"For a long time, there were no sexual connotations attached to a flaccid penis. Up until the nineteenth century, swimming naked was common and no-one paid any attention to a penis if it was in the vicinity of a lake – so long as it stayed flaccid. In the (in many ways puritanical) [[United States]], **it was even compulsory to swim naked in [[YMCA]] swimming baths, as bacteria found their way all too easily into the cotton swimwear** of the time. "Once women were allowed to go to the YMCA, they had to wear a bathing suit for moral reasons. You therefore see photos of stark-naked men next to (reasonably) demurely clothed women – an image that would surprise us these days. **Only in the 1970s, when synthetic bathing suits made an appearance and chlorine was used on a large scale in swimming pools, did men get the right to protect their modesty.**" ([Location 1054](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B089QJDCV4&location=1054)) --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[teaching-anecdotes]], [[responding-to-change]], [[social-proof]], [[counter-intuitive-thinking]] **Source** -- [[20250426112058 - B - Members Club]]