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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

to think stripping naked to shower after PE at school was horrific? **title edited by MNHQ**

883 replies

Flowersinyourhair · 05/12/2016 22:35

Recent conversations with my daughter about PE at school (she loves it, I hated it) have got me thinking about why I disliked it so much.

I was reminded of the hideous shower experience. After PE, the girls would be obliged to have a naked shower, all in together. We would then have to go to the teacher, totally starkers and dripping wet, and bit ticked off on a register to say we'd had a shower.

I can't to this day understand why it mattered so much. It's a safeguarding nightmare really and I'm so glad it doesn't work like that anymore.

AIBU to think it's no reason I hated PE and to ask whether my school was particularly weird??

OP posts:
moomin11 · 05/12/2016 22:38

They did this at my school too, absolutely hated it. It was the reason why most of us tried to avoid PE. Looking back it was so inappropriate.

SummerSazz · 05/12/2016 22:38

We didn't have showers so must have just smelt Hmm. Yours sounds odd though.

tigerdriverII · 05/12/2016 22:39

I think that was peculiar. When was this? Having said that, we didn't have showers so just went back to lessons covered in mud and sweat.

Original poster
Flowersinyourhair · 05/12/2016 22:40

It was late 80s/early 90s. Absolutely hideous.

OP posts:
WhisperingLoudly · 05/12/2016 22:40

Same at my school - early 90s.

Our PE teacher actually pulled up a stool to watch Hmm

kaitlinktm · 05/12/2016 22:40

Same thing happened at my school - but that was in the 60s.

SalemSaberhagen · 05/12/2016 22:40

We did this too. Would have been about 96, 97 time so not really that long ago. Bloody weird, when you think about it.

Yoarchie · 05/12/2016 22:41

We didn't have showers either and just went back dirty. Your school sounds weird!

OhtoblazeswithElvira · 05/12/2016 22:41
Shock
oreosareyum · 05/12/2016 22:41

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oreosareyum · 05/12/2016 22:42

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rollonthesummer · 05/12/2016 22:43

The showers were never used at my girls' high school when I was there in the late 80s:early 90s--they were ancient and I don't think they even worked!

Your experience sounds horrible Shock

TwentyCups · 05/12/2016 22:43

The showers in our school stopped being compulsory in my sisters second year (around 2001). There were shower curtains though, which I suppose made it slightly more private. I do think it's weird, and glad it doesn't Happen any more! If there were proper private cubicles then maybe it would go back, but that take a lot of time from the lesson!

Imnotacelebgetmeouttahere · 05/12/2016 22:43

Told to shower naked at ours too Confused some of us asked to wear swimsuits but told no it wasn't allowed Hmm - I started secondary in late 90's so not even that long ago

Couldn't imagine it happening it now

GoTellTheBees · 05/12/2016 22:43

My school did this too! Although we would just barely stick our heads under the water. We just had to show some amount of wetness to pass..

Scarecrow2016 · 05/12/2016 22:45

We had cubicles but the curtains didn't meet so everyone could see in. Absolutely hated it.

wowwee123 · 05/12/2016 22:45

My school did this i left 2001. I tried to keep towel round me. Always been shy about my body.

Bluebolt · 05/12/2016 22:46

We had it as well, showers in a row. A conveyor belt of awkwardness especially for those who hit puberty early. Detention for forgetting kit was worth while and the period shame was an extra topping of humiliation.

OhWotIsItThisTime · 05/12/2016 22:47

My school did this. Hence why I had my period every PE day. The teacher would stand and watch and make you drop your towel to check you were wet.

Wombatron · 05/12/2016 22:47

I went to secondary school in 2000 and we had a similar set up. We weren't made to shower at all. But they actively encouraged it and kind of made it seem like we were dirty if we didn't. There was no privacy in the showers though which why most of us didn't. Just a line of shower heads along the wall like in the rinse off area of the local pool

DillDongMerrilyOnHigh · 05/12/2016 22:47

Same at our school but our PE teacher didn't inspect us Shock. It was awful.

Original poster
Flowersinyourhair · 05/12/2016 22:47

I can't imagine why they ever thought that it was appropriate for girls going through puberty. I genuinely believe it put me off PE for life.

OP posts:
FranksBobot · 05/12/2016 22:47

Mid / late 90s here and although the showers were technically cubicles they had no doors and the sides were see through once wet.
We used to take it in turns to distract the teacher so the others could wet their hair and get away with just that!

TigerBreadAddict · 05/12/2016 22:48

We used to go in with our towels wrapped around us, flick water over our shoulders, dampen our hair to appear showered and go to be 'checked' before being allowed to get dressed.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 05/12/2016 22:48

That doesn't sound right, no. What the hell were people thinking then? I assume it was the 80s?

I remember ours did verruca checks that were too hands on for my liking - none of these PE staff were also nurses or GPS so what gave them the right? While we were in knicker shorts, at the start of the lesson, we had to go and let our PE teacher examine our feet while we sat on the gym floor with our leg up on their lap I think. Weird if you ask me.

Although that's nothing compared to what my mum said theirs used to make them do (early 1960s). Used to make them run naked through the showers while they watched to make sure they really did have a shower. Also kept a period diary of every girl. Fucking weird and intrusive and just would not be allowed now.

There was at least one lesbian member of PE staff in our school. Same one who seemed to like seeing all the girls in knicker shorts as often as she could, even if it meant making us wear them on a frosty playing field in below zero temperatures with a wind chill factor of god knows what. When our legs started turning blue and we could hardly feel them to run she used to relent and let us go inside.

I bloody hated PE. It has put me off sport for life. I don't even keep fit these days. I used to like it in primary.