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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:
Helpme9 · 05/12/2016 22:49

Late 80s exactly same for me. A wall with lots of shower heads old Victorian school. We would walk single file. I was an early developer and had pubic hair and would get mocked and bullied.

PlymouthMaid1 · 05/12/2016 22:51

Yes we had similar humiliating showers at my all girls school ,74-79. That and the fact we had to run about in little gym knickers even when it was freezing put me off sport for life.

Shadow1986 · 05/12/2016 22:51

Jesus I'm disgusted for you. I went to high school late 90's, left in 2002 and don't remember the showers ever being used by the girls but know the boys used to. There is no fucking way anyone would make me shower naked in front of people at that age, I would have bunked every day to avoid that.

AskBasil · 05/12/2016 22:52

Your teacher sounds like a perv

I went to school in the 80's, naked showers but honestly, I don't think people were that awkward. There was much less consciousness about nakedness, but I think society wasn't as sexualised then. Also I think maybe the whole hippy thing of naked bodies not being taboo and shameful, was still a thing. But there wasn't any prolongued, "extra" nakedness IYSWIM. It was all rather brisk and businesslike, certainly no hanging about naked - you got out of the shower and dried yourself and got dressed, the teachers didn't even come in the shower room except to tell us to hurry up if we were dawdling.

Honeydragon · 05/12/2016 22:53

Early 90's we had forced showers till around third year then they stopped.

glamourousgranny42 · 05/12/2016 22:54

We had this too. Big communal shower and we had to show the teachers we were wet enough. No soap either. The teachers kept log of our periods (we only used towels in those days) and if we claimed we had our period so couldn't shower - because we had to be naked - they checked the records and called us liars if the dates didn't add up! Cue huge embarrassing and humiliating experience which just added to our hatred of PE.

Kitsandkids · 05/12/2016 22:55

We had this. Mid 90s. A room with shower heads all around it and nothing else. You were supposed to get fully undressed, go in with towel around you, hang towel up, have a shower naked in front of everyone else, get towel on way out.

The very first PE lesson, aged 11, two female PE teachers came in with us to check we were all showering naked and getting washed. That was my very first day at the school when I was nervous enough as it was! I was mortified!

Every other lesson the teacher was in the main changing area so everyone stripped to their underwear, pushed bra straps down, wrapped towel around, went in, kept towel on and splashed water on face and underarms.

There's a whole new sports centre at my old school now so I hope they installed proper showers and let the poor kids shower in privacy!

CurlyhairedAssassin · 05/12/2016 22:56

Interestingly I've just asked DH about his experiences at school and he said he can't even remember and thinks it's a non-issue. He said "what do you think I do when I go to the gym now then?" Turns out that it's totally normal for men to wander round bollocko in the changing rooms in the gym to get from the shower to their locker/peg. He says everyone does it.

Confused
user1477282676 · 05/12/2016 22:56

We had this. We had to go through whilst our teacher stood at the side making sure we all went. Most of us brought extra knickers which we wore and got wet...and we covered our chests with our hands.

JenLindleyShitMom · 05/12/2016 22:56

Our school had a weird policy. We didn't have to (weren't allowed) shower after PE which was two periods (so an hour) but one term per year we had "games" as well as PE. Games was a triple period (so 90 minutes) and we had to shower. But games took no longer than PE because showering took up the last 20 minutes (not enough showers for all of us) so I never understood why we had to shower after games but not allowed to after PE. Of course the obvious answer was that there was time in the games session but logically it made no sense to me. Thankfully we had cubicles and didn't have to shower our teacher our wet nakedness Grin. TBH they spent as little time in the shower room as possible.

Kitsandkids · 05/12/2016 22:57

Oooh yes glamour, ours kept track of our periods too. I always claimed mine lasted 8 days so I could get away with two weeks of not showering!

ToastieRoastie · 05/12/2016 22:57

I went to school in the 90s and had the conveyor belt of naked showers too. So awkward when you were on a period - if you weren't using tampons you just had to hope too much blood didn't come out while you were running through the shower!

School PE must have turned loads of girls off sport.

Christmassnake · 05/12/2016 22:57

When our names were called we could get out of the shower by calling out,period,and she put a red p by our name in the register....fucking grim

guinnessgirl · 05/12/2016 22:59

YANBU OP. We had the exact same thing. Bloody hated it and I'm sure it contributed to the huge body issues I had for many years afterwards. So, so wrong. I have no idea why I didn't tell my parents about it, I don't think they'd have been too pleased.

JenLindleyShitMom · 05/12/2016 22:59

I'm just wondering what girls do/did if they have their period and don't use tampons. It mustn't have happened during any of My games sessions as I don't remember having to manage a sanitary towel and the shower in school.

MrsHiddleston · 05/12/2016 22:59

My school had this too around 1988-1990 (I was about 11-13 ish). It was one long shower, no doors, like a series of shower heads in a long corridor. PE teacher (female) stood at the end to check we showered. I hated it. We all hated it. It's probably the thing that put me off sport in general to be honest, definitely put me off PE. We also did PE in a sports polo and sodding gym knickers, hideous. Boys could wear long shorts and we had to prance around outside in gym knickers.

JenLindleyShitMom · 05/12/2016 23:00

Xpost!

Sparklingbrook · 05/12/2016 23:00

We had to hang our towels up and go in naked. So we ran underneath all the showers and made sure we got our feet wet then grabbed the towel quickly. This was the 80s. Grim.

The teachers' showers were used as storage for the bibs. Hmm So they did PE all day and never had a shower....

Gileswithachainsaw · 05/12/2016 23:01

I remember this. At first it was carrie style showers no cubicals . And we were ticked off on a register when we had showered.

Then they built a new person block and the showers had side curtains but no front curtains so you could see all those opposite you. You then had to walk round in your towel to the teacher sat at the desk to get ticked off.

The only thing going that got you out of a shower was being on your period except the teacher kept track and had a go at you of the dates didn't add up and she thought you were trying it on

Buggeritimgettingup · 05/12/2016 23:01

I left 92 and we had that as well a wall with shower heads a check to see if we had showered and period tracking what the fuck did we put up with?!

MammaTJ · 05/12/2016 23:02

I left school in 1984 and we did not have this, thank goodness.

CurlyhairedAssassin · 05/12/2016 23:02

Ironically it'/ when girls DO have their periods that they probably most need to shower after a PE lesson. If schools provided proper private facilities they might well not mind doing that.

I don't think it's good for teenage girls who are so self-concsious and developing at different rates. And with the way body image has become so damn important these days.

JenLindleyShitMom · 05/12/2016 23:02

The teachers' showers were used as storage for the bibs. hmm So they did PE all day and never had a shower.

My PE teachers didn't move very much during PE. Can't imagine they broke much of a sweat Grin

starsorwater · 05/12/2016 23:04

Same here (80)s no towels allowed until you got back to changing room, the shower room floor was wooden and slimy so you had to walk really slowly and the RE teacher used to sometimes pop over to watch... Also they had a register where you had to shout out Period when it was the case. Hideous. That school would be under investigation now. I was sexually molested by visiting school nurse and never dared tell anyone. Foul place.

motheroreily · 05/12/2016 23:04

What??? I'm so shocked. I would've hated this and definitely bunked off every pe lesson.

We never had a shower even after cross country! The pe block did really stink though