Naked Swimming at UK Schools in the 1980s
Anna
http://www.topix.com/forum/education/TL4651BLHH62I0J4L
As awful as I think the treatment of boys in games and swimming in
school was up to the 1980s,it may still surprise you to hear that I
actually have no problem with naked swimming in principal.But it has
to be a FREE choice of any boy to do so.What right does anybody have
to force nudity and the exposure of teenage boys at any level!That
goes for showers too.The reasons for naked swimming at my school were
that you couldn't wimp out with the excuse that you had forgotten your
kit.Having said that,many lads still didn't bring a towel and ended up
borrowing from friends or getting dressed damp.Our classes used to
involve about 35 boys at times,and I would readily abmit that maybe 10
of them loved it,but they were the minority.I recall at the end of one
lesson coming out the pool and getting a loud bawling out for some
minor reason by my games teacher.I just cannot begin to explain how
utterly small and pathetic it made me feel to be shouted at while
naked in front of my fully clothed adult teacher,as a boy of 14,while
he was looking me up and down.During a lesson lasting about 70 minutes
the boys would not be in the pool for the whole time and for periods
would be rquired to stand at the edge in line watching others in the
pool doing various swim tasks.I always remember wondering where to put
my hands!To cover or not.When we lined up at the start of swimming
periods at the side of the pool,as our names got ticked off the
register,I was struck by how many of my classmates would put their
arms behind their backs,maybe somewhat defiantly?We had a female
school matron who had seemingly unrestricted access to the pool
whether boys or girls were swimming.She appeared on numerous
occasions,and I clearly recall her saying to us boys one day that
there wasn't a lad who had been to the school in th 12 years she had
worked there who she hadn't known in his entirity.We all knew what
that meant!About 3 times a year we would have the matron check the
soles of our bare feet prior to our lesson,when we would kneel in a
line along a bench.Not one of us liked it.Oh,and guess what,we were
ready to swim at the time,so naked.Now why did we have to be naked to
have our feet looked at exactly??On a number of occasions rumours
circulated that we would be getting our penises checked out by her
too.It stayed a rumour,thankfully.The simple fact is that there were a
lot of us boys who never got used to this behaviour by our school
teachers and staff.Boys could be stripped,poked about,looked at etc as
if we had no care about it.But girls,well it was a world of
difference.No naked swimming,nice swimwear of their choice,voluntary
showering,and nice gym kits too.They could have trainers in the
gym,boys were compulsory bare feet,and bare chested.Many gym lessons
were mixed,so it mattered.The boys were the "meat" to be checked
over.Lots of boys don't like taking their shirts off and going
barechested,but were given no choice.Why?This was an English school up
to 1986.Will post again and would love feedback.Thanks for reading!
=====
To post a comment you have to go to the last page of this.
There are already 955 Comments .
To go to the last page go here:
http://www.topix.com/forum/education/TL4651BLHH62I0J4L/p48#lastPost
Göran Edvard Ames
Andrew Naylor
Allen Williams
We simply trotted over to the pool, stripped naked, and went poolside to join the lesson. about four of us had the costume because they were also due to swim after school, but the remaining twenty or so had to swim in the nude. Many had done so before, but about ten (including me) hadn't, and were in shock, scared, and embarrassed. As any Naturist will tell you, male first-timers are incredibly worried about getting an erection as the result of going naked in company. I can tell you what happens, because that was my main worry at the time. I had only started to get full, upwards-pointing, erections a couple of months previously, and they popped up spontaneously every so often for no apparent reason. When I pulled down my underpants to go fully naked, out popped the finest example of one I had yet produced. Horrified, I had no choice but to walk out to the pool in the nude, displaying my rigid, tumescent penis to about fifty people. We weren't allowed to take anything out there but ourselves. Concealment was out of the question.
What happened was that I got looked at by seemingly everybody, stared at by a few who couldn't take their eyes away, and quite a lot of jaws dropped. Attention was not directed at my face. Nobody said anything, including the teacher. Everybody just got on with whatever they were doing and ignored it. These things happen. It was obviously something I would not do deliberately, and they realized it could also happen to them. When I finally got into the water and started swimming, all the feelings of fear, shame, and embarrassment disappeared instantly. It was an epiphany: the most wondrous feeling I had ever had. Suddenly, I felt free, caressed by the water, liberated from the constraints of the swimming costume, relaxed, and happy. It was pure joy. I had hated swimming, but I realized that it was not the swimming I hated, but those horrible swimming trunks.
This was such a revelation, that I could not believe that it was unique to me. Afterwards, indeed, all of us were very excited. Everybody had loved it, just as I had, but they reverted to wearing a costume in the next swimming lesson. I did. They only went naked when they had to, despite the fact that they strongly preferred not to wear anything, and they were no longer afraid or embarrassed. I thought this was odd, so I asked all my classmates and others individually why, since there was no rule preventing them, they did not always swim in the nude. One line was potential or actual parental disapproval, which was disposed of as irrelevant, because there was no way this would be known to them unless the information was volunteered. The only other reason, which was the one that applied to me was that most boys wore swimming costumes, and boys did not want to be in a minority (of about 5-10%) who always swam in the nude because either they preferred it, or their parents refused to purchase one. On reflection, I thought this was stupid, and started to fabricate excuses, frequently “forgetting” the swimming costume, as boys often do, or lending mine to other boys despite having to swim myself. On a few occasions, a friend would be upset because he had lost or forgotten his trunks and might be the only one in the nude, but he would refuse the offer of borrowing mine as that would make him feel guilty about putting me in the same position, so we both went nude. For 95% of the boys nudity itself was not a problem: their nudity, or that of other boys. Non-conformity with majority practice was. It would have been far better had the school rule been “Boys will swim in the nude”. It would have been simpler, and, once they'd been in the water naked, practically everybody would have agreed that was more enjoyable than wearing pointless swimming trunks. Even the tiny number of prudes would have admitted that everybody saw everybody else naked in shower, bath, and changing rooms nearly every day, so wearing a costume in a swimming pool in addition wasn't, logically, as issue.
I still bitterly regret that I let my father buy those school swimming trunks for me before I joined the school at the age of (just) 10. He was in two minds about doing so, knowing that if he did not, I'd be required to swim in the nude. In 2023 prices, they were about £20, so expensive. He had asked me what I thought, and I had said, truthfully, that I didn't know, that I couldn't know until I'd tried going naked. He considered, then bought them. What he ought to have done is not bought them and obliged me to try it out, at least until some time after I had learnt to swim properly. Had he done so, I would never have allowed him to buy any. When I finally decided I couldn't fit into them any longer, between two and three years later, I binned them, and told dad they were a waste of money.
We had two (age 10-13) or one (age 14-16) timetabled PE (gym) lessons per week. You got punished if you forgot your kit more than once per term with one teacher, or whenever you forgot it with the other. This meant you would be caned. All that you needed to satisfy having “kit” was the regulation short, loose fitting thin white elasticated cotton shorts. If you forgot kit, you could usually get hold of a pair of these, at least. On occasion, boys would fail to secure even these, so, to avoid the cane, would ask permission to do the lesson in the nude, which was granted unless the teacher felt that particular boy needed thrashing. Those shorts weren't much use anyway, as in many exercises they offered a clear view of the genitals or buttocks up them. In some activities they often got pulled down. Once I ended up wrestling naked, having wriggled out of a hold and left the shorts behind. Another boy, in borrowed shorts only, found their elastic was insufficient to hold them up on its own, so took them off, chucked them into a corner of the gym, and carried on in the nude. You could also end up on cross country runs wearing only the shorts which, if it rained, clung to the body and became diaphanous, if not quite transparent. Nobody minded the nudity here, either. After all, immediately afterwards, you would all be required to strip and walk between the changing and shower rooms across a corridor open at the end to the outside, huddling together in the small room watching others shower and waiting for one of the open showers to become clear for the next boy.
This was the situation in the 1960s and at least the early 1970s. I reckon the reason the nudity that seemed to be part of the curriculum became less acceptable was probably the fact that equal opportunities legislation in the early 1980s made it very difficult for the school to maintain an almost entirely male staff. In the 1960s boys didn't mind being naked in the presence of women in the least. I was swimming when I was 14 or 15 at school, and was climbing out over the side about half way down, when I became conscious of a party entering the spectators' gallery (tiered benches separated from the pool area only by a rail and a foot or two). They settled down to watch for a while. As I stood up and looked in more detail, I noted that they were nearly all women in their 30s or 40s. I surmised they were being given a tour of the school and were probably parents of prospective new boys. I also wondered why they were all staring at me, their gazes moving slowly up and down. I wasn't doing anything interesting or special. Then I realized why. I was in the nude. They had not expected that. Rather than feeling ashamed or embarrassed, I just thought “What the hell, they've seen everything now.”, and carried out my intention of walking to the end where they were sitting in order to dive in and do some lengths, which I did without any hurry or attempt at concealment. I walked within a yard of the nearest of them, stood on the edge of the pool then turned to look directly at them in turn, smiling at each of them, then gave them all a little wave, both of which were returned, and dived in. They stayed for about fifteen minutes, while I and the other four naked boys there provided the bulk of their entertainment. I suppose they were a bit shocked at first, but the friendly way I acknowledged them, and the friendly response convinced me that they didn't disapprove at all, and in no way found the spectacle disgusting, perverse, or even rude or offensive. None of us had any objection either. Most normal people would find that situation perfectly normal and acceptable today, and it only the lunatic fringe who utter crazed and irrational condemnation of it. Boys and other people haven't evolved since 1970. Nor has what is moral, what is immoral, what is right, and what is wrong. What was perfectly normal then ought to be perfectly normal now.
matty
Cheers
Stuart