That about sums up my locker-room feelings too.

I think the extended nudity thing comes with age. The older you are, the less you care about what you and/or other people see in the locker room. (Seems like the oldest, wrinkliest people are the ones who sit around purposelessly nude the most…at least in my experience.)

Probably some to do with personality type, too. In my work in massage therapy I noticed it to an extent. There were the nervous people who wouldn’t get completely undressed despite my reassurance that they would be covered up the whole time, and those who would start taking their clothes off before I even left the room to wash my hands.

Haha, this post cracked me up. I admire you for writing it. I do not share your same feelings, but I have a friend who does (who I will be forwarding this post to!), and she has described the exact same feelings you shared. I guess being on the soccer team and with cheerleading, I constantly had to dress out in front of other people, so it never phased me. I will say that it is easier in front of friends and teammates though, than it is a perfect stranger. I also had alot of health problems as a child, so I think being in the hospital and going to lots of doctors kind of stole some of my modesty away too. Who knows? Maybe I am the weird one, and you are perfectly normal!

i have the exact opposite feelings. I think being in endless dance classes all my life – where people routinely changed in dressing rooms or in the wings backstage – I just got used to people being naked. Like the moron I am when it comes to boys, it took me quite a while to realize that me stripping off my shirt in front of a male friend did not exactly mean the same thing as me doing it in the dressing room.

However, that said, I totally freak out when *guys* walk around naked. Like, dudes! Those are your baby-makin’ parts! Put those away unless you’re going to use them for something!!

Weirdly, I don’t really mind if I have to briefly take my clothes off to change, and I am really comfortable hanging out with friends in their bras. But the only other female I feel normal about being naked around for any length of time, or seeing naked for any length of time, is my sister, and we usually sit and talk to each other in the bath.

That said, I don’t mind about seeing other people naked. I just don’t understand how long you can normally look at another naked woman. Like, if my eyes dart around, that means I’m nervous. But staring is weird. How can I be normal?

It is unclear.

Dude, I’m with you. I went to a secondary school where getting changed after swimming with one hand holding a towel over crucial areas was nigh an art form. David Cahill, who played gaelic football with the local club, was so used to being in the buff he’d swing his lad out every chance he got. The rest of us weren’t impressed.

I’ve actually seen my mum come out of a dressing room in a huff that women were doing the things you describe in front of little girls.

Thing is, for guys, it’s really not a big deal because there’s such a small area to avoid looking at. (BURN on all the dudes who work out at 24 Fitness!). I’m with you though, for sure!

Well, before I went to boot camp, I was Miss Prude. I didn’t like changing in front of friends and would wait patiently for the bathroom. Then BAM! Boot camp showers consisted of a wall with four shower heads and about 16 girls. You do the math. We had 3 minutes to shower so modesty HAD to go out the window. When I returned to my normal life, my modesty was really, really scaled back. I just didn’t care. I remember going to the student work out place with my roommates because our apartment water had been shut off, and we all needed to shower. I just stripped down and my roommates were floored and obviously offended. While I didn’t dawdle naked, I also didn’t care if they saw. There’s a balance and the women who just cover half their bodies…well, I usually look the other way. I think they are weird. Me? I change discreetly, but I also don’t go running to a stall to change so no one can see. If someone’s gonna see something, whoopie. I don’t care. It’s only for a glance anyway. But, if you feel uncomfortable, there’s nothing wrong with modesty. Just avoid that full-length mirror with the boob lady.

I’m on Team Modesty where this matter is concerned. I was always especially embarrassed on behalf of my father who had to change clothes in front of his teammates. Underwear, maybe; Unclothed (top or bottom), definitely not. But hey, that’s just me!

The school I attend contracts out to a pretty posh workout center near downtown Dallas. All students, faculty and staff use the same gym/locker room, etc.

If you want to talk about weird, try getting an accidental glimpse of a professor sans clothes and then sitting in his lecture the next day. It’s just weird. Certainly, one gets over it because they have to, but still. It’s weird.

Eden also works out at the same place she works. Fortunately, she hasn’t seen any of her students yet, but it definitely terrifies her and haunts all of her workouts. She gets around it by going to the gym at 5 AM.

I am also modest. I’m probably a step above a never-nude.

Like with my fear of fish, I had a senseless fear of my own nudity growing up, too. I know it’s hard to believe when you see pictures of me in the short short bathing suit I wore last summer (and just wait until this summer!), but I was totally the shy kid with his shirt on in the water park all the way through high school.

Then I decided to get over it freshman year of college and started taking trips to Hippie Hollow by the spring of sophomore year. At first I felt weird getting naked outside, but the thing about a nudist park like that is that you start feeling more conspicuous clothed than you do if you’re naked.

I still hate the nude lingerers in the gym, though. Especially at 24 Hour Fitness, where that one old guy watches the TV in the locker room and tries to talk politics to you while he’s naked and you’re changing. That’s just pervy.

I was actually thinking the other day that when I am old, I am totally walking from the shower to my locker totally nude. I almost do it now but hold a towel over my lower half. But when I am old, who cares?! Plus, I hope to do a service to young people by reminding them of their freshness and that someday, they too, will look old and saggy like me.

Other than that, I am not modest. Even when I was overweight at my heaviest. Bodies are bodies.

“Speaking of softball…”

I love the T&T posts on Jezebel. I’m also uncomfortable by random other people’s nudity. I sort of fake being cool with it, but it makes me hyper nervous.

Sarah, trust me, it get’s much easier after a little while.

When I started junior high I was mortified to find out that we had to take showers after gym class, in the nude no less.

We had those group showers that 30 of us girls had to shower in while our gym teacher watched. But after a few days no one cared anymore and we never gave it another thought after that.

Then in high school we not only had the after gym class showers, but if you were on one of the sports teams you had to shower after practice in the morning. I was on both the girls volleyball and swimming teams. So locker room showers and nudity was second nature to me. I’ve probably literally showered in those group showers at least three to four hundred times in my life.

So now at the gym that I go to it doesn’t bother me at all to be nude in the locker room or see other women nude either.

In fact, after a while you kind of enjoy the freeing feeling of being able to just strip down without caring who may be seeing you.

And in all honesty, no ones really staring at anyone else.
And you don’t have to feel awkward about seeing other women in the nude, they don’t care, or else they would cover up.