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When Boys Were Required To Swim Nude

When Boys Were Required To Swim Nude

Today the idea of swimming nude in a high school gym class seems like something that would absolutely never happen, but in the not to distant past it was the norm for men and boys. The American Public Health Association recommended it in 1926 and schools and YMCA facilities took the recommendation very seriously. Pool chlorination and filtration wasn't as advanced as it is today, and swimwear could cause issues with keeping the water clean.

When Boys Were Required To Swim Nude

YMCA's, Schools, and other facilities across the United States adopted the policy of men and boys being required to swim nude- the policies were so prevalent that allowing swimwear was actually the exception to the rule. Boys were required to shower and clean their whole body with soap before entering the pool. The American Public Health Association maintained their recommendation until 1962. Not all schools dropped their nude swimming policies at that time though. Chicago Public Schools, for example kept them for another 20 years.

There's an obvious double standard here. Girls were to wear suits. This was explained away with excuses about girls being more modest.

Can you imagine what would be different if this policy was still in place today? Would more people be comfortable with nudity?

When Boys Were Required To Swim Nude

#nudity #history

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Most Helpful Girls

  • You forgot the worst part looking back on this from a 2017 perspective... if you were in charge of the pool facilities/swim coach, what have you, their actual JOB was literally to line the boys up and inspect their body and genitals for disease, open sores, wounds, etc. before admittance into the pool.

    I don't think at the beginning there was much issue with all of this, but it was indeed more and more parents and their boys alike who complained about this policy and having to be put up for inspection, especially after pools installed filtration systems and better ways to keep them sanitary.

    • Some of the last holdouts were because schools didn't want the cost of providing bathing suits- it had outlasted the sanitation reasoning well into the "well, we've always done it that way" range.

    • When I read that a while ago, I kept thinking... how much were swim trunks exactly. It's not even a full suit like women wear from top to bottom (well at least not in 70s, in the 20s yes). In fact, if you even look up 70's swimwear for men, it's at least 60% less material than board shorts of today and most likely in a swim club anyway, they would have worn speedos like Olympic athletes. Had they not heard of school fundraisers? Creepy Principal gym, I'm looking at you!!!

  • I never knew this, very interesting :-)

    Also they cared more about the water and the toxic chemicals in swimming suits. That's very interesting to know.

    I prefer if people were more open about being nude and accept their natural bodies.

    • I think the water quality in pools is actually better now, its just that back then they hadn't quite mastered how to maintain pool chemistry, and the biggest threat to pool chemistry was swimwear and all of the laundry chemicals and dyes that went with that.

    • The swimwear today is still toxic... but just at a slower rate.. so we don't notice it *-*

Most Helpful Guys

  • I actually spent a couple of years in a foster home between the ages of 12 and 14. I was one of 5 living there - ratios of male to female varied as residents were coming and going quite quickly - most of them were just temporary.

    Anyway, we had an indoor swimming pool and we used to swim a couple of times a week. The place was run by 2 women who for some reason encouraged us boys to swim naked - I thought it was weird at first but went along with it and soon got used to being completely naked in front of the girls who were all wearing swimsuits.

  • Note that in the written instructions, they should be nude in pools exclusively for males. Yet in the photo there are women staff in attendance.

    Also, when I went to Navy boot camp, we had to swim nude, much more recently than the schools in the article.

    • The recommendation was for pools used exclusively for male's, not exclusively for male staff and instructors. I had female instructor's when I was nude and they and female famly members of swimmer's were clothed.. we were encouraged to think of it as normal and healthy.

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What Girls & Guys Said

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  • Sorry but I just don't understand all the phobia attached to guys being seen nude. I guess it depends on how you're raised. Our parents taught us to be proud of who and what we are. So i was never a sby boy... where i live, a lotta stores dont even have changing booths to try on clothes... i dont have a problem undressing right there in the store to try on a pair of shorts. We even change our clothes on the beach. Most dudes n girls swim in their underwear... then take em off and change back i to dry clothes right on the beach or by the car... its just a cultural thing here...

  • That's pretty surprising, I never knew about that.

    • Its amazing with how recent this was how little we hear about it.

    • Yeah, it's shocking really.

  • I think girls with periods an other genital issues would be more of an issue than boys,

  • This is TERRIBLE!! I can just imagine that it was probably All the pervy men that applied for the position as swimming coach

  • i have heard/read some of this before. Awesome find on the pics. :)

    • Apparently they cared less about having their photos taken nude back then too- It was harder to find photos without exposed genitals than with them covered like these.

  • When I was in 12th. grade, I was captain of the diving team and we were required too train both with the swimming laps and calisthenics and our specific diving regimen, and for some reason, our swim coach felt that wearing pantyhose was the only way too increase drag in the water and strengthen our muscles for speed, and he had very specific rules on where too purchase these items and that we must be accompanied by a responsible adult female. I think there was some resentment on his part that he had to swim nude, bend over in front of female classmates too have his cheeks parted and scrotum lifted before entering the pool, and so on. I was living on my own at the time, so he had a friend of his, ironically, a girl who had clipboard in hand and checked his rectum, penis, and lifted his testicles for inspection before entering the pool, who had her 14 year old daughter with us in the fitting room, when the sales lady our swim coach referred us too, gave her one after another, of sizes of pantyhose for me too try on, while reassuring me that an erection is normal for an 18 year old boy too have when naked with three clothed females in such a crammed space while helping me slide them on because I was getting so flustered at my inability too fit them properly over my engorged boyparts when it was explained too me that that was probably the point. Our coach talking about drag and conditioning, but he didn't allow sweatpants or blue jeans or slacks, claiming problems with the filtration of the pool filters. Pointing at the see through fabric streaching over my erection, leaving nothing too the imagination, she asked me why not allow us too wear our Speedos underneath too preserve our dignity? Answer, modestly equals sissies. Privacy equals mammas boys. This was part of his hard core approach too toughening us up too stop worrying about the girls checking out the bulges in our swim trunks, and focus entirely on winning. The 14 year old girl said they went through the same thing with her brother, a year younger than me and a teammate, and that as soon as he stopped acting embarrassed, the coach stopped riding him in front of everyone. When her mom held her training braw while she stood before me, topless, trying on a bigger, more adult looking sports braw, she told me too remember what she said about looking embarrassed, pointing too my reflection, red faced and pathetic. I assumed a poker face and struggled too maintain it and it got the coach off my back.

  • I had never heard of this 😮 it's a little shocking tbh. The guys with bigger ding a lings would have a disadvantage for once 😂

    • Probably more of a lose-lose situation. Boys with small ones are teased, boys with big ones have extra drag lol. But in all honesty, most boys probably just found out they were pretty average.

    • This is true lol

    • In cold water, very few have a big one.

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  • They should probably return to this. You see guys these afraid to even shower in the lockeroom without their trunks on.

    • I wonder if it would make people more confident in their skin.

  • Swimming in the nude is an amazing feeling! I recommend it!

  • Reading this it was obviously done for health reasons. Human's aren't comfortable with nudity because it's in our genes. There are remote tribes in Africa that wear gourds on their penis to cover it up even. It's just an aspect of human psychology. The only people pushing for public nudity are peole like this. Some of the sickest people I've ever seen online. http://www.nudisthallofshame.info

  • Wait they were required to swim nude?

    • Yes they were- and it wasn't all that long ago.

    • Wow.

  • Its amazing back in the 20s women were still getting preferential treatment. All the feminists say they've been oppressed right up to the present. Who got the better deal in this though? I'm fuckin sure I wouldn't want to walk around in front of everybody with my cock swinging about. If just say fuck swimming

  • I remember learning about this. Funny that it is rarely talked about and even people alive at the time often don;t seem to remember it. It probably depends on what part of the country you were from.

  • Hey wait a second, I can't tell who is being discriminated against. Is it girls must wear suits, but boys are free to swim nude? Or girls may wear suits, but boys are forced to swim naked?

    • Girls must wear swim suits and boys must be nude. But not in the same room

    • @BaileyisDarcy the classes were separate. But I'd read about this before. And for instance at public swimming lessons the boys would be on their own - while their sisters and mothers waited for them watching from the viewing gallery. And there were often female coaches lifeguards etc around. You can see one in the top photo.

    • Easy to find out. Eliminate the rule, make swimsuits optional for everyone. Then watch to see who adopts the other sides habit. In general, it's wrong to coerce a double standard that has no basis in anything other than the group you were born into.

  • WOW. I doubt you will get anybody to do that today.

  • We all swam nude both boys and girls as strange and unreal that it sounds.

  • History amazes me, I would have never imagined this

  • this is funny... nowadays its not allowed in schools.. but i would love to see it come back

  • I can't swim

  • Wow, that policy is so silly... I highly doubt anyone would take swimming classes if it was still in play.

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