is it common for people to feel uncomfortable with nudity, including in gender separated communal changing rooms or similar places that require nudity, even infront of the same gender?
for reasons such as vulnerability, awkwardness and believing nudity should be private
-just the general conditioning we subconsciously learn growing up making us uncomfortable.
not necessarily because of body image issues, or fear of actual judgement?
edit: i’m not looking for advice to be comfortable, i’m simply only wondering if it’s a common experience
Comments
If you’ve not been exposed to it to get used to it – its normal to feel uncomfortable. Just depends on your life experience.
Some people, in my experience most people are private and don’t want to be naked in front of strangers.
When I was younger I would be uncomfortable, I’m 63 and everything is sagging and I no longer care.
Extremely common, yes.
I guess, but those are just societal norms that are playing with our brains, it’s how we’ve been taught.
I think all of us have been traumatised by the changing rooms in school.
It’s pretty uncommon to be uncomfortable to that extreme but it depends on your culture and upbringing.
There is also a cultural factor to this. I’m British so I’ve also been preconditioned to feel uncomfortable being nude in public spaces. However, a few years ago I went to a textile free swimming pool/sauna in Germany. I used to be quite self conscious about my body but after going there and seeing no one gave a shit what I looked like I became a lot more comfortable in my own skin.
My takeaway is if there is a cultural norm around nudity it becomes less taboo.
I work in an office. They are talking about adding a gym to a vacant area of our building. No way I am showering with coworkers! If we had a “summer picnic” that required wearing of a swimsuit I’d pass, much less getting NAKED in front of my co-workers…
Most people are awkward at first but get over it pretty quickly. If you are on a sports team, or in the military, or in any other environment where you have communal showers, it becomes normal and not weird and you basically stop thinking about it.
very common. as someone completely comfortable with their own nudity, we are kind of the exception. at least within a certain age range.
I used to be very uncomfortable and very self conscious. Even around girlfriends. I’d have sex with them, but I hated getting changed or just being naked around them, it felt too vulnerable. It is something I worked on.
A big change for me was going to Finland. They have a very different relationship with nudity because of the sauna. Everyone goes naked in the sauna, so nudity doesn’t become this secret thing, it becomes normalised. At the beginning of my week there I was getting changed under my towel in a room full of men, and they all just got changed like it was nothing, walked around naked, went in the sauna naked. It made me think about how weird I was being. Why did I care about these guys seeing me nude?
It also is so good for body image to be exposed to normal, lumpy, wonky, hairy, not perfect bodies. As a Brit, most nudity I have seen growing up is born and actors, beautiful, perfect, manicured bodies. It makes you feel more self conscious of your own body. In Finland I was seeing the full spectrum of human shapes and sizes. It made me so much less insecure about my own body.
By the end of the week I was doing the sauna naked, using the communal showers, changing without a towel. All stuff I thought I’d never do.
I will say though, that confidence did crumble a bit the first time I was in an English changing room again because it does feel weird being the only nude and proud guy in a room of men changing under towels
I just don’t want my colleagues and friends to see my giant dick and feel insecure
I’m ok with it in front of strangers.
I think a majority of anything is social engineering. Just look at the olden days up til now for media movies theatre etc.
Nudity does not bother me. I’m comfortable with myself, if you see me naked, great. If I see you naked that is great as well.
We definitely teach kids to be extremely protective of their nudity, and not without reason or anything, but it does create this awkward transition phase where those kids become adults who should be more ok with their nudity but still have that child brain attitude towards it. It’s just part of growing up. Some times you’re just a young man in a men locker room seeing a bunch of baked older men and they get to see you naked too. It’s definitely awkward, but it gets easier. You just kind of have to face to beast and .ame peace with it. Just remember, you are not made unsafe by the presence of nudity although you should be aware, as always nude or otherwise, of any normal dangers. Like people sort of feel more vulnerable naked in a locker room, I mean you could be attacked fully clothed in a target. The locker room isn’t like an especially threatening place.
Depends on if the person is comfortable being nude, if they are not I try to be respectful and look away, if they don’t care then I don’t care
I recently was confronted with this for the first time traveling. Bad advice I could give on the subject, no one cares as much as you do! No is is paying attention, no one is concerned, everyone is trying to shower and change. Not there for you. This is my experience in a male sided situation.
I’ll be nude in front of doctors and my husband with no embarrassment at all. I’m also okay being semi-nude in front of female family members like my mom and sisters (like no top/bra and wearing panties).
Somehow I’m embarassed to change my work clothes in front of my same-sex coworkers and always hide even if it’s just my top. Go figure.
Been in gym change rooms where no one cares. Was a little apprehensive the first couple of times, but eventually I stopped caring too. Strip off, have a shower, get dressed. We’ve all seen dicks before.
As a transgender woman, these spaces make me very uncomfortable because they can cause huge bouts of dysphoria. In these spaces I make a point to ignore everybody.