AIBU to think mixed-sex changing facilities should be limited?

@narrowrailroad

Do you think a woman who doesn't want to change in front of other women is going to be more comfortable in a busy mixed sex facility?

You seem to be desperate to minimise the actual assaults that have taken place and are easier for men to perpetrate in mixed sex facilities.

I gave my personal opinion, are you saying I am lying, or not female, or what? Weird.

Rather than blaming mixed sex and assuming single sex changing is the best, we should be looking at what makes a changing environment the safest for all, (staff numbers, lighting, types of cubicles, types of showers, regular security checks of spaces, location within the building etc) and then there should be legislation that makes the key elements compulsory for new builds/refurbishments.

Indeed but it does seem that single sex space is a huge step towards safer facilities - and it would be daft to ignore that

Personally, I feel safest in the mixed changing village at the pool. I don't find a single sex changing space much comfort given a door does not stop a malicious man going in. In the single sex gym changing rooms I feel less safe because it's down a corridor, with a double door, if something happens and I scream nobody is going to hear! In the mixed changing space for the pool, if someone tries anything and I scream it will be heard in the pool where there are staff and others.

A door and a 'you shouldn't be in here' isn't going to stop someone with malicious intent.

Experiences in mixed sex facilities.

Men washing their genitals and 'accidentally' flashing (Center Parks showers)
Similar in our local baths but this time it felt worse as they're was only me and my 3 young children.

Men lurking in a pack. There was nothing I could complain about but there was a vibe and it was unusual behaviour.

The OP is talking about changing the way we design changing facilities to protect women and girls from serious harm.

How does the age, nationality and gender identity of the offenders impact that discussion?

I’d be pretty surprised if all 100 offenders weren’t male.

The point the OP is making is that women and girls getting undressed are safer in single sex facilities.

Knowing the sex of the offender is useful info.

Knowing eg that he’s a 58 yo, Frenchman who wears a bit of eyeliner and nail polish doesn’t contribute to the policy discussion at all.

I agree. Those numbers over two years at 91 facilities is quite low statistically (albeit every individual instance is traumatic for those involved). Our local pool has had a changing village for the 20 years I’ve lived here. You would have thought if these incidents were a major issue, it would have come to light locally by now.

Getting rid of changing villages would be low hanging fruit, in comparison to the assaults that happen in bars, clubs, schools, trains etc. This is no doubt being targeted within the trans rights culture wars, rather than as a real attempt to protect women and girls. The easy solution is to have staff in these facilities, making sure these areas are safe. To turn our local facilities into m/f/disabled/ with a gender neutral option would cost £millions that the local authority doesn’t have, and severely reduce the number of cubicles available. Is that really what people want, if it reduces the overall number of incidents by a fraction?

The reports on this case also say the phone contained pictures of naked girls changing in various changing rooms at the school. There are no gender neutral changing areas in schools in Scotland. There was also film from other non gender neutral toilets.

The girls’ story is she found the phone in the toilet roll holder when she had excused herself from class to visit the toilets. It had been filming for 15 minutes. This means it was likely placed there during class time. To suggest that boys are unable to access girls’ toilets unseen during class time is laughable.

The teenager was charged in 2024, but there are no further reports on the case. That’s very unusual, unless he was later released from the charge.

Instead of focusing on toilet facilities, we look at the rise in this type of behaviour across schools generally and what are schools doing about it. My daughter’s school had one boy who had been found upskirting girls several times, he was never suspended, police were never involved. That’s a far bigger problem that single sex toilets won’t solve.

My swimming pool has mixed sex changing room. I once saw a male customer walk around with no clothes.

I don't like the changing room. It's dirty. I don't feel unsafe but I think that may be because it's big and very open. I do think if you have mixed sex changing room you need to have staff there most of time and locks on doors need to work. You also need to ensure it's very obvious that it's a mixed sex changing room. I also think there should be single sex available too.

Right at the end of my post, (did you get that far before becoming incapacitated by self-righteous indignation) I did point out that it was secondary to the fact that separate changing rooms would solve the problem.

However, I do think more information is always helpful. For example was it grown men assaulting the young girls? That could also happen in the pool. So how about separating swim times by age group or female only swim times or lanes. I am sure there are actual sociologists who could make suggestions based on whatever is in the details of the data

YABU.

Mixed sex / gender neutral facilities are vital for those who have members of the opposite sex to look after - parents, carers, older spouses, even those helping a spouse or partner who may have a broken leg or be recovering from surgery etc.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

To understand this we need to know what proportion of changing facilities are mixed sex, which I haven't seen data on. It could be there aren't any single sex facilities left hence no crimes take place in them! Still, uncomfortable reading.

I voted YABU exactly because the stats don't surprise me at all. You will see similar stats for all areas where men and women mix. Schools, workplaces, gyms, hospital wards, you name it. Sure, we can ban mixed changing rooms and that will solve that small problem. After that, what? Make all schools single sex? All workplaces single sex? Totally segregate men and women in society? It's a dangerous path to follow.

I worked at swimming pool with mixed sex facilities for a few years. I think I would have heard if any of these types of crimes had happened in my workplace.

There are some crucial details missing from
this article that could put an entirely different picture on this. How many of the 91 leisure centres have mixed sex changing? If it’s 90 that puts a very different slant on to to say if 45 of them are mixed sex. Also where did the crimes happen -
in the changing rooms or elsewhere? What was the size and location of the leisure centres? So for example were 90 of tbe crimes in one small area or were they evenly distributed across the country?

YABU to put such an unbalanced article here and not provide a link to the source.

They’re all mixed where I live, I haven’t entered a single sex in many years. Everyone gets a private cubicle obviously but yeah, mixed has been the way for a long time here.

ok. So what’s your point? Your OP covers offences between 2023 and 2025.

But it so very obviously does stop them hence the huge number of assaults in mixed sex facilities whilst there's none in single sex in this latest FOI. Nearly 100 women and girls needlessly scarred for life.

Makes you wonder what the intent of those arguing the opposite. Are they sex offenders, pedophiles? Deeply misogynistic? The figures speak for themselves. Men hurt woman and children. No men, no hurting.

Its utterly logical and it's hardly surprising that men pushing for mixed sex are perverts. David Smith the Middlesbrough councillor, anyone remember him?

The info is in the OP. All 91 facilities where the incidents occurred were mixed sex.

91 out of 340 swimming pools, nearly 100 incidents at the 91 pools. No incidents were recorded at single sex facilities.

The report is here:

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/changing-areas-have-to-change-call-for-action-as-stats-reveal-close-to-100-sex-crimes-at-leisure-centres/