Inspired by recent posts on the Radio 4 thread.
I realised that the whole ‘Why do you even care who is pissing in the cubicle next to you?’ argument against single sex toilets underestimates how I think many women actually do use/need the ladies’.
It’s not just about the cubicle being private to you as an individual woman (though this is really important), it’s also about knowing there is a door behind which there is a women-only space that can be really important. Some of that is specifically about it NOT being a male space.
So eg what I use the women’s toilets for is:
- pissing, crapping, dealing with periods, POAS
- a place to cry especially at work when you don’t want anyone else to see
- a place to go and just sit and feel exhausted because your baby is not sleeping and you’re back at work
-as above washing and drying breastmilk leaks on clothes which involving standing about with some stuff off
- a place to sort out falling down tights and gappy shirts, -against adjusting/taking off clothes possibly while checking in a mirror
- somewhere to talk to other women privately knowing men won’t be around
- in bars and clubs, a place to get away from male hassle
I just don’t want to share women’s toilets with men. Self ID will be making that not my choice any more. I feel that I won’t be able to just avoid gender neutral toilets and look for a women’s any more, because women’s toilets won’t exist and campaigning for them will be hate speech.