Locker Room Teasing: Do Parents Need to Worry? And Does Circumcising Help?

Is it possible your child could be teased about something penis-related in the locker room? Yes. But even if such teasing were to happen to your child (research suggests it isn’t likely), it’s even less likely their foreskin would be the focus. And circumcising is no “fix” — it won’t make them any less likely to be teased, researchers say. 

People can be teased for any physical characteristics, and as such, the genitals are not off-limits. For this reason, fear of being nude in the locker room is not uncommon. Thankfully, present-day calls for body positivity and autonomy have begun to be heard and the demand for privacy in school changing rooms is increasingly respected.

The olden days were weird

Showering in school has become a thing of the past, but for much of the 20th century, showers after gym class were mandatory in many school districts across the United States. Students often were expected to shower in one large room amongst their peers. Some schools went as far as to implement teacher monitoring, including hygiene checks and body inspections. For many students, these invasions of privacy were unbearable, and it was not unheard of for people to forge letters from home or a doctor to get out of phys ed and avoid imposed communal nudity. 

Backed by an overwhelming outcry from students and parents, the American Civil Liberties Union in 1994 challenged a high school’s mandatory shower policy as a violation of student rights, and the policy was overturned. Schools across the nation followed suit, and by 1996, the post-gym class shower was no longer a cultural norm.

Good thing they’re the olden days

Students have a lot of valid reasons for not wanting to take part in compulsory group showers: for one, it takes time to shower, and students aren’t always afforded enough time to tend to personal needs during school as it is. Additionally, they may feel insecure about being naked in front of others — it can feed into body image struggles — and they may fear being excluded or outed by their peers during their formative adolescent years while they are figuring out their gender and sexuality privately on their own terms.

For those who do wish to wash, old open showers in some schools have been replaced with a few private stalls. The opportunities for children to tease each other about genitals are much rarer in today’s culture.

A historical summary

It is no coincidence that both circumcision and showering in schools became enforced social norms at practically the same time. With the introduction of the germ theory of disease came Progressive Era reforms focused on controlling bodies. During this time, poor people, groups of immigrants, and people of color, as well as their cultural practices, became targets for colonizers’ fear, blame, and hatred. They were referred to as uncivilized. Not surprisingly, these groups were also associated with the intact (not circumcised) penis. Genitals were viewed as dirty, and many thought circumcision was a way to keep the penis cleaner. Circumcision was used as a status symbol of being able to afford a hospital birth, which was not an option for most people at the time.  

As immigration was on the rise, mass education and urbanization set the stage for public bath houses, especially in schools as housing did not provide adequate bath areas. Showers were put in school and shortly after students were monitored to be sure they bathed properly, in hopes they would spread the information to their parents at home in effort to stop the spread of disease. In modern-day housing guidelines it is illegal for tenants to not have access to a working bath area.

An intact man’s take

To demonstrate just how unlikely it would be for a student to be teased about their penis, Your Whole Baby Community Group member Bryce Cornell offered his perspective on the discussion: “As an intact male, I’d like to address the ‘He will be laughed at in school’ comment.

“This is not a thing 😉! Boys don’t look at each other’s penises in school, and they certainly don’t openly discuss other guys’ genitals with their friends. He will be laughed at regardless, whether he’s cut, uncut, big, or small, because all boys (all children) will find reasons to pick on each other. That’s part of being school aged and immature. Something about him (that other kids will actually get to see and notice) will make him different because we are all unique from each other. Changing the way his private part looks isn’t going to affect the behavior of others.”

Yep, there’s research about this

In a 2015 study surveying 290 university students from the U.S. Midwest about their high school experiences, ten percent reported having been teased themselves, and 47 percent reported seeing someone else being teased. Approximately two thirds of these incidents involved teasing about penis size, while about one third involved snarks about foreskin or “strange” penile appearance.

While the authors recognized parents’ concerns over locker room teasing, researchers also affirmed that penis surgeries — like circumcision and post-circumcision revision surgery — don’t prevent teasing, and experiencing or witnessing teasing about penises doesn’t make a teen more likely to wish their penis looked different.

From The Toronto Sun’s article about the study: “There was no difference between the [intact] and circumcised groups when the students were asked if they wished their penis had a different appearance. Furthermore, being [intact] did not increase a student’s overall odds of being teased.”

From the study: “[While] it appears that parental concerns regarding teasing related to penile appearance are valid . . . most causes of teasing may not be alleviated by surgical therapy.”

U.S. circumcision rates have been declining since their peak in the 1960s. It’s likely that around half the students in the locker room with your child will also be intact. In the unlikely event that teasing about foreskin happens, it could be teasing directed towards circumcised students! In other words, surgically removing part of a baby’s penis to prevent taunting has never been an effective approach. With intact penises becoming normalized again after several decades of interruption, it’s a worse gamble than ever.

TL;DR: Your kid probably won’t be teased about their genitals, and circumcising won’t make teasing less likely. Rest assured you’re making the right decision to keep your baby intact.

About the Author

Jennyfer Park is a Director of Equity and Diversity and Co-Vice President at Your Whole Baby. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her child and partner whose family traditionally leaves children intact. Upon joining the movement for genital autonomy, she noticed an extreme deficit and break in communication between some of the people delivering this information and those receiving. She now dedicates her time to distributing information about circumcision and autonomy to communities who have limited access to this information due to systemic barriers.