Q. At a party I was giving my neighbour —
a local lady professor of fine arts — observing that I needed to lose a few pounds, kindly gave me 12 sessions at the local hotel fitness centre (swimming pool, sauna, weights room etc). There is an open men’s changing room like an old-fashioned public school one, but with one cubicle. Could you possibly tell me what the etiquette is as regards changing for men? I have noticed that the older and flabbier the man, the less likely he is to use the cubicle, and the more likely he is to be quite happy about his nudity. There are lockers, but in a private club should one lock up one’s clothes or hang them on the open hooks?
H.A., Oxford A. Many male members of private clubs are only too pleased not to have to go about coyly holding towels over their trouble spots as is expected in public swimming pool changing rooms and the like. ‘The whole point of a club,’ says one, ‘is that you don’t have to worry about putting your stuff in lockers and you don’t have to worry about being naked.’ Indeed it has been widely observed that the greater the pendulosities — including ‘man breasts’ — the more brazen the displays of these body parts. Brazenness is not compulsory, however, and the strutting peacocks will barely notice if you slip discreetly into the only cubicle.
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