Hacker News Reader

Comment by dpark | Hacker News Reader

> But I do find US and Canada are becoming incredibly prudish. I've read even gyms are installing individual showers/rooms since the new generation don't like to be seen naked.

I don't think wanting some modicum of privacy is "prudish". I don't want to use a communal shower. I've always found that creepy.

I remember my middle school was built right before I started. They built separated showers in the gym for the girls and a communal shower for the boys. I remember thinking that was so bizarre. I also remember literally no boys ever using that shower.

View on HN

prude: a person who is or claims to be easily shocked by matters relating to sex or nudit

To think being around other naked people is creepy seems to fit the bill (not faulting you, but true).

Wanting privacy is not the same as being shocked. Do you defecate in public or are you a prude?

Is there much of a gap between "creepy" and "shocking"? Defecating in public is unsanitary, gross, indecent, none of which apply to simply being naked.

Trying to equate taking a dump in public with using a common shower is very much considered prude. Of course the stigma attached to the term plus the subjectivity involved makes it fuzzy.

Yes. Creepy and shocking are different. Odd that you think these are synonyms but "gross" isn't. Also amusing that you claim indecency and don't realize that's the cry of the prude.

There's also nothing about unsanitary about public defecation. On the street, yes. But a toilet or latrine is no less sanitary when you take the walls down. It's just not private any more.

I'm not a fan either, but I think the point is more that other cultures, and even earlier US generations, didn't see it as creepy.

But some of those generations would be creeped out by women wearing pants and short skirts, men wearing jeans everywhere, and people talking openly about sex and menstruation.

Cultural expectations have certainly shifted. I just don't think "prudish" is the appropriate word. No one, e.g., thinks it's prudish to want privacy when taking a shit. The fact that nudity is involved isn't, to me at least, sufficient to label it "prudish".

Perhaps trying to defend yourself with the example of "taking a shit" is orthogonal to taking a shower.

My experience is that it's no big deal if everyone else is doing it. On the other hand, it's rare to find a critical mass of men who don't care about being seen naked unless your gym has a bunch of men over 50.

Japan, Finland, and I'm sure other cultures are completely fine with this. The West (and in particular the US) are the prudes about this one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com