To be pissed off with the queues for women's loos?

[Bambambini]

Aibu to get pissed off? This is an interesting article on womens loos vrs mens. I get quite irate about this. From getting off an aeroplane to see the huge queue at women's loos, same often at service stations, nightclubs, concerts. I was at a recent posh sporting event and it was bad enough going in that the women had a longer wait going through security but once inside going to the loo ended in a 20 minute wait whilst the men just walked in and out, glancing over at us as all the women just stood quietly. Now some venues are changing the women's loos to gender neutral so open to all but still keeping seperate loos with urinals for men which is making women queue even longer. Why do we just queue, say nothing and accept this? Is it just me that gets annoyed (mild) at this?

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2017/may/11/edmonton-oilers-womens-bathrooms-female

European Rugby final at Murrayfield this weekend was bliss!!
No queue for me, loo roll hadnt run out, it was brilliant!
My DP's face when he saw his queue was a picture.

Bambambini the men in my house take forever at home, I agree!

deydododatdodontdeydo I have noticed that at Silverstone too.

"European Rugby final at Murrayfield this weekend was bliss!!
No queue for me, loo roll hadnt run out, it was brilliant!
My DP's face when he saw his queue was a picture."

Yay! Wish i'd been there!

Perhaps they could have an express toilet for those who aren't fettered by children/sanpro/needing a long time to have a pee?

But appreciate that some women, elderly, those with catheters etc, take longer. But they are the minority I think.

But most don't. The majority of normal women just needing to do a wee, in a pub, restaurant, nightclub, tourist attraction.

I can nip in, do a quick wee and be out again very quickly. Many woman could do that. But most just don't seem to have any sense of urgency.

I was queuing in Prague with 4 friends. 25 minutes later, The women seemed to be taking an age. Us 4 were in out and hands washed very quickly.

Likewise at a long queue at a shopping outlet. Why is it taking everyone so long? And no. I don't think it has got anything to do with sexism. The fact is these women ARE taking a long time. I'm sure they could be a little bit quicker if they tried. That's only consideration. It's not too much to ask.

I think the point ZeroFuchs is that venue designs never seem to take into account the fact that women pee for slightly longer and there are more people needing to use the womens, so there should be more bogs for us. Not 50/50, but a bias in our favour.

Toilets should not be split 50/50. (See British Standard 6465)

Even if urinals are not provided, men are still expected to have 1/2 the toilet provision than women, with urinals it would be 1/5th for actual toilets. The problem obviously comes with sizing in small places particularly, as if the space has more room, then more than the minimum can be provided in the space available, which leads to the male toilets having more in. They shouldn't be 50/50 though.

Taking forever at home is fine. Men or women. It's just having the ability to go faster, and the consideration, that on rare occasions, when out and about, when the queue is very long, it should be in all of us, to show respect to others, and at least try, on that one occasion to be as quick as possible.

@BonfiresOfInsanity as an architect, do you accept design is a problem?

The most sensible loos I've been in were at Legoland, where space wasn't too much of an issue. They were really easy to get in and out of so quickly because:

• there was plenty of room - the door wasn't three inches from the toilet bowl so you didn't have to spend three minutes doing a little tiptoe ballet in order not to smush your clothes against the toilet bowl;
• there were hooks so you could instantly hang your coat and bags away from any mess on the floor, without the "can I wedge it using the door lock" issue;
• there was plenty of room to take a kid in with you, so the turnover between yourself on the loo and your kid on the loo was really quick.

Livia I would love an Express Lane - you'd need a permit to use it of course but I'd get one no trouble, I am an Express Loo-user!

I'm with you OP, it's a constant source of grumble for me.

Theatres are particularly bonkers, especially the old Victorian ones in London. There's often three Ladies' cubicles for a theatre seating a few hundred

My theory is that until quite recently people - particularly women - just hardly peed. People didn't used to carry water around, soft drinks for fun weren't really a thing, people didn't use to chug back the wine in the same way, etc. I think we lived in a state of national dehydration.

You can tell cubicles are designed by men as they centre the toilet instead of putting it to one side so a sanitary bin can go in too.

But yes, women's toilets are disappearing

Yes I do AcheryAnnie. Somewhere like Legoland has been thought about with respect to the specific users. As I said earlier though, the client is often an influence on these things, it's in the interest of Legoland to make sure these work well to ensure its target market aren't put off coming back. It doesn't work that way for all commercial clients. I have to say, I would definitely want to put more loos in for women in all public buildings but we don't always get the final say!

Oblomov YES! I never understand how people can be so damn leisurely when there's a queue out the door. Surely a minority of them need to poo or have lengthy sanpro changes. Even so, changing a tampon hardly takes any time, a pad even less so.

I also agree with the point about larger cubicles making proceedings quicker. They only need to be fractionally larger too, just big enough to hang your crap on the door and not elbow the toilet roll holder while you try and hitch your skirt up, it really does make life easier.

YANBU it pisses me off too. Always have. It's not like people don't KNOW that women take longer, or that they have to undress more, or that they have small children with them - everyone KNOWS this, so why not have MORE loos for women?

The other day I was out with DS2, who is 4. I've been sending him into the gents loos with his big brother for a while now, rather than taking him in with me - but if DS1 isn't with us, then I prefer to keep him with me. However, he needed a wee in a hurry, there was a 4-woman queue in the ladies, so I sent him into the gents on his own - and then stood right at the door of the gents with a panicked concerned expression on my face, waiting for any shouts of "Muuummmmmeeeeeeeee!" (Which would have happened if he'd done a poo, he's still not confident wiping his own bottom).

Makes me cross - just build extra ladies' loos into the fucking plans!

Bambambini the men in my house take forever at home, I agree

Mine goes for camping trips when he is here.

The most sensible loos I've been in were at Legoland, where space wasn't too much of an issue. They were really easy to get in and out of so quickly because

I'm I the only one imagining all these brightly coloured loos all made of lego (except the seats, hopefully - ouch).

My favourite public toilet set-up is in Westfield shopping centres. They have huge banks of them all over the place. Obviously they're trying to make your shopping experience as painless as possible with as few interruptions as possible so you'll bankrupt yourself there, but for my money it's a fabulous use of space.

On the other hand I've just got back from New York where there were virtually no toilets. And again, the ones there were were ghastly and had humungous queues for the Ladies'. Do Americans not pee?!

I do think it's a mug's game to not just use the Gents where possible though. A while ago I was in that big Topshop in Oxford St which had a measly toilet provision in the basement. Needless to say the vast majority of queuers were ladies, so after standing in the queue for a couple of minutes and not seeing any men going in or out of the gents I nipped in there myself. When I came out unscathed half the queue headed in after me

Re. the sporting occasions:
I was in a pub by the river in Twickenham once, on Rugby 5 Nations day (a while ago then!), when Wales were playing England. The pub was packed, 6 deep at the bar, people quadruple ordering so they didn't need to go back and so on.
I was with friends, some of whom had tickets for the game and some of whom didn't (I didn't either). Half an hour prior to kick off, the pub emptied of all those with tickets - and I went to the Ladies' loo. Fuck me, what a mess that was in!
The blokes had of course had to queue for the gents, so had decided to use the ladies' as well - and the floor was swimming in piss. 2" deep at least. Bog roll all over the place, jeezus it was disgusting! I decided I wasn't that desperate and we left that pub and went somewhere else!

And pubs? Why if one loo has to be situated on another floor - it always seems to be the ladies who have to hike up the stairs and down a warren of hallways?

Again Quim, aimed at the market they want to attract. If there are no loos and you want to megashop then you'll go somewhere else because we all need to pee. Designing of loos is getting better -slowly! Old buildings are generally rubbish though.

Whilst we're at it... Can yous all stop hovering over the seat and inevitably weeing on it? Or just clean up after yourself as I don't want to have to take a wad of tissue to your piss before doing my own in the loo. The MN ladies outside are shouting at me for taking too long. TIA.

"On the other hand I've just got back from New York where there were virtually no toilets. And again, the ones there were were ghastly and had humungous queues for the Ladies'. Do Americans not pee?!"

Jesus - New York! Had a traumatic experience on a Sunday down near Wall Street when no 1 child needed an imminent poo and we were desperately sprinting through the business district in search of a loo. Was touch and go - i can tell ya. Still get the sweats thinking about it!

I can not work out what you are pissed off about, Men are quicker when they piss as they don't have to sit down, shut the door, remove clothing, change sanitary wear etc. Its not a conspiracy that Women and made to queue and men aren't

Daft post, to be honest. Given that those factors about women's use of toilets are somewhat well known, there is an obvious remedy in the shape of providing many more women's toilets in most public buildings. It's reasonable to be pissed off that architects and planners don't bother.

In Dublin I have noticed this in coffee shops where there is only one loo for everyone:

Many women can take remarkably longer than men. Like five times as long. Easily. I dont judge a queue in these coffee shops based on length but number of women in the queue.

This, combined with women having generally smaller bladders and the desire to go to the toilet as a social activity (men do not talk to each other in their loos until at the washing had, leaving stage) mean that to actually design loos for women would require considerably more space than is generally available. Perhaps planning regulations can be changed to reflect this.