Request: Coed showers

[thekaptn]

So Rutgers university is going to allow coed dorms now.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/brief...o-ed%20rooming

This got me thinking about that great scene from Starship Troopers where the soldiers have a 'gender-neutral' shower together.

So my question is, are there any videos/sites of some coed showers out there?

[susansusan]

Bloody Hell, this is considered news?

In the UK and Europe mixed dorms etc have been normally for ages- although, of course, wash facilities are private and lockable.

Gender seperate dorms would, indeed, be considered very unusual these days- probably there are some for women only on request, but as a rule, it's all mixed now.

[lygone]

Originally Posted by susansusan

Bloody Hell, this is considered news?

In the UK and Europe mixed dorms etc have been normally for ages- although, of course, wash facilities are private and lockable.

Gender seperate dorms would, indeed, be considered very unusual these days- probably there are some for women only on request, but as a rule, it's all mixed now.

In France, the vast majority of post bachelor "preparatory schools" (for students between 18 and 21 generaly) have male-only dorms. In Paris, I know only a single one that has a dorm for girls, and it's separate from the one of the guys, with the following rules : no guy is ever allowed in the girls dorm, whatsoever. But girls are allowed on the guys dorm, at their own risk.

And since girls aren't allowed to stay at dorms in the schools themselves, there are several common "girls-only" dorms in Paris, which means that while (some) guys are allowed to sleep at their own school, girls have to commute across the whole city every day...

[thekaptn]

Originally Posted by susansusan

Bloody Hell, this is considered news?

In the UK and Europe mixed dorms etc have been normally for ages- although, of course, wash facilities are private and lockable.

Gender seperate dorms would, indeed, be considered very unusual these days- probably there are some for women only on request, but as a rule, it's all mixed now.

Yea, most colleges I have been to are pretty strict about seperating guys and girls. I guess being 18-19 years old means you can vote and die for your country, but you better not be trying to fornicate lol. In the US most dorms have a RA (resident's assistant) who is essentially a student that tells on you if you try to drink/smoke/have fun in the dorms.

I'm not surprised that Europe is more laid back on the issue, considering it's also normal to see nudity on regular television there. If you read the article from my link, it seems that one of the main reasons that these colleges are changing the rules is to protect homosexual students. But whatever their reasoning, I'm glad to see it happening. Now if I could just go back to college...

[cash23]

Originally Posted by thekaptn

Yea, most colleges I have been to are pretty strict about seperating guys and girls. I guess being 18-19 years old means you can vote and die for your country, but you better not be trying to fornicate lol. In the US most dorms have a RA (resident's assistant) who is essentially a student that tells on you if you try to drink/smoke/have fun in the dorms.

I'm not surprised that Europe is more laid back on the issue, considering it's also normal to see nudity on regular television there. If you read the article from my link, it seems that one of the main reasons that these colleges are changing the rules is to protect homosexual students. But whatever their reasoning, I'm glad to see it happening. Now if I could just go back to college...

What schools in the USA are strict about separating boys and girls? The US Naval Academy, maybe. Bible schools -- sure. (But not Georgetown or Notre Dame.) Pretty much every other college that has same sex dorms allows opposite sex guests to spend the night. It's just not an issue. And that's been true for, say, 35 years.

I lived in an all-male dorm freshman year. The showers were communal. When my GF showered, I had to stand outside to keep other men out. (More to protect them, not her.) And I preferred she use the shower during non-peak hours. Not at 8 am when the early rush hour crowd needed to shit, shower and shave.

There was girl at Harvard who was famous for taking off her top as she stood at the sink brushing her teeth with an electric toothbrush. She claimed the brush made her nipples tingle. Men would hang around to watch her brush her teeth. But they were losers and she liked turning them without habing to put out.

The only communal shower I ever saw that was used by both sexes was at Bennington College. On a visit to a high school friend, I was showering when an absolutely stunning babe joined me. Who proceeded to soap her tits as I watched. Afterwards, my friend told the babe was a lesbian and that I tried anything, including offering to soap her tits for her, she would have run screaming to the RA so I could be prosecuted.

[jawsfun]

Agreed, co-ed dorms have been around for a while. When I was in college 12 years ago I was in a coed dorm, guys and girls on alternating floors.

What is novel about this new development at Rutgers is they will now allow co-ed ROOMS. Meaning a male can have a female roommate.

Only students who already know each other can live together in gender-neutral rooms. Additionally, two of the resident halls will also gain new gender-neutral bathrooms equipped with locks on the shower stalls.

[susansusan]

I've spent a lot of time around UK unis, and yeah, it just seems weird that accomadation would be seperate. Not really though about the showers- sometimes I think they have seperate male and female areas (thats the norm) or possibly central ones with private cubciles only (some swimming pools do this now too.) That said, more and more places now have en-suite anyway , and furthermore the traditional "dorm" - with several beds- is really non-existant.

It's rare-ish in the UK to even have a roommate, although it's perfectly reasonable for couples to share rooms.

After all, students are adults!

[i_am_sirrender]

When I was at U.C. (Univ. of Calif.) in the mid 90s the dorms were co-ed, though the washrooms were not. This doesn't seem like big news.

[susansusan]

Originally Posted by i_am_sirrender

When I was at U.C. (Univ. of Calif.) in the mid 90s the dorms were co-ed, though the washrooms were not. This doesn't seem like big news.

Yeah, that sounds pretty typical.

Now, what do you guys mean by "dorms?" To me, a dorm is literally lots of beds in one big room- but surely they don't have them at University any more?

Perhaps one or two people to a room at most.

So when you say "dorm" I assume it means more like a Hall of Residence etc.

[flanker7]

Exactly, susansusan. "Dorm" is the generic term for "residence hall' in American English. Man, this thread is confusing. Just so we're all on the same page here:

The typical "dorm" consists of individual rooms shared by two students (and sometimes 3 or 4). These are literally just rooms with desks and beds. The showers and toilet facilities are communal, and usually separated by gender. A "coed dorm" usually just means that men and women live in in the same building, on the same floor, in adjacent rooms, etc. Traditionally roommates are the same gender, but two men might live next door to two women, etc. In past years men and women always were in completely separate buildings, so the term "coed dorm" more or less arose out of a now-obsolete system. Nowadays all dorms are coed, except at military or religious schools.

As I said above, even if dorms are coed, there are usually two separate bathrooms for men and women. Somewhere along the line the concept of "coed bathrooms" started. This usually isn't a particularly sexy or revolutionary concept. Usually it just means men and women use the same facilities, but in completely separate stalls. So a woman might be showering next to you, but with a few inches of cinder block or tile in between.

In rare instances, usually at liberal schools, the concept of "coed bathroom" has evolved to mean that men and women literally use the same communal showers (a la Starship Troopers), which is the concept that has drawn so much interest in this thread.

As was noted above, some dorms have gone completely coed, which means that men and women might share the same room as roommates. But again, this isn't terribly radical. I don't think this would be something imposed by the school (meaning they randomly select a female roommate to live with you), but rather that they ALLOW opposite sex roommates to live together, meaning if you developed a friendship with a member of the opposite sex and wanted to live together officially as roommates, then university housing would allow it.

Now hopefully we get some pics/vids etc documenting those communal coed showers...