this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

In the late 16^th century, a German pastor, Salomon Schweigger, accompanied the ambassador of the HRE to Istanbul and wrote an ectensive report about his visit.

One of his examples of (perceived by him) moral superiority of Germans over Turkish culture was, that in Türkiye public baths were single gender with obligatory clothing "to avoid sexual arousal", while back in Germany men and women were happily sharing the same bath butt naked without being sexual aroused.

So – German Freikörperkultur is far older than it's name.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Did I miss something, did Iceland secede from Europe?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Nah. It melted.

Sorry...

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Posting Reddit links to lemmy feels wrong

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I consider it as a glorified Imgur. If you want to upload the images to catbox.moe or anything else and share the link, feel free, I would update the post!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Why not just upload the image to Lemmy as you make the post

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Not only wrong - I can't look at the image without turning off my vpn

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Why isn't Estonia covered? Saunas are like a rule here, like I haven't lived in a place that doesn't have a sauna in a 5km range and like every house has a sauna, even my last 3 work places had saunas. The rule here is naked with friends and family and cover all the naughty bits with strangers and coworkers.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I agree that Estonian sauna culture deserves respect. As for naughty bits covering, is there any difference between genders of friends and family and coworkers, or is one gender per sauna session the implication?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Depends on the crowd. Public saunas are usually gender segregated but for private ones it depends on who is comfortable with what but a mixed crowd is not uncommon from my experience.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In Czech Republic & Slovakia it is usually a towel to sit on & being naked. Optionally you can wrap yourself in a larger towel or something like that. Most people respect it, but I did experience one woman being told to not wear swimming suit or leave the sauna area.

How is it in Denmark? I've seen beautiful saunas there, where you just jump to the sea to cool down. I NEED TO KNOW!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

In Finland people are told to not wear swimsuits to sauna not because you absolutely have to be naked but because if you've been in a chlorinated pool the chemicals vaporize in the sauna and are harmful to breathe.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (4 children)

That's so weird. How can you be naked in front of strangers?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Sorry for the downvotes. To be able to be naked in front of strangers you need to be able to appreciate yourself, your body and your sexuality and you must be able to give yourself a feeling of security. If any of these points are lacking – as with most people – clothing will help you to compensate this lack.

Weird and counterintuitive as it might be, being naked not in front of, but together with strangers is a good way to bolster self-esteem. It can be very wholesome to experience firsthand that your body is 100 % avarage and are not body shamed despite of nudity.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

If your culture has taught you to "hide your shame", you probably can't.

If your culture has taught you that being nude is nothing to be ashamed of, it's as simple as breathing.

I was raised by the latter one and I cannot understand the first at all.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

As the Irish comedian Dave Allen, talking about Adam and Eve, once said: "That's what happens when you eat apples."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

By not caring stupid things like that. Being naked is completely natural but somehow humans developed this thought that being naked is sinful or something

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Everyone's seen it, everyone's done it, what's to hide?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In hungary from my experience you only wear the towel and no clothes. In some places they even tell you that its mandatory to take it off.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Weird, my experience in Hungary was the opposite. No one nude and I think people would have been really weirded out. This was my experience from several thermal baths in the country, although always mixed gender. Maybe if there’s single gender days it may be different.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Feel free to scrape your sagging scrotum along the floor, or hell bend over at the worst possible moment and show us all your grey squirrel roadkill anus, but for the love of the gods please put a towel down before you go sit on stuff.

People who don't put a towel down should be shot.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Agreed. I don't need the sweat infused into the wood and me sitting on top.
There may be rules to shower beforehand but some will forget to choose to ignore it.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

What is the... Acorn? In Russia

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (3 children)

For most mixed-gender public saunas in Finland though, bathing clothes are mandatory and nudity is prohibited. Also, nobody cares that much what you are wearing ~~and you can wear your swimsuit to a single gender sauna, too, if it makes you feel comfortable.~~

This is quite opposite to Germany, where regular sauna goers might very well tell you that clothes are prohibited and that they "pose a hygiene problem". I even heard people saying stuff like "This is a Finnish sauna, you don't wear clothes here!" in a German mixed gender sauna. Well, the opposite is true for a mixed gender sauna in Finland 🤷🏼.

Edit: My experience is limited, so I guess I was wrong about wearing bathsuits to single-gender saunas. Thanks for pointing that out @[email protected] !

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Can confirm re: Germany. It's often explicitly framed as a hygiene issue. That said, there are saunas where you may wear stuff, it's usually designated. Plus you have "women only days" in a good number of public saunas.

In Russia it's also common to eat dried fish and drink beer/sometimes vodka in the room next to the sauna.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In Germany it's often framed as a hygiene issue, because that's easier to sell to randos. The real issue it that it's uncomfortable to be nude when there are clothed people all around you. And the sauna itself is more comfortable when nude.

It's kina like a prisoners delemma, where the pareto solution is when everyone else is nude, and the nash-equlibrium is when everyone is clothed. Because of this, some people will want to defect (i.e. wear clothes), so we need to apply outside pressure to enforce the pareto-efficient solution (i.e. by asking people to remove their clothes).

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Hmmm, in my experience the discomfort goes away quickly and you stop caring about your own or other people's genitalia, or lack thereof, in plain view. But I appreciate the game theory approach 😺 Given the nonrationality of many social things, I'd wager that it's just a convention whose true meaning matters less than the fact that "it is the way it is".

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Sometimes there are also men-only days. Tho they kinda suck.

Woman only day:

  • Start with a sparkling wine
  • Get a few skincare things for the sauna
  • Nice smelling infusion
  • A bit of after-care program in the water

Man only day:

  • We put FUCKING BEER on the hot stone and add some BBQ scent. FUCK YEAH, MANLY.

I wish man only days where also a bit more "care" focused instead :(

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

A swimsuit is quite common in Norway. Basically you ask yourself the question "am I going to make anyone uncomfortable". If it's single gender and people are not extremely shy, you generally go with only a towel, but nobody is really going to care. If you're a gender mixed group of friends that don't know each other that well, you might prefer putting on a swimsuit in order to make sure people feel comfortable and included.

From my experience the Swedes are the same.

This is based on private saunas with friends. In public mixed gender saunas I don't think I've seen anyone go naked, but I'm sure certain Finnish tourists would and nobody would mind.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Jaa mitähän ihmettä? I've been to many public saunas in Finland and almost all of them, if not all, prohibit the use of swimsuit/-pants. At least the ones that are in public pools/swimming halls. And the reasoning being as you said, hygiene.

Edit: whoops my bad, you were talking about mixed gender Saunas. You might be correct after all

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Hygiene and chlorine

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In my experience, the U.K. doesn't do nudity in saunas - or anywhere else.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

With the lights off.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Saunas used to be the place to give birth in Finland back in the days

[–] [email protected] 0 points 8 months ago

Yep, because sauna was the cleanest room in a house