Dressing room banter

This weekend, the ladies room began to explode with rich (debatable) conversation.  Until now, we'd all been buried in our scripts/focused on lines, characters.  Now confident in our performances, we're beginning to gab some.

Yesterday the question of how naked one can get in the dressing room (and for how long) popped up. (No pun intended.)  Some actors feel completely comfortable in their scivvies (or less) for prolonged periods.  They'll sit there, surrounded by fellow castmates and mirrors, essentially letting it all hang out.  For those people who prefer a bit of clothing, this can be a trifle uncomfortable.  It's not the nakedness necessarily (it's not like there's anything NEW to see), it's the sudden jail bars put up around one's line of vision that suck.  When someone is sitting there talking your ear off wearing little more than a couple strings and a pair of cups, if that, the range of acceptable places to glance is suddenly way cut down lest you awkwardly be viewed as starring at someone's more..delicate parts.

On the other hand, it IS a dressing room.  Shouldn't one feel as free to be free as one would be in a gym locker room?  It's not like there's anything NEW to see.  We're all pretty much the same, only in varing sizes and shapes.  If I want to walk around, letting it all hang out for 20 minutes at a time with my fellow female gender, why should I feel inhibited?  Shouldn't we embrace our bodies, each other's bodies, and the beauty of each of them as god made them?  (or as our parents made them, depending on your viewpoint.)

Personally, I prefer clothing for the most part.  I've gotten comfortable enough overtime to strip down as much as needed (changing bras, etc) in order to get into my costume or back into street clothes without performing the girlscout-undress-redress-without-revealing-one-inch-of-skin-routine AND without feeling rushed.  But I also like to respect my fellow dressingroom companions.  Perhaps they don't want to see my wiggly butt or post-baby boobs.  I may have grown to love them but I certainly don't expect anyone else to!   I'd also rather people feel free to glance around the room without feeling like a look in the wrong place might "send the wrong signal" or some silliness like that.

Anyway... We also discussed headshots.