Every year, the school district out here is opening another few junior and senior high schools, and also complaining about not having enough money.

Do y'all think that implementing unisex locker rooms in these schools, given that it would lower the construction cost, is a good idea?

Kindly explain your reasoning...

Is this a serious proposal?

I can see this working if the locker room is not used by both sexes at the same time. If this can be worked out, I see no problem.

Certainly nobody is suggesting that male and female students disrobe in the same room at the same time. Do I really have to spell out the reasons? I consider myself a strong feminist, and feminism does not mean mandatory unisex restrooms used by both sexes at the same time, no matter what Phyllis Schafly might tell you.

One of the reasons I hated P.E. in school was having to undress and shower with other members of my own sex. Certainly this would have been even more difficult for me if members of the opposite sex had been there as well.

My heart goes out to GLBT students for whom this might be even more of a problem.

I think unisex locker rooms is an awful idea.
I agree with Victoria, when I was in High school and had to change in front of other girls was bad enough.
But I willing to bet that the boys would like this a whole lot!!!!

Ya, high school is not the time to have lockers rooms with both sexes in the room, though I believe the ideas is to use them alternatively. Even this is kind of a bummer, thinking about the various hygiene problems boys AND girls have that should be at least private between the sexes in high school!

Though even the "less developed" boys would not like being with the girls, no matter what bravado they put on it!

Uhhh, why would it be even more of a problem for them?

I guess I didn't make this clear. A gay, bisexual, or transgendered person would, I think, tend to be even more uncomfortable disrobing in front of a person of the same sex than a heterosexual person. I could be wrong, but that seems plausible to me.

The GLBT's are currently disrobing in front of the objects of their affections, a situation that unisex locker rooms wouldn't change that at all.

The only thing that would change is heterosexual boys would be presented with girls disrobing, and heterosexual girls would be presented with boys disrobing. What's the problem?

I have to agree that this is a horrible idea.
For the vast majority of teenagers, disrobing in a group situation is extremely uncomfortable as is. Disrobing in front of someone you may be attracted to is much more uncomfortable.
Despite the sniggering implication, I can definitely say that when I was in highschool I dreaded gym class specifically because of showering with other boys. I was certainly too mortified to get any cheap thrill from the situation.
I certainly wouldn't welcome any change that would force straight teens into that situation.

Victoria Silverwolf is not implying that GLBT's don't currently have to disrobe in front of the objects of their affections. She's empathizing with the uncomfortable nature of the situation.

I'm having a difficult time believing that this is a serious topic for debate. Unisex locker rooms could not possibly reduce the construction costs on a large junior or senior high school by any significant amount. Additionally, the locker room still has to be large enough to accomodate the same number of students.

Because of this, I get the impression that with this debate you are trying to make a larger point about gender relations in general, but if that's the case, I'm missing it.

As dumb as this topic is, I want to play devil's advocate here.

If watching porn supposedly desensitizes you to women (supposedly), then why shouldn't we allow these kids to change in the same room so that they get desensitized to their own perceived inequities? Nothing helps how you feel about your own screwed-up-looking body as seeing hundreds of other screwed-up-looking bodies.

Our Victorian sensibilities are all about how afraid we are of the skin we were born with. It's time we stopped teaching our teens that their bodies are "bad" and let them see in a controlled environment what they'll find out anyway.

<-- Made me do it

I could actually agree with this idea, if children were raised in such a way from infancy, so that mixed sex nudity was never a big deal. There have been, of course, such societies all through history. Nudist organizations in the modern world raise their children in this way with no problems. This is a Utopian ideal, and it's hard to see how American society could change easily to such a way of life.

What will not work is to suddenly throw school-age children, who have been raised from infancy with body shame, into such a situation. They would be too old to undergo such a radical shift in culture.

I have no problem with unisex locker rooms in highschools as long as they aren't being frequented by the opposite sex at the same time. I strongly disagree with allowing the sexes to shower and change clothes together at the same time, at such a tender age.

As to our Victorian sensibilities - one of women's greatest assets is her mystery and allure. Demystifying the opposite sex may reduce romance to sex. Let's not destroy that for future generations.

Romance is mental; sex is physical. Take the mystery out of the physical part and the romantic part should get stronger to compensate. I've known what women looked like naked for about 25 years now and they're still a mystery to me.

As to whether we should either do it from infancy or do it starting in middle school, I think middle school should be fine, since that's when most kids start to view their bodies as something "bad". Up until then, they really don't care whether they wear clothes or not. After "the change", they get all goofy over the added hair and more visible protuberances. Get them all naked so they see that there's nothing "bad" about it and maybe puberty won't suck so bad.

<-- clearly possessed by

No one has stated the obvious yet, so I suppose I will...This could be (inevitably WOULD be) dangerous for the young girls.

We could save even more dollars by combining prisons and high school facilities.

Not a good idea. Not at all...... God, high school was hell for me as it was. That would make it completely worse.

Lets just say for the sake of argument that this actually does come to pass and the kids become completely comfortable with the nuances of the opposite sex i.e. similar to the movie "Carrie" etc.. We are now in a utopian state where all children have achieved the highest level of comfort with their own bodies as well as the bodies of the opposite sex.

Even in this scenario I still see a major problem with unisex locker rooms. I don't know about the rest of you, I distinctly remember one or two major crushes during my formative years. Situations where my attraction to the boy was so powerful that I was struck mute and still.
I remember if I passed a boy that I was attracted to in the hall, for the first 10 minutes of the next class, he was all I could think of. I can't even imagine how distracted I would have been given the opportunity to see the whole picture. Yeee Gats forget the class that followed Gym, automatic failure.


edited to correct spelling error

Teenagers and such should not have to get nekked in front of each other. Granted, I never really got nekked in HS - girls are pros at getting changed without exposing themselves AT ALL.

But besides the point - if at any age this would be acceptable, it would be at health clubs that adults frequent. Teens have hormones that are raging and etc...and besides if boys were allowed to be in the locker room, where would me and my girls compare notes on the boys we've slept with already?

I have never heard of unisex locker rooms in High School but in the early 70s it was common at colleges like U Mass Amherst to have unisex dorm floors that included unisex bathrooms and bathing facilities. I never heard of any serious problems with this although I believe it was dropped in the 80s.

I don’t believe that the place to start this is in High School.

Hi guys, as im currently in high school, I can tell you right off this is a horrible idea!

I know this is bad idea primarily do to the fact that men in highschool are horny, and rape in highschool already happens without temptation.

Also most teenagers are irresponsible and immature. (those are a given i suppose) so things could get out of hand with sexual harrasment and junk.

I dont take part in gym anyways, i sit out with me stoner friends. God bless america!