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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Spouse says men can use Ladies to change baby nappy?

320 replies

Bunty2727 · 14/07/2024 10:52

Im not a mum. I just went into the public toilet (to put up some single sex signs lol) and as I approached a man was just about to enter with a baby, I said excuse me I dont think you are allowed to use the ladies, he replied, pointing at the baby change sign, you can go in first if you like, I repeated, I dont think you can use the ladies, when I came out he had gone. Spouse said Im wrong, he’s allowed. googled and cannot see an answer?

OP posts:
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6
Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 13:00

Nosummerontheagenda · 15/07/2024 12:58

It’s a sad thing when a father with a baby is perceived to be a predator. Those of us with sons or husbands in this position ought to have a bit more empathy.

How about having empathy for women being excluded from women only spaces by men being included, for whatever reason?

Nosummerontheagenda · 15/07/2024 12:58

It’s a sad thing when a father with a baby is perceived to be a predator. Those of us with sons or husbands in this position ought to have a bit more empathy.

justasking111 · 15/07/2024 12:58

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:44

The naivety is mind blowing!

Yes, a predator with a baby or a doll disguised as a real baby.

The risk is probably small but it's there.
Most of us don't want it, thankyou.

A doll really?

justasking111 · 15/07/2024 12:55

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:26

Still naive and unable to see the risk, no matter how small?

That's your issue, not the majority.

Berryberries · 15/07/2024 12:52

MaidOfAle · 15/07/2024 10:13

Men have raped and battered their wives in front of their own children. A baby is not going to stop a sexual assailant from assaulting.

Unfortunately all of this happened to a family member. More likely to be attacked and SA'd in your own home by someone you know. Do have a few news articles where a dad changing his baby in public has SA'd a random woman?

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:47

AngryLikeHades · 15/07/2024 12:34

I'm on the fence with this one.

Are you also on the fence when rapists pretend to be transwomen and get put into womens prisons?

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:44

Nosummerontheagenda · 15/07/2024 12:33

A predator with a baby?

The naivety is mind blowing!

Yes, a predator with a baby or a doll disguised as a real baby.

The risk is probably small but it's there.
Most of us don't want it, thankyou.

Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 12:37

@Manteiga ,absolutely this.

Manteiga · 15/07/2024 12:35

Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 11:52

A)Find one of the stand alone disabled toilets that there are in the showground.
B) find one of the attendants/ cleaners and ask for help.
C) ask a woman going into the ladies to help his mother.

Edited

If none of the other options is feasible, (D) Call out to make sure no-one else is in there, then help her in. If he also needs to help her while she's in there, he should make sure he's visible to any woman who might come in, and immediately apologize & explain himself if a woman does come in.

Men shouldn't be in women's toilets ordinarily. In some situations it might be the least bad option, but they must still do all they can to minimize any alarm or embarrassment their presence may cause.

Mrsttcno1 · 15/07/2024 12:34

FrangipaniBlue · 15/07/2024 12:31

*But I think part of the point here, at least in most of our local shops/cafe’s, is that it is not JUST the female toilets. That space is both the baby changing facilities AND the female toilets. That means that any parent/carer with a young child has just as much right to use that space as any woman using the toilet. It is NOT exclusively a women’s toilet and so anybody else is forbidden it has been set up as a dual use space, any person changing a nappy is equally entitled to use that space as any woman using the toilet.

Should it be set up like that? No. But it is.*

Now you're just sugar coating the fact that the parenting default is "woman". Behave.

I’m so confused by this, I’m not sugar coating anything, I’m literally stating the facts for the majority of places where we live. The baby changing facilities and the ladies toilets are both in the same place. When we go to our local cafe and my husband asked where baby changing is, they literally pointed him to where it is- it’s in the same place as the women’s toilets. That is the space assigned equally for changing as it is for women’s toilets.

That’s the fault of the business, not any dad.

AngryLikeHades · 15/07/2024 12:34

I'm on the fence with this one.

Nosummerontheagenda · 15/07/2024 12:33

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:31

Unfortunately, male predators rely on your sympathy.
It makes it so much easier for them.

A predator with a baby?

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:31

Nosummerontheagenda · 15/07/2024 09:53

I would have made no fuss .
For goodness sake, if it were your husband would you not want another woman to be sympathetic? Think of the baby if not the father.

Unfortunately, male predators rely on your sympathy.
It makes it so much easier for them.

Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 12:31

@letsgoooo
Most disabled toilets are accessible without going through either the ladies or gents loos. You appear to just want men to be allowed to access women only facilities, why that is I don't know.
Your hyperbolic rubbish about disabled people staying at home is just that, rubbish.

FrangipaniBlue · 15/07/2024 12:31

*But I think part of the point here, at least in most of our local shops/cafe’s, is that it is not JUST the female toilets. That space is both the baby changing facilities AND the female toilets. That means that any parent/carer with a young child has just as much right to use that space as any woman using the toilet. It is NOT exclusively a women’s toilet and so anybody else is forbidden it has been set up as a dual use space, any person changing a nappy is equally entitled to use that space as any woman using the toilet.

Should it be set up like that? No. But it is.*

Now you're just sugar coating the fact that the parenting default is "woman". Behave.

Petitchat · 15/07/2024 12:26

Berryberries · 15/07/2024 09:40

Please send me a news article where this has happened in the UK. The dad just needed to change his baby's nappy so her bum wouldn't be raw red and painful. He isn't the one getting naked. Do you struggle to get out of your house due to paranoia? I have a baby and everywhere I've been has either separate baby changing facilities or the changing table is in the unisex disabled toilet.

Edited

Still naive and unable to see the risk, no matter how small?

letsgoooo · 15/07/2024 12:21

@Dumbo12

A)Find one of the stand alone disabled toilets that there are in the showground.
I'm not specifically talking about a show ground I'm talking about in general.
If the accessibile toilet is busy for example.
B) find one of the attendants/ cleaners and ask for help.
Meanwhile woman in wheelchair is shitting their pants.
C) ask a woman going into the ladies to help his mother.
And when none agree?

It is not possible to expect there will be an attendant or kindly woman around. In any case many people in wheelchairs need assistance. Not the sort of assistance random strangers would be able to give. Nor would the wheelchair user want them to.

Looks like what you are really saying is it's not your problem. Disabled people should just stay home

Mrsttcno1 · 15/07/2024 12:16

FrangipaniBlue · 15/07/2024 11:58

So many posters are spectacularly missing the point.

It's not about whether a male changing a baby the female toilets is a threat.

If there are no suitable baby changing facilities in male or neutral spaces then the default should not be a shrug and "oh well, let's use the female space".

MEN should be shouting and creating noise about the lack of facilities and lobbying for change.

My DP gave up work so his exw could continue her career. He's told me about when he'd have his 2 boys - one in nappies - how hard it was to find somewhere for nappy changed as the facilities were 99% of the time in the ladies loo

So what has your DP done to campaign to change this then @Blushingm ?

the floor of the men's toilet is disgusting and usually covered with wee.

and that's a woman's problem how exactly @cloudy477654 ?

A baby change or the floor of a toilet are not the only options and posters are being deliberately obtuse.

Why couldn't the dad in the OP or other posters partners have gone in the cubicle in the male toilet, sat on the toilet seat lid and changed the baby over their lap?

But I think part of the point here, at least in most of our local shops/cafe’s, is that it is not JUST the female toilets. That space is both the baby changing facilities AND the female toilets. That means that any parent/carer with a young child has just as much right to use that space as any woman using the toilet. It is NOT exclusively a women’s toilet and so anybody else is forbidden it has been set up as a dual use space, any person changing a nappy is equally entitled to use that space as any woman using the toilet.

Should it be set up like that? No. But it is.

UsernameRedacted · 15/07/2024 12:11

I don't want men in female only spaces, if that makes me a pearl clutcher then ho hum I'm a pearl clutcher, I've been called worse.

A few years ago I had to take my jeans off and hold them under a hand dryer, standing in the ladies loos in my underwear was mortifying enough without random blokes walking in.

There's another thread running where a couple of posters are stating that female toilets are just as dirty as male toilets, covered in shit everyday, apparently. So if that's true, which I doubt very much, then there's no more hygiene risk to a baby being changed in the men's is there?

FrangipaniBlue · 15/07/2024 11:58

So many posters are spectacularly missing the point.

It's not about whether a male changing a baby the female toilets is a threat.

If there are no suitable baby changing facilities in male or neutral spaces then the default should not be a shrug and "oh well, let's use the female space".

MEN should be shouting and creating noise about the lack of facilities and lobbying for change.

My DP gave up work so his exw could continue her career. He's told me about when he'd have his 2 boys - one in nappies - how hard it was to find somewhere for nappy changed as the facilities were 99% of the time in the ladies loo

So what has your DP done to campaign to change this then @Blushingm ?

the floor of the men's toilet is disgusting and usually covered with wee.

and that's a woman's problem how exactly @cloudy477654 ?

A baby change or the floor of a toilet are not the only options and posters are being deliberately obtuse.

Why couldn't the dad in the OP or other posters partners have gone in the cubicle in the male toilet, sat on the toilet seat lid and changed the baby over their lap?

Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 11:52

letsgoooo · 15/07/2024 11:43

What would you have expected him to do had there not been kind women willing to help nearby?

A)Find one of the stand alone disabled toilets that there are in the showground.
B) find one of the attendants/ cleaners and ask for help.
C) ask a woman going into the ladies to help his mother.

letsgoooo · 15/07/2024 11:43

Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 11:28

I was at a large agricultural show ground last week. The facilities are excellent, however we met a family who were having some difficulties. An older lady who was a wheelchair user, was with her son. He was trying to work out how to get his very elderly, mobility challenged mother into the lavatory. We(three middle aged women) stepped in and assisted the woman to get in and out of the building. That man was beside himself and told us that his wife usually accompanied them. There was no way he was going to go into the ladies, as he obviously knows that good men stay out so that bad men stand out.
Men should find ways to look after their own children without impinging on the privacy and dignity of women.

What would you have expected him to do had there not been kind women willing to help nearby?

Merkins · 15/07/2024 11:30

Soontobe60 · 14/07/2024 11:58

No, by law he isnt. Spaces that are segregated by sex mean just that - males in male spaces, females in female spaces.

Please cite the law that states men can’t go in the ladies loo and vice versa. Is that why there are so many female prisoners? They’ve all been arrested for using the men’s bogs to avoid the queue when they’re pissed?

Dumbo12 · 15/07/2024 11:28

I was at a large agricultural show ground last week. The facilities are excellent, however we met a family who were having some difficulties. An older lady who was a wheelchair user, was with her son. He was trying to work out how to get his very elderly, mobility challenged mother into the lavatory. We(three middle aged women) stepped in and assisted the woman to get in and out of the building. That man was beside himself and told us that his wife usually accompanied them. There was no way he was going to go into the ladies, as he obviously knows that good men stay out so that bad men stand out.
Men should find ways to look after their own children without impinging on the privacy and dignity of women.

Keepingcosy · 15/07/2024 11:24

SaiSun · 14/07/2024 21:28

Report him? Do you think he should have had to have let his toddler go to the loo on her own?

Yes, he was contravening the law that exists. Legally children are allowed to use the opposite sex bathrooms and changing rooms to match the adult who is in care of them at that moment until they are 8 - at which point they can use their own sex's bathroom on their own.