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

[Flowersinyourhair]

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??

We had a large communal shower which was completely open and no curtains. I can only recall one occasion that we were ordered to get in it. The teacher told us to take our clothes off but we all refused and went in t-shirts and gym knickers.

The teachers never bothered trying to force the issue again. We were quite a rowdy bunch. This was mid 90's but god knows what happened in previous years?

We also had our fair share of predatory teachers. One occasion that really sticks in my mind was a drama teacher who ordered three boys to strip their top half and he stood behind them caressing their bodies whilst demonstrating 'breathing exercises' - we were about 12 and we all knew it was very wrong but just accepted it. Fucking awful.

Was the same in my old school.

Showers, periods marked on the register, stupid skimpy kit. Showers were compulsory, but the teachers didn't stay to check thankfully, bar the first few lessons. This was secondary school from 1994. I left in 2001, having done as little PE as possible. It hardly inspired me to a lifetime love of exercise and fitness!

We had horrid open showers, with no curtains, which mercifully didn't work so we weren't forced to use them except after cross country when we could get away with scrubbing the worst of the mud off our legs under the dribbling cold water.

DH plays a lot of sport and tells me that pretty much all changing rooms have communal showers and they all just wander around naked. I can't get my head around how this is not weird, he thinks I'm weird to have body hang ups which make communal showering an excruciating thought

Mmm. I just don't think men are subject to the severe body scrutiny that women are.

Girls as young as 8 are reporting with anorexia. Women and girls reading Heat magazine / Daily Mail bar of shame (for example) for any length of time could be forgiven for hating every inch of their bodies after watching any tiny imperfection on Gwyneth Paltrow's body photographed and commented on. Women are too fat or too thin, or just not right, not perfect. Any surprise women don't want to flaunt in communal showers?

Found a Guardian link from 1999 talking about phasing them out.

1999. Under a labour government

We had communal showers as well at my school, this was late 90's/2000. I cant think of anything worse for body conscious teenagers. The P.E assistant used to stand at one end and take your towel, then pass it to the P.E teacher at the other end who would sit on a stool with the register. So you had to go up to the P.E teacher naked to get your towel back. The worst incident was when we were year 7's and we had to shower with some years 10's as they'd had a netball match at the same time as our p.e lesson. I remember they were really developed compared to us and were laughing and pointing at some of the girls making comments on who had pubic hair and who didn't etc. It still haunts me to this day.
Thinking back I remember the P.E teacher shouting encouragement like "that's it girls get a good wash"

And an interesting Telegraph one from 2000 that specifically talks about supervision/watching of students by teachers particularly in boarding schools.

Late 80s/Early 90s.

Teacher in to watch, 30-odd hormonal pubescent boys in a communal shower was not a pleasant experience.

There were compulsory communal showers at my school too. A large comprehensive in the NE in the 1980s. We had to hang up our towels and walk through, the teacher would stand in the entrance ticking us off in the register as we went. If you were on your period you had to tell them in order to be excused and they would put a red 'p' next to your name.
Hadn't thought about this in years but you're right op - wtf it was soooo wrong!

Mid 90s run through shower line had to announce to room full of everyone that you were on a period - though thankfully everyone being in same boat made that bearable. They kept a register of periods and yes they often watched us go through the showers.

It was uncomfortable but no-one really got singled out as we all hated it.

What made me hate PE was being verbally abused for not knowing stuff I was never taught - how to hold a hockey stick or positions stuff that would have taken few minutes to explain rather than a ten minute rant at how stupid we all were. Being laughed at for not being a sporty favourite - though again wasn't only one.

I was very much a good girl anxious to please but I did bunk of lessons only ever PE.

DD1 experience of secondary sport so far has been much more positive.

If anyone who was working in the teaching profession during 60s/70s/80s/90s is reading this thread - can you explain the reasoning behind this practice?

MoonHare I'd like to hear this too

We had the same. I was at senior school 1985-1990. We had to all shower together naked in one communal room, whilst the PE teacher watched.

We had to also show we were sufficiently wet before allowed through to get dressed.

It was traumatic. And I would second the request above - if any PE teachers from the 80s are on here, please could you explain where on earth this practice came from? It was so fucking humiliating. I hated PE.

Another memory - we were forced to play sport on a freezing windswept public playing field because the school had very little in the way of open space. One raw winter's day I left my gloves in the changing room and 100 yards into the trek to the pitch asked to retrieve them. That was refused and my hands were left raw and frozen for an hour or so. Nowhere near as hideous as some of the stories here but indicative of why so many have grown up loathing school sport.

I mentioned this to DH yesterday - and he doesn't understand how upsetting it was for so many of us.

He was a sporty type - and was happy to have the communal showers ( 1976-82 were his high school years)

I'm still waiting for an ex- pe teacher to come on the thread and discuss their feelings on this too.

I'm from Ireland and when I moved to the UK as an adult I was really shocked when friends told me about the gym knickers thing. They are utterly bizarre - why make young girls exercise in what is essentially underwear? Did no one give a single thought to periods? At my secondary we had a full tracksuit - trousers, t shirt and zipped top. We never went out in the rain or cold weather.
While I find the gym knickers thing bad enough, the showers thing is really unbelievably bad. We didn't have any showers in my school and my PE teacher never ever came in to the changing room - we'd have been horrified if she did. The idea of having to run naked through showers with my classmates is just hideous.

Also, if you had your period you could quietly say it to the teacher who would either be sympathetic or question gently as to whether you were taking the piss. There is no way we'd have had to shout out loud in front of everyone. I still didn't like PE but there was no humiliation involved.

What none of the disgusting apologists on this thread have explained is how a quick skip through a sprinkle of water was going to get you clean or stop you smelling. Not one person's experiences involved soap or shower gel.

The sporty males were well developed, of course they cared less about being seen naked. Those of us who just didn't have that idealised athleticism (or hadn't yet grown in other areas) it was total shit. I still hate changing rooms, can't exercise where other people can see me and still despise those smug bullying sporty fuckers who used to yell about who hadn't grown enough. They never change.

In fact, the worst of them became PE teachers. Guess they couldn't lose the thrill of doing down the vulnerable and 'weak'.

Mrswhite I started my periods at 11 and only one other girl had. I was desperate for my friends not to know so I would not announce it publicly. Therefore I had to deal with it (heavy flow and brick like pads) whilst complying with the enforced nakedness, hiding bloody towels under other clothes, dashing in praying I wouldn't actually bleed. I feel so sad for my 11 year old self - I didn't deserve that.

I experienced all of this too and was an early developer so extra humiliation. This was 1985-1990. I had actually blocked it all out until I read this thread. Shocked it went on well beyond the 80's and how widespread it was.Primary was worse and I have vivid recollections of that time. Got the ruler and the belt and one particularly sadistic bitch made me walk round the playing field with an insulting placard round my neck. The further back you go in history the worse children were treated. Thank god things have changed.

I chose the secondary school I went to based on the fact they didn't make you shower after PE. The other school close did.
I started puberty very early and just couldn't bear the idea of group showers.