For Thinking that Mixed Saunas are Perverted?

[GreekDogRescue]

I am currently staying in a spa resort in Switzerland. The facilities are immaculate but it always strikes me as odd that the conservative Germanic cultures are so keen on the mixed naked sauna.

I visit every year and endure it but every time I enter the sauna with trepidation, hoping against hope that I do not have to confront some elephantine Germanic male proudly plodding about with his crown jewels on display. Thankfully I’m increasingly myopic but WTF?

The irony is that Brits are seen as wacky nonconformists yet conservative European cultures are so keen to get their kit off at the first glimpse of a bit of heat. There are even signs up forbidding users to wear their bathing costumes. Why?

Obviously as a rule-breaking Brit I defy this but will never forget a Swiss lifeguard storming into the Davos public sauna demanding I take my bathers off. I have also been harassed in the most horrible way so now stick to hotels.

AIBU to find this all very perverted?

Are there any Scandi or Germanic contributors who can shed some light?

Everyone politely ignores each other. I never feel less visible than in a traditional German sauna.

Because it traps the sweat. Most swimming costumes are made of some kind of plastic material that is not breathable.

I've never used a sauna. Do people shower before going in one?
I ask because the state of some people's personal hygiene does not fill me with confidence that their bare backside and genitalia sitting on benches is going to be any cleaner than them sitting there wearing shorts.

Cheer up luv. Not everything is raycist; we are allowed light-hearted musings. Vive la difference! 🙏🤣

In all I have been to showering is mandatory before and after and you don't sit on the bare wood but on a towel.

I don't think they're intrinsically perverted.

But I bet there's some pervy people who like them.🤷‍♀️

There must be a significant number of people who'd like a sauna but who really couldn't contemplate using a mixed naked one.

Just wear the towel?!

In Finland it's considered to be unhygienic to wear swimwear in a sauna but at the same time public saunas are rarely mixed and you wouldn't be shouted at for not going naked. Mixed nudity is not considered perverted though, family and friends will go into the sauna naked together and perversion very rarely happens INSIDE the sauna. It's too hot.

I know 2 men who love visiting these types of places specifically to look at women. They go to very very expensive exclusive type places where the clientele are much more glamorous and fit. They think it's a bit of fun but I find It disgusting. They are British so maybe they aren't used to it here that's why they get off on it, who knows!

The finns see it is just a part of ordinary life and they are the kings of sauna

Where on earth are you getting that the British are "wacky non-conformists". The general European stereotype is that we're boring buggers with bland food who love a queue.

Most of Europe find out hangups about nudity weird, although not as weird as the Americans are about it. Nudity doesn't have to be sexual, but is almost always treated as such in the UK. Europe tends to give far less of a shit about it, I think it's a far healthier attitude to take.

Wow.

I‘m embarrassed by you.

Yes Austria also.
Yes it’s compulsory to be naked
Yes the Sauna Meister will kick you out if found to have swim wear on
Yes you sit on a towel
Yes you can cover yourself in towel if uncomfortable but it’s seen as a big weird and towel small

you generally use spa dressing gown to walk around between saunas and leave it on hook just outside door, and small towel for sitting on. inside the sauna is fairly dimly lit anyway

No it’s not perverted. It’s just part of a slightly different culture, and lots of other countries do mixed saunas and nudist beaches. We have used a nudist beach in Cornwall for a very long time, albeit we aren’t nudists ourselves. No one bats an eyelid. No one is body shamed, blokes aren’t walking around with their dicks standing to attention, and women aren’t parading their over pumped expensive breast implants. You would see more sleaze at any celeb photo shoot to be honest.

I was assaulted in a public sauna as a young woman which may have coloured my view. Please don’t accuse me of ‘sexualising’ the experience.

However I love saunas when I travel I stick to hotels. I am certainly not going to give up something I enjoy because of one bad experience.

I'm from the culture of naked saunas (don't think it's compulsory here). I've never been to one due to the naked reason. Nothing wrong in naked body but it's not for me (I know I might have a problem with prudishness)

My late DM was German, I grew up with nudity being normal, my school friends were shocked when I said that I had seen my parents naked. Nothing wrong at all about mixed saunas, nobody's forcing you to go!

Personal choice, don't go in if you don't like the rules. I'm fine with them btw, so freeing. Also love that they let you swim naked too often.

I wouldn't in the U.K. as it's a, cold and b, a bit outside the norm

'The naked sauna people tend to think being in swimwear in a sauna is unhygienic, and I’m not sure they’re wrong.'

But why? Surely a bare bum/genitals are far more unhygienic on shared surfaces 🤮

Half German/half Finnish here. I grew up in Germany but we spent many holidays in Finland, and I also lived there for a while. IMO sauna culture is very different in both cultures. In Finland we would be in the sauna naked but it was never mixed. I'd never go to a mixed sauna, and I have a few German friends who are the same (though some other German friends happily go to naked mixed saunas). My British husband loves sauna visits when we go to visit family in my hometown in Germany and couldn't care less about being naked, and I'd rather die than bump into my high school crush naked!!! I remember reading a book by a German author who is/was married to a Finnish lady. It was about amusing cultural differences between Finland and Germany, and he described taking his kids who lived in Finland into a sauna in Germany where they were told off for 'doing it wrong'!! Can't remember what exactly they did wrong but I'm with you OP - I think it's weird how it's done in Germany, and the obsession about sauna rules is also weird (though an obsession with rules is very German anyway I guess 😂😂).

Far weirder is the Finnish custom of saunas in workplaces. Being naked in a hotel sauna seems very normal compared to getting your kit off with your colleagues and clients, then cracking open the hard liquor - yes saunas seem to be drinking dens there though often segregated by sex, so like in most cultures a way to ensure women are at the top table (on wooden bench in their case)

It’s not perverted. Different cultures have different approaches to nudity. If you don’t like the approach taken by the nation you’re visiting then don’t attend these places, but please don’t attend and then cast judgment on everyone else for not adhering to your specific cultural expectations.

Myopic indeed.

I find saunas very confusing. I stayed in a hotel in Helsinki a few years ago and there was a sauna on every floor. It was winter and very cold and after a day sightseeing I went in (it was empty) had my shower and then overcame my Britishness and bravely entered the sauna cabin naked but with a towel to sit on. Naked because I'd been told by Finnish friends that wearing swimsuits in the sauna is bad form. And then a Finnish couple arrived and got quite shouty with me because I wasn't wearing a swimsuit.

Only if there's perverts in them.

The sauna isn't the problem.

It depends on your cultural beliefs on the natural body, sexuality, social acceptability and how you perceive and look at others. For example. In Spain.. the 80yr old grandmothers and grandfathers happily walk down the beach in bikinis and small shorts. stomachs out , and so do the 30-40yrs olds. Who are normally beautiful people… Children are generally naked . Imagine that in Skegness beach. Everyone would be complaining about nudity and exposed women and children and ogling men …etc etc. woman here also breastfeed with out all the stigma. The problem is the English upper lip and social neuropathy.