Swimming in the nude.

[factorychef]

In the early 60's I belonged to the YMCA in Miami. To use the pool you had to swim in the nude.the girls didn't have to.I saw an article today that talked about it. Chicago and other places had the same rule.So here you are in a pool with 50 or 60 dudes letting all hang out.We didn't swim together with the girls. Does anyone here remember doing this? The good old days.

[howard lee]

Aug 17, 2024 8:37:27 GMT -5 factorychef said:

In the early 60's I belonged to the YMCA in Miami. To use the pool you had to swim in the nude.the girls didn't have to.I saw an article today that talked about it. Chicago and other places had the same rule.So here you are in a pool with 50 or 60 dudes letting all hang out.We didn't swim together with the girls. Has anyone here remember doing this? The good old days.

Yes, in public high school PE swim class, 1971-72. I cut that class and then cried in the PE teachers' office that I had already been accepted to college and holding me back for a gym class would cause a major disruption in my intellectual life and education. He passed me with a 65.

[theevan]

Nope. I've skinny dipped, but officially sanctioned? Nope

[Rob Hanesworth]

Yes, the Kokomo, Indiana, YMCA had the same rule in the 50s. I went there as a guest of a friend sometime in the late 50s after they had dropped the rule but I didn't know it so I didn't take a swimsuit. You could still swim nude but it wasn't required. Me and one other kid were the only nude swimmers.

Being almost the only nude swimmer makes you a lot more self-conscious than being one of 50 nude swimmers.

[billhammond]

Yup, the Eau Claire Y had this rule, although I cannot recall the reasoning. Our swim instructor wore a suit, though. I distinctly recall being aware of how much slower swimming was when I was wearing a suit at lakes.

[Cornflake]

At Albert Sidney Johnston Junior High School--since renamed--boys had to swim nude. I never understood the rationale for that. Maybe the PE coaches found it arousing.

[John B]

Aug 17, 2024 10:24:23 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

At Albert Sidney Johnston Junior High School--since renamed--boys had to swim nude. I never understood the rationale for that. Maybe the PE coaches found it arousing.

If no one wears suits, then the students don't have to figure out what to do with their wet suits for the rest of the school day. Probably avoided a lot of lost suits, forgotten suits, and hassle.

[billhammond]

Historic Archives excerpt:

Swimming pools were introduced by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in the 1880s. In the following decades, the Y began offering their "Learn-to-Swim" classes, which was an organized program featuring certified instructors. It should be noted that after disease, during this early period drowning was the leading cause of death for children and adolescents, so it is not surprising that enrollment was popular with classes often filling to capacity. It is also important to note that those pools became a major source of sustainable revenue for the Y. But in 1906, while working at a YMCA a Northwestern medical school graduate, Edwin Foster, tested the water and discovered it was contaminated. Back then, contamination of water was linked to a number of life-threatening diseases such as cholera, typhoid, meningitis, polio and various infections. In fact, similar to the Covid pandemic of 2020, fatal epidemics had closed down a number of cities. So the discovery of pathogens in the pool waters at the Y caused great concern - not only for health reasons, but as a threat to one of the Y's greatest revenue generators.

Dr. Gale writes about how the YMCA as well as other public pools began to drain and refill the pools about once a week to fight the problem, and this process continued well into the 1920s. Some of these pools were as large as 45,000 gallons making the process onerous and expensive. The YMCA National Council also recommended the use of sand filters, which had been proven effective. By 1910 the first pool recirculating pump was installed and by 1913 chlorine chemicals were being added to the water. Part of the issue of swimsuits during that era was that synthetic fibers had not been discovered yet, so suits were typically made from either wool or cotton. These fabrics slowly disintegrate over time, releasing fibers, which continually clogged these new developed filtration systems (by way of example, look at the lint filter after doing a load of cotton fabrics.) In addition, unless washed properly, swimsuits can also carry the same pathogens that were of concern. Maintaining a large supply of swimsuits that were properly cleaned and stored was not only logistically challenging, but financially as well.

In 1926, the American Public Health Association (APHA) published the first guidelines for swimming pool management. These guidelines were updated every one to three years, as needed. Those guidelines recommended that all males first strip naked followed by a soap bath, then, remain completely nude while swimming. Unadorned, undyed tank suits were recommended for females. The APHA pool management guidelines were not intended to promote nude swimming, but instead, to keep pools sanitary and that meant keeping the water disinfected, which was best accomplished by disallowing the use of swimsuits. Consequently, male nude swimming was recommended in every edition until 1962. APHA guidelines as well as health ordinances at the state level were typically directed by physicians, sports professionals and water sanitation specialists; thus, their recommended safe practices became codified into mandates by virtually every public school, municipality and youth association. It should be noted that during the entire era, females were always provided swimsuits. However, in no literature or published guidelines is the disparity of required swimming apparel between genders ever discussed. This evidences that how during that period, female modesty was an important part of the culture whereas modesty for males was not a consideration.

The mandated baths and full nudity resulted in the design of some interesting technologies. During an NPR radio interview, a journalist told me of an infamous shower device described by one man that had attended a Chicago school during that era called a "ball washer", and she queried me about whether I knew of such water devices designed to wash the boys' balls. I told her my research had not uncovered anything of the ilk. A research associate, O. Caipora, then sent me the following photograph showing the plumbing arrangement of these "ball washers". According to the man that used it, the boys would line up nude then proceed down the "shower runway" getting a powerful spray of water not only from the sides, but underneath so as the genitals and anal region would be sprayed as well.

During the early 20th century, chlorine was difficult to use effectively because managing the pH had to be precise enough to kill the bacteria. In 1939 a discovery came that was called the "breakpoint in water chlorination" Chemical testing was then something pool managers could do more easily. But due to the onset of WWII, automatic chlorination was not widely used until the late 1940s.

There were several things that occurred simultaneously by the early 1960s that reduced the need for the mandated nudity rule. Urban sprawl meant most people swam in pools as opposed to polluted waters, automatic chlorination was controlling the level of pathogens, most swimsuits were being made out of synthetic fibers, polio was conquered and medical professionals now had curative medicines that could arrest the outbreaks of diseases caused by pool water. Thus, in 1962 APHA finally dropped the nude swimming recommendation because it was no longer for health reasons. This is an important event as it underscores the real and justifiable reasons male nude swimming had been mandated for over half a century.

But despite APHA dropping the health guideline and that there were no longer any health reasons for mandated nude male swimming, public schools and the Y continued to require nude swimming through the 1970s and some even into the 1980s. Research shows the reasons were two fold. First, as most people are aware, bureaucratic institutions are resistant of change, even when there are no reasons for a continued practice. "It's just the way it has always been done" was a very common reason cited by coaches and administrative staff of the era. Second, news articles reveal that a number of Boards of Education ruled that nude male swimming should continue despite no health reasons for it solely due to the cost to the school districts to provide and clean swimsuits for the boys, which, by the way, they had already been doing for girls for decades. Again, gender equality was not a concern in the early 1960s, and the general belief was that the boys should "buck up" and be manly about it (for further research, please see the published news articles and syndicated columns of Dear Abby and Ann Landers posted elsewhere on this site). One such article was published in a 1961 edition of the Appleton Post. It dealt with a petition wherein parents were demanding that the policy mandating that all boys swim nude be lifted. As part of the debate, the school district conducted a survey of other public schools, which showed that 20 out of 31 school districts contacted had policies requiring boys to swim nude while girls did not. With survey in hand, the school board ruled that the nudity policy for the boys would remain in effect. That survey provides some evidence that about two-thirds of all swimming programs still enforced nudity policies for the boys swimming classes in 1961.

[Cornflake]

Okay, there was a reason for it. I stand corrected.

[Dub]

I was taught to swim in the late 1040s by YMCA instructors but classes were held at one the public pools, not the YMCA. Everyone wore swimming attire. I don’t remember swimming at the Y in Des Moines but we used to swim at the Jewish Community Center. I think we wore trunks there. I remember it was a great place to go.

In high school, all students swam nude, both boys and girls. Alas, there were no mixed swims. (And no boys ever tried peeking into the pool area during a girls swim. Heh.) Swimming was a required PE course for at least a year. Some students opted for swimming every year, sometimes in addition to PE classes in the gym. Swimming was an important sport at our school. We consistently maintained a championship swim team with several team members making All American. Our swim teams would be invited to compete nationally.

The girls also had a swim team and a special group that did choreographed swimming routines to recorded music. Naturally they wore matching suits for public performances.

Water polo, an aggressive and probably dangerous sport, was often played during boys swimming class.

I don’t remember any incidents of nudity being a problem or thought of as strange. Everyone was going to be nude in the shower together, why not the pool? It just seemed natural. We were all nude while skinny dipping in sand and gravel pits after dark after all.

I remember the YMCA sponsored classes in lifesaving at our high school in the summer. I enrolled and became certified. I remember we had to swim a mile of laps just to warm up prior to class. It was a physically challenging class.

[billhammond]

Aug 17, 2024 12:22:10 GMT -5 Dub said:

I was taught to swim in the late 1040s by YMCA instructors but classes were held at one the public pools, not the YMCA.

Wow, you're a lot older than I thought!

[Dub]

Aug 17, 2024 12:32:31 GMT -5 billhammond said:

Aug 17, 2024 12:22:10 GMT -5 Dub said:

I was taught to swim in the late 1040s by YMCA instructors but classes were held at one the public pools, not the YMCA.

Wow, you're a lot older than I thought!

Well I probably didn’t do much more than dog paddle. I didn’t get very good at it until 1950 or ‘51.

[drlj]

I can’t swim. My HS had no pool. It barely had a floor.

[Cornflake]

At church camp, the boys and girls had adjoining showers. One fellow discovered that if you climbed up into a corner you could get a great view of the girls' shower. Another guy made the mistake of sharing this information with a counselor and the view was promptly blocked.

[PaulKay]

I did the entire YMCA set of swimming instruction from minnow to lifeguard. That was the late 50’s.
I don’t recall nude swimming. But chlorinated pool filtration technology was certainly around all that time.

[epaul]

Chorine aside, swimming in the nude, especially amongst males, was a cultural inheritance from England, and before that, from Greco-Roman traditions, and before that, cavemen. The Y, especially, was in a direct line with the culture of English gentlemen's clubs.

[howard lee]

The Mercury/Australia

[drlj]

Aug 17, 2024 8:54:06 GMT -5 howard lee said:

Aug 17, 2024 8:37:27 GMT -5 factorychef said:

In the early 60's I belonged to the YMCA in Miami. To use the pool you had to swim in the nude.the girls didn't have to.I saw an article today that talked about it. Chicago and other places had the same rule.So here you are in a pool with 50 or 60 dudes letting all hang out.We didn't swim together with the girls. Has anyone here remember doing this? The good old days.

Yes, in public high school PE swim class, 1971-72. I cut that class and then cried in the PE teachers' office that I had already been accepted to college and holding me back for a gym class would cause a major disruption in my intellectual life and education. He passed me with a 65.

I would have flunked you. A little intellectual disruption would have done you good and provided a valuable life lesson.

[millring]

I went to the Y yesterday. They kicked me out. Apparently they don't even know their own rules.

[howard lee]

Aug 18, 2024 7:48:16 GMT -5 drlj said:

Aug 17, 2024 8:54:06 GMT -5 howard lee said:

Yes, in public high school PE swim class, 1971-72. I cut that class and then cried in the PE teachers' office that I had already been accepted to college and holding me back for a gym class would cause a major disruption in my intellectual life and education. He passed me with a 65.

I would have flunked you. A little life disruption would have done you good and provided a valuable life lesson.

Then it's a blessing for me that we didn't meet until 30 years later.