to be made. Some of those from these groups demand separate classes for boys and girls in order to keep from interacting. Now that is obviously taking it several steps too far, but it shows how bad things would get if they were to share showers.

Now I would be uncomfortable being naked with women in the room, even if I were fully clothed and more so if I weren't. It would be healthy if this wasn't the case and if we could live in a society where we really could be 100% comfortable with our nudity it would be nice.

I think we should respect the fact that many of us are uncomfortable with this and thus I think it's a bad idea.

 

[Heronblade]

So long as there is always at least the option of privacy I don't have an inherent issue with it.

I feel that our society needs to break away from the flawed idea that nudity = sexuality. The only question in my opinion is whether something like this would help, or we need to do something a bit more intermediate first. Given the... mentality most of my male peers currently have towards women, I suspect the latter is true.

 

[Risingblade]

I don't see why we'd have to have mixed showers. Separate showers have worked fine until now. But if you must have then they should be completely optional with the separate shower alternative.

 

[Genocidicles]

I'd rather everyone just showered separately.

That way you don't see people who really shouldn't be seen naked, and you don't see people too attractive to be seen when you're in such a *ahem* compromising postion.

Same reason why I'll never go to a nudist beach.

 

[flarty]

Your poll is missing the "no it would not work because the men would get constant boners" option.

I sprung one reading the title

 

[Akytalusia]

show me an ideal society, and i'll support this concept. there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it. in fact, with appropriate social structure, it would be better than sex segregation. however, i don't live in an ideal society, so i know it wouldn't turn out well here, specifically.

 

[ShiningAmber]

No. Keep them separate. This is coming from a woman. If there can be an option for open showers between genders, then that's fine.

I don't want anyone ogling at me. I'm showering. It's not a show. I don't care if you're looking for 'equality' in the showers. I want to take a shower by myself.

 

[TrulyBritish]

Well I'd find that rather awkward. Got nothing against girls specifically seeing me naked, I'm the same with other guys and tend to shower alone and dress alone but I do think this could be a good idea. IF you could convince the more prudish of society to accept it I see no reason why you couldn't implement it at a very young age when children have little concept of sexuality anyway.
But I don't think you could just add it in at, say, college or uni level as I can see that causing rather large problems or comfort issues.

 

[baconsarnie]

When i was at uni in halls we had specific male/female showers or toilets, they were all separate stalls and we never had any issues.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I think we should just be able shower separately, in that every individual can shower privately without being seen by anyone else.

But ultimately I don't think it would change anything. But I think a college should definitely have option open for gender-separated showers at the very least.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Also, associating nudity and genitalia with sex is hardwired into the brain. It would require extreme amounts of indoctrination to overwrite that. It's just not feasible.

No it isn't. Our distant ancestors would have been naked all the time, remember? Plus it wasn't unusual in some more recent societies (greek?) for everyone to be naked around each other basically whenever, and definitely for bathing.

Basically you've got it the wrong way round. Thinking that nudity = sex/inappropriate is the result of societal indoctrination which is a holdover from more prudish Christian-controlled times. It isn't hardwired at all; being naked is basically the natural state for human beings, covering up is essentially a practical thing designed to prevent your junk from getting sunburned or scratched by thorns or frozen or whatever.

OT: This could work but provided there were some option for more self conscious/prudish people to shower alone.

 

[Morti]

I ticked the "Yeah" option as it was closest to my thoughts.

To be precise, I think that it is a good idea (and that in a utopian society you could be nude whenever and wherever), but societal change takes time, let's stop making such a fuss over nudity first. Also, college is probably about the latest you would be able to introduce this, the older people get, the harder it is to change ways (but not impossible). Ideally, you would want to get to people when they're young. From what I've seen, parents don't seem to mind co-ed pre-schoolers as there's still barely any difference at that stage. The trick would be trying to keep them co-ed as they grew up.

In short: not yet

 

[Vareoth]

Also, associating nudity and genitalia with sex is hardwired into the brain. It would require extreme amounts of indoctrination to overwrite that. It's just not feasible.

No it isn't. Our distant ancestors would have been naked all the time, remember? Plus it wasn't unusual in some more recent societies (greek?) for everyone to be naked around each other basically whenever, and definitely for bathing.

Basically you've got it the wrong way round. Thinking that nudity = sex/inappropriate is the result of societal indoctrination which is a holdover from more prudish Christian-controlled times. It isn't hardwired at all; being naked is basically the natural state for human beings, covering up is essentially a practical thing designed to prevent your junk from getting sunburned or scratched by thorns or frozen or whatever.

OT: This could work but provided there were some option for more self conscious/prudish people to shower alone.

You are partially correct. While it is true that the Greeks were a lot less prudish concerning the human body, they wore clothes when appropriate.

Also, while there were a lot of occasions where men would be naked the same can't be said about the female sex. More often than not women were portrayed clothed.

I will, however, completely agree with you that today's society is far to prudish about the natural beauty of the human body. And the reason that I think that nudity is at least partially associated with sexuality on a basic biological level is most likely because I'm somewhat of a pervert and don't know any different.

 

[A Weakgeek]

Yes. I like showing my weewee to people. Its so hard to do it nowdays without negative results. This would be one more legal way to do it.

It's like holding the olympic torch, and shining its brilliance for all bystanders to see.

 

[Me55enger]

Gender equality is a loaded phrase as it is anyway.

Desegregating showers is not the way to do it.