Can The Two Sexes Coexist?

As is the trend nowadays, our college dorm had men and women on the same floor, albeit in separate rooms. The rooms were small, with just a bunk bed, two desks and two dressers. While more modern buildings provide a small bathroom for each unit, this older dorm building did not. The women's bathroom and showers were at the east end of the floor, with the men's being at the west end. People were accustomed to walking to those facilities in pajamas or robes. Occasionally they showed more skin in-transit than in their parents' day, but everybody was adult about it. No big deal.

But then a crew digging to install some fencing accidentally cut the water line that serviced the east side of the building. The resulting cascade of water buckled the parking lot and the surrounding area. A big mess. Water to the women's bathroom was lost. The university had to come up with a workaround until repairs could be made.

It was decided to set up a schedule for use of the men's facilities, the only one available. In the morning, the schedule had women showering from 6 to 7 am; men from 7 to 8 am. Use of the toilets was more complicated, as you can't realistically schedule that. It was decided to make the stalls available for both sexes (very European). As men using the urinals with women entering and leaving could led to embarrassing displays, their use was declared off limits. Yellow tape, crossed in an X, was placed on the urinals to denote their unavailability.

This arrangement worked, but not without complaints. The women were unhappy that they were losing sleep time by having to shower early to finish by 7 am. And the loss of the urinals overtaxed the toilet stalls, sometimes resulting in long waiting times. The administration was regretful, but said the students would have to deal with it. And that's what they did, although not how the administration expected.

Men, when they found the stalls occupied, started improvising. A few impatient sorts peed in the sinks -- to the horror of the women and the amusement of the offenders. Men 'liberated' the urinals by peeing around the yellow tape, indifferent to the passing ladies. Sometimes when men arrived for the showers at 7 am, they found women still showering or toweling off. Soon, men and women were bumping into each other getting into and out of the bathroom. Nudity wasn't flaunted, but it couldn't be avoided. One couldn't towel off without exposing some skin. Towels wrapped around a body slipped as arms were raised using a hair dryer. The cross-over shower time at 7 am was a real problem, with a constant traffic jam of naked and semi-naked bodies, coming and going.

Most students accepted the situation, but some were uncomfortable. The RA in the dorm decided to allow students to voice their concerns, and called for a meeting of the residents.

"We're stuck with just one set of bathroom facilities," the RA began. "It's clear that the current protocol for sharing is not perfect. I've seen more bare breasts lately than I'm finding on the internet. My female friends keep asking me why we men shake ourselves so much using the urinals."

The audience laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Everyone has been respectful, even when seeing more of your classmates than in polite society. But maybe there is a better way. I'm open to suggestions. However, let's all agree that majority rules. Whatever we decide on, everyone will accept. Agreed?"

The students shouted their agreement.

Suggestions were made about adjusting shower times, officially re-opening the urinals but with screening, and designating some showers for men, some for women. But then Dawn, a popular female student (she's the class president), stood up.

"We're all suggesting ways to avoid confronting an issue directly. We're trying to maintain standards of modesty our grandparents would be comfortable with. But that's not modern society. The internet, movies, TV, have accustomed us to the opposite sex, in all their glory. Guys have walked into the shower area while I've been toweling off. And you know what? The sky didn't fall. I've come out of a stall to find men with their penises out, peeing at the urinals. I actually think it's adorable how men line up to pee side-by-side. But that's a discussion for another day."

A little laughter from the women.

"We're grown-ups and we're respectful of each other. There are some societies where the sexes mingling in states of undress is normal. Ever been to a German spa or bathhouse? Or a beach in Scandinavia? Let's move into the 21st century. I say we open up the bathrooms and showers to all comers, men and women, at any time day or night, and stop trying to legislate modesty.."

A few students were stunned, but most applauded her loudly.

"Is that the consensus of the group?" the RA asked.

Overwhelmingly, the students agreed.

The next morning was the first test. The bathroom was crowded with men and women waiting to access the showers. Some were naked with just towels (sort of) shielding themselves. Others still wore pajamas, which they hurriedly hung up upon taking the place of a departing student. But exposing the body couldn't be avoided. Out of politeness, everyone was careful to keep eyes raised to look onto the other's face. But when it was not obvious, everyone looked.

The men drooled over the variety of breasts and behinds ---- making mental notes as to whose were firm and upright and whose sagged. Observing which girls shaved or had pubic hair neatly trimmed and which had hair covering the groin like an overgrown vine.

Guys were not alone, of course, in the voyeurism. The women surveyed who among the men were circumcised, who were not, and compared notes as to length and girth. When the occasional (and inevitable) stirring of that expandable organ occurred, that just made the survey more interesting. And if a full erection happened, the girls were sympathetic, smiling sweetly to tell the guy not to worry. Just nature taking over. The owner of that distraction would move discreetly to a corner until the issue dissipated. Some men jumped into a shower and resolved the problem, trying not to make much noise.

Everyone compared their memory of a clothed classmate with the vision now of that person naked. The new arrangement did more than strip away clothes; it stripped away pretense and concealment. There are few perfect bodies. Those extra pounds around the waist that clothes carefully disguised, were on full display. The irregular shape or small size of a breast that a padded bra molded into a smooth feminine look was revealed. Everyone was rendered vulnerable and conscious of their perceived flaws. But no one judged.

In the days that followed, the bathroom was often a sea of naked bodies, people changing, toweling, even some shaving hair off body parts. Breasts jiggled as girls bent over to dry their legs. Hairy scrotums swung freely as men likewise twisted and turned in the drying process. So, yes, there was a sexual charge in the air. Hard to avoid that, the first time getting previously forbidden views of breasts, penises, behinds, pubic mounds and hair. But everyone was careful not to stare, and to pretend everything was normal.

But then a strange thing happened. After a while, the nakedness of the crowd did become normal. For sure, one never lost the pleasure of seeing a youthful bare body. But the sexual tension shifted. After the initial excitement, curiosity, and forbidden quality of the encounters, a new paradigm emerged. Yes, there was a swarm of naked men and women, mingling together. But it was okay. As Dawn had said, the sky didn't fall. This became just the way it was.

The permission to see the opposite sex without clothes changed attitudes elsewhere in the dorm. A woman lounging in her room who decided she needed a snack from the vending machines at the end of the hall, might run there in her bra and panties. People walked around freely in night clothes, even those Victoria Secret kinds that teased more than they concealed. When someone knocked on another's dorm room door, whereas in the past there would be a scramble to throw on clothes, now the door was opened even with the occupant wearing the most minimal attire, sometimes topless.

And then there was the RA's party. Once a month, the RA would sponsor a beer keg party for the dorm at the rec center pool, where the students could unwind from the week's lectures and tests. It was a relaxed, social time, with people swimming, and pick-up teams playing water volleyball. But it was different now. While everyone started out wearing bathing suits, all it took was for a couple of students to decide to skinny dip. Soon, bathing suits were shed. It's so much more comfortable swimming without fabric, and it was easy to slide into nude bathing as the stigma of nudity had been excised.

The water volleyball teams added a further layer to the evolution of the students. Nude bodies stretched high to hit the ball, breasts shook, people bumped against one another as they dove for the ball.

After they got out of the pool, most just wrapped towels loosely around themselves as they went to get their beer. There was no point in getting clothes wet by dressing too soon, as water still dripped from wet hair. So everyone sat around, mostly naked. After all, nothing anyone hadn't seen before, they reasoned.

It was inevitable that the day would come. The construction crew was finished making repairs to the water line. In a day, service would be restored to the women's facilities. The RA called another resident meeting. One after another, students expressed their feeling that being freed from the barrier of clothes had been a remarkable and beneficial experience. They didn't want to go back. They voted to make both bathrooms co-ed.

And that's what happened. Men and women used whichever facility was closest. The only exception was on parents' weekend. Then, everyone was careful to use the bathroom of their sex. It felt odd, old fashioned, but there was no explaining this new arrangement to their parents. They wouldn't understand.

When parents' weekend ended, the students couldn't wait to get back to the ease and comfort they felt mingling unashamedly with the opposite sex. They had created a bubble, their own Garden of Eden, just one before the snake ruined everything. They almost didn't want to graduate.