To feel embarrassed about walking around naked in gym changing rooms?

[IShouldNotCoco]

It isn’t because I dislike my body or anything but I do feel incredibly awkward about just stripping off and walking around. Is it upbringing?

I am quite envious of all the women who seem totally unbothered about doing this. If you’re trying to get changed without exposing everything, you’re definitely in the minority at my gym.

So I’m wondering how common it is for people to feel the way I do?!

I don't change in communal changing rooms anymore as I live practically next door to my gym, but I did for years. No one parades naked (female, anyway) - you can have a surreptitious look if you want but blatant staring goes against the etiquette, as in any other public place. I didn't find it awkward. Just got dressed / undressed. Even had chats with strangers at the same time. I'm not into nudity or an exhibitionist. But I'm not the self conscious teen I once was either. No one cares.

Are you sure this is a gym? I don’t think this is a gym

I would say that most women don’t feel comfortable getting fully naked and exposing themselves. Most try and get changed discreetly and don’t have their body exposed for longer than is necessary. But there are a few women who are happy to parade around starkers which stand out because it isn’t usual.

compare this to the men’s changing room which I have been reliably told involve men just walking around naked, casually chatting to each other whilst drying their bits. Men, in the main, don’t seem particularly bothered about this but women tend to be naturally shyer around their own sex. No idea why?!

I was a Bannatyne member pre covid. Most ladies like me changed in a discreet way as possible but there were a couple of ladies that were quite happy to parade around with boobs and lady garden on show. TBH most of us ignored them and gave a gentle eye role once they’d left. A

I really think it is a culture thing in Great Britain that makes us feel so uncomfortable with nakedness, even if we have amazing bodies or whatever.
I now go to the sauna here, males and females naked together.
After my swim I shower naked in the female showers. It took me a long time to feel comfortable with this.

I think some people are genuinely just so comfortable they don’t give it a second thought, but there’s the odd few who seem to be a bit performative about it for some reason?!

I put lotion on while naked but I’m staying out of peoples way and avoiding eye contact because I’m conscious that even if I’m comfortable, many people are not. I’m definitely not walking about naked, but I’ll put just my knickers on to go and do my makeup or dry my hair at the mirror same as I would at home.

I do think we need to normalise being a bit more comfortable with naked bodies. When I was younger I was so shy and embarrassed. As I’ve got older I care less, I just want to get ready in the easiest way, and it’s incredibly freeing once you accept that if anyone has a massive issue with it says more about their hang ups.

Don't look then. I think people should be entitled to get their kit off in a changing room.
To describe her body as rolls of fat is cruel.

You’re not alone, I see it regularly at David Lloyd, I’m scared my towel will drop and expose a nipple and there are other women stark naked doing their hair.

& it’s so hard not to look, my eyes can’t help but go straight to their bits 😂( I don’t know why lmao)

they can use the changing room for what they are for, getting changed.
Strictly no need to parade around naked. Not in this country, who cares if other cultures are different.

If you chose to make a show of your body , then you can expect comments.

No i dont want to see your flaps, no i dont want you sat on the bench naked, no i dont want to see you rub cream in yourself naked, i dont want to see you shaving yourself naked, of course i dont mind someone taking off a costume and getting dried but none of the above and as for people male and female on the beach this summer in g strings i hope they showered before they put it on!!!!!

When I was at secondary school we had to strip off for communal showers. I'm talking about the early 1970s here.

It got to the point where so many pupils conveniently "forgot" their towels that this practice stopped by the time I was in my third year (year 9 to you youngsters).

Im not someone who walks around on parade but i have no problem stripping off in an changing room if needs be, I work hard enough in the gym and jogging/swimming as not to be ashamed of my body

I am sure people can see the difference between removing your dirty clothes or wet suit and wrapping yourself in a towel to go in the shower, and people strolling around naked for no reason whatsoever.

Like several others, there was always one woman at my previous pool/gym who really did like sauntering around naked, even engaging you in conversation while you cowered behind your towel. Bit awkward because it seemed quite, er, performative.

She did have a good body though, so perhaps there was a bit of jealousy too. 😊🤗

I think it might vary by facility.

I would say ‘walking around’ in underwear, rather than totally naked, is also more the norm in the UK.

I understand completely, it can be difficult being naked in front of people when they all have toned bodies and firm buttocks.

I had a similar issue but aproached it by starting out being naked with people who were less athletic-like. I began by wandering about naked in ASDA, and then moved up the social ladder to Sainsbury's and it was at Waitrose where I was arrested. At the cheese counter, actually.

I'm now completely at ease with my naked body, as are many of the folk who pass by my house, as I press myself up against the front window.
Although I'm still a bit shy and so wear a balaclava - on the wrong way round. (At least that way no member (!) of my congregation is likely to recognise me.)

I'm sure the colleague isn't actually parading around.
I have seen naked bodies 1000's of times, people drying in uncompromising positions, drying their hair while naked, nobody actually parades around.

people don't do that in my gym. I am glad! Why do you need to be naked to dry your hair?

@JosephMerrick That's a great plan for building confidence. 😂

I also use DL and there is only one cubicle! I’m not particularly comfortable changing in front of people, so always try to use the cubicle. There’s a couple of youngsters (permatanned/hair extensions/lips filled) who don their white thongs and then start pouting and posing in front of their phone cameras - that makes me quite uncomfortable tbh.

I don’t mind being naked in changing rooms. It just doesn’t bother me. I am not staring at other people when they are naked either.

I am simply getting dried and then dressed, although I am sure I would be viewed as “parading about” simply due to the fact that I am naked.

This all sounds very similar to comments made about breastfeeding women who dare to feed their babies somewhere that isn’t in a locked bathroom cubicle.

It’s just bodies/boobs/whatever.

I don’t know how people get through life being so uptight.

No idea why someone likes to dry their haur while naked.

No idea why nakedness makes people so uncomfortable on this side of Europe and we're in the worst shape.
Ireland and the UK have much higher obesity rates than our European neighbours, maybe we need to get our bodies our more.

Live abroad now and the changing rooms in gyms and swimming pools are all communal. No cubicles for showers, sit in the sauna together naked, walk around naked. No one is embarrassed or trying to hide behind towels. It’s just bodies. I prefer it, everyone is relaxed and think it is better for my kids to grow up feeling comfortable with their bodies.

Why do you need to be naked to dry your hair?

My tops get wet when I dry my hair.

I hate it. Literally nobody wants to see random people's minge.

It comes across as either showy or lacking in self-awareness to me.

I would never subject anyone to my saggy arse waddling about.

Even DP is protected from that! 😂