To think mixed sex toilet provision has proven to be a flop?

[BlooDeBloop]

Now been a few years since mixed sex toilets have been widely available in all kinds of public spaces from schools to offices to theatres. The water has been tested. AIBU to think the results have been dismal?

I'm prompted to post this as my Y7 boy holds on all day at school as the toilets are filthy. His friend has seen a girl sitting on a toilet. My younger daughter won't use the toilets in a burger chain because adult men have used it or may come in behind her. I had the same experience in a pizza chain restaurant (one neutral, one disabled, one male I kid you not). Art centre I use had one mixed sex toilet that is filthy and everyone uses the public toilets outside on the street that are separate sex still.

I'm told mixed sex toilets are now widespread in secondary schools. How is that being received? Haven't some schools reverted?

Seems to me a major issue is human biology. Men find urinals easier than toilets. Women need sit down facilities and sinks to wash in private.

I think it only works where it is as full room type set up with the sink inside, like at Starbucks for example.

I think it's a gross idea but both men and women are gross. And not forgetting certain cultures where they stand on the toilet seat with shoes on 🤢 and squat poo into it. Then we have to sit on that seat after. In short- generally other people do gross things and are just gross and ruin public toilets. Be that male or female. The mixed sex/gender thing doesn't bother me really but then I wouldn't feel vulnerable sharing a space with men generally, but people just being gross in the toilets does bother me. Sorry for saying gross so much.

I personally think that if you’re going to have mixed sex toilets they need to not be behind a door in a ‘room’. They should either be single toilets that open out onto a public place, like every Starbucks I’ve ever been to, or there needs to be no door to the room. And obviously the toilet needs to be completely enclosed.
The trouble is that I don’t want to use a mixed toilet, as men seem to hose their urine over the toilet seat and floor. And men’s urine smells stronger.

I think its kinda ironic really that for some thing so many people paint as no problem and easier/cleaner/faster etc they are very often found to be in places/situations where there's no choice. People are having to be forced to use them . Given the choice they arent used.

So you will find them in schools , with all the other toilets locked. In order to force usage.

I also find it ironic that staff/security suddenly appear out of nowhere. Your child gets beaten up or has their stuff stolen at school no ones around to see a thing. Mixed sex toilets ? There's an army of adults about to supervise the area. Where did they come from? Where were they before? What is it about mixed sex toilets that requires the extra supervision?

Even the home office found their employees refusing to use them. No one wants them.

2 problems with floor to ceiling toilet doors: if an attacker gets you in one there is absolutely no escape and if you have a medical emergency no-one can tell or check and help you out.

Problem three...high schools full of hormonal teens now have a place to hook up out of view of teachers who can't see there r two/three sets of feet.

IMO it is a public health issue. If for example teen girls are holding on all day at school then they are going to get urine infections, far more than boys will, which can lead to long term kidney damage. Women and girls should have twice the toilet provision of men and boys, not equal or less.

I think back to my youth. I hated using the school loos when they were girls only, but if I needed to I would. If there had been boys around I just would have avoided altogether and not drink or eaten through the day.

I wouldn't have been alone in that I bet.

No one cares about girls having no where safe and private.

Youd think though they'd at least care about boys losing the urinals and the speed and convenience of those

With short lunch breaks where all the students have to queue to buy food. Then find somewhere to eat and still have time.to pee. Its impossible and just been made harder.

Kids are already having to choose between food and the toilet. Now they have to spend the entire time accessing floors miles away to use the single sex provision. only to discover it locked

If a school child is not using the toilet all day because the toilets are dirty I think they should be cleaned better or underlying MH issues be examined. Let's not blame everything on mixed sex toilets.

Problem with floor to ceiling in schools is it hides secret 'trysts' and kids vaping. Fact in our school! Hygiene is a bigger issue for the penis people - they need, want and ask for urinals.

Recent example: local football club, several thousand spectators. Only mixed sex toilets. After the match 1/ men queuing to use toilets and not urinals - slow and filthy 2/ who wants to be a woman queuing with hundreds of tanked up men? Thus football remains a male exclusive sport 😡

I agree 100%, they are horrible.

I’ve seen them in a posh restaurant - disgusting, covered in wee and in a horrible set up down the end of a long dark corridor - perfect for creeps.

Schools are installing them as quickly as they can. It is not lawful (in the intention of the law on school toilets) but schools have been told (by a toilet salesman who write an article in a schools advice magazine that misrepresents the law) that it is lawful. There is a tiny lack of clarity in the law that has allowed this.

When the law was drafted, I don’t imagine they thought head teachers would be desperate to mix male and female teenagers in this way and remove their boundaries of privacy. It creates new safeguarding issues and hasn’t solved any if the problems it was claimed to address. Vaping is still a huge problem as well as bullying, sexual activity etc.

The fact that they put cctv on the communal wash area and toilet doors is intrusive and hasn’t prevented serious incidents like a cubicle being set on fire.

Girls and some boys hate them. Our school has no single sex toilets in the main building.

I remember in the 70s and unisex was the thing.

It wasn’t popular then either!

We don’t have many in my area and school toilets here are still single sex. I went out with dd on Thursday and there were mixed sex toilets but they were just a row of individual toilets in a open space (outside area) so you didn’t walk into a toilet block so to speak, just individual toilet cubicals opening up to the outdoors, each with a individual sink in the cubical. I have experienced changing rooms that are similar and my local swimming pool has always been mixed sex with individual cubicals.

Newest and nicest building where I work has them. They are the full cubicle kind so no problems in that regard.

But despite being on the same cleaning schedule as every other building (and the newest) they are grim.

Men piss everywhere and they stink.

Most women now avoid them..

We were in a pub at the weekend with mixed sex toilets no urinals, piss everywhere on the floor completely disgusting, a total flop.

I now ring restaurants and ask if they have single sex toilets before I'll book a table. I won't knowingly go anywhere that has mixed sex toilets.

My children's school still has single sex toilets and the head is gender critical so that's unlikely to change. I think I'd campaign if it did change though as it's really bad for children to hold it in all day.

One thing that really winds me up is the provision for Men/ Everyone else. Why not Women/ Everyone else?

The company I started working for last year has them. I quite like that it is a single room with the sink and mirror and ceiling to floor doors, but what I hate is that so often the seat has been left up.

I went to a single sex school. The toilets were still absolutely gross and intimidating (in our case with added annual daddy long legs infestations) and we avoided using them like the plague.
The gross thing isn't a sex or a gender thing. It's a some people are gross thing. As anyone who's ever worked as a cleaner would tell you.
We need more toilets in most public places and more and better paid and respected cleaning staff.

You must not have boys and girls at home. Boys find it extremely hard to aim into toilets. Even my 6'4 husband finds it very difficult (long way down to the bowl). Males are de facto more messy, fact. And expecting young boys to clean up thoroughly after themselves is wishful thinking, sorry.

I’ve rarely encountered single sex toilets anywhere; where we live it’s only the coffee shop chains and the library that only have a unisex toilet. The library only has one toilet which is also the disabled toilet and baby change so there is often a queue for it. I’d prefer to have separate toilets though everywhere, although women can be just as revolting as men in their toilet habits.

DS(7) hates the boys toilets at school because he said there is always wee on the seats and poo on the seats and the floor. He tells a staff member every time and they will arrange for them to be cleaned, but he said a teacher once commented that there should be lessons in how to use a toilet properly and leave it clean for the next person.

Then why don’t your DH and son(s) sit down to pee if their aim is so terrible?

It's very hard to sit and wee, they both tell me. I know DH at 6'4 finds it hard sitting down on toilets full stop as they are normally very low down. The fact is in public spaces we have a great invention to help: they are called urinals!

Why and how was a young girl seen sat on the loo?

My ds's school has mixed sex provision, what this means though is that there is a row of cubicles and then a row of sinks. These are completely open onto the corridor. The actual cubicles are single sexed.

There are issues with this set up, but children holding all day is not a new phenomenon, there has always been those that will avoid public toilets whatever the set up.

I wasn't there but I assume the catch on the door wasn't fixed and the door swung open. As a teen this very thing happened to me in public toilets as I scrambled about with sanitary products. Fortunately there were only women present to catch a glimpse of me in my embarrassment...