Theatres

Thanks Timefortea4, I'll go to the Barbican & check it out. I always felt 100 safe in their basement women's toilet as it's so huge - always packed.

A friend and I thankfully found the nearest loo when visiting a hospital recently. A guy was in there washing his hands but lots of cubicles and we were desperate. On leaving, whilst pondering aloud on the modern world, I noticed on the door that we'd actually used the mens lavatories. Quite glad he didnt kick up a fuss about us.

🙄

the poster asked me when did this happen

i asked “what”? Because I’d never seen or referenced I’d seen anything happen

I see this argument a lot ('rapists don't need a sign on a toilet door to rape!'). It's asinine and easily disproved. It relies on the assumption that 1) the only thing to worry about is rape and 2) all rapists are easily identified pillaging monsters who care nothing for consequence, marching through the world raping everyone in their wake.

There are a huge number of offences that gender neutral toilets enable at very low risk to the offender: upskirting, voyeurism, flashing, public masturbation, threatening behaviour, harassment, assault etc. No woman can take sanctuary from her attacker in a public toilet and no-one is empowered to remove the offender from a place he is entitled to be.

Sex offenders aren't stupid or lacking social skills- if they were far more than 1% of them would be convicted. They groom, gaslight, manipulate, exploit opportunities and find loopholes and ambiguities. ("Me? I wasn't flashing, I was just using the toilet, is that a crime now?") Gender neutral toilets provide a safe space for these men - they can invade the privacy of women and children, get off on being next to women using the toilet and have a cloak of normalcy / respectability.

I've never seen a murder, does that mean it never happens?

All of these places rely on grants which probably require them to sign up to a raft of conditions, such as that they won't discriminate against various groups. And yet they are.

Not sure I could get my butt high enough 🤔 it would have to be one of those trough like urinals

dd has gone for a wee in a urinal, it was on her bucket list 😀

Old Vic also has done this.

They claim the toilets are self selecting.

42 loos in total
18 urinals and 1 cubicle through 1 door
24 cubicle toilets through another door
So men have a choice of 42 loos and women have 25, presuming the women want to queue along side the urinals for the one cubicle in that room.

Absolutely ridiculous to claim they are self-selecting loos, do they not realise that women cannot pee in a urinal?

I honestly think women should all queue up along the urinals towards the 1 cubicle just to prove the point.

Anyone think there's any mileage in a protest where we go in and wee in the urinals? Too much fanny flashing?

I’ve never seen anything “happen” in a theatre toilet

when did i see what happen?

My Dh would have been uncomfortable being at a urinal with a women and her 9 year old daughter coming in.

When did you see this happen? I’d hardly ever seen a man in a women’s loo before a couple of years ago. It wasn’t just an expectation. If a man approached the wrong door he would be warned off. If he entered, women would order him to leave or get the management, who would throw him out.

You’re not comparing like with like. A man intent on harming a woman will find a place to attack one, knowing he faces the risk of arrest and imprisonment. Men entering women’s spaces now feel perfectly safe and are backed by cowardly authorities.

I’m early forties

even took my 9 year old DD in with me last year.

Tumbleweed in the men’s!

Ha!

bladder prolapse
not registered disabled
bought a radar key but not had any reason to use yet (mainly because I go to the loo about 1000 times a day!)

I forgot to say - lucky you. In my twenties I would have been the same.

Ok now that just shows you haven’t got any of these conditions (flooding periods we are talking about).
And the above people I listed are not disabled.

I have never known a disabled loo to have a radar key. Which is lucky as the disabled person I know has to get to the loos quickly too and takes a long time once she is in there. Her life is restricted by her disability and I think disabled loos are absolutely for people who are disabled.

However, there are disabled people for whom it is much safer for them to be in a visible toilet (with a door gap) which means single sexed toilets are best. People at risk of collapsing and seizures (hundreds of thousands have uncontrolled epilepsy) also should have their safety considered.

And for women/men for religious reasons or if they nervous/uncomfortable of being in the same toilets with unfamiliar people of the opposite sex.

It’s not just holding on and having a quick wee in the nearest loo.

Those theatres, described above, are making theatre going much less accessible for those with health conditions, disabilities, women and those with religious differences to you.

It was the small one by the, is it called The Pit? So four men and me in a very small space.

Very unusual at the interval not for there to have been many many more women in the toilet than men!

Why are so many of the replies here reacting to the existence of a gender neutral toilet? There's 2 women's toilets and a gender neutral toilet as well. I would understand if the issue being presented here was excessive queues, but what has "men being allowed in" got to do with anything? There were women's toilets, men's toilets and gender neutral.

I see the Barbican is getting mentioned but I thought they'd switched back to women's and men's after everybody complained about gender neutral? I haven't been since before Christmas but was just looking at tickets. I won't go if they've switched again as I had a horrible experience there of walking into a toilet and it being all men in there except me. Genuinely frightening :(

They should get a radar key then and use the disabled

The problem is when people have ibs or a heavy period (women) and (for men) prostrate trouble. Then theatres become inaccessible.