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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to find naked people in changing room unnecessary?

265 replies

CharlLaneoxo · 10/01/2013 21:14

Such as at the gym and the swimming pool etc.

I'm not talking about women who are comfortable with themselves and can get changed in front of strangers no problem.

I'm referring to the ones who will take leisurely showers, walk around, spend ages getting ready, drying their hair and stand chatting to their friends completely naked.

I know we're all women etc but I just find it unnecessary.

Or maybe I am a prude Smile

OP posts:
ChippingInNeedsSleepAndCoffee · 11/01/2013 06:15

PointyThings Changing under a towel does make you a prude, though

Have you ever considered that people might have reasons other than prudishness for not being happy to be seen naked? No? Well, maybe one day you will be unfortunate enough to understand.

Boomerwang · 11/01/2013 08:53

Yes, I considered the possibility of people having scars on their body, mastectomies and post birth stretch marks as reasons for wanting to cover up. I wouldn't wish that someone would be 'unfortunate enough to understand' however. That's uncalled for.

Trills · 11/01/2013 09:19

I think some of the descriptions on this thread are going to make it hard for me to say what I want to say to the change-under-a-towel-ers, which is we are not looking at you

SpicyPear · 11/01/2013 09:28

I have the misfortune of sharing hermioneweasley's experience. Lady naked, wielding the public dryer at her fanjo and giving it a good fluff up. But the worst part was her then grabbing an arse cheek and blasting hot air up her bum to dry her crack. I'd been swimming with a friend and we just stood there like this Shock

I'm no prude and don't mind the odd flash, but that was disturbing and made me very wary of gym dryers.

bedmonster · 11/01/2013 10:56

Spicy Shock

That's totally uncalled for! Why can't people just throw their sodding clothes on over their wet stuff like I do and go home and sort yourselves out in the privacy of your own homes? I don't want to see your fluffy foof and it's pretty hard to avoid when you're dancing around in front of me. Grim.

Spuddybean · 11/01/2013 11:04

well the reason i moisturise at the gym and don't rush home is because there is a small baby there and the moment i walk thru the door it is clamped on to me. i get 2 hours at the gym 3 times a week and 30 mins showering/moisturising/blow drying my hair is part of my time to myself.

of course drying your jack and danny and your ringpiece with a hairdrier is totally overstepping the boundaries, but being naked while getting dry seems quite normal. Also i don't drive so waiting outside in this weather with wet hair/not thoroughly dried damp body/clothes is horrible.

IfNotNowThenWhen · 11/01/2013 11:05

Oh My God Spicy!
I think I would have had to say something about that.Totally uncalled for!
Who does that, even? Does everyone dry their crack at home with the hairdryer?? Is it just me who never does this??

IfNotNowThenWhen · 11/01/2013 11:06

X post bedmonster, with the "totally uncalled for!" Grin

Spuddybean · 11/01/2013 11:23

i'm with you IfNot, i have never felt the need to experience the hot air of a hairdryer gufting around my nipsy.

do you remember a thread about a dh who dried his entire body for ages everyday with a hairdryer?! totally bizarre.

Vagaceratops · 11/01/2013 11:27

I remember going on a school trip to Germany when I was 11 and all the girls giggling at 2 older German ladies who were having a shower in the communal shower completely naked.

Vagaceratops · 11/01/2013 11:27

I loved that thread Spuddy!

bedmonster · 11/01/2013 11:30

Well i don't ever moisturise or blow dry so, but spuddy wouldn't you rather take a book and read in the car in peace for half an hour than spend 30 minutes in a gym changing room pampering yourself?

Blu · 11/01/2013 11:31

I think a more relaxed, rational, normal attitude to simple nakedness would make it easier for people with a wide divesities of bodies to feel less self conscious.

When I have been on beacjes in Europe, and occasionally in the UK, where no-one wears any clothes, there are elderley people, heavily pregnant women, people with scars, mastectomies, supermodels, kids, thin people, fat people, all kinds of people, just being people.

Ordinary nakedness leaves behind notions of 'attractiveness' and allows people to 'just be'.

Nakedness in changing rooms might not be 'necessary' but I can't see why it should be upsetting or wrong in any way.

SPBInDisguise · 11/01/2013 11:33

" hermioneweasley

I have told this before, but I will say it again...at my local gym I once saw a woman blow drying her pubic hair. She was ruffling it to give it root lift and everything (which I thought was pointless as presumably it would just get mushed down in her pants). hermioneweasley

I have told this before, but I will say it again...at my local gym I once saw a woman blow drying her pubic hair. She was ruffling it to give it root lift and everything (which I thought was pointless as presumably it would just get mushed down in her pants)."

No, I don't think she was ruffling it - I think there was something else entirely going on

PureQuintessence · 11/01/2013 11:35

You would not like it in Norway either. I went to the local aqua park once. The showers were located in one big room without any cubicles or dividers. It was literally 10 females of various ages standing around showering and washing hair, and rubbing their bodies with soap, 5 on each wall. Then the woman next to me made a wee.
Then her teenage dd on the other side of me decided to not hold in either, and this was the cue her friend opposite me needed to also colour the floor yellow. I literally did not know where to step to avoid the three yellow floods that surrounded me. I was totally grossed out.

But it is worse at the gym, where I feel fat, and the gymbunnies are parading around with their slim waistlines and young pert boobs wagging their tails.

RooneyMara · 11/01/2013 11:38

No I can't do it myself...I very rarely go swimming and won't be seen dead in a gym but anyway, if I was in one of those terrible places I'd use a cubicle.

Has anyone mentioned the hairdrying-your-fanny thread from a few years ago?

alemci · 11/01/2013 11:39

i don't mind being labelled a prude. If other people want to strip off fine but I am definitely not one of them.

Spuddybean · 11/01/2013 11:40

well bedmonster as i said, i can't drive so no car sanctuary :) . But no actually, i have dry itchy skin and long straight hair which needs to be blow dried to look nice. it makes me feel good, and like i am not just boob lady to ds. But i did think just yesterday, i may take a book in future and cut down 10 mins working out to sit in the cafe once dressed Wink

ChippingInNeedsSleepAndCoffee · 11/01/2013 11:51

Boomerwang - don't twist what I actually said.

I said Have you ever considered that people might have reasons other than prudishness for not being happy to be seen naked? No? Well, maybe one day you will be unfortunate enough to understand

I wouldn't wish that someone would be 'unfortunate enough to understand' however. That's uncalled for

I didn't Hmm

ivykaty44 · 11/01/2013 11:51

No one showers at home and then walks naked and dripping to another room/area to get a towel so why do it at a gym?

I dry off in the shower and so am not dripping wet - why then when I have a dry body would I want to put a wet towel around me? I walk back to the bench area with the towel and my wash bag in my hands and proceed to get dressed

and as a note it would surely make more sense to dry of in the shower area so you are not dripping water everywhere from your knees down when you go to the bench area

PureQuintessence · 11/01/2013 11:52

Ivy, you need a bigger, more fluffy towel! Grin

Anonymumous · 11/01/2013 12:59

Blimey, I have to go into a cubicle just to change my top. I won't even go in the shower at the gym, because there are no locks on the door! Blush

I agree with OP. There was a woman at the gym who was doing the whole prancing-about, look-at-me thing. She was sitting naked on the bench when I went into a cubicle. I got changed, breastfed my baby, sorted all my bags out, came out and she... had just about managed to get a pair of pants on. (Posh lacy look-at-me pants obviously - these people never seem to wear the ancient, greying, plain cotton, weakening-knicker-elastic Mum pants that fill my drawers.)

Not only was I irritated by her obvious preening and smug love of herself but I was aghast at how anyone could take so long just putting a pair of pants on. Doesn't she have anything more interesting to do in her life than sit about in a changing room and very slowly put on a pair of pants? Bloody hell, her life must be dull!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a prude. Prude and proud! Smile

ivykaty44 · 11/01/2013 13:01

Pure - I only have a little bod - so no need for a bigger towel Wink

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 11/01/2013 13:19

I saw a woman blow drying her pubes in the changing rooms once........I did find that a bit Shock

Nancy66 · 11/01/2013 13:24

the 'one leg up on the bench' brigade at the gym are always the ones with the hairiest 1970s muffs and dangling labia