Ymca swimming naked (photos)

Frank Answers About Swimming Naked at the YMCA by Frank Senn

Many older men say they experienced swimming naked at the YMCA. Could you write about that?

I included information about the YMCA’s swimming program in Frank Answers About Swimming Naked. But the Y played a big role in naked swimming in the U.S., Canada, and elsewhere. Many men over fifty experienced this when they were boys. So it is worth writing more about the YMCA and the cultural and religious background of its physical education programs.

Because many urban boys were drowning, the Brooklyn, NY YMCA built an indoor swimming pool in 1885. Following the custom of men and boys swimming naked outdoors, the Y pools also required men and boys to swim naked. This was considered healthy, manly, and it kept the primitive filters from clugging up with lint from cotton swim suits that also impended swimming.

In the meantime, with the inclusion of female members, the Y transformed itself into a “family organization.” There is no more naked swimming or even shirtless exercising or sports activities. And in the showers and locker rooms only the older men walk around naked. The younger men modestly use a towel. There are many reasons for the displays of modesty by younger men and boys. It is reinforced in homes and schools and boys simply don’t experience being naked with one another. Homophobia and now the ubiquitous iphone cameras also discourage nudity. But the story of the YMCA shows that up to about fifty years ago the Y promoted a healthy sense of bodily self in its male members that could probably use some reinforcement today to counter what has been described as “toxic masculinity.” (For a question and answer about “Toxic Masculinity” see Frank Answers Briefly About Male Body Issues.) The YWCA promotes a secure sense of being a woman in its programs. The YMCA can no longer do that for young men.