Sexist M&S toilet signs

What you wear has zero bearing on how you are, It's kind of illogical for feminists to be saying, oh she's wearing a dress how awful! She can't possibly be a strong independent woman in dress!

*de-robe

Also women have to de-tone exposing all their genitalia to do a wee. Men don't have to. That's why separate toilets should exist (in general).

If you have unisex toilets everywhere, some people will take advantage. Be careful what you wish for!

Thank you AB - you put it much better than me

It is interesting that the male sign has a tie which is business dress or occasion wear, whereas the female sign has an informal dress. That's presumably what stereotype the designer could drag out of their brain when thinking what a man or woman would wear.

As an aside, I find it fascinating how other people want to police idle chit chat on the internet.

• wear suits

Pink, floral frocks are not generally considered suitable attire for women doing the sort of jobs where men are expected to where suits- ergo the M&S depiction is of men at work and women staying at home as carers.

Amateee please let us know what is the no. one problem today and we can all put our energies into solving that. When that's done we'll go on to no. 2, then 3 ...

so u can't be authoritarian in a dress?

The man gets to wear clothes of authority - a tie, and by uminplication a suit; while the woman is in girly clothing - that sends a sexist message.

This seems like such a huge waste of energy.

The symbols on toilets are understood by everyone. Leave it alone!

It's just a toilet sign, really not worth getting "offended" over they have looked the same way all my life, why even waste time on it

In terms of symbols, Trafalgar Square decided to use the international symbols for man and woman on pedestrian crossings.

People did get very confused. Not so much because they didn't understand which was which, but because they didn't know if it meant women had to cross at a different time to men!

No one at all has said it's the number one problem facing the world today. In fact it's been acknowledged as a very minor thing. Odd that you think otherwise.

Yes, because this is clearly the number one problem facing the world today. Really?!

Bearing in mind that people learn new things all the time, I'm pretty sure that it would take about 5 seconds for an averagely intelligent person to learn XX and XY (or any other non-stereotyping symbols).

Yes, exactly.
Why should we have those outdated pictures of women in dresses when a new sign could be learnt in 5 seconds?

Also, in the UK most people are going to know which chromosomes are which (if they don't actively refuse to remember).

I suggest we show the y chromosome in its real size, which is much smaller than the X, that makes them easier to differentiate AND is factually accurate, too!

People who don't know can be taught by it being on the same sign as some other symbols, or by just following everyone else.

I didn't use to mind the woman in a dress thing, but it seems to confuse so many people about the facts according to which the toilets are separated, so I think it is time it was changed.

There are international symbols for the male and female sex. These should be used.

Toilets in Irish pubs in the UK used to cause confusion.

Mná - ladies

Fir - gents

I don't mind unisex toilets when they are individual cubicles with sinks and mirrors inside and a generally good design.

I do mind sharing sinks and mirrors with men in a communal area near the toilets.

Take it up with Wikipedia and Google then. It doesn't much matter what you believe if it is so engrained to be that belief and as you say choosing the symbols for Mars and Venus aren't much better

It says "Citation needed" on wiki! It's just someones opinion with no referencing.

The complaint was regarding the child symbol being added to the womens toilets and not the mens.
It had nothing to do with the male or female signs or graphics.

This is much more appropriate.

Pringle I think the days are long gone when women were ashamed of their periods etc. Men know about all that and are used to seeing women putting on their makeup.

Well i'm certainly not used to strange men watching me do my makeup, and don't appreciate being watched by men as I bend over the sink to look in the mirror, which has happened to me before in unisex toilets. Doing your makeup, adjusting your tights, looking in the mirror, changing a pad or tampon are all vulnerable moments for women. Nothing to do with "being ashamed of periods" or whatever.

I won't use unisex toilets, I leave and find segregated ones.

Again - whatever system people choose to use, it could very quickly and easily be learnt. It could be F and M or XX or any symbols. Given that most 5 year olds can learn the alphabet, I think it fairly obvious that people could learn a couple of new symbols - particularly if the old & new symbols were used together for a while.

And it's amazing how flexible people can be. I'm staying in a beach area atm, and the toilet signs abound with "buoys" and "gulls". Amazingly, I'm intelligent enough to work out which one I should use.