After the passage of Title IX in 1972, requiring gender equality in physical education, most schools found mixed-gender use of swimming pools to be the easiest means of compliance. Male nude swimming remained a common practice in the Midwest and Northeast through the 1950s, but declined in the 1960s due to technological and social changes. As with other physical education activities, swimming was gender-segregated. As the century continued, more indoor pools were built by local governments and schools, primarily in northern states, to provide year-round swimming as a sport. Because indoor pools were generally male only, the health of swimmers could be monitored most easily by forbidding swimsuits, which often were a source of contamination, while female swimmers wore suits that were more hygienic. During the early developmental stages of filtration and chlorination, behavioral measures were also needed to keep the water clean.
The primary reason given for nudity by officials was for public health, swimming pools being prone to contamination by water-borne diseases. Pre-pubescent boys might be nude in mixed-gender settings, including the presence of female staff, public competitions, and open houses for families. In their own classes, nudity was rare for girls based upon an assumption of modesty, but might include young children. For the first decades of the 20th century, male nude swimming was associated with a trope of the "old swimming hole" as representing childhood innocence and adult masculinity. When the tradition of skinny-dipping in secluded spots had become more visible with urbanization, indoor pools were built in the 1880s as a means of separating swimmers from public view. Male nude swimming had been customary in natural bodies of water since the 18th century. See also: Nude swimming and Childhood nudity Floating Bath at The Battery, New York City, 1908įor almost a century in the United States, men and boys swam nude in indoor swimming pools, generally for education or athletics, not recreation.
0 kommentar(er)
