Bath Leisure Centre, naked men in ‘changing village’

Grrrrr. And yuk.

But then as I’m a bit wrinkly and flabby these days... they brought it on themselves!

Yes. It is both older centres and newer ones.

Are these unisex ones in the UK?

I've changed in places that are all cubicle but unisex and it's fine, the only places I know with open changing (single sex though) and private clubs/hotels.

I've recently started using a gym/swimming pool with a changing village set up.
I find it a bit of a pain - you have to move from the shower to the locker and then cubicle to get changed. So, do you just wrap a towel around you to make your way to the cubicle or do you put your sweaty gym clothes back on? Or do you take a robe? Feel a bit vulnerable in just a towel.

I actually used this leisure centre on holiday just a few weeks ago. Thankfully no problems with naked men that time!
I found it much, much better than pre refurb when it was single sex changing as it meant my DH could swim with my DD and help her change afterwards (while I was looking after DD2). There used to be single-sex and family changing, but the family changing was so small there was a huge queue to use it while the single sex areas were pretty empty.
Personally I like 'changing villages' for this reason as DD is 8 - too young to be in womens changing by herself but starting to get too old to be in the mens.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/sexual-assault-unisex-changing-rooms-sunday-times-women-risk-a8519086.html

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3353054-andrew-gilligan-in-the-times-sex-pests-target-unisex-change-rooms

I've used a unisex changing village for seven years now and actually prefer it, because we now have individual locking showers. I personally don't want to get changed or showered outside of a locking cubicle. I've never seen a naked person or anyone using a phone .

What I find so odd is that every man I meet agrees that some men are perverts and predators, and yet those in charge of public services deny it. Why?

It's quite hard to make public policy / law that directly discriminates against any group, whether that's men / women / immigrants / people with blue fingernails. (Indirect discrimination, intentionally or unintentionally, is rather different). I've only ever seen FPFW do the number crunching regarding the % of transwomen prisoners who are sex offenders, for example, and that is only recently

Ok, it still needs to be a management issue then because there is no need for that to occur. It just doesn't occur (or at least never seems to) at the swimming pools I use. And as I said previously all the ones we use have communal changing villages.

I struggle to believe that there were naked men just stood in the middle of the changing room

They were walking from the shower to a cubicle.

I struggle to believe that there were naked men just stood in the middle of the changing room, there is generally no designated space to do this so it would be awkward to say the least.

Or is the tweeter concerned that behind a locked door a man might be undressed.

And if for some strange reason there are, then management need to deal with it because it really isn't the norm in mixed changing villages.

Marmelised - you've probably followed verboten accounts and as such been put on a blocklist.

I find it baffling that there was no consideration given to having female only spaces that a) have female only showers and b) don't require walking through an area with naked men in to access the pool. Perhaps it's the demographic of the area, I'd thought a primary consideration would be the inevitable exclusion of Muslim and Orthodox Jewish women of such arrangements, but clearly it wasn't a concern.

@andyoldlabour
Thanks for your reply. I hadn’t thought of that so have now done it and seen the tweet but am still puzzled why someone I don’t follow and with whom I have never interacted would take the trouble to block me.

Literally the only tweets I have ever posted have been responses to businesses where I’ve used the #twitterlosingwomen hashtag - so not even promoting a conflicting point of view.

Not a big deal, just don’t like the feeling I may have offended someone.

@Marmelised

I am not on Twitter - never been a user, but CAN see all the tweets.
I am guessing that as a Twitter user it can see that you are logged in. If you try logging out of Twitter temporarily then you may be able to see the tweets.

Slight derail but grateful for insight. I tried to view the tweet in the opening post and couldn’t as it said I’d been blocked.

Literally the only tweets I have ever made on my twitter account have been in response to commercial promotional tweets with a short message and #twitterlosingwomen. Mostly I just read. I don’t follow the person in question although I know of and respect their work.

Any idea what I might have done? I’m feeling a bit disconcerted.

Its naive to assume its safe to confront men in public. They know they aren't supposed to act that way, its not an accident.

Why aren't these naked men being confronted? Is it unrealistic to expect that a man might feel an element of shame if a woman walked right up to him and asked him what on earth he thinks he is doing being naked around children.

If there is one thing that men fear, it is being labelled as perverts or paedophiles.

I actually doubt very much that there would be very much abuse toward any woman from a man confronted in this way.

We shouldn't have to do it, of course. But am I being naive to think that it is a simple case of shaming them and making a fuss.

I think it's actually important for girls tobrieflysee how real women's bodies look when naked so as their begin to change they have some context for what's normal

I agree with this.

We have had this style of changing cubicles for over 5 years now. I hated them at first as when swimming with 2 young children it was a nightmare as there were only 4 family cubicals and if they were gone me and 2 girls had to squeeze in a single cubical. When the youngest was changed I had no where to put her while I got dressed as couldn't leave her on the bench without fear of falling or on the floor without sitting in a pool of water. One day I got the pushchair to put her in, and kept the door half open with the pushchair wedged in the gap. Gave an old man quiet an eyeful as I dropped my towel as he walked past.
My girls are now older but the swimming pool have recently taken down dividers between some cubicles and blocked off the 2nd door to make bigger ones so we finally have about 15 family cubicles. Over half of the roof there are bars, i initially thought it was somewhere to put clothes but it got pointed out that its to stop people standing on the bench and looking over the top.
These cubicles work well as long as you have the door shut. But certainly I remember the ease of my mum taking me and my brother swimming. There was a communal female area that the mums used rather than the female cubicles which even had a playpen in the middle. There was also the same communal area in the men's changing area that I had been in with my dad when I was younger.

lucked I agree, maybe because this has been the 'norm' for so long around here that it just seems to work. I too have never seen anyone naked, I'm not saying it never happens, but it can be dealt with by someone (staff or member of the public) telling them to cover up.

The pictures of the changing areas indicates cubicles with no open/bench space for open communal changing similar to Centre Parcs and many swimming pools around here. I have never seen anyone but the youngest children naked in this situation. Anyone changing out with a cubicle or showering naked should be dealt with swiftly by staff.

People shouldn’t have to be informed of this as it is common sense but they may need some signage.

So what is the correct etiquette when faced with a stark bollock baked man in the changing room (remember - it could be a ‘ma’am’ or a ‘sir’ you are dealing with)?

Take photo/video (evidence). Post photo to Twitter and copy in local radio station, leader of the council/CEO, FairplayforWomen and Daily Mail.

If a woman can be chucked out of a pub for wearing a t-shirt, then it is legitimate to ask why a man is given the privilege to strip off and embarress, distress and alarm other users.