What’s really funny is that I vastly prefer male gynecologists to female ones. But I’d never go to a male masseur.
N, on the other hand, finds the idea of a massage horrifying. A strange person touching him! Never! Yet he goes to the sauna and sits there naked with other guys while I don’t want to be around naked women ever.
A friend once paid for me to have a massage (I was visiting and the masseuse was regularly scheduled thing for some physical issues). It was lying face down on a mat fully clothed in the living room… it was…. okay, but I’ve never been anxious for a rerun.
I don’t like the idea of naked sauna but I loved the all mens’ days in the Budapest thermal baths (where you could wear your own swimsuit, go naked or wear little aprons they supplied which is what I usually did).
you can see what the aprons look like here:
https://www.charlesfreger.com/portfolio/rudas/
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The aprons are hilarious.
I’m not obsessed with sauna like the Russians but if I go, I use a swimsuit. Naked ladies are really not my thing.
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I (used to) spend almost every day around naked people, but am kind of weirded out by saunas and changing rooms… I guess I’m fine with nudity in a professional context when at least one person remains clothed, but I don’t really understand recreational, non-sexual nudity among strangers…
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Yeah, I’m sympathetic with N. I can’t handle strangers touching me, and thus have never been for a massage. Going to a chiropractor when I was in so much pain I could barely walk was really pushing my limits for people touching me. And that was with all my clothes on… and I’ve always deliberately chosen female ob/gyns. I don’t trust anyone with that business if they don’t have the same parts 😉
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(but I do not have a problem with same-sex nudity in a sauna/changing room/sunbathing/etc. type of setting. It’s just not a big deal, and I feel like if it were more common in the US, we’d have fewer weird body insecurities.)
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I started seeing a male massage therapist and he is amazing. There is more pressure and energy in the massage. I get tense around my neck and I get back pains and headaches. He presses harder on the knots and it works like a charm. I also felt like N before my first massage but now I can’ wait until my next one. The massage therapist never sees the special bits and the rest is like wearing a bikini at the beach.
A conservative literary critic and college professor
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