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Unisex showers in school


ThaHoward

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Now I dont know how gym in school is outside of here. But in school pupils have to shower after gym classes. For hygenic reasons, learn them to be respectful and to make them get a more healthy body image.

Now appereantly in one school first boys and girls grade (5-7 years of age) shower together. Now some parents reacted to this, and they said it was unhealthy for their development. They reported it, but both the county government and police attorney said it was nothing wrong with it legally.

Now what do you think of exposing young boys and girls to eachother at that age? Will it help normalize views on gender and sex, or only contribute to more sexualization? Should this be standard for schools and if yes, up to what age should boys and girls shower together?

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I don't see anything wrong with it as long as they can still choose to not be naked in front of near strangers. Some people simply aren't comfortable with that, for plenty of reasons which don't necessarily have anything to do with sexuality.

(They actually give you the time to shower after gym classes? I recall being late to other classes when I was in charge of the class register and I didn't even take more than a minute to get dressed.)

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Yes shower/changing is part of the gym class, and usually it is breaks after.

And I agree with that. But I believe if you expose them to nudity early on it will be more natural and more comfortable.

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Is there any data supporting the claim that mixing genders in such a way causes developmental issues, and if so, what kind?

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Well kinda hard to gather data when there is very few who do it. It is in its nature experimental. I believe it is more the parents who don't like it however, and think it will really be the opposite of what they say. They are afraid of sexualization, child sex and so on.

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Yes shower/changing is part of the gym class, and usually it is breaks after.

And I agree with that. But I believe if you expose them to nudity early on it will be more natural and more comfortable.

Whoa. We had 5-10 minute breaks that basically started the moment we left the gym. So... go back to the changing room, change, go to your classroom, gather the stuff you need, go to another classroom at the other end of the school building. You may notice that didn't even include waiting for the teacher to give you the class register... or, you know, an actual break. -_-

I totally agree that people make way too much of a fuss over nudity. This may be helpful, though I think the parents would need some education that not all nudity is sex and that their adult perspective doesn't always apply to kids.

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It's probably more healthy that kids are aware at that age of what each other looks like, normalizing bodies etc. Once they get to around 9 though (girls can start getting breasts at that age and pubic hairs can start developing in either gender) I think it's best they have their own gender-space (no idea what term I am trying to use) to shower in, for personal comfort more than anything else. it can be hard enough for many being naked around people who look sort of similar to you at that age (because you're so unsure about your body and everything) let alone having to be naked around people of other genders.. urgh, that would be so awful (for me as a kid anyway)

..we never showered after physical ed class :o just went straight onto the next class.

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girltwink666

1. sex is a lie and by that i mean I don't think anything should be divided on those grounds because sex ≠ gender

2. in the end gender isnt even real so why use that as a basis for dividing people??

3. nudity isn't inherently sexual and its especially messed up to talk about it like it is when the people in question are kids!!! like wtf

That all being said, they should definitely have options for people who straight up don't want to be in a communal shower.

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Well, I going to say that when I was around that age and showering/bathing with my cousins and siblings and best friends, some boys and some girls, it didn't ever lead to sexualization but then I realized that of course it didn't! I don't think that way XD

Sometimes I'm actually suprised by just how innocent children are. I don't see a problem in it since they're so naive at that age, it's not really something that would cause an issue. I agree that it could help with normallzing their views on bodies of both a child's own sex and the opposite sex and that's definitely a benefit rather than a repercussion. I feel like 'kids showering together leads to sexualization' is far out of the picture.

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I recall that in our grade 1 & 2 elementary school swimming classes, there was just one big changing room for all the kids (and obviously for swimming, changing involves getting stark naked). I recall that a number of us were already rather uncomfortable with getting naked in front of the other sex, and saw the switch to the other pool in 3rd grade (which had separate change rooms) as a relief.

I have no idea what the parents thought of it. Mine sure didn't care.

(They actually give you the time to shower after gym classes? I recall being late to other classes when I was in charge of the class register and I didn't even take more than a minute to get dressed.)

Yup, this. There were showers available, but noone showered after gym class, fullstop. Some - myself included - did a quick "catwash" of face and chest at the basin if they felt sweaty, but there simply wasn't time for anything more. P.E. teachers always complained if they had to shave even five minutes off the end of the hour to allow students to change and all.

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just an owl

As long as they don't have to get naked... I don't see a problem with it.

...do people really get showers after sports class? We had a couple at school but I'm almost certain we weren't allowed to use them...

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As long as the kids are not forced to do it (that works with genders split up anyway), then there is no problem. Kids are innocent and don't care about rudeness or different gender (most of the time) and exposing one to another at an early age creates less of a gap.

Of course once puberty starts to hit in then it does become a different scenario.

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1. sex is a lie

I had to read this twice before I realised you meant biological sex, rather than the activity xD

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ChillaKilla

When I saw this thread title, I assumed it was referring to pubescent students :P Obviously I was mistaken, and I wholeheartedly agree that desexualizing nudity is a good thing, and starting young is also good. Although, I do think parents should be able to withdraw their consent for this if it is inconsistent with their deeply held beliefs.

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I will never go near schools outside of here then. They must be really smelly :p

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ChillaKilla

I will never go near schools outside of here then. They must be really smelly :P

I wore the same gym clothes every other day for a semester once

:twisted:

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UncommonNonsense

Where I come from, no one showered after gym until they hit puberty (and it was still rare, since we were barely given enough time to change out of our gym uniforms and into our street clothes, let alone shower). I can only pity the teacher who got our class after gym...

But at home, it was common for parents to bathe with their children as a way of saving water and time, and often siblings or close friends ended up in the tub together. Grade 1 or 2 seemed to be the cut-off for mixed gender bathing though (age 8 at the oldest). And that seems to be being pushed back due to kids starting puberty younger now.

If I were a parent, I doubt I'd have any objection to kids of both genders, under age 8, showering together. But I would ask my child if they were comfortable with showering in a group and their comfort level would be the deciding factor. I was totally fine with mixed gender bathing (or group bathing in general) at that age, but some kids might not be. Especially kids who don't conform to society's body/appearance/beauty standards - a child with a physical disability, a fat child, a child who has scarring or a skin disorder for example. If my child had that kind of issue and was self-conscious about it, their comfort would be even more important in making the decision about whether or not they'd participate in group bathing.

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That would totally remove all the fun from showering. Having to be constantly aware of literally every slight movement around you to guard/defend against another boy slapping your back hard (which, for some reason, hurts more when wet) gets the heart racing moreso than sports, you start integrating showers and you lose all that crazy tension. Everyone would just be kicking back showering lazily without fear of imminent threat, they would be late to lessons every single time. Where I went to school, if you don't get out of the shower quick enough, or if your alertness is even slightly suspect, your back is gonna get pasted with bright red handprints and you knew full well to pick up the slack before you became a frequent target.

Can you imagine a guy accidentally slapping a girl in the back even once? They'd shut down that whole beautiful game of violence on the spot. Any potentially life saving reflexes I have, I gained in the breathless fear of intensely stinging slaps in the school showers~

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Grumpy Alien

We never showered after gym. There wouldn't have been time anyway. There were only 5 minutes between bells. (In grade school - I didn't have gym in high school.)

In preschool, we changed for swim class in the same room. It was obviously never sexualized because we were 4-5 years old.

I think this is good up to a certain age. (Just before the average age of puberty, perhaps.) After that - in my culture - teens become sex obsessed and it's very male dominated. Boys would be verbally abusive and harass girls, I think. I'm only speaking from my experience. Teens are vulgar, for the most part.

However, if we were to institute such a practice at an early age, we could eliminate a lot of the thoughts surrounding nudity. We could reshape the youth over time. Eventually, we'd get to a point where no separation of the sexes is practiced or considered necessary.

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Grade 5-7 isn't nearly young enough to expect it to help any if you stuff kids naked together in one room... like group showers weren't uncomfortable enough with the own sex, for many at that age anyway. If you're not cool with it at around 12, this is only gonna traumatize you lol.

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Hermit Advocate

No one at my school ever had time to shower after gym, but at that age I remember being self conscious to change in front of other girls. I don't know how I'd have handled changing in front of guys.

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That would totally remove all the fun from showering. Having to be constantly aware of literally every slight movement around you to guard/defend against another boy slapping your back hard (which, for some reason, hurts more when wet) gets the heart racing moreso than sports, you start integrating showers and you lose all that crazy tension. Everyone would just be kicking back showering lazily without fear of imminent threat, they would be late to lessons every single time. Where I went to school, if you don't get out of the shower quick enough, or if your alertness is even slightly suspect, your back is gonna get pasted with bright red handprints and you knew full well to pick up the slack before you became a frequent target.

Can you imagine a guy accidentally slapping a girl in the back even once? They'd shut down that whole beautiful game of violence on the spot. Any potentially life saving reflexes I have, I gained in the breathless fear of intensely stinging slaps in the school showers~

Do you believe 6 year olds slaps girls on their butts?

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At that age, they're still figuring out that boys and girls are physically different. It wouldn't bother them. I remember wondering why boys and girls needed different bathrooms and wondered why I couldn't use the boys one. I also remember having to do PE (Phys Ed) in my vest and pants when I was in infants school (Age 4-7), none of us cared until they threatened us with the same treatment when we forgot our kits in junior school.

In short, kids don't care until they realise the difference between boys and girls and become more shy about their body. Until they hit that development stage, why not?

In the same breath though, why not unisex toilets for infant age children?

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Someone Else

Gym changing rooms, at least back in the 80's, tended to involve a constant hazing, violence, and bullying of the weak/fat/unpopular by the stronger kids. Showering naked, and the hazing would be off the scale, probably hospitalization-level violence occasionally. Certainly life-long trauma-level abuse. If the males do this to each other, I can only dread when they'd do to the girls.

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That would totally remove all the fun from showering. Having to be constantly aware of literally every slight movement around you to guard/defend against another boy slapping your back hard (which, for some reason, hurts more when wet) gets the heart racing moreso than sports, you start integrating showers and you lose all that crazy tension. Everyone would just be kicking back showering lazily without fear of imminent threat, they would be late to lessons every single time. Where I went to school, if you don't get out of the shower quick enough, or if your alertness is even slightly suspect, your back is gonna get pasted with bright red handprints and you knew full well to pick up the slack before you became a frequent target.

Can you imagine a guy accidentally slapping a girl in the back even once? They'd shut down that whole beautiful game of violence on the spot. Any potentially life saving reflexes I have, I gained in the breathless fear of intensely stinging slaps in the school showers~

Do you believe 6 year olds slaps girls on their butts?

No, but I know full well they slap each other, and in the shower where the slaps are flying wildly a stray slap is almost inevitable to collide with an unwary girl~

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Grace Barton
Just... no. This would have petrified me as a kid. How are they going to learn to respect body privacy? To me this destroys that, and a very shy student will be scarred and mocked by other kids for their discomfort.

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Not a good idea. Children will see that they're different without understanding why, probably resulting in all sorts of strange conversations and misunderstandings

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Would it not be good that they could then learn about the differences? I remember I saw naked girls at that age, and I got taught what it was.

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Grace Barton

Would it not be good that they could then learn about the differences? I remember I saw naked girls at that age, and I got taught what it was.

Don't most schools usually use diagrams for that sort of thing? I always knew boys had different parts to girls and understood the differences without having to see it, especially from my peers.

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Children arent able to oversee consequences of behaviour.What if something would go wrong when boys and girls shower together?

I can already see them playing "Doctor" when showering together, thats the nightmare of every single parent.Nobody would be there to watch over them and i doubt someone is able to prevent bad things from happening.Not a good idea at all.

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