Controversial Nudity

So, I have to weigh in on the shower controversy. I know I may take some heat for this post, but I guess you have to take the good with the bad.

I’m seriously confused as to why there is so much to-do being made over showering. The usually level-headed Anderson Cooper also had to be reminded that showering together isn’t proof of sexual misconduct. I am not condoning any touching – not by any means. You know that, or you should, from past posts. I’m not even discussing that issue. I’m sticking strictly to the brouhaha of the “inappropriateness” of the nudity.

Well, here are my experiences:

When I was in school – as young as 6^th grade, which made me, what? 11, I think – we had to shower after gym class. Every single one of us had to get butt naked, get in the gang shower, soap up, rinse off, dry off and dress. And though it didn’t happen every single day, the teacher did the same if he’d gotten unusually sweaty during a class. Right there beside us. We saw a mature, manly, pube-covered package and none of us freaked out, ran home and complained to mommy. And as I moved into Junior High School, with my own pubes filling in, and then into High School, the P.E. teachers and coaches did the same. Again, none of us thought anything about it was strange. We were all sweaty and stunk to high fuckin’ heaven – the solution was to take a shower before continuing on with our day.

The Scout Master of our troop owned a 100-acre campsite. Yep, this would be the same guy I told you once witnessed me about to spew spunk from my junk and simply walked away with “Sorry.” There was an outhouse, but no bathrooms. The main cabin sat up on 15-foot tall stilts (to avoid flooding from the nearby creek) and the showerheads were mounted to these columns. Everyone, the Scout Master included, got naked and showered there out in the open. We all swam in the creek naked. When you had to take a leak, you pretty much whipped it out wherever you were at the time.

God knows, even at the public swimming pools I went to as a kid, men and boys were naked in front of each other all the time. There were boys as young as 5 or 6 in those locker rooms and showers right alongside grown men. And, yes, I’ll bet if I closed my eyes and thought long and hard (no pun intended), I’d probably remember seeing guys with at least semi-wood, if not a full-blown boner or two. Hey, it happens sometimes when you soap up that bad boy. Big deal.

Evidently, we’ve entered an era that is far more prudish than the 1950’s! Boys aren’t even supposed to see boys naked now-a-days. Part of the problem in this country is the shame we instill in our youth. We seem to continually be telling them the naked male body is shameful, dirty, and should be hidden from view. It’s full-frontal male nudity that begets a film an NC-17 rating (created by the MPAA because they originally gave these films X ratings, putting them into the same category as adult porn).

We continue to try to hide the natural physiological functioning of the male body from our sons. And for the life of me I don’t really understand why; why society thinks they need to be protected from this information. In reality, knowledge is power. Our sons would have healthier attitudes if they were taught [age-appropriately] about what nature has supplied them. That means not hiding adult male genitalia from them, explaining those BOE’s to them, and preparing them for that first wet dream. (Just as girls are taught about breasts and prepared for menarche (the first menstruation.)

It would be interesting to see results of any studies on the difference between European cultures and the U.S. Do they have the same problem with this? Are men accused of immoral behavior when it’s been found they were naked in front of pre-pubescent males? Can any of my readers from across the pond supply the answers?