Men, Manliness And Being Naked Around Other Men

Every time I use the bathroom at one of my grandchildren's school events, I flash back to my own childhood. Coming face-to-face with the communal trough urinal and door-less toilet stalls triggers my feelings of juvenile embarrassment. In case a man has never used one of these urinals, eHow offers up advice on "How to Use a Trough Urinal." It cautions you to "keep in mind some people may be uncomfortable with closeness to others when using it, so keep your distance, if possible." We are instructed to "not feel the need to flush if you have to get in another person's way to reach the handle." The assumption behind these urinals, and the open-door stalls at my grandchildren’s school, is that boys do not need privacy.

Communal bathing and spas have been around for thousands of years, but the concept of modesty is a relatively recent one for Western culture. Many indigenous people would play sports without any covering, and athletes in ancient Greece also competed naked. In fact, the Greek word gymnasium means “a school for naked exercise.”

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