Every day (OK, let's be real—four times a week), I go to the gym at the University of Rochester. Often, I bring my workout clothes to school and change in the locker room at the gym. I've grown up playing on sports teams and figure skating, so I thought had I had my locker room routine down. What I've been beginning to notice (as I admittedly increased drastically my gym attendance about a month ago), is that girls go to huge lengths to hide their bodies in the locker room.
You would think that something as simple as changing into a pair of shorts and tank top would be relatively uncomplicated, but while I've been taught through all of my experiences playing athletics (shoutout to U of R field hockey) that locker rooms were a place to not be shy about nudity, the contortionism I see on a daily basis to reveal as little skin as possible when changing from a towel into clothes after a shower is amusing. Just yesterday, I was standing topless trying to find my sports bra while a girl in the same aisle as me was attempting to put on all of her clothes while simultaneously holding her towel around her body without letting it fall. I get being uncomfortable about your body to a certain extent, but this happens to me all the time. I'm the crazy naked girl, and everyone else is sensibly wrapped in a towel (or at least that's how it feels).
Why though, do women feel the need to shield their bodies in a locker room setting that exists for the sole purpose of being a safe place to change in and out of clothing? I was just on spring break and by a twist of fate ended up on a resort where the majority of the guests were European. In the typical European style, many of the women sun-bathed topless, mostly older women admittedly, but there were a lot of women participating nonetheless. Something like this would be unheard of in the United States, and I wonder how the girl standing on one leg trying to balance against the lockers in order not to flash me would've felt if she saw the two middle-aged women I did who were applying sunscreen to each others' chests.
We live in a culture where we sexualize women to the utmost degree—we see it in commercials, in magazines, in billboards—it's everywhere. We also though, live in a culture where we teach women to be modest and homely. These two conflicting ideals don't provide a great basis for having body positivity. It might seem silly, but the idea that people are so uncomfortable with their bodies that they can't walk around naked in a locker room concerns me. It is one thing to have a phobia of being nude or to just prefer to change in a more sheltered area where no one can see you. That's fine, and I get that. But to a certain extent, shouldn't we all be comfortable enough to be exposed for 30 seconds when putting on a clean bra?
When I was a kid, I admittedly subscribed to the "clothes on under the towel dance." I'm no longer a kid though, and neither is anyone else who is changing in a collegiate women's locker room. I'm not saying we need to be quite as liberal as some of the places I've seen in Europe where it is acceptable to be nude on any beach, but I think that as a society that doesn't question Selena Gomez's most recent album cover (for reference, she is entirely nude but positioned such that nothing distasteful is revealed), but can't change in the locker room without covering up our bodies, there is something counter-intuitive going on in our culture.
Anxiety surrounding nudity is a part of our culture, but it's also an ironic one, and one we shouldn't accept. We teach women that they need to be thin, that flawless skin is important, that so many traits surrounding our bodies are important to attain, but we don't ultimately teach them to be positive about the body that they have. This is a topic that is heavily discussed, but infrequently in the context of nudity. I write this too with the knowledge that if I hadn't had the experiences that I have had in team locker room settings where a precedent for comfort with nudity was set, I may not have the body confidence I have now. Because of this, I think it's even more important to establish body positivity and teach both boys and girls that they shouldn't be ashamed of their bodies.
The United States will probably never be as liberal as the topless European women on the beach, but we can work harder to make sure that individuals are taught body confidence. We need to de-stigmatize nudity in our culture, and somewhere like a locker room is a perfect place to start. So please, for the sake of body positivity, just drop the towel.
