Mixed sex changing enables sexual predators to target girls and women

You have seen the figures about sex crimes in hospital settings haven't you?

Many of these have the same dynamics...

My local sports centre has one of these. They have staff mopping the floors constantly. Not because the floors need mopping, but without constant staff presence there have been issues with photos being taken under doors and I personally encountered a naked man strolling around. Just because he could. I pity the staff in these places as they are constantly on alert to pervy behaviour.

I understand the problem you describe @gogomomo2 . Do you have a suggestion that could work for your DSD and also maintain the privacy of women and girls? Fortunately, I don’t have to worry about this now, but I would worry about young boys in men’s changing rooms, whatever their needs or if they had no particular needs.

it really annoys me that we have to defend our single sex spaces on the basis of sexual predators or religious preferences or some other compelling discrete reason

This.

Whilst this comes as a surprise to none of us here, it really annoys me that we have to defend our single sex spaces on the basis of sexual predators or religious preferences or some other compelling discrete reason.

The plain fact of the matter is that people like privacy when naked or undertaking personal care, except with those whom they know well and choose to be vulnerable too.

I just don’t want men changing near me, and I do not wish that to be imposed upon me. In their defence, my limited experience suggests that most men feel the same. They’re ok about changing with other men but they don’t want women they don’t know to be around them when they do it.

There’s a predatory aspect to the behaviour of many men, even when with other men, which means that for me, the company of other women, to the exclusion of men, is a welcome respite.

Until a head appears over or under the divider because they're never properly floor to ceiling.

I think a lot of people feel safer in the Changing villages because the lockable doors give a sense of security the open plan rooms or just curtains.

I think in a lot of cases it does make people feel uneasy but what can they do? If they need to use the facility they put up with it.

Many people also don't think things like this could actually happen where they live, or at least not to them. A local man in a high-profile business near me (not a leisure centre) has just been found guilty of secretly filming girls in toilets and changing areas. This person is known to everyone in my town. If you'd told me he was doing that, I'd never have believed you in a million years. But it happened.

safeguarding is unimportant

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why so many people have not just accepted this but run with it. Especially women with children and grandchildren. It really is utterly astounding.

The obvious solution is a mixed sex "changing village", with large cubicles for families and smaller one's for individuals, with rooms off it for women and men separately.

So what solution would you propose for women (and men) who want their single-sex privacy and families such as yours?

What about the many families who don’t want their sons using the male changing, for them they prefer mixed sex. For us it’s suits as dsd has high needs but the mixed family/disabled cabins are always in use and families moan if we use them because they need the changing table whereas the 2-3 person mixed changing they now how is fine for us, she ambulatory but needs dressing

Let's say I came up with a fairly straightforward plan that would prevent 1% of rapes. Would you say that the plan should not be implemented because it doesn't prevent all rapes?

I don't know, what are "we" doing?

Just stop digging.

Ok. Let me phrase it another way. What are we doing about the locations of those 70,000 other rapes because they matter as much.

I never thought I'd see such blatant rape minimising on this board.

I'm honestly horrified.

You seriously wrote THAT.

I'm guessing you're not one of the 16, right? Or know someone who is?

Fucking hell.

It rarely is.

I was the victim of an incident in mixed sex changing rooms in a hotel's leisure facility. I alerted hotel staff and was told "Mr whatever his name was wouldn't do that". I then reported it to the police, who did nothing but smirk, I contacted the hotel again and asked for a refund as I wouldn't be returning. I could feel the vitriol as they metaphorically counted out the coppers to give me what they didn't want to.

I've just googled, they no longer have their leisure facility. I wonder if there were any other incidents, it certainly wasn't Mr whoever's first rodeo.

How many rapes in these spaces are acceptable to you before something should be done about it?

But they are 16 rapes that could have been prevented by having single sex changing rooms.

To put this in perspective 70,000 rapes are reported in the UK each year so 16 in three years is a miniscule proportion.