Sexual Relationships 
Sexual Health 
Today the idea of swimming nude in a high school gym class seems like something that would absolutely never happen, but in the not to distant past it was the norm for men and boys. The American Public Health Association recommended it in 1926 and schools and YMCA facilities took the recommendation very seriously. Pool chlorination and filtration wasn't as advanced as it is today, and swimwear could cause issues with keeping the water clean.
YMCA's, Schools, and other facilities across the United States adopted the policy of men and boys being required to swim nude- the policies were so prevalent that allowing swimwear was actually the exception to the rule. Boys were required to shower and clean their whole body with soap before entering the pool. The American Public Health Association maintained their recommendation until 1962. Not all schools dropped their nude swimming policies at that time though. Chicago Public Schools, for example kept them for another 20 years.
There's an obvious double standard here. Girls were to wear suits. This was explained away with excuses about girls being more modest.
Can you imagine what would be different if this policy was still in place today? Would more people be comfortable with nudity?
#nudity #history
What Girls & Guys Said
13 18I don’t know what the big deal was in the first place. Boys shouldn’t be uncomfortable swimming naked around other boys. Until recently most men took gang showers at the gym and were comfortable walking around naked in the locker room. Up until the 70’s many schools required boys to swim naked. I don’t think that this will ever happen again anytime soon but I do think people are making way too big a deal of this.
That's so weird.
So I wonder why they stopped doing it then?
I've never been much interested in swimming. It's just never been my thing. But if these rules still applied today, I think swimming would be a lot more appealing to me!
Interesting
At some private schools in UK, girls were naked too. NOT at the same time as boys, though!
The final nail in the coffin of nude swimming in schools was actually Title IX, which mandated co-education phy-ed classes. Most phy-ed classes were segregated by gender before that.
I was in a foster home where nude swimming for the boys happened, but not the girls
another shocking part of history that isn't talked about is how and why circumcision was made popular in English speaking countries. Now the script has flipped and most people deem it unnecessary BUT not to long ago, they used to say circumcision would lessen the urge towards masturbation and at the time, masturbation was seen as self abuse. So what did they do? remove the foreskin without the consent of the males actually going through the surgery. This practice has still made its way from the 17th century to present day. It was even widely recorded within the British family. In the 19th century, to repeal the sexuality of males, they refereed to masturbation in males as abuse, said it caused madness, blindness etc.. so every time you hear those jokes about male masturbation, they actually have a much darker history to it
Not only males: www.fgmnetwork.org/articles/duffy.php
en.wikipedia.org/.../John_Harvey_Kellogg
@jacquesvol I know not only males, and I know that it was actually legal a few years before I was born BUT it was so unheard of that not many knew about it.