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In the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode "Kayshon, His Eyes Open" (season 2 ep. 2) Beckett Mariner & Friends (except for Boimler) go to a large room full of sonic showers where people are cleaning themselves in full view of each other. Mariner explains to a crewmate (who is occupying Brad Boimler's usual spot) why Boimler is not present, saying something about his fear of "communal nudity." I could understand Boimler's shyness, and I doubt that he would be the only one unwilling to participate in this "public showering." It is likely that on a Starfleet ship with many different races, certain crewmembers would act like Boimler due to their cultural values and beliefs.

There should really be no reason why there are no dividers/stalls or even curtains to separate showers. In previous Star Trek shows, we've seen private showers before. Sure, they were usually in high-ranking officers' quarters such as Captain Archer or Lieutenant Torres, but they wouldn't really reduce the junior-grade officers to situations of such humiliation...would they? Are there private showers anywhere on the Cerritos? Or has it always been this way on all ships?

Sovereign Inquiry
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    My college dorm in the 70s had showers like that. Not sure why you say 'such humiliation'. – Organic Marble Nov 06 '22 at 04:18
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    (School) gyms, public swimming pools, public saunas, cheaper youth hostels, military barracks, job sites where you are expected to get dirty (e.g. coal mines), they all have communal showers. The only thing that's different about the showers depicted in Lower Decks compared to our present-day ones is that they are not gender-separated. But, given that Star Trek is set in a utopian future free of gender discrimination, that is not too much of a stretch … in fact, we are witnessing this happening right before our eyes. At the moment, it is only bathrooms that get de-genderized, but there is no … – Jörg W Mittag Nov 06 '22 at 05:16
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    … reason why that couldn't extend to showers in the next 360 years. In fact, there are cultures where such a gender separation never existed in the first place. – Jörg W Mittag Nov 06 '22 at 05:17
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    One of the jokes here is that the Cerritos treats its lower deckers worse than on the Enterprise. They have to share a shower, even sharing bunks which are basically in a corridor, etc etc – Valorum Nov 06 '22 at 07:31
  • @OrganicMarble Are showers in the 2020's like that now? – Sovereign Inquiry Nov 06 '22 at 15:31
  • @JörgWMittag Sure, but we've only seen it on Earth. My question also pertains to what happens when other races have to go to the communal shower. – Sovereign Inquiry Nov 06 '22 at 15:33
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    Gender separation in communal showers was not practiced in the film Starship Troopers (1997) either, and I remember being ... well, surprised ... when i saw it in the theater. Don't know whether this features in the original novel of the same name (1959) by Heinlein, but I wouldn't be surprised. He liked to shock people. – Invisible Trihedron Nov 06 '22 at 18:40
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    In addition to @JörgWMittag: I've been to events (LARP) where the communal showers weren't gender-separated. When people are adults in a community where you know each other, there's no problem with that. (plus it's not the prude USA). Having communal showers of this kind in Star Trek isn't a stretch at all. – Tom Nov 06 '22 at 19:04
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    @InvisibleTrihedron Heinlein assumed that the future would be much more sexually liberated than the past. There's quite a bit of that in many of his stories. – Tom Nov 06 '22 at 19:05
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    As Valorum points out, the whole premise of Lower Decks is the perspective of Starfleet from crewmembers who are (or at least feel) the least respected. Anything that further lowers their standing is part of that central joke, including communal hot bunking in corridors (which has real-life precedent in WWII warships). And, as Invisible Trihedron points out, there was precedent for fully communal showers in Starship Troopers. – Anthony X Nov 06 '22 at 20:30
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    @InvisibleTrihedron the novel and the movie have almost nothing in common. – fectin Nov 07 '22 at 13:45
  • @fectin Thanks for the heads-up. Though I've read a lot of Heinlein, I've never been able to read more than a few pages of Starship Troopers before giving it up. – Invisible Trihedron Nov 07 '22 at 14:01
  • Individuals whose religion, culture or psyche prevents them from showering or bunking with other races and genders cannot join Starfleet. – Peter - Reinstate Monica Nov 07 '22 at 14:40
  • Really? Starfleet would deny someone just because they don't feel comfortable showering right next to someone else? Imagine how much talent they'd be throwing away... – Sovereign Inquiry Nov 07 '22 at 15:12

2 Answers2

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NCOs and Ensigns have communal bunks and resources, while higher rank crew have their own rooms and showers.

See Flashback from Voyager or Lower Decks from Next Generation. So, lower level crew members don't have privacy for many things, including showers as you saw. This is common for military vessels because there's limited space and only higher level crew members get amenities like a private shower.

So, lower level crewmembers don't have a lot of privacy and are expected to deal with said lack of privacy. We haven't seen what happens when someone has cultural beliefs that prohibit group showers or rooms.

Nepene Nep
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  • The Cerritos isn't a military vessel – Valorum Nov 06 '22 at 10:09
  • It's a spaceship which is part of the federation organization which handles military affairs that is equal in combat power to space military vessels from other space nations, such as a bird of prey. – Nepene Nep Nov 06 '22 at 10:12
  • Merely having armed might doesn't make you a military organisation: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/54154/is-starfleet-a-military-or-civilian-organization – Valorum Nov 06 '22 at 10:26
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    As several of the answers there note, they have many of the common traits of military organizations, and so noting how military vessels have similar accommodations is normal. – Nepene Nep Nov 06 '22 at 10:29
  • And as I've pointed out, if you use "traits of a military organisation" (such as possessing weapons and military-style ranks) as your yardstick, then the UN is the third largest military organisation in the world, the Boy Scouts are the fourth largest and the Salvation Army isn't far behind. – Valorum Nov 06 '22 at 10:31
  • Do the UN, the Boy Scouts, or the Salvation army have similar military might and ships of war to, say, Russia, or the USA, or China? – Nepene Nep Nov 06 '22 at 10:32
  • You don't need to be able to stand toe-to-toe with the Red Army to be a formidable military force – Valorum Nov 06 '22 at 10:37
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    @Valorum But those groups aren't ever actually used as militaries. They don't go war. Starfleet does. And everything crosses over perfectly--rank, weapons, etc. Even in peace time, you can be sent on war-type missions. There just doesn't really seem to be any way in which they are a not a military. It seems more a PR thing. – trlkly Nov 06 '22 at 18:42
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    @trlkly - For the record, I don't believe that the Salvation Army have any warships. – Valorum Nov 06 '22 at 18:59
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    @trlkly yup, its in the same vein as Uber claiming they arent a taxi service... – Moo Nov 06 '22 at 23:17
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    @trlkly You are right that Starfleet engages in military activities--but only out of necessity. Its principal objective is peaceful, scientific, and diplomatic exploration. This is why Federation ships almost never fire first, and why they usually don't build more combat-based ships in the first place. Many Federation ships are large enough to carry tens of thousands of torpedoes, yet they typically only have around 500. – Sovereign Inquiry Nov 06 '22 at 23:31
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    @Valorum You are correct, it's the Salvation Navy that has warships. – Andy Nov 07 '22 at 00:28
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    @SovereignInquiry Sure. But that's also a pretty good description of the ideal form of a military--one that is there when you need it but isn't actively pursuing aggression. There would be the possibility of having people on reserve, but that isn't how Starfleet is run. These aren't private actors who get called to military service when necessary, but people who follow the "chain of command" and devote themselves to their government in exchange for traveling the universe, studying, etc. But they know they may be called upon to do more, and are willing to die in doing it. – trlkly Nov 07 '22 at 02:16
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Various Star Trek productions have tended to differ in how spacious or how cramped crew accomodations are.

Here is a link to a discussion of the vast space and realtively small crew on a Galaxy class starship.

https://www.quora.com/I-understand-that-the-enterprise-TNG-had-a-crazy-amount-of-empty-space-given-the-crew-size-How-empty-or-not-is-Deep-Space-9

So what is the crew compliment of California class starships compared to Galaxy class starships? What is the volume of the saucer sections of California class starships compared to the saucer sections of Galaxy class starships?

If there is any canon answer to those questions it will be easy to calculate the available volume per person in Galaxy and California class starships. And it seems to me that even if California class starships have far less volume per person than Galaxy class starships, it should still be far more volume per person than in 21st century warships and possibly far more volume per person than in the guest areas of 21st century cruise ships.

Thus it is possible that the cramped living conditions for enlisted and junior officers in California class starships might be due to sadistic starship design teams instead of technical reqirements.

Out of universe, it seems to be the product of showrunners who want to inflict harder living conditions on their characters. Possibly some of the showrunners were in the military and don't see any reason why their fictional characters should have any better accomodations than they did.

M. A. Golding
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  • Essentially the same discussion on SciFi Stack Exchange: https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/52541/why-star-trek-vessels-are-so-big-when-their-crew-is-so-small?noredirect=1&lq=1 – Sovereign Inquiry Nov 06 '22 at 17:28
  • Maybe they just want to safe water by making it less comfortable to shower longer? – Paŭlo Ebermann Nov 06 '22 at 23:29