Do you dare to bare?

I sure did when I visited one of the swimming halls in Helsinki, and to be honest, it was actually a very enjoyable experience and felt really natural.

To be honest, and I'm not going to lie, I was very hesitant and nervous at first as to whether I would go nude or not. Growing up in a country where body image is taken very seriously, a little too seriously in fact, it was hard to pluck up the courage and be around all these other women who were all confident with their bodies. However, after going back and forth to my cabin removing another piece of clothing each time, I finally convinced myself to go completely naked.

The convincing came from seeing the other women - who all were naked - and I thought that I would definitely stand out more for wearing bathers than for not wearing anything at all.

What I appreciated about the place the most was that there were women of all ages, from young girls to old ladies, and everyone was of all different sizes. Nobody bothered looking at you, sizing you up and judging you for your size, because everyone was too busy showing love to their own body and being confident flaunting the skin they were in. In a society, especially Australia, where we are (particularly young women) are so concerned with our body image, it was really comforting and refreshing to go to a place where no one judged you, because everyone was here just to relax and swim and sweat on a Sunday afternoon for 2 hours (or more if you're keen).

This made me applaud the Finnish tradition since they have accepted nudity among strangers (but let's be clear, in regards to sauna's, men and women have separate hours), thus in a way helping people to not really care about body image and size. I thought while I was there that perhaps if there was something similar back home maybe then people would be brave to bare all as well, but then I thought that maybe this ease of nudity in front of others is just embedded in the Finn's way of life.

I was discussing to my friend back in Australia about the swimming hall - even though back in Perth most of the girls will be semi-naked in scantly clad bikini bathers, I doubt majority of them would still have the courage to bear all in a place where it is socially acceptable. Yet what I find most concerning isn't the fact that they won't have the courage to flaunt it all even though they are almost at the stage; what is more worrying is the fact that most of the people on the beach are all of the general same size: the girls are all skinny and the boys are all flaunting a six-pack and guns blazing in their arms. What about the people who hide away because they don't fit that standard, or who are worried that they don't fit that standard? They feel they can't even go to the beach and bear even some of their body because of fearing that they don't fit in to the socially accepted body image that has been portrayed to us through media for our whole lives.
Yet in Helsinki at the swimming halls, majority of the women were of a slightly larger size - not unhealthy, but very curving - and to be honest they were actually the most confident women walking around the swimming halls that day.

I would encourage most women (and media to be frank) to visit the swimming halls because it both challenges and changes your "socially accepted" perception on body image.