Sunday, December 5, 2010

Actually I didn't really want to look at your junk


The male body is not really that attractive even for those inclined that way. Some men have faces which can be described as handsome, some men have taken care of their bodies in a way that I can respect. And then there are the other 95% of men.

Even in the most handsome well toned male, the genitalia cannot be described as visually pleasing. It is interesting that the male genitalia have not been subject to the same evolutionary pressures that have driven the breasts and buttocks in women.

Why am I writing this?

About a month ago I joined the local YMCA. This is by my count the seventh time I have joined a gym. Most of them I lasted for at least a year and I always had a good excuse for stopping going. There are of course certain visual insults one has to accept on joining any gym. These include the gym rats, the muscle-bound meatheads, and people wearing outfits they should never be wearing in public or committing crimes against spandex. And what I am going to write about below.

While the Y is an egalitarian organization, this particular Y offers an enhanced membership. This includes an adults only change room with a hot tub, TV, newspapers and a towel service. This costs $200 extra per year. I naturally went for that. No more children's birthday parties in the change room and no more awkwardness changing next to female children brought into men's change room by their dad. Not to mention not having to dry myself with the moldy towel I found in my gym bag.

Anyway I registered paid my fee and the nice lady at reception suggested I check out the members plus change room. I walk in there and what do I see but a rather large naked man sitting on the imitation leather armchairs in the room reading the paper. And air drying in contact with that imitation leather is what popular vernacular is now calling his junk.

I am maybe a little self conscious of my body, and I realize that a certain amount of nudity is necessary in a change room; while changing from street to exercise clothes, walking to and from the shower and of course in the shower. Towels are of course provided although the small towels we get are rarely enough on their own to cover up anything. Aside from that if you want to hang out with all the boys at the Y, you should be either in your workout clothes or your street clothes. Even draping yourself in multiple towel is better.

I would like to think that individual sunning his junk on the imitation leather chair was just an eccentric. Wrong. Just about every time I go there someone is baring it all. Some of them at least have the courtesy to at least sit on a towel.

Myself, after I shower, and soak in the hot tub, I am getting my clothes on post-haste and leaving with my eyes averted.

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