The New Generation

[SpeedosRule]

How do you keep boys interested in wearing Speedos as they grow older?

I have a couple of friends who've bought brief style swimsuits for their sons. As they've grown older, they've started to notice that their swimsuits look different than the other boys.

One of the guys brought up this question when a group of us were out for drinks. I said that I wasn't sure. I'd failed to keep my son in briefs.

Another guy said that he and his wife had "gone nudist" when their son was about 10. He and his wife have a daughter too. They'd been worried about body issues. It started on a trip up to their cabin. The parents suggested that it might be fun to skinny dip, which turned into spending the rest of the vacation nude. They had such a good time, that they continued after the got home. Since Speedos seemed modest compared to being naked, his son never grew out of them.

Any advice for fathers of the younger generation?

[SwimTeamSpeedo]

Maybe I am the contrary opinion, but I have worn brief swimsuits all my life and I have never thought of them as one step away from nudist. When I am wearing my swimsuit I don't see myself as a closet nudist, rather I think of it as nothing more than my swimsuit of choice. It has never bothered me to be in a brief suit, but I have never had a desire to go naked. I would think portraying a guy in briefs as being nearly naked would only exacerbate the choice not to wear them in a young mind. After all, isn't body issue and image the crux of the problem at that age?

[dm106]

My opinion is it is entirely peer pressure - if they don't see their friends wearing a speedo they don't want to wear one (at least in public). Those with a home swimming pool might be a little more daring at home.

Plus as boys start puberty and their bodies change, there are certain natural fears that creep in. But for boys who have been on a swim team since a younger age, this is a little bit less and they may continue (but some boys quit swimming as they enter their teens because of this).

[NE_OH_thonger]

My own experience. I went to a school with mandatory swim classes from fourth to eighth grade. All students had to use school supplied swimsuits, which for the boys was a brief. It didn't seem odd, because we all had the same suits. In high school, the peer pressure set in. Guys just didn't wear speedo-style suits, unless they were on the swim team. I still preferred the brief, but to fit in, I switched to a pair of swim shorts. In college, I started to buy brief suits again. Mostly for my own personal enjoyment, as I almost never went to the beach or the pool at this time. It kind of went part and parcel with my finally coming to terms with being Gay and becoming comfortable in my own skin. The jammer had not yet really come into being, so I kind of skipped that step on the road back. Then on a trip to a Speedo store in 2000, I saw my first swim thong for men. At that point, I simply knew there was no going back to shorts, ever.

[Torchwatch]

Schools are full of bullies who tend towards homophobia and hate crime. The repress their own gay side in order to appear normal and straight while subjecting vulnerable boys to abuse. The alpha males in a school class are above the bullies who being cowards leave them alone, but anyone else who fails to conform and is vulnerable may be a victim. Tom Daley was subjected to bullying at school for wearing speedos and being assumed to be gay despite being the best diver in the country and later the world, his pencil case etc being repeatedly taken and hidden so he couldn't work.
A few years ago a fashion started in which trousers (pants) were worn low revealing the top of underwear which was almost universally accepted, the winter before last skinny jeans and even skinny school trousers became the norm. These fashions started or were at least accepted among the alpha males. For speedos to become the norm for school swimming the alpha males need to adopt them as their choice I swimwear, then the herd will follow.
One of the bullies at my school was somewhat shorter than me, he turned up at the local swimming pool one day when I was there, each time he approached me I simply ducked him while he swam and I stood on the bottom. It felt good for a change.

[PSDave]

that was very mature of you.

[Torchwatch]

I was 11 at the time, he was usually beastly to me at school and swimming in my own time at the weekend his approaches were unfriendly and he wouldn't leave me alone. Standing out of his depth I could duck him if he came too close, but I could outswim him anyway.

[Bede735]

My school was so homophobic they wouldn't even shake hands with you.
And if you had a girlfriend they'd think you were being a cissy.
And nobody took their sweater or blazer off because that was like appearing nude.

Seriously mal-adjusted people...

[Torchwatch]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDQmg39Lou4