Sauna Culture

MadsL · 2007-01-28 17:56:51

Just got back from a ski trip in Austria. Had the chance to observe an interesting culture-clash. I love to take a sauna after skiing and the resort I was in had an amazing sauna complex as part of a huge leisure and medical complex - http://www.alpentherme.com/en/therme/sauna-world.php I was booking a massage at the…

28-01-2007 06:56PM

#1

MadsL

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2003

Posts: 19498

Just got back from a ski trip in Austria. Had the chance to observe an interesting culture-clash. I love to take a sauna after skiing and the resort I was in had an amazing sauna complex as part of a huge leisure and medical complex - http://www.alpentherme.com/en/therme/sauna-world.php

I was booking a massage at the attendants desk when a group of English girls wearing swimsuits came up to the desk to ask if it was compulsory to be nude in the saunas. (the whole sauna area is a designated nudist zone) The pool attendant explained the procedure for going into the sauna - take a towel and put this under you where you sit - he seemed to miss the point that they were asking, so I said to the girls "if you are not comfortable, there's also a Ladies world which is women only" One of them said "that's nude too". Then one of them started giving out to the pool attendant about it being weird to be naked in the sauna. I explained that it is really only in the UK and Ireland that it is usual NOT to be naked, and that most of western europe, central europe, russia that it was normal to be naked in the sauna. She continued to give out and I and the pool atttendant did our best to explain that this was in fact normal. I forget to say that really all they had to do was wrap a towel around them which would have been fine - just would have appeared weird to the 'locals'.

The girls were British Asian, and I guessed that there were Hindu (moslem women would probably not have a problem being naked with only other women given the hammam culture of the middle-east, but I might be wrong)

Do you consider it normal to be naked in the sauna and should Irish saunas do it 'properly' and allow you to be naked?
Also should our (far) Western European sensibilities mean that we should have the right to cover up regardless of the local norm?

1

Comments

#2 28-01-2007 07:04PM

daiixi

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,349 ✭✭✭

Join Date: December 2005

Posts: 2310

I consider it to be normal to be naked in the sauna however that doesn't mean that I'd necessarily be comfortable being naked around certain others. I've been to hammans where it's been compulsory to wear bottoms but not tops and found that I was more comfortable with that than I would have been to be completely naked although that probably had a lot to do with the group of people I was with.
Tbh if I felt more comfortable wearing my bathers even though the sauna was designated a nudist zone then I'd wear my bathers until someone called me on it. I don't see much of a difference between wrapping a towel around myself and being in bathers.

0
#3 28-01-2007 07:07PM

[Deleted User]
Posts: 7,542 ✭✭✭

Join Date: -

Posts: 7043

This post has been deleted.

0
#4 28-01-2007 07:08PM

Ruu_Old

Closed Accounts Posts: 36,634 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2002

Posts: 33900

Thread on the issue not so long ago for some more reference as to saunas elsewhere in Europe.

0
#5 28-01-2007 07:14PM

MadsL

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2003

Posts: 19498

Ok, let me change the question. Should I have called these girls up on their 'cultural imperialism' calling the Austrians weird? Anyone think they were right to complain?

0
#6 28-01-2007 07:17PM

Wertz

Closed Accounts Posts: 11,909 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2004

Posts: 11697

Naked in an Irish sauna? What would the priests say!? We'd all be excommunicated!

OT: nah those girls were typical "brits abroad" (regardless or race/skintone)...when in Rome and all that...

0
Advertisement
#7 28-01-2007 07:39PM

looksee

Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 31,694 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: August 2006

Posts: 29977

I attended a school in England in the 60's where we had communal (segregated!) showers - open changing area, one walk-through shower. At the same time I used to go to a Lutheran retreat house - very proper and respectable! - with a youth group and we had saunas in a traditional Swedish (I think) sauna, in the nude, admittedly segregated. I don't remember anyone refusing to shower or have a sauna because of the nudity.

0
#8 28-01-2007 11:37PM

dSTAR

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,787 ✭✭✭

Join Date: June 2005

Posts: 1689

The Scientist wrote:

1 ticket to Austria please.

Better get some sun on that milky white Irish skin boy!

Its not fair that people have to wear shades in the sauna!

0
#9 29-01-2007 03:00AM

[Deleted User]
Posts: 36,733 CMod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: -

Posts: 36733

Wertz wrote:

Naked in an Irish sauna? What would the priests say!?

Be fruitful and multiply?

0
#10 29-01-2007 03:30AM

randylonghorn

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,509 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: December 2006

Posts: 28178

ROFL! Interesting image!

Seriously, when will the Irish get over their hang-ups (no pun intended) about being naked? ... in appropriate contexts, I mean, I'm not suggesting we wander the streets in the nip.

A lot of it seems to stem from Victorian social culture and Catholic norms meeting and unexpectedly mating, and the resulting aberration becoming so deeply buried in our psyche that we have yet to rid ourselves of it. But there's quite a bit of it still in the British and Americans too ...

0
#11 29-01-2007 03:34AM

InFront

Closed Accounts Posts: 3,698 ✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2005

Posts: 3623

I don't understand, is it not okay to wear a bathing suit in there or something? If not, why not?

0
Advertisement
#12 29-01-2007 12:49PM

Terry

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,073 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2004

Posts: 24902

InFront wrote:

I don't understand, is it not okay to wear a bathing suit in there or something? If not, why not?

I've never been in a sauna (not my thing. don't like the heat factor), but i would imagine it is more comfortable to be naked.

0
#13 29-01-2007 12:54PM

Sleepy

Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 25,000 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: May 2003

Posts: 24245

Cool, I didn't know that being naked for a sauna was the norm in Austria. Going over there in a fortnight for skiing and have always loved being able to take a proper sauna instead of the backwards Irish notion of having to wear swimming shorts in one.

Boards.ie need your help to survive, subscribe here

0
#14 29-01-2007 04:15PM

MadsL

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2003

Posts: 19498

I don't understand, is it not okay to wear a bathing suit in there or something? If not, why not?

Do you enjoy the smell of hot chlorine?

0
#15 29-01-2007 04:27PM

Dyr

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2002

Posts: 22866

MadsL wrote:

be naked in the sauna. I explained that it is really only in the UK and Ireland that it is usual NOT to be naked, and that most of western europe, central europe, russia that it was normal to be naked in the sauna.

I've used saunas in central europe where swimwear was expected to be worn so its not just an irish/UK thing.

0
#16 29-01-2007 04:53PM

ChRoMe

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭

Join Date: February 1998

Posts: 1961

MadsL wrote:

Ok, let me change the question. Should I have called these girls up on their 'cultural imperialism' calling the Austrians weird? Anyone think they were right to complain?

Yes you should have called them on it. It seems to be a extremely common british trait that their way is the right way and everyone else is wierd if they do it differently. There is a large amount of british people living here in Spain and their attitudes amaze me on a daily basis. Hearing complaints that things are "too spanish" etc.

If your in someone elses country I think you should play by their rules so to speak.

Plus whats the big problem with going in nude?? With that amount of heat wearing clothes seems a bit odd to me personally.

0
#17 29-01-2007 07:11PM

randylonghorn

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,509 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: December 2006

Posts: 28178

ChRoMe wrote:

There is a large amount of british people living here in Spain and their attitudes amaze me on a daily basis. Hearing complaints that things are "too spanish" etc.

The one that always cracks me up is "Why don't they speak English?"

Admittedly, I'm no great shakes at languages, never found them easy, but I'll make the effort, and I don't expect everyone in the world to learn perfect English just to oblige me!

0
#18 29-01-2007 07:29PM

Attol

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,385 ✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2005

Posts: 2187

The chlorine in your swimsuit isn't particularly healthy to inhale so you take off your clothes and wash fully so you're not in a gas chamber. It's more comfy too. When you're bikini is wet and you go into a ridiculously hot room it gets pretty damn hot and sticks to you.

Also British tourists aren't the most flexible. I had a woman freak at me because I wouldn't accept sterling from her in a shop. She called Ireland backwards and asked why don't the Irish take sterling like everyone else does. The ignorance was unbelievable.

0
#19 29-01-2007 11:51PM

Stark

Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 21,377 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2001

Posts: 20912

It's commonplace for other countries to accept sterling?

0
#20 29-01-2007 11:59PM

ChRoMe

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,021 ✭✭✭

Join Date: February 1998

Posts: 1961

Stark wrote:

It's commonplace for other countries to accept sterling?

Not at all its just inconviceable for english people to understand that they are not the centre of the universe.

Also I take great pleasure in only speaking to them in Spanish when its pretty clear that I'm Irish

0
#21 30-01-2007 12:15AM

randylonghorn

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,509 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: December 2006

Posts: 28178

Stark wrote:

It's commonplace for other countries to accept sterling?

In fairness, it used to be more common, especially before the Euro, for "touristy" shops / restaurants abroad and here to accept sterling / dollars ... usually at an exchange rate that made it worth their while! Practice is dying out, but you will still see some places, even in Ireland, with signs up to draw in the tourists.

Anway, let's get back to discussing hot naked bodies ...

0
Advertisement
#22 30-01-2007 02:15AM

MadsL

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2003

Posts: 19498

I've used saunas in central europe where swimwear was expected to be worn so its not just an irish/UK thing.

Where?

Also define central europe - to me that is what most of the rest of you call eastern europe, and I would be suprised if swimwear was required. Was this in a hotel complex?

0
#23 30-01-2007 09:50AM

seamus

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2001

Posts: 66931

Stark wrote:

It's commonplace for other countries to accept sterling?

A lot of big shops will accept sterling and dollars, but at horrible exchange rates. Superquinn for example have for a long long time accepted Sterling, but at a 1:1 exchange rate.

Ching ching.

0
#24 30-01-2007 12:36PM

Dyr

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 23,246 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2002

Posts: 22866

MadsL wrote:

Where?

Also define central europe - to me that is what most of the rest of you call eastern europe, and I would be suprised if swimwear was required. Was this in a hotel complex?

unless the "rest of you" call hungary eastern europe, then you're wrong

0
#25 30-01-2007 03:17PM

MadsL

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2003

Posts: 19498

Well swimwear was not my experience at the Király Bath in Budapest, the oldest Turkish Baths. But it was single sex with a small piece of cloth provided 'for modesty'. About as effective as a chocolate teapot.

But I think we are drifting into 'Turkish Bath culture' rather than Sauna culture...

0
#26 30-01-2007 08:33PM

randylonghorn

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 29,509 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: December 2006

Posts: 28178

MadsL wrote:

But it was single sex with a small piece of cloth provided 'for modesty'. About as effective as a chocolate teapot.

Oh, come on, now, you're just boasting!

0
#27 30-01-2007 08:46PM

MadsL

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 20,299 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2003

Posts: 19498

boasting

would that that were true!

Imagine being in a swimming pool with a very very small cotton apron tied round your waist..about the size of a handkerchief. Usually ends up somewhere on your hip, most people dont bother with them.

0
#28 12-01-2011 11:48PM

karel51

Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26 ✭

Join Date: February 2010

Posts: 22

so it is still undecided if saunas in Ireland should be nude/nude optional or just swimwear only...

0
#29 13-01-2011 12:00AM

stovelid

Closed Accounts Posts: 27,252 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2006

Posts: 27017

I wouldn't mind being naked in a sauna or changing room but I dislike the idea that people are in some way repressed or uptight because they don't want to be naked in a public situation. If people want to wear a swimsuit in the situation outlined, they should be allowed to.

0
#30 13-01-2011 12:10AM

fonecrusher1

Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 5,984 ✭✭✭

Join Date: November 2009

Posts: 5744

Never been into the whole sauna thing. Its very boring.

0
Advertisement
#31 13-01-2011 01:02AM

JupiterKid

Registered Users, Registered Users 2, Paid Member Posts: 14,954 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: December 2004

Posts: 14219

Nudity in saunas on the European continent is the norm. Swimsuits are actually unhygenic at the high temperatures in the sauna/steam rooms and the towel is for you to sit on - not cover yourself with.

Continentals rightly use the sauna to allow the entire body and skin to breathe - swimsuits don't allow that.

Ireland has really immature, pathetic attitudes to nudity that the rest of Europe (excepting the UK) laugh at. It's Victorian puritanism crossed with religious prudery and is still deeply ingrained our psyche.

In Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and the Nordic Countries nude swimming is very common and popular. They just don't equate nudity with sex.

0