If you are a collegiate athlete, or perhaps just a frequent gym goer (props), group showers might be a part of your daily life. However, if you are part of the large portion of the population who has never really thought of showering as a group activity, the idea of getting stark naked and prancing into an open room to bathe yourself in front of other people might make you want to zip yourself into a permanent onesie.
As a collegiate rower, I use the shower at our boathouse, which looks like a big tile room with about seven showerheads for fifty or so girls to cycle through. While it may seem strange, I know my teammates bodies about as well as I know their faces. I see them buck-naked almost twice a day everyday, and let me tell you, it is GLORIOUS. Excuse me while I step onto my soapbox (which would be very dangerous in a shower, by the way) as I make a case for the wondrous benefits of getting naked with your friends.
It goes without saying that young girls (and boys!) grow up under immense pressure to conform to societal expectations of beauty. When we turn on TV, flip through a magazine, or try to squeeze into a one-size-fits-all Brandy Melville corduroy skirt, we are reminded of the ways in which our bodies are not good enough. I think this problem is exacerbated by the fact that despite it being 2016, nudity is still pretty taboo. Our Republican presidential candidate can condone grabbing women “by the pussy”, yet we cannot expose our nipples on Instagram. As a result, women’s bodies have become shrouded in secrecy. We are taught to guard our “private” parts like written on our vaginas is the secret Krabby Patty formula.
Obviously, there are not a lot of secrets once you step into a group shower. Once that terrycloth security blanket comes off, everything is out and about – a corporeal exposé, if you will. While at first it can seem strange, something amazing happens after a while. Your body becomes less and less of a secret, and its reveal becomes less of a sexually charged act. As the mystery disappears, I found so too did the insecurity.
I assume most girls would relate when I say that you grow up wondering whether if everything about your body is normal, whether you are the odd one out, or whether people will judge you for your body. Girls may grow up not only thinking they are too fat or too tall, but also that their nipples are a weird color, or that their vagina is a strange shape. Some of this comes from narrow conventions of beauty, but some of it is just natural. I found that once I stepped into a shower with fifty other girls, those questions just about disappeared. While you may hear the cliché, “beauty comes in all shapes and sizes”, it is one thing to hear it and another thing so see it. Everyday, I am surrounded by a bunch of beautiful, successful, badass girls and we are all truly pretty different – different sizes, different shapes, different colors. Suddenly the parts of your body you obsessed over and thought were weird become less like deviations and more parts of the medley of female bodies.
While I am not advocating for you to sneak into the shower while your friend is shampooing, I do want to make an appeal for more nudity. Not everyone is comfortable being nude, and that’s okay. However, I do think that spending time naked, whether it’s alone or with your friends, is good for the soul. Your body need not be a source of shame. I think Eve had it right when she snagged that apple in nothing but her birthday suit.