Growing Up Now vs. Then....
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Since things are quiet on the forms and I like to try and keep some discussion going on I thought I would try a new topic to get your thoughts on....
I was talking on line to a guy and telling him how much I envy him - growing up today where there is much more acceptance of being gay / bi and also how great it must be to have access to so much porn on line all your life.
What I found interesting is he did agree about some advantages but also talked about how his and the younger generations are growing up with so much to see on line - but not in person.
We talked about how in gym class everyone had to shower when I was a kid - today no one does. Sure it was embarrassing as a hairless 7th grader to have to shower with those GIANT and HAIRY (or they were compared to me) 9th graders - but you learned to never wash below the waist and don't get caught staring. How in college all the showers were open and if you had a roommate you saw each other changing everyday - now more and more they have private showers and even tiny private bedrooms.
When I was a kid if Jimmy invited me over to swim I would take over my trunks and we would go to Jim's room and change - not one at a time in the bathroom - or if at a sleep over you would change in the same room. I think at some point in time I saw almost all of my friends naked.
The guy on line was talking about how they would go in the bathroom to change - even at sleepovers - how no one showered after gym - how even in his dorm room he would change in the small private shower area - he said that growing up he saw almost no one naked and the "that is private no one should see it" was stressed for him and his friends from a young age.
I can understand parents concern - all the news stories about perverts and child molesters - but it seems like they are growing up fine with pictures - even naked pictures of themselves taken in the mirror at college - but afraid of being seen "for real".
I have had guys older than me tell me that when they were kids at the YMCA no one was allowed a swim suit - it was all naked swimming lessons - so my generation was more modest than theirs, but this new generation seems MUCH more modest.
In many ways I feel that seeing each other - not just from the sex point - but there was a lot of good from it in terms of accepting - seeing some bigger / some smaller - more hair / less hair, etc.
So I was wondering - how was it when and where you grew up? More private / less private? Were you taught to never let any other guy see you or did you grow up "we're all boys so who cares?"
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