I live in central Europe in a country very comfortable with nudity, and I've been to several saunas where I am nude in a mixed-sex setting. Yet even these facilities have separate changing facilities for men and women. Why? Because they are ISOLATED. Often it will only be me and one other person in the changing area. I would feel extreme…
I live in central Europe in a country very comfortable with nudity, and I've been to several saunas where I am nude in a mixed-sex setting. Yet even these facilities have separate changing facilities for men and women. Why? Because they are ISOLATED. Often it will only be me and one other person in the changing area. I would feel extremely uncomfortable if that person were a man, for hopefully obvious reasons.
Women don't want sex-segregated spaces because we are prudes, we want them because opportunistic male predators will exploit any chance they can in places were we are naked, alone and vulnerable. It never fails to astonish me that despite the overwhelming statistics showing women are frequently the victims of male sexual and physical violence, we still get people stroking their chins and opining as to whether we want our own changing rooms because we're bigots, prudes or just plain paranoid.
I've been to one very trendy one where the male and female changing rooms were connected so essentially mixed sex. I wasn't a fan really. Most of the patrons were couples, which may have explained the decision, as well as the fact it had a very hipster vibe.
Most saunas here however have male and female changing rooms, as do all the swimming pools and leisure facilities in general. There is a healthy and relaxed attitude to nudity, which I enjoy, and also a healthy understanding of the need for boundaries in changing areas where people are isolated, which I also greatly appreciate. Context is everything. Being naked in a room alone with a stranger is very different to being naked in a public area with lots of other naked people.
I live in central Europe in a country very comfortable with nudity, and I've been to several saunas where I am nude in a mixed-sex setting. Yet even these facilities have separate changing facilities for men and women. Why? Because they are ISOLATED. Often it will only be me and one other person in the changing area. I would feel extremely uncomfortable if that person were a man, for hopefully obvious reasons.
Women don't want sex-segregated spaces because we are prudes, we want them because opportunistic male predators will exploit any chance they can in places were we are naked, alone and vulnerable. It never fails to astonish me that despite the overwhelming statistics showing women are frequently the victims of male sexual and physical violence, we still get people stroking their chins and opining as to whether we want our own changing rooms because we're bigots, prudes or just plain paranoid.
I've been to one very trendy one where the male and female changing rooms were connected so essentially mixed sex. I wasn't a fan really. Most of the patrons were couples, which may have explained the decision, as well as the fact it had a very hipster vibe.
Most saunas here however have male and female changing rooms, as do all the swimming pools and leisure facilities in general. There is a healthy and relaxed attitude to nudity, which I enjoy, and also a healthy understanding of the need for boundaries in changing areas where people are isolated, which I also greatly appreciate. Context is everything. Being naked in a room alone with a stranger is very different to being naked in a public area with lots of other naked people.
Ahh, so you are someone who is deliberately seeking out nudist venues, you’re not stumbling across them.
It’s not the case that they are ‘common’; they can be found if you are interested. Most people are not.
People who do not like being naked in public don’t go spas where people get naked in public.
I don’t. As a result, I don’t labour under the delusion that Europeans are all totally relaxed by mixed sex public nudity.