Adiós

I have decided to retire this blog. Thanks to everyone who supported my work here over the years.

Recommended Reading

I just stumbled across a Tumblr blog full of gently humorous observations on the types of people one comes across at any gym...and in the men's locker room, and the showers! I recognized quite a few of the archetypes.

Each entry is accompanied by a simple cartoonish illustration. Many of these show uncensored male nudity, underscoring the belief that it is completely normal and natural for men to be naked together in the locker room without shame or fear.

The name of this Tumblr is Gym Goers. It's apparently the English language version of another Tumblr blog, Gente Della Palestra, which is in Italian. There are quite a few entries on the original Italian blog which have yet to be translated and posted on the English version, so be sure to check out both.

The Way It Used To Be: A Russian Bath

(Click on the image for a larger view)

Date and location unknown, purported to be a Russian bath. The clothing on the two men in the background, and the hairstyles of the fifteen naked men all suggest that this is indeed a Russian bath, most likely photographed in the 1910s or 1920s.

There is so much of historical interest here that I think the obviously posed nature of the photograph doesn't detract. Notice that the bath attendants (the two men giving the body scrubs, and the gentleman at the right giving a scalp massage) are just as naked as the bath patrons. Current laws in California require spa workers to partially clothed, which is just ridiculous. I can't count the number of times I've seen spa workers naked in the facilities, only to later see them with shorts on when giving a body scrub, then naked again while showering after the body scrub is done.

This image has been available on the Internet for quite a while, but the version seen here may be the largest and clearest available.

The additional views below are from another source.