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?
Warning: nude images
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.
The Young Men’s Christian Association was founded as an evangelical organization by George Williams in 1851 for young men who were migrating into the city of London from the countryside. It was intended to be a place of refuge for those seeking employment in the commerce and industry of the city. It specialized in helping with employment searches, providing a place of accommodation, and offering Bible study and prayer meetings. The objective was to provide male Christian fellowship to keep young men away from the lures of pubs and prostitution. Very quickly the concept caught on and Young Men’s Christian Associations sprang up throughout the far-flung British Empire and in the United States.
The steady growth of YMCAs in the U.S. was interrupted by the Civil War (1861–1865) in which many young men fought and died. After the war single young men again began drifting into the cities looking for work, which were also burgeoning with the massive influx of immigrants. Responding to unhealthy living conditions as well as the lure of morally questionable activities in the cities, the YMCA aimed to put Christian principles into practice by developing in young men a “healthy body, mind, and spirit,” as emblemized in the Y’s Triangle.
By moving in this direction the Y tapped into the Muscular Christianity movement that emerged in England and came into the U.S. in the late 19th century. Its aim was to counter the feminine image of Christianity by providing fit bodies for missionaries and ministers working in foreign mission fields and urban inner missions. Theodore Roosevelt, like his father, was a strong promoter of muscular Christianity in his book, The Strenous Life. See Clifford Putnam, Muscular Christianity: Manhood and Sports in Protestant America, 1880–1920 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001).
The YMCA became a major promoter of the physical culture movement that began in Prussia in the early 19th century under the influence of Friedrich Jahn. Jahn developed the use of heavy equipment to shape and strengthen bodies, especially of the Prussian military which had suffered defeats by Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars. Because of his development of this form of gymnastics Jahn came to be called the Turnvater (father of gymnastics). Turnverein (gymnastic associations) sprang up in many German cities and were brought to the U.S. by German immigrants. Following the Greek ideals of the physical culture movement in Prussia, exercise with heavy equipment was often done in the nude in the YMCA.
The other form of gymnastics to come out of the early 19th century physical culture movement was Swedish, as developed by Pehr-Henrik Ling. Ling’s “light gymnastics” (as opposed to Jahn’s “heavy gymnastics”) was based on body movement (Ling had been a fencing instructor) that Ling developed into calisthenics and tumbling. These movement exercises were adopted by the British Army and became staples of British and American physical education.
While not everyone in the Associations was on board with the new direction of promoting bodily fitness, the YMCA evolved from a Bible study fellowship group for young men to become a major youth organization dedicated to physical, mental, and spiritual fitness as well as a social center for young men.
With expanding programs the YMCAs outgrew the church facilities they rented in their early years and saw their need for buildings of their own. In their own buildings they could meet the general need for physical fitness among the many young men whose office jobs kept them at their desks all day. They weren’t receiving the natural muscle strengthening that came from farm work or manual labor jobs. The first YMCA building to construct a gymnasium opened in Boston in 1869. Other YMCA facilities in North America began including gyms and pools as well as hotel-like dormitories to house men coming into the cities looking for work.
Boston YMCA physical education director Robert J. Roberts is credited with coining the term “bodybuilding” in 1881. He developed exercise classes that anticipated today’s fitness workouts. The YMCA is also credited with inventing the games of basketball for use in its urban gyms and volleyball for use in its summer camps.
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.
The American Public Health Association recommended showering and swimming naked in indoor, at least for boys (the need of modesty for girls was recognized), in 1926, for health purposes. The last naked swimming recommendation from the APHA was in 1962. But many Ys, Boys Clubs, and schools continued the practice of swimming naked into the early 1970s. Local Y associations ended the practice when the Ys admitted women and girls into membership in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Before that the Ys had women auxiliaries, staff assistants, and instructors — including swimming instructors for young naked boys (the women were suited, although the male instructors usually weren’t — see the second photo below) –, and reportedly sometimes served as life guards in indoor pools and at summer camps.
It is ironic that although the YMCA was officially a homophobic organization, homoeroticism flourished in its programs and YMCA facilities became prime places for homosexual cruising. This is an aspect of the YMCA’s history that was simply too pervasive to be ignored. It was the subject of the study by John Donald Gustav-Wrathall, Take the Young Stranger by the Hand: Same-Sex Relations and the YMCA (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
It’s probably not surprising that homoeroticism flourished in the YMCA. From its founding the YMCA encouraged intimate friendships between young Christian men. It intentionally fostered intimate relationships between the mostly bachelor secretaries (directors) and young men. The object was to “take the young stranger by the hand” and provide the bonds of Christian fellowship. This intimacy included a great deal of attention given to the male body. The physical culture movement encouraged men and boys to study the bodies of other men for models of musculature and physical development. The YMCA’s magazine, Association Men, began a regular column answering “Muscle Questions,” accompanied by drawings of classical nude statues and photos of men flexing their muscles.
The spiritual values associated with the development of a well-proportioned male physique were not essentially different from the values of the homosexual emancipation movement in pre-Nazi Germany, even though officially the YMCA was a homophobic organization. See Harry Oosterhuis, Editor, Homosexuality and Male Bonding in Pre-Nazi Germany: The Youth Movement, the Gay Movement, and Male Bonding before Hitler’s Rise. Original Transcripts from Der Eigene, the First Gay Journal in the World. Binghampton, NY: Harrington Park, 1991.
Young men signing up for the use of physical facilities were given a nude inspection by physical directors to evaluate their physical needs and prescribe workouts. These private conferences also served as opportunities to discuss and answer intimate questions about sexual practices such as masturbation, use of pornography, visiting prostitutes, and homosexuality.
As Gustav-Wrathall pointed out, these conditions had the unintended consequence of setting up an environment for cruising by both young men who were coming to terms with their sexuality and older men who, as upstanding members of the YMCA and the community, volunteered to mentor the young men. There were a few scandals from time to time. The most devastating one to the Y’s reputation occurred at the Portland, Oregon YMCA in 1912. A police dragnet resulted in the arrest and indictment of over fifty members for indecent behavior, who turned out to be Protestant men of “high moral standards” in the community—leading business and professional men among them. The concern of the journalist who exposed the situation was the potential corruption of youth. But the Y’s leadership emphasized that the men and boys were kept separated (except when fathers and sons were swimming together).
YMCAs across the country promised to provide more vigilance over what was occurring in their facilities. Nevertheless, the Ys continued to be safe places for homosexual cruising and liaisons. This reach a height during the war years of the 1940s when many service men were coming into the cities in transit to their stations and during the Red scare of the 1950s which increased police harassment of gay men in public parks and gay bars. The Ys were a much safer place in which to cruise. The extent to which the Y’s leadership was aware of this activity or even participated in it is difficult to determine.
Three things happened to reduce cruising in the Ys. First, gay liberation in the later 1960s caused many homosexuals to affirm their gay identities. After the Stonewall Inn Riots in New York City in 1969 they were more willing to cruise in other, more open, places. Second, the YMCA became a “family oriented” organization when women and girls were invited into full membership and male nakedness ceased except in the men’s locker rooms and showers. Third, as a result of this decision female directors were included on Y staffs and many new male directors were recruited from the ranks of family men as the former directors retired.
Within this shadowy history, the fact is that many lonely single young Christian men (who may or may not have been gay) found hospitality and an opportunity in the associations to make friends with other male Christians—the original purpose of the YMCA. The YMCA offered friendship, a sense of belonging, and even the possibilities of mutual male bonding or intimacy in what was for many an insecure urban environment. As a parachurch organization the YMCA could be somewhat relaxed about welcoming young men who might be exploring or expressing same-sex intimacy in the Y/s facilities and co-exist in the ambiguity of also being a Christian organization at a time when churches were not welcoming those who identified as homosexuals.
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.
Pastor Frank Senn
Article appeared in www.frank-answers.com on 3rd September 2018
I remember taking swimming lessons at YMCA when living in Panorama City, Ca. Was 11 or 12 yrs old, women instructors had suits, boys naked. Had to walk in line past instructors before entering pool. In mid 1950s
It must have been a strange experience. I find it fascinating that boys were made to do this. I was always body-shy and don’t think I could have done it.
I have no experience of the YMCA but I was — and still am (I’m in my late forties now) — a keen swimmer. When I was a child and adolescent swimming pools (in suburban Melbourne, Australia) tended to have open plan showers in the male changing rooms; nowadays showers in male changing areas tend to be individual cubicles (I think female changing rooms have always had individual showers?). When I was a teenager I loved the feeling of being naked in the changing rooms and seeing naked men. Now, of course, if it was busy and/or there were fathers-with-young-sons about I’d quickly rinse off the chlorinated pool water under a shower (whilst still in my Speedos), go back to my place and towel myself off, and face the wall whilst getting dressed, i.e. I’d be in and out of the changing rooms in no time. But…
If it was quiet, say, just a small handful of older men on their own about, then I’d take way longer. I’d take my Speedos off and then walk over to the showers naked and spend longer than normal under the stream of water, looking at — not obviously staring but not trying to hide it either — the (sometimes plumped up) cock, or cocks, of an older man, or men. Sometimes, I might let my own cock accidentally-on-purpose get engorged too…
I distinctly remember one time when I was fourteen: there was just myself and a fit older guy (maybe younger than I am now?) — both of us nude — in the showers. I was surreptitiously flirting with him and soon enough we were both fully erect. (It’s one thing to have one’s cock “plumped up” or “engorged” but being fully erect is taking things to a completely different— and risky — level!). Then he went back to his place and sat on the wooden-slatted bench, casually toying with his cock whilst looking at me (he had his towel close at hand in case someone else came).
Instead of putting my towel around me I strutted naked — my erection bouncing around jauntily as I walked (and I also tried to make my buttocks have that sort of “firm wobble” my older sister’s bikini-clad bum would have) — over to the mirrors with a comb to do my wet hair. Then I went back to my place, sort of diagonally opposite him to dry myself. Facing away from him, I bent over with my legs spread to exaggeratedly dry my lower legs and feet. Then, I put my towel on the bench, and with a hand on either buttock I spread my bum cheeks. As I did so I “winked” my bum hole at him a few times!
I turned around and he was giving me a dirty grin (maybe I’m imagining it after all this time but did he also lick his lips?) and his cock was even harder now, if that were even possible…
But then we both heard wet footsteps approaching and another — not particularly sexy — man came in from the pool. The guy who’d been admiring me had his towel over his lap in a second and was pretending to rummage around in his bag. I had my towel around me in a flash. The man who’d just walked in would’ve had utterly no idea about what had just been going on!
Anyway, once I was dressed I went out to the dry corridor where my then 16 y.o. sister was waiting for me. As it was normally the other way around, i.e. me waiting for her (e.g. to dry her hair etc. after swimming) she gave me a “what took you so long look?” When we got home I told her about the guy in the changing rooms (she was — I doubt she’d remember now, i.e. I can barely think of her as a sexually-charged person these days — the only person amongst my family and friends who knew about my secret bi side, something I’d only really discovered about my self at the age of thirteen). She was initially a little concerned (being two years under the age of consent, i.e. 16, I could’ve got myself — or especially him — into trouble), but she also was aroused and curious (pressing me for details on what his cock was like), and also a little jealous even (i.e. wishing she could somehow go into the male changing rooms and be naked amongst naked men, etc).
As an aside, those memories of the changing rooms, plus this discussion about nude swimming at the YMCA, nude body building, and of course the Cockaigne Chronicles themselves has got me thinking about my ideal swimming pool…
Maybe it wouldn’t be like this all the time — i.e. maybe it’d only be once or twice a week at a certain time (e.g. later at night?) — but there’d be nude swimming sessions. Okay, maybe there’d be a minimum age limit: thirteen? Or, if that’s too young, sixteen? Anyway men and teenage boys would be required to be completely naked, women and teenage girls would be required to wear skimpy G-string bikini bottoms, i.e. their bare breasts and bum cheeks would be required to be on display but vulvas would have to be covered.
Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading about your experience. When I grew up, there were communal showers in the male changing room, and I enjoyed watching the others, although I hated being naked in front of others.
Unfortunately, today’s municipal swimming pools still have showers, but they are poolside so that everyone can use them, male and female, so everyone has to keep their swimming costumes on. The changing rooms are also cubicles. Private gyms still have showers but tend to be cubicles, yet their changing rooms are communal. I joined one once, and most people tend to be very modest.
There just isn’t anywhere to do any cock-watching anymore!
This is so neat! I can’t swim at all, so I wouldn’t be able to enjoy this. By the way, a neat sister.
I recall going to the YMCA from the age of 11 to 13. I lived on a residential street that ran in back of the facility in Cambridge, MA. I spent a lot of time there as a youth before going to highschool. They had a great youth program and in the summertime I spent most of my days there while my father was at work. All the boys and men swam naked. The swim instructors were naked. Nobody thought anything of it. We even competed naked. It seemed completely natural. It’s a shame those days are over.
I would love to have seen that!
I remember the Cambridge Y well. I went there myself for a number of years. Once you went into the locker room or pool, everybody was naked. That was when it was men only. It’s true that nobody thought anything about being naked together. It is too bad that practice has changed
My experience was at the Pasadena YMCA, cerca 1953. Our Scout troop had gone there one Saturday to work on Swimming Merit badge. We all changed into our suits, and went out to meet our instructor, suited. When out of the Men’s changing room two gentlemen clad only as God had clad them came out. I couldn’t believe my eyes, as no one had told us about the YMCA nude swimming policy; unlike some other YMCAs the policy was swimsuit optional, as we later learned. Anyway, the Instructor asked them to join us to demonstrate some swimming strokes, which they did. As the afternoon wore on, other men and boys came out, some with suits, some nude. Some of the boys in our Troop, and another Troop that was there, dropped their suits and went in nude; I was not one of them, as I was rather body shy at the time.
Anyway, as the days went by, we continued to come to the YMCA to work on the badges. However after that afternoon everyone wore suits, for really no good reason. Our Instructor also wore a suit, except one time when he was nude. And eventually the badges were granted. I didn’t get one, as I hadn’t yet learned to swim.
Some years later I did go back to the Y to get my Swimming badge, but I flunked the test; I later got it at another place. And then after that I went back to get my Lifesaving badge, with a couple of other guys I didn’t know. We wore suits, why, I don’t know. And then in later years, when I could drive (the YMCA was some distance from my house, as I lived in Arcadia) I took out a membership in the Y and used to frequent it. I later let the membership lapse.
I don’t think the nude policy was completely universal, as some posts imply, as I stayed at the San Francisco Y when my College was there on a field trip; I checked out the pool, but everybody including the Lifeguard was wearing suits. The last time I swam nude at a Y was in 1963 in New York. When I returned to California in 1966 I did check out the Pasadena Y, about 1972, but everybody was suited. I guess the policy had changed by then.
As an addendum to my above posting, one time when my Dad was driving us to the Pasadena Y he asked me “Do you wear suits at the Y? When I was in Salt Lake City we used to swim in the nude.” I was rather embarrased and answered him “Yes” without further comment. Many years later I was talking to a friend of mine, a College professor at ASU who had grown up in SLC. He said that where Dad had swum had probably not been the Y in SLC but the Deseret Center, as the Mormons had run the Y out of business, and they did swim nude at the Deseret Center. Dad could swim, but not very well; the ranching area in Eastern Nevada where he had grown up didn’t have many ponds big enough for swimming, although he and some cousins did occasionally go to a lake to swim. Anyway, this is the extent of my Y nude swimming experience, and I’ll close.
Thanks, Bruce. I love reading these stories.
I attended YMCA swimming lessons in the early 1960s at the YMCA in Jacksonville, Florida. All us boys swam nude. To the best of my memory, the male instructors had on swimming trunks. The mothers of swimmers came and went around the boys from elementary school age through high school age. It seemed perfectly normal and natural.
Wow! I’m not sure how I would have coped with all those Mum’s around the naked boys.
But yes, it should have been normal and natural. And still should be.