Are you really that bothered about shared toilets?

[Beaverdam]

We were discussing this in work the other day. I really dont care about sharing toilets with males but some of the other women are really annoyed about the idea.

Are you annoyed about this? If so, what isit that you dont like about it? Do you think that the men will perve?

@NeedAnExpert i would never ever do that in a female only toilet never mind shared sex. Ive never seen another female do that in the basin next to me.

There are shared toilets where I currently work and the level of cleanliness is much lower than anywhere else I've worked where toilets have been same sex. Toilet seats left up, pee on the floor, toilets not flushed, water everywhere. It's a mess - and this is when a cleaner comes in several times a day! I also hate hearing the revolting hacking noises some men make. And let's not even get into the smell. It really isn't pleasant.

I don't like the idea of my teenage DD using shared toilets because men often leave the cubicle door open and because it's embarrassing for a teenage girl to use a sanitary ware dispenser or wash menstral blood off hands with adult or teenage males present. Mixed sex toilets and changing rooms are also easy places for perverts to put spy cameras, and this does really happen. The public having no recourse to tell a man to leave a single sex female toilet or changing room removes a layer of safety - a teenage girl fought a rapist off in a mixed sex changing village locally. If it had been single sex the odds of him walking into the changing area unchallenged would have been lower, and the same goes for toilets.

As a perimenopausal woman my own periods have got incredibly heavy recently which I also prefer to deal with without men in the washbasin area, but my concerns are mainly for younger women and girls.

in my workplace there are single toilets mostly - don’t mind obviously that those are unisex as each is waiting a turn and it’s a private space. Where there are multiple cubicles these are also our changing spaces. I am the only senior female in my department and I will not be comfortable changing in front of the bosses. They are improving bless them but comments about the female form do still occur and I certainly don’t want them seeing me in my knickers and bra. In addition, we do have juniors who are Muslim and it would be incredibly inappropriate for unisex changing areas.

I also don't want to be where a man can look under the door or over the top.
Years ago this happened to a friend of mine. She was in the toilet when a man did this to her.

I cannot and will not share a public toilet with males due to things that have happened to me in my life. I would just hold on until I got home.

I'm not sure I'd even fancy being in mixed-sex facilities with men I know, let alone strangers.

I would avoid using mixed-sex toilets where possible, especially alone.

The smell and mess is a factor, but nowhere near the top of my list.

I'm not uncomfortable about mixed sex toilets, assuming you mean the ones with the sink in the cubicle.

However I've work in places with this and used many a unisex toilet in Pret, and more often than not you have to wipe urine off the loo seat before it can be used.

Also men taking there 30minutes long poo while sitting on their phone playing candy crush isn't ideal when you desperately need to change your tampon.

Umm everyone's wee stinks

I have no problem with mixed toilets when I’m expecting that scenario eg mountaineering huts.

I have no problem with shared facilities when it’s, for example, a series of self contained rooms with full sized doors.

I do have a problem with sharing with men, for example, in a shopping centre where it’s likely I’m going to have to leave the door ajar to keep an eye on the baby in the pram as the cubicles aren’t big enough to take the pram in with me. I’ve also had instances where I’ve quickly taken off a top to rinse out baby vomit and rough dried it under the hand dryer. I wouldn’t be comfortable in either scenario if men were in the ladies so I just wouldn’t be able to go to those locations.

Why dont transwomen wantvto use mens toilets? If it's ok for everyone to use the same loo, then what is the difference?

@hungryhippie good points.

Ive been to a few unisex toilets and have never had an issue so far.

It doesn’t bother me at all

I have just got to the point where I can send my daughters to the toilet on their own but I will not do that in a mixed sex toilet. Young girls are not safe in this environment. The statistics say we are more likely to experience assault and voyerism in mixed sex toilets so why would anyone think it is a good idea.

Single floor to ceiling cubicles do not allow you to escape to a male free space and ask for help from other women.

My friend was raped in shared sex toilets on a night out.

Any other club and it wouldn't have happened because everyone would have kicked the bloke out of a female only loo.

He knew where to get away with it.

This again

Yes. Next question.

You could have searched the many, many existing threads about this

I would accept it but I'd rather not. I seem to have a more active bowel and unignorable urination urge than most women. I end up almost running into the loo undoing my trousers as I go.It is embarrassing enough to have to poo in the same room as female colleagues, I just don't want to produce my usual load in a mixed sex area, but I won't have a choice.

Not a big reason. I accept I'll have to learn to put up with it. And so will they..

And even if the changing areas were separate I don’t want them to hear me changing my tampons or washing my hands if they’ve got blood on.

OP what are your compelling reasons for having unisex toilets beyond ‘I don’t mind personally’

do you have any at all?

I care. If there are floor to ceiling cubicles that are cleaned at least every half hour (absolute minimum) then I'd have less if a problem..until I have my period and have to open packages and everybody can hear. It's not just about having a quick pee. And mooncups don't work for me so that's not an option before it's suggested.

I have also been spied on by males NUMEROUS times in toilets and changing rooms and have zero desire to be in that situation again.

And the thought of entering deserted unisex train station toilets in the evening..well, I simply wouldn't. Bad enough as single sex but with an open door - literally - to men, no fucking way.

Love it, I don't personally mind so therefore are incapable of imaging how other people feel or why they were needed to begin with.

My gym, for whatever reason I forget now, swapped the male and female toilets over for one day. Every single woman who used them, including the instructor complain about the stench, it was vile.
It's a no from me.

It simply doesn't matter that I'm personally not too bothered about mixed sex loos (so long as they're clean) - what matters is that other women are bothered about it, for many good reasons, some of which have been mentioned.

And if you stop for a moment to think, you'll realise that many of the very valid reasons that women have are not ones they would want to share with a colleague.

I've worked in two places where there was only one toilet available for all staff, male and female. I didn't feel a safety issue but in both places there were men who would go and habitually spend a long time in there in a daily basis and leave the toilet in a mess. Not nice or convenient for anyone, let alone a pregnant woman, as I was!
In a public place there is definitely a safety issue. I wouldn't use a mixed sex toilet if it was a room of cubicles with sinks outside the cubicles. I wouldn't mind so much if it was private rooms off a public corridor, but I doubt many places could/would provide such a facility.

The sinks won’t always be individual though. And as previously said that could be an issue.