To wonder why an MP is lying about womens bathrooms?

I’ll add that I saw women who clearly didn’t want to use the gender neutral loo using the disabled loo instead and also said in the feedback form that the Barbican was therefore reducing availability to those who need those facilities. They don’t give a shiny s**t

Last time I was there a few weeks ago, women’s were closed and the men’s was ‘gender neutral’ on the 1st floor by the main auditorium. I asked in the ‘did you enjoy your visit?’ feedback form if this was a permanent thing. Reply came there none, so I haven’t returned.

Tea: strawman!

@ TeaKlaxon

Far too many women have been challenged using womens bathrooms because they don't look sufficiently like women as far as some users were concerned.

This rarely happens 😅😅😅

This OP has already told others that they don't care about causing offense to people. Because we are cosying up to the right wing parties and effectively reap what we sew. Maybe I read it incorrectly, but that is certainly the message that I took away from the post, and since it was aimed at me, I guess my interpretation is valid.

I hardly think they are going to turn around now and acknowledge that the very 'disabled' women that they were telling us off for ignoring before are actually on this thread telling them they are, in fact, full of shite in the way they have posted on this thread.

The MRA's gleeful reaction to the discrimination-caused exclusion from part of public life of a group of women they're prejudiced against is a grim spectacle.

I am a physically disabled woman. My disability is such that I qualify for a blue badge. Blue badges are not easy things to get hold of and I was required to undergo a detailed assessment with an occupational therapist. In 2020, there were 2.44 million blue badge holders. As a population, 6% of children, 16-18% of adults of working age and 45% of pensioners are classed as disabled under the EA2010.

I am not a wheelchair user and am very aware there are nowhere near enough accessible loos to accommodate the large percentage of people with disabilities. I therefore use the women’s loos in preference to the accessible ones whenever possible.

Personally I can’t just go up a half flight of stairs and am protected twice under the Equality Act 2010. Once for my sex, namely being a biological woman and a secondly for being disabled. Having a blue badge also means every step is a step and I’m limited to the number I can do so walking to the lift and along a bunch of corridors can prove impossible.

I don’t carry walking aids as they’re of no use. I don’t look disabled and as I’m middle aged, people treat me as though I am able-bodied. They expect me to get out of the way in certain situations and I physically can’t. I have been barged into before now simply for existing and the larger and stronger the physique a person is, the more damage they could inflict. For my own safety and dignity, I therefore need a single sex spaces including toilets.

Due to the high percentage of people being disabled, I will not be the only one forced into accessible loos to the detriment of wheelchair users. I do not see any benefit for the physically disabled of not segregating loos by sex, only disadvantages.

The ableist comments are very distressing.

Don't forget queuing for the lifts. Due to the combination of mobility issues and being held up by a deliberately obstructive usher, you won't get to the lifts immediately.

I've followed Embarrassing's helpful link and found:

The four 15–17-person lifts (minimum 145cm wide x 148cm deep) have wide automatic doors (103cm), tactile buttons and voice announcements. All rise from level minus 1 to level 3 (stalls floor to gallery floor) and two also serve level minus 2 and level 4 (Pit floor and conference floor).
Unless otherwise stated, use these lifts to reach all areas of the Barbican. They open directly on to the foyers, except on the stalls floor (level minus 1), where the foyer is reached via sets of automatic doors separated by a ramped crossing.

Sounds good, but if you look at that in more detail, that means they have a bank of 4 lifts, 2 of which serve five floors (unless they number the ground floor as floor 1, in which case it will be four floors) and the other 2 of which serve seven floors (unless it's actually six).

At this point, anyone who has experienced being dependent on lifts in time-sensitive situations will be grimacing.

If you haven't been, what that means in practice is that at peak times, like the interval, it is just like peak hour traffic on the roads. If you get caught behind everyone because you didn't get out there when the lifts were all free for the first circuit you'll be waiting for one lift to drop off all its passengers and come back to your floor.

Then you have to queue in the toilets, which have reduced capacity now because there are fewer of them.

And when you've been to the toilet, you'll have to repeat it in reverse and recall the lift to the toilet floor, because of all the people who did get to the lobby first originally, who got to the toilets and finished before you, and took the lift back!

Why is it always a straw man when women point out the fucking obvious?

And I forgot, the effects of cross sex hormones also on the female bladder.

As we are told from detransitioners.

The Barbican is really poor on this front - so confusing to navigate. I went down three levels to the loos at a concert last month thinking I was following signs to the nearest, queued for 10+ mins then couldn't find a lift to get back up - only just got back in time for the second half. It's rubbish compared to other places I go to & needs to up its game.

Anyone want to talk about the rate of bladder issues both age and birth injury related in the boring old female type women? And how that relates to a need to get to loos easily and accessibly in a way that no male person is ever going to encounter, not living within that anatomy?

yep. those were mentioned and ignored.

It is almost like there is little comprehension of just what a female lived experience is after pregnancies, extensive gynaecological procedures, menopause and just age.

In fact, I daresay that the number of transitioned females who complain of bladder issues are also completely ignored too. Probably because there is so much pressure put on transitioned females to keep their issues to themselves, lest people realise that phalloplasty is a very flawed surgery and does seem to have a very high change of failure at each stage.

Barbican has lifts

But you have to find them without asking for assistance, or you'll be laughed at, then once you've got to a floor that (hopefully) has the appropriate toilets, you need to find them yourself too, or you'll be laughed at. Then wait in a queue because there are less ladies toilets than a building of that size needs - because they had the appropriate number then gave half of them to the men.

And hope you don't piss yourself in the meantime.

Always we end up with these posters proving they have absolutely no bloody idea what life looks like through anyone's eyes but their own.

Anyone want to talk about the rate of bladder issues both age and birth injury related in the boring old female type women? And how that relates to a need to get to loos easily and accessibly in a way that no male person is ever going to encounter, not living within that anatomy?

Pony

I actually had a bet with myself that Tea would reply to your thoughtful post about what conditions fell under 'disability' with "but there are lifts!"

I'm sorry to have been proven right. But it fits with the typical antediluvian attitudes. It's like Tea is stuck in the 90s when any step-free access was a big step forward.

Barbican has lifts.

No one is asking people with mobility issues to walk up several flights of stairs.

As somebody who periodically needs to use a walking aid, I invite you to map the lifts and the truly accessible lavatories and their hours of availability.

Yours, a regular visitor to the Barbican who frequently has to wrangle access routes to various venues and facilities there.

www.barbican.org.uk/your-visit/accessibility/accessible-facilities#toilets

Well as someone who has to navigate the world of disability I know more about it than you.

How many people do you think a lift can cater for in an interval?

Accessibility extends beyond saying, "we have a lift" or "we have a ramp".

It's getting to the point that whenever I see a trans pride flag, I assume the bearer has antediluvian ideas about disability inclusion.

Well 20% of the population have a disability.

But I think the op is thinking of disability in a very stereotypical way (IE. Not that many people effected, in a wheelchair)

Whereas disability is much more diverse than that. Someone for example can have the motor skills to use stairs, but not efficienctly, so it would not be suitable for them to use a twenty minute interval to go up several flights of stairs.

Then obviously there's mental disabilities that make a person more vulnerable. These people need safe spaces not spaces opening up.

There are so many practical reasons why same sex provision is important that those who haven't had to care for or live with a disability don't consider.

There's something pretty ableist about the way Tea is talking about stairs. Plenty of women with sufficient mobility issues that they want to avoid stairs, but who would prefer to leave the accessible toilet free for men and women who really need an accessible toilet. E.g. those who need more physical space in the toilet (wheelchair-users, people with carers) or a private sink (people who have stoma bags), or people who need the support bars to get on and off the toilet.

Well, many of us know from the Forstater case that there is also no way for women to actually ask for single sex female toilets without it being considered offensive.

That is where we are at.

And that is very well illustrated in the derogatory, snide and dehumanising language that this OP chooses to use.

Now, of course, readers need to also consider the age old question. Just who benefits exactly from a woman being laughed at and not given the directions that she asked for to get to the single sex female toilets?

That is also quite enlightening if we get on to disseminating that particular question.