Finally a study on "Why women don't like to get naked"

[geetrue]

Why women avoid the gym? Getting naked

The study includes men too ... I know the US Navy from surface craft to submarines to barracks and
I always enjoyed the privacy of the one person showers on submarines better than a shower with twenty men.

http://todayhealth.cdn.today.com/_ne...lite=obnetwork

First, you whip off your work pants and quickly pull on the sweatpants. Then you attempt to put on your sports bra while still wearing your sweater or blouse, all while hiding behind the gym locker door.

"They all talked about the dance," says Clark, a PhD candidate on the faculty of the physical education and recreation department at University of Alberta, who just published a paper on women's self-consciousness in public locker rooms.

"It's about exposing as little as possible. This was very common."

Clark did extensive interviews with a handful of women about getting naked in public places like gym locker rooms and found that many felt extremely uncomfortable stripping down in front of strangers.

"The gym can be a really intimidating space," she says. "There are complicated machines we don't know how to use, all of these fit, sweaty bodies. I think the changing room can be one more layer that can be intimidating."

Morgan Adams Blake, a 41-year-old communications professional from Richmond, Virginia, says she'll often change her clothes in a bathroom stall so people won't see her naked.

"It's not that I'm ashamed of the way I look," she says. "I'm fit, I never really was significantly overweight so it doesn't stem from that. It's just how I'm wired. I'm very self-conscious about changing in a locker room."
Clark says this kind of self-consciousness is not unusual. In fact, she herself suffers from it.

"The study came out of my own curiosity," she says. "I'm a dancer and go to a lot of gyms but no matter how many times I went, I still felt this sense of discomfort. I wondered, 'Do I have crazy body issues or is there something else going on?'"

What's going on, she found, is complex -- and probably requires more study.

"There's some reason we feel self-conscious about exposing our bodies to others," she says. "I don't have all the answers but I think it has to do with our cultural and social thoughts about bodies and health. Women come into the locker room, but so do all the social ideals as to what a healthy, fit, feminine body is.

Those expectations come in, too. As we're undressing, there's a little bit of self-comparison going on in the background because of the ideals and expectations."

Clark doesn't feel that self-consciousness about getting naked could be a direct impediment to working out, though.

"The women I talked to were still using the gyms and the locker room," she says. "What came out of my data is that the changing room is a very unique space.

If you're changing beside another woman, it's very different from sitting next to a woman on an airplane or in a movie theatre. We go about our daily lives and don't think about our bodies too much, then we get to a changing room and we all of a sudden have to undress in a public place."
What's more, we have to see others undress -- which can be equally uncomfortable, especially if we happen to know them.

"It's weird when you run into people you know or vaguely know," says Tina Kurfurst, a 48-year-old data coordinator from Seattle, who says she often changes her clothes in the bathroom at work before hitting the gym "You'll know someone from passing them in the hallway at work and then they're standing there naked in the locker room and you suddenly know they have some weird tattoo across their butt or something. It's awkward."

Clark's paper only looked at women's discomfort with changing in the locker room, but women aren't the only ones who can feel awkward at the gym.

Jonathan Shipley, a 38-year-old Seattle writer, says he never goes to the gym because it makes him too self-conscious.

"Firstly, I'm about as strong and muscular as a daffodil and I know that strong and muscular people work out at the gym - I've seen 'Pumping Iron,'" he says.

"And secondly, there's no way I'd shower at a gym. I had to do that in middle school as a pre-teen with a leering tennis coach and will never do it again.

If I were to go to a gym, I'd just get back in the car and drive home a little stinky. Better that, than showering with strangers and/or tennis coaches."

[Stealhead]

I don't know where they did this study I see lots of women at the gym.I would say that women out number men at most gyms as well.

Also a lot of people will simply wear their gym clothes to the gym work out and then go home to change and shower so if you have an issue about being around other people it is easily curable.

The 20 man showers in basic training and tech school never bothered me really of course I would prefer privacy given the choice I never saw the big deal you have what everyone else has
so scrub your ass with some soap and be done with it or change your clothes and get going no big deal really.This kind of thing seems to be an issue for some in the US for some reason I think it is a combination of people lacking self confidence and homophobia.

The people they talked to seriously lack self confidence I mean who the hell cares if your co-workers has a tattoo on their butt? "Oh my god another human body before my eyes must feel awkward because of ...something." Really people need to grow up and stop making a big deal out things that are not that important.

This really is a an American thing to by and large.

[Armistead]

I haven't been to the gym in ......2 years, but use to go 5 times a week. I don't care about getting naked, but I never use the showers, hot tub or sauna...too many naked bodies going in an out. If I had to shower, I wore flip flops...I'll do anything possible before I use a public crapper.

As just for being exposed naked, probably the result of a religious culture, but I would suspect that's changing.

My wife said she doesn't like getting naked in public anymore and she stopped wearing a bikini a few years ago. I don't know why, she still looks better than most 25 year olds, but alas we are getting old.

[Stealhead]

Shower slippers they call them in the military protection from Athletes foot.

I avoid taking a public dump too but that has more to do with the cleanliness of the typical public restroom more than anything else.


I think people will become more self conscious rather than less given the idealized views that are shoved down people thoughts these days.

Reading that article I would say that each of those people has some other issue really going on that they did not get into detail on.The guy with the tennis coach something more happened there to that man and he likely needs some therapy.Unless something specific happened to you related to taking a shower you should not feel un easy about taking one because someone simply made you take a shower in school.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Stealhead

Shower slippers they call them in the military protection from Athletes foot.

I avoid taking a public dump too but that has more to do with the cleanliness of the typical public restroom more than anything else.


I think people will become more self conscious rather than less given the idealized views that are shoved down people thoughts these days.

Reading that article I would say that each of those people has some other issue really going on that they did not get into detail on.The guy with the tennis coach something more happened there to that man and he likely needs some therapy.Unless something specific happened to you related to taking a shower you should not feel un easy about taking one because someone simply made you take a shower in school.

One of the sickest or funniest things I ever saw was at a Charlotte Nascar race. The mens room lines move fairly fast, but God help you if you need to take a crap, could be a 30 min wait. The womens restroom line is 3 times longer, being the weaker sex, having to sit when they pee... and the wait can be a long time. Many women will simply get in mens line to use a sitter faster, problem is you wait in line out the door and in line inside to the sitting toilets. Course inside men at the urinals drunk have to show their dongs..Many women haven't experienced a sitting crapper in a mens room at a large race, usually toilets full of crap to the rim, piss everywhere, vomit, tobacco spit..etc....I remember one girl finally got to the sitter, {most have no front doors} and let men have it for the disgusting things we are. She couldn't wait, cussed and started vomitting as she tried to stand and drop a deuce. Course all the rednecks were cheering and making comments, some of us more civil tried to block her with our backs.......I damn near crapped myself from laughing..

Anyway, smart people know not to eat all the junk food before a race.

[TLAM Strike]

"Why women don't like to get naked"

Probably had something to do with the scientist lurking around the gym locker room...

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by geetrue

Why women avoid the gym? Getting naked

They obviously lack a sense of adventure but then so must I....won't even use a public loo for anything other than the urinal part.