Burnley Grammar School

Rachael - Rachael - you said that a lot of boys wore vests under their school shirts and simply put a PE top over. My experience was similar, in that virtually all of my PE group wore vests under our school shirts every day, but also different since most of us didn't bother with dedicated PE tops, and just took our shirts off, put our PE shorts on and there we were, all kitted out.

All this changed when topless PE was introduced. Dad's initial reaction that we wouldn't have to buy me any more PE vests, was soon put down by Mum pointing out that I had been wearing my ordinary underwear vests for PE for a number of years. Her greatest concern came a couple of weeks later, when she realised that an unintended consequence of taking my vest off for PE was that, after the class, I generally "forgot" to put it back on again. In fact, unbeknown to her, within a couple of weeks I had stopped wearing a vest to school on PE days, and by half-term, I had given up wearing them altogether. Mum protested for a while, prophesying that I would be dead from pneumonia by Christmas, but the worst never happened, and I lived to turn my old vests into cleaning cloths.

Roy F,
I didn’t mean to be pedantic I was explaining from a personal perspective that I was entirely happy that I was not allowed to wear a top for PE. Unlike some guys who’ve posted on here we went into the changing room stripped off completely and put on a pair of white gym shorts and pumps, no underwear was allowed to be worn under the shorts. We all entered the gym wearing just shorts and pumps, we weren’t made to ‘strip to the waist’ in the gym.

Some lads have posted that they were made to strip to the waist as soon as they entered the gym and there was a line of vests or shirts left at the side of the gym. I still think that when guys post ‘we were made to strip to the waist’ it sounds as though they disliked the rule or regarded it as some form of abuse. People could have posted that their PE teacher said ‘shirts off lads’, I personally don’t find the word ‘made’ appropriate because I was perfectly happy with the stripped to the waist/no shirts allowed rule.

John, I understand the point you're making - you were just wearing the required PE kit, which didn'f happen to include a top. However, at my school, boys were indeed 'made to strip to the waist' in that you might begin a PE lesson wearing your vest or T-shirt, but be told to take it off during the course of the lesson. Sometimes that came about if we were playing shirts against skins, but teachers might also make a boy take his top off as a form of discipline. It could be surprisingly effective if you were singled out to do extra press ups or laps of the playing field wearing only shorts, with every other lad in the class in full kit.

To John,

I think we know what Simon meant! He had to do PE stripped to the waist whether he liked it or not. It was a practice imposed upon him and, in that sense, he was "made" to do it.

Hi Simon D. I want to ask you if you ever run shirtless in ram thunderstorm. Because you wrote that you were shirtless whatever weather conditions. I’m asking you this because mee to had a similar experience. Our lesson was always the same. We used to play inside the gym a basketball match, then those who lost the match had to take off the shirt and to give them to winners. At that point we started cross country run which was through mud pitches and wood nearby school. The rules were the following ones, guys who won had shirts of guys who lost, and they could decide. If one of the winners wanted to give back shirt to a guy who was shirtless, he could do this but then he had to run barechested, so that always half of the class had to be shirtless. In this way, losers went always shirtless regardless weather or mud which made very dirty chests of guys who run without a shirt

At the risk of sounding pedantic what is the difference between "being made to strip to the waist for PE" and "not being allowed to wear a top"?

Simon D,

We weren’t ‘made to strip to the waist for PE’ the rule was that we were not allowed to wear a top for PE. The rule was shorts and pumps only, we went in the changing room and we weren’t going to do gym in our school shirts and at Senior School all lads I knew had given up wearing vests underneath their school shirts. So in reality all we did was to take off our school shirt and simply not put on a vest or a t shirt in the changing room.

When guys on here comment that ‘we were made to strip to the waist’ it sounds as though it was harsh or in some way a punishment; we were glad that we could enjoy the freedom of exercising shirtless and were not ‘made to wear a top’.

A lot of boys wore vests under their school shirts and simply put a PE top over. You'd see boys strip both t-shirt and vests off in the gym which was good to watch. I didn't object to seeing boys show their upper bodies either indoors or outside. Watching boys strip off on a cold morning was an experience.

Julian, Surely, in the 1960's it would have been normal for boys to be stripped to the waist and in many schools, barefoot, in the gym and for cross country. If the girls reacted in this manner at the sight of a lad in just shorts
at your sports day, what did you all normally wear for PE?

Our school did not hesitate in making boys strip to the waist for everything bar football, which we wore either a pale blue or white vest depending on whether you were in an odd or even numbered class. Cross Country was always done stripped regardless of temperature or condition and we waded through brooks and shallow water. One teacher's favourite thing was to make lie down in the freezing cold water. Reinforced windows ran the whole length of the gym so it was easy for girls to see us. We our school competitions in all sports in addition to sports day. For things like basketball one team would wear a vest for the first half, strip for the second and vice versa so the girls who were allowed to cheer and watch would see both sets of boys stripped to the waist. For cross country and physical fitness competitions coloured ribbons tied round each competitors arms so all boys could be stripped. There's so much lacking for males. It's it's ridiculous making boys exercise in tops and I wonder at the effort going in. For us it really was a case of no sweat, no effort! And I cannot believe girls no longer want to see boys stripped off!!

Hi Matthew I'd volunteer to take messages to other teachers and took a detour to the gym to see boys topless and if I were lucky and see them glisten with sweat. There were always a line of PE vests down by the front of the gym. Were you singled out to go topless by teachers or was the whole class the same.

James - my memories of topless PE was that our shorts were somewhat more extensive, and less anatomically revealing, than our "speedo - style" swimming trunks. We were more likely to have been embarrassed on the beach or at the swimming pool than in the gym.

I remember a School Sports day in the 1960s.
One of the sixthformers-a tall well-built 17 year old youth- was running stripped to the waist and barefoot.
When girls saw that he was bare-chested they flocked over to get a closer look at him.

To Mathew,

We were were often watched by the girls when they were passing through the corridor on the way to their lessons, but there was no segregation from the girls and we often shared the gym when the weather was unsuitable for them to go outside.

John, it was a mixed school but PE lessons weren't so boys outside while the girls were inside and vice versa. There were direct doors from both changing rooms into the gym but another into a public corridor so we wouldnt see each other or at least not in theory.

Claire, you sound like what our girls must have been like! I felt happier about being shirtless as I got used to it so that tallies.

To James
How were the girls able to come and watch you? Should they not have been in lessons themselves?

To James.
How was it that the girls were able to come and observe the boys? Should they not have been in lessons themselves?

Claire,I'm sure most boys were extremely shy and self-conscious about stripping down to just our shorts.
The gym had huge viewing windows and we frequently had an audience,mainly of girls who obviously enjoyed watching us exerting ourselves in our strenuous exercises.It probably had the benefit of making some of the boys more self confident,but some us remained inhibited about displaying our bodies in minimal clothing.

I teach PE at a school in Allentown. I make the boys go barefoot and topless so I can look at their bodies.
My friend Phil likes it too.
Bob says I am a pedifile.

Andrew, no doubt your girls would have loved to see you all shirtless in gym! We used to hang around longer then we needed to in order to see which boys were stripping their shirts off,until the teacher yelled at us to get a move on.Often we could sometimes find a way to sneak back and watch them. I did notice as time went on most of the boys overcame their shyness and did enjoy the attention the girls were paying to their bare chests.

Andrew,
I know some people won’t agree but I think that girls eyeing up lads doing PE shirtless makes a good case for single sex Senior Schools. Confident lads might be happy showing off in front of girls but other lads might feel embarrassed being barechested with girls watching them.

A shirtless PE kit rule makes a lot of sense but lads need to become confident with their physical appearance; they can gain this confidence better without girls watching and commenting on their appearance whilst they are developing as teenagers.

Claire, I also remember our girls being curious about boys not wearing tops. While indoors we went barechest and they couldnt see but they did know, but outdoors its was optional. More precisely not optional but not our official kit, but teachers turned a blind eye to anyone doing it and the girls did appear to like gossiping about who did this based on any glimpses they might get or information from other boys.

Regarding the last message and prudish , I read in the newspaper that an elderly lady has been told not to wear her bikini in her garden because children in a nearby nursery can see her sunbathing!!! Parents have objected!!! What will any of the parents do if they go on holiday and people are in swim wear including bikinis.

Speaking as a female, I don't think most girls mind when young guys go topless! I think athletecism and self confidence is very attractive in guys (and girls) I just love to see the body and muscles hard at work in motion. So getting to see boys stripped to the waist for the first time at school was a real eye-opening experience.It was at the beginning of one particular year in secondary school we had a new PE teacher that year and on the first lesson it was promptly announced that as part of a new programme to improve students overall fitness level, girls and boys would be split up every class from now on for different activities with the boys group focusing on more intensive gym workouts and sports. It was also added that moving forward, the boys should also be prepared to remove their shirts in certain activities. There was a murmur of surprise among the boys as well as quite a bit of chatter from us girls.Of course our minds immediately went to which boys' bare chests we fancied having a look at! Having heard from boys in other classes that they did in fact have to go shirtless, some of the girls seemed to grow more excitable as the week went on and they took pleasure in teasing and reminding the boys that they'd soon have to strip for us! There was eager discussion about which boys we looked forward to seeing shirtless.Sure enough when the anticipated day came, we were split off from the boys and then they were split up again into seperate teams for basketball with one group of boys taking off their shirts for the skins team much to our pleasure! Sadly we could not enjoy the view for long as we were hustled off elsewhere for our own games. Still from then on I enjoyed every chance we got to watch the boys in PE, more often than not there would be half or more running about stripped to the waist and drenched with sweat. I do remember looking at their bare chests with admiration and abit of envy too, wishing we could strip off as well but of course it was frowned upon then as it would be today. I wish people nowadays(of both genders) would overcome such prudishness and let young people exercise in as much or as little as they choose.They do need as much incentive to stay in shape as possible as it is without silly clothing restrictions!

Hi Fiona, The females had t-shirts over their bras. There were around 4 who said they were fine stripping to a bra, the other 3 were definitely sheepish and remained silent. I'm aware there are those who'd love to give it a real go, given a choice. It's highly unlikely it will ever happen but they all seemed happy it was our group being made to strip off outside on a freezing cold afternoon!

Jordan,
I didn’t like having to strip to the waist for PE at first but soon got used to it and then preferred not having to wear a top. It’s better and fairer to play skins vs skins and give lads different coloured bibs to wear, a lot of lads don’t like being selected to be a skin and having to take off their shirt. If all lads are skins it helps lads to become more body confident and is a far more comfortable way to exercise. Cross country running is also more enjoyable shirtless.

Thanks for your reply Bradley S, that's interesting to know. As I said, I didn't honestly enjoy my single experience of running topless, but I might have felt differently if that had been a regular thing and I'd had to get used to it. In a way, it also seems more fair if every boy had to wear the same kit as opposed to vests against skins - where obviously some boys wore a different kit to others. What did you and others who experienced both feel - was it a better system for everyone to be skins?

Bradley S - did the females in your group ever strip down to their bras, either voluntarily or because they were told to? That would have been less discriminatory.

I always felt skins teams bonded better as each team member was equal and if you weren't sweating you weren't trying hard enough.

Hi TomS We had 7 females in our selection group and they did their physical exercise away from us. It didn't stop them getting a great view of our group when we were told to strip to the waist. It really gave them a good laugh.