The link isn't working for me.
I think about the abuse, the fear, the little hell hole that locker rooms used to be. The slow developers feared ridicule, or talk would get out that they were less than manly. There was a push to be manly. The locker rooms and group showers were not well supervised, so rat tails, bullying, etc. made people want to just get out of it fast. In P.E. we were taught to be competitive, manly, man-up, don't be a sissy, or girlish. It didn't do much for our attitudes toward women and it was to destroy any feminine aspects to our personalities. We were placed into a survive the ordeal mode, or be abused, or to be with the bullys. The girls were taught to be housewives and passive. I don't know what went on in their lockers, but they were supposed to be lesser. There was certainly no mixes of the sexes. I remember a boy was tricked into walking out of the male showers nude and into the indoor pool where the girls were swimming in 1967. He didn't come back to school for a week or so, the immaculate embarrassment. I remember I liked PE, but the locker-room was just horrible without supervision.
This crap instead of camaraderie didn't wash well. There was a transition while I was away. When I got back into a locker room as a teacher there was no mandatory showers for the usual health reasons, and no kids were showering. The sports kids after school were showering. PE started as a mandatory program in schools in the 60's under President Kennedy. It was important and it was about health. Kids were taught to shower.
How did this come about? The authorities see forcing/ordering kids to shower for health reasons is too close to rape. A teacher doesn't want to let any innuendo that he/she may be getting a kick out of stripping kids. Probably a school lawyer taking the side of caution, as they do. Then, it spreads. The PE instructor doesn't want to bully in the new no tolerance anti-bully school culture. He doesn't want to embarrass kids by calling them sissys when they don't proudly walk around a mater of fact nude. The kids are given choice. They save a huge bundle on laundry bills for all of those towels. It saves time for more physical activity when they don't take the time to shower.
There may have been a reason for the lack of locker-room supervision besides laziness. Who wants to stand around supervising a bunch of kids changing and showering. You have to take away their privacy, and you might have people wonder why you watch them.
The swimming nude issue came once a year when the laundry for the speedo suits didn't get done in time. I always suspected a fix to teach a lesson to teach kids to be more comfortable in their skin, as it happened each year once about the same time for several years. What was the true reason for the coincidence, I don't know. Maybe the laundry and the coach had graft going. Coach Dave Diget would yell, "Look there are no swimsuits, but we are swimming anyway, stop acting like girls."
With the coed trend, skinny dipping has taken a hit.
So, I don't know why nudity in the US went from one extreme to the other, but....there are reasons right or wrong and we are stuck with the result. We can't teach body freedom in school, in any way, let alone forcing the kids to be nude in the school pool. Many districts can't afford a pool. It is up to us to educate in the street and on the internet where kids learn off of their sex education. Perhaps, when social nudity becomes a non-issue never mentioned in school and people have memories of itchy crotch rot, nudity concerns buried in bureaucratic morass, people will come to us for the education that they never received in health class. Nobody is telling them that it ain't right, but parents and peers. Peers change, but parents are challenged. The internet may become the teacher, flawed as it is. When I go to anything social nudity, nude, naked, naturist, naturism, I find a majority positive comments and then those nasty, "You ugly naked" ignorant remarks. Every so often, I take the time to look these up, when I have some time and add my positive two bits. The downside is the sexualization of the nude, which is prevalent.
There must be many reasons for the change, but we are stuck here. At least the locker rooms are not peppered with separate changing rooms. They have to change together. Still, many are stripping down to only underwear, which is very unhealthy after a sweaty workout. They tend to quietly keep their backs to each other. It just isn't a healthy health class anymore.
Jbee
