MetaChat - The gym I attend will loan all sorts of equipment.

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

16 November 2008

The gym I attend will loan all sorts of equipment. Towels, basketballs, rackets, and as I noticed yesterday, even swimsuits. Am I the only one who is a little grossed out at the thought of wearing a swimsuit shared by lots of other guys? I'm sure the swimsuit has been bathed in chlorine during most of its existence, and hopefully disinfected somehow between wearings, but it still seems yucky somehow.

post by: grouse at: 12:59 | 26 comments

No, you're not the only one. I'm sure they're quite clean, but still...

posted by CitrusFreak12 16 November | 13:03

It's probably more for situations where you show up and "ack!" you forgot your suit than on a regular basis. Then again, I eat food off the ground.

posted by jessamyn 16 November | 13:11

You're definitely not the only one.

I buy a lot of my clothes secondhand, and, when I mention this to people, they do one of two things. Either we start talking about the best thrift stores in town, when things go on sale, how the Savers has good clothes but horrible records and how the Salvation Army is the other way around, etc. Or, alternately, they say something about feeling grossed-out.

posted by box 16 November | 13:17

You're probably right, jessamyn. Now that I think about it, I would probably take one of those suits rather than skip a swim class or something.

I would not buy my swimsuits from Salvation Army.

posted by grouse 16 November | 13:24

If I were female, I wouldn't buy swimsuits from the Salvation Army--secondhand stores don't do stretchy stuff well, usually, because, by the time they make it there, the stretchy parts seem to have lost their stretchiness.

But I'm male, and I can't remember the last time I bought a swimsuit, so it's kinda moot.

posted by box 16 November | 13:28

My high school made us use the school's communal suits for swimming in gym class.

They were color coded by size, and the largest was about a 14.

I'm amazed there wasn't a lawsuit.

posted by kellydamnit 16 November | 13:29

I remember being utterly mortified when I was out shopping with my sister and she haggled with the woman in the Oxfam Shop to get 50p off the price of a second-hand swimsuit.

*shudders*

posted by essexjan 16 November | 13:33

What kind of swimsuits are they? Sharing baggy swim trunks doesn't seem quite as horrifying as communal Speedos that have been wedged up around someone else's junk.

posted by jamaro 16 November | 13:53

They're not ultra-baggy and they aren't Speedos.

posted by grouse 16 November | 14:12

Oh and I buy all my swimsuits from the Salvation Army which is the only way I can stand to buy a new one every four months or so. Mostly I seem to get ones with some stretch still left.

posted by jessamyn 16 November | 14:56

Jessamyn, you are a legend.

*applauds Yankee thrift*

posted by mdonley 16 November | 16:25

Well, I eat food from the ground (30 second rule applies), but the thought of sharing swimwear gives me the creeps.

posted by dg 16 November | 16:26

My high school gym class did this but mainly to up the degradation of kids who forgot their suits.

posted by drezdn 16 November | 16:40

My junior high school made us wear their swimsuits. Even then I found it really icky, and whereas I loved to swim before, it definitely put me off it. This was the same junior high school that required the girls to take Home Economics (sewing and cooking) while the boys took shop. My parents could barely stifle their laughter when I brought home a D in sewing. A D in math would not have been so funny, but they still get a chuckle out of it, even now.

posted by Kangaroo 16 November | 16:50

Rationally it's no worse than towel service, and towel service doesn't seem yucky to me at all (until now, maybe). But it does seem yuckier than towel service for reasons I can't put my finger on.

posted by mendel 16 November | 16:59

I think it's one of those things that's best not to put a lot of thought into. I would wear a loner swimsuit if I had to but thinking about other dudes weiners in there is kinda sick.

posted by puke & cry 16 November | 17:47

You're swimming in a pool full of children's urine, and you're squicked about sharing a bathing suit that has probably been washed?

No, I don't share your concerns.

posted by BoringPostcards 16 November | 21:13

That urine? It doesn't all belong to children.

posted by dg 16 November | 21:19

Yeah, well, there is that.

posted by BoringPostcards 16 November | 22:07

I think the idea is kinda sexy, but then I'm sort of pervy that way . . . sorry if I just added to your ick factor.

posted by treepour 16 November | 22:42

Huh, I used to work at a gym. I wouldn't expect a gym to be great at laundry.
Yeah, this is really too weird for me.

posted by moonshine 16 November | 23:28

which is the only way I can stand to buy a new one every four months or so.

I've been trying to figure out why anyone would have this requirement, and can only conclude you're some sort of water-based hustler who goes up and down Vermont spending four months winning the confidence of a town, then pull off your water-based scam and have to skip town and assume a new swimming identity. Am I right?

posted by cillit bang 16 November | 23:36

I was thinking along similar lines, cillit bang, but then I realized the obvious answer: the water where she swims is simply much, much more abrasive.

posted by BitterOldPunk 17 November | 00:23

She sells the old ones on ebay.

posted by arse_hat 17 November | 00:31

I demand to know how much the RNC has paid for Salvation Army swimsuits for Jessamyn since September.

posted by taz 17 November | 03:07

Every few years, when she moves, she leaves a house packed to the rafters with swimsuits.

posted by Meatbomb 17 November | 04:09

← It's beginning to look a lot like... wait what? || Hey, California people, are you OK? →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN