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Original poster

Gender neutral toilets at the Barbican London

114 replies

Laurapalmer90 · 05/04/2017 20:40

Has anyone heard about this? Great that women are speaking up. Why can't there be gender neutral toilets AND retain men's and women's?

www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/londoners-diary-no-toilet-humour-for-samira-ahmed-at-the-barbican-a3507901.html

OP posts:
IAmAmy · 05/04/2017 21:55

From my experience of theatres and similar venues, the only change which should be countenanced is expanding the provision of women's toilets, purely from a queuing point of view (though I understand this is difficult in old theatres).

IAmAmy · 05/04/2017 21:54

I suppose soon enough any women or girls who don't feel comfortable with people who are ostensibly men but "identifying as women" in the same toilets will be made to feel ridiculous for having such issues.

GlitterGlue · 05/04/2017 21:54

Glasgow Theatre Royal has gender neutral toilets. All toilets are lockable, fully enclosed cubicles with individual basins and mirrors.

I visited two venues last weekend which had this type of loo. All placed along a corridor. Absolutely fine. But they can fuck right off if they think changing the sign on a standard ladies turns it gender neutral. It doesn't. At all. It just means we get shat on again.

highinthesky · 05/04/2017 21:54

Well this has put me right off the Barbican Centre.

This is about so-called inclusivity, but it should be about queue management.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 05/04/2017 21:53

Why dont they put a couple of cubicles in the mens? Are they saying men never need to do more than pee?

There will be but not as many.

0phelia · 05/04/2017 21:52

Most men's already have cubicles already.

0phelia · 05/04/2017 21:51

Pee always splashes a bit in a loo. That's why urinals were invented.

DJBaggySmalls · 05/04/2017 21:51

Why dont they put a couple of cubicles in the mens? Are they saying men never need to do more than pee?

0phelia · 05/04/2017 21:49

That's all very well but men stand up to pee. How do you know you aren't sitting on a pee seat?

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 05/04/2017 21:49

It's a daft idea at the Barbican if for no other reason than queues. I might if I were desperate and there was a queue use a cubicle in what used to be the men's ( I don't think there is safety issues in a busy arts venue) but I expect many women won't.

On the other hand there are men who don't like urinals- and they have been given permission to use the one with more cubicles.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 05/04/2017 21:44

Glasgow Theatre Royal has gender neutral toilets. All toilets are lockable, fully enclosed cubicles with individual basins and mirrors.

Dinosaurus86 · 05/04/2017 21:37

Oh great - no woman will be using the 'gender neutral - urinals', so the men get to keep their space, but the women have to share??

IAmAmy · 05/04/2017 21:24

Excellent to see Samira Ahmed challenging this nonsense. It's quite worrying that this seems to be spreading; were I to be at the Barbican, I'd not be too comfortable using these facilities given men are clearly using what was previously the women's (even though they'd have had far more of a queue anyway even without the added people).

DJBaggySmalls · 05/04/2017 21:09

I saw this on Twitter today. It just shows that give men the green light to use the women's and they will.
The men's should have been gender neutral., or there should be a third gender neutral bathroom.