Dads using female communal changing room

[Strawberrryfields]

Not sure how I feel about this so looking for opinions and whether I should do anything.

A couple of times recently I’ve been changing my child after swimming and a dad has come in to change his child in the communal female changing room. It’s after lessons so only children changing. There are communal female, communal male and a number of individual cubicles. It gets very busy at peak times so at times you may need to wait for an individual cubicle.

It feels weird to me a grown man being in there and my instinct is that he should use the private cubicles, though he is clearly there with his child helping them get ready. I also understand him not wanting to take his child into the men’s communal changing rooms with random men in there but to me, he is a random man.

Should I say something? Would you? Chances are it’s just a normal dad changing his kid but I don’t feel entirely comfortable with it but not sure if IABU?

This.

I can't get my head around GCF thinking and it's too weird to be worth the effort.

If it’s only children changing at that time, then under 9s who need help changing should be in the changing room of the gender of the parent. Children over 9 should be able to change independently in the correct changing room for themselves.
Older children or teens who need help changing for any reason should be accommodated in cubicles or disabled changing .

TLDR: that man shouldn’t have been in the Ladies’ changing room.

Pardon? I genuinely don’t know what you’ve said here.

Sex. Sex of the parent. Not gender.

The law says sex not gender.

This is relevant and important.

There is a "breed" of father who "sacrifice" themselves to use female facilities for their "daughters well being" and lots of female cheerleaders for it.

They don't seem to understand that their daughters will one day be the ones with men in their facilities

Let's go with the simple bit.

I cannot get my head around Gender Critical Feminist thinking (at this level).

What has that got to do with anything?

Men cannot go in women’s changing rooms ever, even if they have 5000 young daughters with them.

What do you mean?

im a rape victim. I can’t be around a man in a communal changing room. It causes me immense trauma.

I use the single sex space but I use the communal area in the single sex space rather than the individual cubicles because I can’t be on the inside of a locked door with anyone I don’t know on the other side.

im legally entitled to a single sex space to get changed.

what has gender critical feminism got to do with it?

QED

So I have to allow a man into a single sex space because he has a daughter with him? Is that your argument @Bromptotoo?

We're talking about children who are so young they need help of a parent in the changing room.

You might need to try harder then.

So they go in the changing room which matches the parent sex.

It’s not hard, tbh.

No. You’re talking about a man going into the ladies changing room.

and you think that justifies dismissing my trauma and my legal right to single sex spaces. Why?

and what has gender critical feminism got to do with my right to single sex spaces?

Yes, so the parent takes them into the changing room matching the parent's sex.
It's easy.

If there are only kids so young they need help drying and dressing there yes.

If there are women or older kids then no.

That argument doesn’t stand up. Because a woman might walk in at any time and she is legally entitled to a single sex changing space.

also. You didn’t say only a child’s swimming session.

and at most leisure centres the changing rooms aren’t just for swimming.

Thankfully this isn’t the rule at any swimming centre.

Odd that you ‘don’t understand’ GCF yet think very young girls shouldn’t have to be in a male space, and want to solve the problem by allowing men in to young girls’ spaces. Poetic, actually.

The GCF position is legally irrelevant.

The law is.

You are incorrect. The law is very clear.

At our local pool males must be 8 or under to access the female changing room

That’s what I mean too. What has gender critical feminism got to do with it? The law is the law.

As I read it the OP was talking about swimming for, and limited to, pre-primary age kids.

It's not but never mind.