The concept of "private parts" (West vs Orient)

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I was chatting with some fella the other day about open communal showers, and I recalled stories from relatives living abroad.

It seem that in most Western civilizations (+eastern Europe and Russia), there's no issue with total nudity in the same room with strangers of the same gender.

All communal showers in oriental countries are separated by curtains/cabins/small rooms. In saunas and hammams, wearing a towel is a part of a common etiquette. No two men or two women would shower openly in the same room.


I've studied in a secular school, there were small cabins there in the showers.

and I've studied in a Christian university (owned by Maronite Church), same...so it's not a religion-related issue.

I visited few neighbored countries and no such exist (ie. men showering together in the same room) exist in this part of the world.

I've also learned from an Asian fell that while Asians are more used to exposed nudity in their Saunas than Middle-easterns, but they would only go nude with family members of the same gender, and they mostly cover up with towels. Never with strangers.

I came across this funny article http://munfitnessblog.com/are-you-comfo ... cker-room/ and I think it would describe my cultural shock if I ever come across a such communal shower.


A fella asked me if we just feel ashamed of our bodies, and my simple answer is no, this is purely cultural.


and here comes the 'private parts' debate, it's clearly there's a huge, cultural and fundamental difference of view regarding the 'privacy' of private parts, an I am trying to grasp yours.

To me, and to the most of people on specific side of the globe, private parts are private except for family members (wife/husband +parents+siblings - extended family members are excluded) and doctors. All other strangers don't have to see them whether they're from my same gender or not (again, except doctors or in endangered-life situations).

But in the west, I assumed that the privacy concept of the private parts seem to be totally different, your private parts are only really private for the opposite sex, am I right?

It's like if all people of one gender on the planet evaporate, the rest in the western countries wouldn't have much of a problem to walk nude in public and do their errands normally, sure a businessman would still wear his suit, but sportmen and swimmer scan just go nude for example (in case all women disappear). Do you agree?

While in the oriental countries the covering code wouldn't change at all.

I'm a very private/modest person. I'm uncomfortable with any amount of undress around anyone. Apparently I'm a bit of an odd-ball in that regard. Whenever I have to share a hotel room with someone say for a dog show or math meet or something, other women always seem completely comfortable just getting dressed in the same room while I'm all and then I go in to the bathroom to change. I think clothes that show the abdomen are too revealing on anyone for everyday situations, like school or work. I think shorts or skirts should go at least to the knee.

I couldn't care less who sees my 'private parts'. As long as nobody touches them without an invite, it's all good.

With that said, most people around me are uncomfortable with nudity/partial nudity, so I keep myself covered as a courtesy to them.

Is that long thread really that uninteresting to die at day 1?

^ iz too srs for the adult forum.

personally, i don't really mind.
although i never really go places where it's an issue.
when i'm at home i'm generally half naked, and answer the door that way.

It was at the bottom before I reply, if it wasn't for tea, the thread would have reached page 2 already.

I should stick to making exhibition threads here....

I never thought id see a serious boo thread. I was surprised to see they werent myth at all.

^ Yeah, the horror....


kindly, requesting to move the thread to the 'In-Depth Adult Life' section, it won't work here.

or the haven.

the seattle japanese import baseball player ichiro gets separate shower facilities because in japan there is a standing offer from their tabloids to get a nude shower stall pic of him. other than that, the only thing i could tell you, is that in japanese, their equivalent euphenism for private parts is "chin-chin" - that gives that ol' 3 little pigs' rejoinder, "not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin!" new meaning.

moved from Adult Autism Issues to In-Depth Adult Life Discussion at OO's request

I can shower and get dress in a locker room, but I don't care for carrying on conversations or parading around like some of the guys seem to want to, especially the old guys with huge guts. Don't ask me.


Another thing is in certain venues and in sports, you urinate in a trough side by side with other men. I have done it, but there's something highly peculiar about peeing next to a complete stranger.

The shared showers in high school were uncomfortable for me to begin with, by the end of the first year I was fine with it. Men I know wouldn't necessarily go nude all the time if there were no women around, but most don't see occasional nudity in appropriate circumstances as a big issue. From what I've heard, women are more likely to get naked around each other. Which is awesome.

in Canada, the land where women fought for the right to walk around topless in public (yet they don't), i have only ever been in one change room/shower where women walked around naked with any amount of commonness. it is a sports centre that has multiple facilities like a pool, gym, etc, and the changeroom has a wall of showerheads. some women strip right down. i recall being very uncomfortable about it as a child.

it varies across canada though. on the west coast it is more like am easygoing hippie lifestyle. when i was a teacher in the western region, we would go swimming with our classes and my colleague who taught kindergarten used to get fully changed in front of the little girls in the changeroom. i found that shocking.

Here, in Scotland, women don't tend to strip down in front of others. I go to a leisure centre regularly (take my daughter). In the dry changing room, there are separate shower cubicles, with curtains. There's a large communal area with a bench and a single changing cubicle. In all the time I've been going, I've only seen one woman totally undress and she was stood there talking to me and my 5yr old daughter. I was quite shocked, not because I'm a prude and it doesn't bother me in the least that my daughter saw her, it was just so unusual.