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?

Nope, they're not perverted.

'The swimsuit thing is about hygiene. I went to a spa in the UK once and it was disgusting, people sitting directly on the benches with no towel, not hosing down seats in the steam room, bare feet everywhere.'

You can still sit on a towel whilst wearing a swimming costume. It isn't an either or situation.

My mum used to say 'we've all got the same... just some have more than others'

I always liked the saying.

Absolutely. I'm not at all surprised though.

How can being in a bathing suit be unhygienic as opposed to putting your bare bum or foofoo on the seat? I don’t understand that🤷‍♀️
Have no experience in this situation, so genuinely curious!

Hah! My Finnish workplace has a sauna, we had a sauna night last month but I was the only woman so I decided to just go by myself before the men went in, but it was still pretty cold when I went in so I went back in later with some of the men and just insisted we do it "British style" and wear towels or pants and to their credit, they all complied.

I'm so confused... this is the first time I've heard of Germany or Germanic countries being conservative. I'm Dutch and our view is that Brits are uptight and staunch traditionalist who operate in a 'nanny state'.

I love mixed naked saunas and have been going since I was 3. I converted my British in-laws and now everyone goes, though of course not all together. It's actually super awkward for someone to wear a swimming costume in a place where everyone is naked. It makes people feel uncomfortable at best, and at worst, especially with blokes, makes it look like they are perverts trying to hide their... excitement. There are lots of rules in these places, it's not some kind of orgy. Almost thinking to do an AMA and debunk some misconceptions 🤣

Went to a hotel near DLP in France and they had a swimming pool there...without showers!🤔 what on earth?!

Apparently they sit on a towel. These towels must be sterile perhaps if they are seen as the gold standard of hygiene where as a costume is filthy and germ riddled 🤔. Any excuse.

As I said, it's not just about hygiene. Also sitting on a towel is compulsory and having any part of your body in direct contact with a sauna seat is (at least in the Netherlands) extremely frowned upon. I quite often see foreigners in Dutch saunas who break all sorts of etiquette and get funny looks from the locals.

I’d love to know what Europeans/Scandinavians think of Brits as “wacky non-conformists” 😂😂😂

DH is German and he has been in The UK long enough to be comfortable with his lack of nudity in some situations.
I think the way to look at German etc attitudes to nudity is that they don't uncover themsleves, they just don't cover themselves if that makes sense?
I am sure we have all struggled to get changed under a towel at the beach or pool but I have seen plenty of Germans just quickly get changed with no fuss, it's not exhibitionist its just getting changed and not contorting yourself in case anyone gets a flash of nip or bollock. I have seen German MIL be changing in a clothes shop changing room and when DD (then about 4) opened the curtain into a whole shop of people under wear clad MIL didn't freak out like us Brits mostly would, she just said hello to DD and closed the curtain again
Its hard to explain unless you have been around it a lot, its like nudity is your natural state and you mostly cover up for propriety but if you are in a situation where you can't or its difficult then it doesn't really matter.

Its common to have single use paper bum towels at public saunas, those are hygienic, and don't have chlorine on to affect the air (it can be really bad for asthma sufferers if someone goes in the sauna with a swimming costume on after being in the pool)

I'm not too keen on mixed saunas unless I know everyone well enough to feel comfortable with them but have been occasionally at house parties (I'm in Finland where public saunas are not mixed, or if they are then its towel mandatory) but love going to women only saunas - its one of the few places Finns will talk to strangers!

I wouldn’t say it’s perverted but not something I’m comfortable with. I wouldn’t go into a sauna where I had to be naked be it same sex or mixed. I don’t like communal changing either. If that makes me uptight then meh

No it’s not perverted. It’s not sexual.

I've done naked mixed spa facilities in Central Europe, nothing sexual about it at all. As others have said being uncomfortable is understandable, but calling it 'perverted' is really over the top.

For me, being naked in the sauna is part of the spa experience. It's actually the only time I can spend a day not thinking about what I look like, or where my phone is.

I feel much more vulnerable in a swimsuit, because then I'm constantly worried if I'm lying down 'correctly' so as not to flash anyone, whether my boobs are secure in my top, whether I've shaved or hairs are poking out of my bikini bottom...idgaf about any of that when I'm naked because it's all there in its normal shape and so can properly relax. It's bliss. I often feel least sexualised when I'm naked in public with others who are also naked in public.

If that's not for you, at least in the Netherlands there are several bathing suit days, usually about once a month.

Brits wacky non-conformists? I'm Scandinavian having lived in multiple countries and the UK has been by far the most conservative one when it comes to nudity. My kids said nobody showered after PE, no naked kids on the beaches, no adults getting changed openly, showers at the gym all divided and shielded. I never saw so few naked bodies as I did during my years in the UK. In fact I don't think I saw a single one that wasn't a part of my household. It's weird to me to put so much effort into always being covered, but I also find it weird that in Britain you are not allowed upstairs in peoples home or in friends bedroom, neither do you talk about your salary or how much your home is worth. It's like there is a general feeling of paranoia and I can't figure out why.

It’s not perverted and I find your post both xenophobic and fat-shaming.

That said, I prefer to wear a cossie in the sauna and wouldn’t fancy a mixed sex nude one.

'Brits wacky non-conformists? I'm Scandinavian having lived in multiple countries and the UK has been by far the most conservative one when it comes to nudity. My kids said nobody showered after PE, no naked kids on the beaches, no adults getting changed openly, showers at the gym all divided and shielded'.

Wacky non conformist does not equal not safeguarding kids (kids should not be naked in public) nor adults stripping off in public places. I'm nort saying brits are wacky non conformists but your examples do not represent being not wacky.

Showers at the gym should indeed be shielded and private.

How can being in a bathing suit be unhygienic as opposed to putting your bare bum or foofoo on the seat?

You don't put your foofoo on the seat. You must sit on a large towel and also have your feet on the towel. You will be very quickly told off if any part of your naked body touches the wood.

I've previously lived in Germany and have visited Switzerland a few times. Culturally, Germany has a very different attitude to nudity than the UK.
Mixed saunas might not be your preference - and that's absolutely fine - but they're certainly not perverted; it's just a different attitude.
The first few times I went completely nude in a sauna I found it very awkward, but since then I stopped caring as no one else was bothered so why should I be? No one's forced to be there; it's entirely optional.

Like I say, it's fine to not like something but to label grown adults choosing to use shared facilities in the nude as "perverted" is really quite an odd view. If you hate it so much but simply must have a sauna then find a single-sex sauna or book a private one.

Towels clean, costumes very unclean apparently. So the naked sauna folk have decided.

Are people shagging in the mixed sex naked sauna? Or are they just naked? Because naked flesh isn't perverted, it's just a body.

And I'm assuming nobody forced you to go.

many saunas also have pools, pool chlorine fumes from your swimwear in a sauna are bad for your health.