To be annoyed that my gym only has open mixed sex showers

The swimming pool I went to as a child only had a communal changing village and open showers. My dad used to take us because my mother doesn’t swim, so this suited us. This was in the early 90s. My local pool now is the same. It’s never bothered me.

I absolutely hate this and it has not been the standard everywhere for decades.
it uses to be possible to leave a council run pool showered, hair and make up done, in tights and shoes, after getting dressed in a female only space. Now you cant

Finding it so strange the people that think going for a swim will somehow wash your bits.
I need to feel fully clean after exercising, which includes washing with soap and clean water. FYI- the vulva is not self cleaning and does require soap.

Id be worried about infections not being able to properly clean. Sitting all day with chlorine down there cannot be healthy

Of course YANBU. It’s grim.

I just shower... I can wash my hair as normal and I can wash the majority of my body - arms, legs, 'pits'. Not sure why I would still feel gross as you put it OP?

This

I agree, OP. I used four different council run pools and each has a different layout.

The newer one (16 years old) has no single sex showers at all. The one built in the 1990s has mostly communal with two in a single sex room to the side (and a massive queue of women wanting to use it after AquaFit class).

The two really old leisure centres dating from the late 1960s have 5 communal showers and 5 each single sex showers in the same room as the toilets. One has single sex changing rooms plus a family changing area, the other is mixed sex except for the shower/loo rooms.

I want a proper shower after swimming because I don't like smelling of chlorine all day.

Why is it making it worse? I learned to swim in a Victorian pool, the showers were open at the side of the pool. People rinse off the chlorine which is what the showers were for. I've been to other pools of a similar vintage and they were the same. So as far as I can see we are just using the traditional model.

Havent read full thread. Totally agree with OP. In the 90s and 00s I often swam before work or after work before drinks. All the other women in the changing room like me were getting properly showered and dressed, hair and makeup done, tights and shoes. Now everyone is expected to slouch out in pyjamas essentially and there are always men banging about outside your flimsy door. I absolutely hate it because you feel horrible and hurried and a bit watched, physically uncomfortable, and you can’t fit in a swim in a working day. I also hate the craven insistence from so many that making things worse is normal and to be expected. Why? Whose interests is it in that everything has to be a bit more shit than it was before?

The first time I encountered this, I didn't really notice (it wasn't busy) and cheerfully stripped off, only to realise I had a mixed-sex audience 😳I fronted it out ... and never went back to the leisure centre.

There is data on the vastly increased level of sexual assaults on women & girls in mixed changing facilities.

One of the pools here has a communal shower but a few private cubicles. The other pool has separate showers. I've never been to a pool where there was ONLY open mixed showers.

Mixed showers everywhere… they’re in the access/ egress route to the pool? Then lockable changing cubicles in a mixed area. Never seen it different anywhere!

I never shower after the pool

Tedious.

Here’s a well presented, easy to digest, report which includes lots of links to external third party sources and some handy graphics for those… less inclined to read.

Knock yourself out:

https://www.womensrights.network/post/leisure-centres-putting-women-and-girls-at-riskpress-release

You were swimming in a communal pool without having a proper shower first?

My local council-run sports centre is the same as all the others I've belonged to in having a mixed-sex 'wet' changing room with a strict 'costumes on at all times' policy with cubicles for changing in. Useful for people bringing kids (there's a kids' pool) in if it's just grandad with them etc. There's a couple of women-only pool sessions.

The open showers at the entrance to the pool are to wash off - in your costume - any perfume / smellies as you go in and wash off chlorine as you come out. People do wash their hair with shampoo etc and use body wash over costumes.

The gym has separate changing and separate showers for men and women (under 16s don't use alone).

I'm totally in favour of separate spaces for men and women where needed but the pool arrangement seems appropriate to me. I'd be clean enough to go into work. The changing-room never seems like a voyeur's paradise, more like a Beryl Cook painting.

Those of us that swim at pools with single sex showers do though, because you get properly clean and you feel much nicer afterwards.

So what have you been doing op? You’ve been getting dressed, home and then showering?

for how long?

Thanks for making it clear you don’t actually have any valid argument to make, I guess.

Normal for our local pool. You wash in the open showers in your costume.

If you live in London or any Western society then yes you are in a bubble of privilege.