this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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Europe

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[–] McArthur 85 points 11 months ago (5 children)

What is the... Acorn? In Russia

[–] [email protected] 62 points 11 months ago

That means the head of your dick must be visible.

[–] mayidar 47 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 48 points 11 months ago (2 children)

So you have to be naked except for a goofy hat? That’s a hilarious mental image.

[–] Axiochus 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yup. The idea is that it protects your head from overheating. You wear it so that there is a pocket of air between your head and the hat, so it's basically insulation.

[–] Randelung 13 points 11 months ago

And it works! I won one at a local sauna marathon a few weeks back and you feel the difference when you take it off.

[–] mayidar 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Actually, many people (or even majority) don't wear it nowadays. It's a protection against heat stroke, and if one doesn't visit a steam room one will be fine, though it's optionally even in a steam room, e.g. I never wore it.

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[–] Bonje 10 points 11 months ago

An ice cream cone? To comedically place it between your privates and the camera?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

That's the international symbol for "Circumcised dicks only"

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[–] [email protected] 68 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

For most mixed-gender public saunas in Finland though, bathing clothes are mandatory and nudity is prohibited. Also, nobody cares that much what you are wearing ~~and you can wear your swimsuit to a single gender sauna, too, if it makes you feel comfortable.~~

This is quite opposite to Germany, where regular sauna goers might very well tell you that clothes are prohibited and that they "pose a hygiene problem". I even heard people saying stuff like "This is a Finnish sauna, you don't wear clothes here!" in a German mixed gender sauna. Well, the opposite is true for a mixed gender sauna in Finland 🀷🏼.

Edit: My experience is limited, so I guess I was wrong about wearing bathsuits to single-gender saunas. Thanks for pointing that out @[email protected] !

[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Jaa mitΓ€hΓ€n ihmettΓ€? I've been to many public saunas in Finland and almost all of them, if not all, prohibit the use of swimsuit/-pants. At least the ones that are in public pools/swimming halls. And the reasoning being as you said, hygiene.

Edit: whoops my bad, you were talking about mixed gender Saunas. You might be correct after all

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[–] Axiochus 26 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Can confirm re: Germany. It's often explicitly framed as a hygiene issue. That said, there are saunas where you may wear stuff, it's usually designated. Plus you have "women only days" in a good number of public saunas.

In Russia it's also common to eat dried fish and drink beer/sometimes vodka in the room next to the sauna.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In Germany it's often framed as a hygiene issue, because that's easier to sell to randos. The real issue it that it's uncomfortable to be nude when there are clothed people all around you. And the sauna itself is more comfortable when nude.

It's kina like a prisoners delemma, where the pareto solution is when everyone else is nude, and the nash-equlibrium is when everyone is clothed. Because of this, some people will want to defect (i.e. wear clothes), so we need to apply outside pressure to enforce the pareto-efficient solution (i.e. by asking people to remove their clothes).

[–] Axiochus 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hmmm, in my experience the discomfort goes away quickly and you stop caring about your own or other people's genitalia, or lack thereof, in plain view. But I appreciate the game theory approach 😺 Given the nonrationality of many social things, I'd wager that it's just a convention whose true meaning matters less than the fact that "it is the way it is".

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The restaurant in my local Therme is in the Sauna area. Of course it's not a naked restaurant, but a "wear a bathrobe or get something to wear" restaurant. But let me tell you: it's really weird that there are people with clothes on around you in that restaurant. Not uncomfortable, but weird. And the sauna is a place to relax, so I really think it's better that everyone has to be naked so that nobody can feel uncomfortable. For most people it might not matter, but for some people it does matter.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

Sometimes there are also men-only days. Tho they kinda suck.

Woman only day:

  • Start with a sparkling wine
  • Get a few skincare things for the sauna
  • Nice smelling infusion
  • A bit of after-care program in the water

Man only day:

  • We put FUCKING BEER on the hot stone and add some BBQ scent. FUCK YEAH, MANLY.

I wish man only days where also a bit more "care" focused instead :(

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

A swimsuit is quite common in Norway. Basically you ask yourself the question "am I going to make anyone uncomfortable". If it's single gender and people are not extremely shy, you generally go with only a towel, but nobody is really going to care. If you're a gender mixed group of friends that don't know each other that well, you might prefer putting on a swimsuit in order to make sure people feel comfortable and included.

From my experience the Swedes are the same.

This is based on private saunas with friends. In public mixed gender saunas I don't think I've seen anyone go naked, but I'm sure certain Finnish tourists would and nobody would mind.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Can confirm the german part: In my gym there recently was an outrage because a Muslim member went to the Sauna with bathing clothes multiple times, which in the end resulted in his contract being terminated. Being naked in the sauna is almost the law here (but in the end nobody cares if you wear your towel or put it below you. Just remember: No sweat on wood!)

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[–] NickwithaC 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And Great Britain should be orange. Everywhere here would be 100% fine with you wearing a bikini or swimming shorts in a sauna as long as you aren't completely nude.

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[–] Evotech 61 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Posting Reddit links to lemmy feels wrong

[–] wurstgulasch3000 16 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Not only wrong - I can't look at the image without turning off my vpn

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I consider it as a glorified Imgur. If you want to upload the images to catbox.moe or anything else and share the link, feel free, I would update the post!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Why not just upload the image to Lemmy as you make the post

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (4 children)

In my experience, the U.K. doesn't do nudity in saunas - or anywhere else.

[–] CptEnder 22 points 11 months ago (7 children)
[–] [email protected] 29 points 11 months ago

With the lights off.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

You need a license for that.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Saunas used to be the place to give birth in Finland back in the days

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Feel free to scrape your sagging scrotum along the floor, or hell bend over at the worst possible moment and show us all your grey squirrel roadkill anus, but for the love of the gods please put a towel down before you go sit on stuff.

People who don't put a towel down should be shot.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why isn't Estonia covered? Saunas are like a rule here, like I haven't lived in a place that doesn't have a sauna in a 5km range and like every house has a sauna, even my last 3 work places had saunas. The rule here is naked with friends and family and cover all the naughty bits with strangers and coworkers.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In Czech Republic & Slovakia it is usually a towel to sit on & being naked. Optionally you can wrap yourself in a larger towel or something like that. Most people respect it, but I did experience one woman being told to not wear swimming suit or leave the sauna area.

How is it in Denmark? I've seen beautiful saunas there, where you just jump to the sea to cool down. I NEED TO KNOW!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (2 children)

In Finland people are told to not wear swimsuits to sauna not because you absolutely have to be naked but because if you've been in a chlorinated pool the chemicals vaporize in the sauna and are harmful to breathe.

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[–] Gordon 13 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What's going on in Russia and Latvia? What does that symbol mean?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

In hungary from my experience you only wear the towel and no clothes. In some places they even tell you that its mandatory to take it off.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Did I miss something, did Iceland secede from Europe?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

In the late 16^th century, a German pastor, Salomon Schweigger, accompanied the ambassador of the HRE to Istanbul and wrote an ectensive report about his visit.

One of his examples of (perceived by him) moral superiority of Germans over Turkish culture was, that in TΓΌrkiye public baths were single gender with obligatory clothing "to avoid sexual arousal", while back in Germany men and women were happily sharing the same bath butt naked without being sexual aroused.

So – German FreikΓΆrperkultur is far older than it's name.

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