Why didn’t I get to swim nude at the YMCA?

A personal and comedic look back at the forgotten era of nude swimming

Michigan State men’s team, Life Magazine, 1938

North American attitudes toward many social issues have progressed over the past 100 years. However, the way we approach nudity has seemingly regressed. Consider the practice of nude swimming, especially among males.

From the early part of the 20th century until well into the 1970s, many high schools, boy’s clubs, and YMCAs required males to swim nude. While not widespread, it was the accepted practice at many such facilities across the U.S. I discovered this while interviewing stand-up comedian and writer Paul Mecurio, who works on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

“I went to the Boy’s Club and then to the Y,” he recalls. “At the Boy’s Club, from the age of seven to nine, it was required that you swim naked. You were not allowed to wear a bathing suit. It’s absolutely true.”

Back then, it didn’t seem like a big deal. “You would just go in there, and you had to do it,” he adds. “Parents knew about it. It was sent home in the program, and there you go.”

Investigation

When I looked into it further, I discovered this was not unusual from the 1920s through the late 1970s. But not everywhere. Mecurio’s experience took place in New England in the 1970s. At about the same time, I was taking swimming lessons at a YMCA in suburban Cleveland. The difference, though, was that we never swam naked.

Swimming pools became popular in the United States in the 1880s. Filtration systems to help discourage contamination and disease were introduced in the 1920s. However, the new technology had a drawback; fibers from bathing suits would clog the filters. So, in 1926, the American Public Health Association introduced guidelines for the safe operation of swimming pools. Males were advised to shower before entering the pool and to swim nude. Oddly, the same recommendation was not extended to females. They were advised to wear undyed tank suits, a discrepancy few questioned.

After I interviewed Mecurio, I called my old YMCA, spoke to the senior property manager, and asked why we weren’t required to swim nude back in the ‘70s. After all, our Y was in an old mansion built at the turn of the last century, and surely that pool had the same limitations.

It did not. It was explained to me that the part of our Y containing the pool was built in the late 1950s with then-modern filtration equipment that was not susceptible to clogging. As new pools were built after World War II, the nude swimming requirement became less common. For older pools, though, it remained in place. This was the case at many public and private high schools around the country, as well as many YMCA locations and other such institutions. Though there was a post-war school construction boom, older buildings remained in use along with their out-of-date, but still functional, swimming pools. Most of those schools did not change their nude swimming policy.

Locker room nudity

While my Y didn’t require nude swimming, I was once in a situation that did require being nude among a group of males, only instead of a pool, it was a hot tub at an athletic club.

My friend had decided to have his birthday party at the local racquetball club and invited about half a dozen of us. We were maybe around 12 years old. As we hung out in his driveway playing basketball, the agenda for his upcoming party was explained.

The main activity was, of course, playing several games of racquetball against each other. After that, we would shower, use the hot tub for a bit, and then proceed to cake and presents. As I recall, it was specifically pointed out that the showering, naturally, would involve us being naked — but so too would the hot tub. You could not wear swimming trunks in the hot tub. Those were the club rules.

Oddly, I wasn’t that nervous at the prospect, beyond the common fear many males have in that situation (an unwanted erection). I had taken to sleeping nude a few years earlier and later being naked around the house when I was alone, so it didn’t seem like that much of a stretch. Also, my friends were around the same age as me, and while I wasn’t the most athletic of the lot, there wasn’t a drastic difference in our bodies.

I should have been more nervous about playing racquetball, which I had never played before. Most of the other boys hadn’t either, though. After several matches, it was off to the showers, and from there we walked into an adjacent room to get in the hot tub.

It was a large hot tub, but still pretty crowded. One by one, my friends got in. Spying a spot on the far side of the tub, I stepped into the water and swam over, coming to rest next to a middle-aged man with a beard who nodded approvingly.

It was no big deal, of course, and we all had a great time. However, I’m not sure that would have been the case at school had the nude swimming rule been in effect there or at my local YMCA. With older boys, many of whom would be more developed, as well as others who would welcome any chance to mock and tease, swimming nude would have been more nerve-wracking than enjoyable. In any case, none of the schools I attended even had pools.

Something lost?

Today, the idea of nude swimming is much more appealing, but it is largely unacceptable. “I tell people that story now, and they’re like ‘Oh, my God, that’s so creepy,’” says Mecurio, “but I thought it was kind of cool at the time. It was like skinny dipping with a bunch of other kids. You had to be careful when you dove in, though. If you didn’t cup yourself, you’d slam your testicles on the water. Looking back, it sounds weird and creepy, but at the time, it was completely normal to us, and it was freeing.”

Sadly, that attitude is no longer widespread in North America. A few years ago, a woman in Ontario sued to be allowed to swim topless at public pools in the Toronto Metro area amidst a great deal of controversy. While many support the right of women to go topless, a surprisingly sizeable number of people were against her baring her breasts even though it is legal in the province. At my local health complex, owned by an area hospital, swimming suits are required for the pool, hot tub, and sauna.

“When I work out, I go into the locker room, take my shorts off, and shower,” Mecurio adds, “and there are ten other guys walking around with their junk and asses hanging out; why is that location okay to be naked in, but literally around the corner in another location it’s not? The outrage I never quite get.”

The practice of compulsory male nude swimming was abandoned by the early ‘80s. One thing is certain about males swimming nude at a public or semi-public pool, though. “You couldn’t do that now,” says Mecurio. “There’s no way anybody would allow that to happen.” When asked if he prefers swimming nude these days, he offers a rather cheeky answer. “No, I still don’t swim in a bathing suit,” he insists. “I’ve been arrested 736 times. I don’t care. I break the rules.” 🪐

Special thanks to Paul Mecurio for chatting about this. Checkout his website paulmecurio.com