Uncomfortable about unisex toilets at work

[Onlyinanemergency]

My workplace is moving to new premises and all the toilets are to be unisex. Apparently the bathrooms consist of several floor-to-ceiling cubicals opening out onto shared sinks. There is then a large window onto a public corridor so that the sink area can be seen from outside the bathroom. There are 3 of these bathrooms, one on each floor of the building, as well as 3 single disabled toilets. The architects have obviously put a lot of thought into creating toilets which are unisex but also fairly safe and private, yet I still feel really uncomfortable about the idea. Particularly about not being given a choice. Am I wrong?

Arguing about being unable to keep any item on you, even sanitary protection

Most women's clothing have inadequate or no pockets.

Not everyone works in offices. I’ve had to work in labs where you need to shower and go back through what are effectively airlocks to get to your handbag.

Women work in all sorts of settings - the nice office with a lockable desk or even your own desk isn’t a majority thing surely?

You can wipe off excess blood on toilet paper but anyone who has had blood on their skin knows that you can still see blood there even after wiping, and yes, I have seen ladies with blood stained fingers coming out of toilets, including my own.

I don't want to have to use a sanitary vending machine in front of male co-workers. I don't want men to know when I have my period.

I don't understand this trend for calling toilets bathrooms. There is no bath in them!! They are toilets!
I don't like unisex toilets for all the reasons listed above.

This is going to turn out to be such a non-event. Such hysteria over nothing.

While this thread has at times taken an unexpected turn or two, I don't think saying something happening in my work place makes me uncomfortable is evidence of hysteria! Non event or not, the up coming changes are still causing me worry and stress...

All women who think it's a storm in a teacup: go share your toilets with men. Feel free. We won't try to stop you.

Then the rest of us can keep our sex specific places. Everyone's happy.

Anyone who thinks Unisex toilets are a good idea should take all their toilet breaks in the nearest Costa.

It the sitting in someone else’s piss that I object to.

As for blood covered hands after changing a tampon, WTAF?
You do get bloody fingers after inserting a non-applicator tampon/changing a mooncup. I'm surprised any female would not know this

Perhaps all those crying hysteria will consider the charming phenomenon that is the bloodhound: the sexual fetishist who is aroused by menstruation, the sound of tamping wrappers, the smell of blood.

Or they could consider the predators who put cameras in toilets, wank to the films, post them online and sell them.

Although maybe the cool girls are too cool to worry about little things like that

Unisex toilets at my work place for patients and staff, single cubicles with sinks inside and never seen any mess or smells specifically from the men in any of them

Our men's toilet actually stinks from the corridor.

We've got some unisex toilets in our work - in staff only areas. Male and female in public areas. Unisex ones have never been noticeably dirtier. They do have a basin in the cubicle though

If you have the luxury of being able to design new toilets it just seems obvious to put sinks in the cubicles.

I would not like that either OP. I would probably use them but I would only do so if they didn't smell of urine and if there weren't men waiting in a queue. It's not our fault we've been brought up to be private and secretive about these things. Women are always been told how disgusting their bodies and bodily functions are.

I have wondered whether my aversion to unisex toilets is my age and that I have been used to single sex toilets for 4 decades, so anything other than that feels weird. However, I was interested to see in that BBC programme that was made about eliminating gender stereotypes in a primary school - No more boys and girls - that the one thing the girls did not like was having to share toilets with the boys and it resulted in the girls not going to the toilet all day. I think if my DDs' secondary school introduced only unisex toilets, my two DDs and many of the other girls and perhaps many boys, would choose not to go to the toilet at all. I think the only solution is to have female, male and unisex toilets. The unisex toilets serve a good purpose for both trans identifying individuals and as an overflow for the female toilets when there is a queue, and for those who don't mind.

We already have a good model for unisex facilities - changing villages at leisure centres. Single sex facilities for those who want them (usually with less privacy and communal spaces) and unisex spaces (more private) for those who don’t care/need them because they are caring for somebody of the opposite sex.

Irrelevant to the thread but it never occurred to me to wash my hands before changing a tampon.

It’s preferable to have the option to wash hands before inserting a fresh one, but each to her own.

It's not our fault we've been brought up to be private and secretive about these things. Women are always been told how disgusting their bodies and bodily functions are.

I agree that there is still this stigma attached to women's bodily functions, but I was kind of under the impression that when I signed up for this feminism thing that I was signing up see that socialisation for what it was, reject it despite the ingrained discomfort, and celebrate my body publicly for the good of our daughters and our daughters' daughters, so that the stigma might be less for them.

So whilst I have the utmost sympathy for the woman who unexpectedly miscarries in their company toilet - which would be heartbreaking anywhere - I'm afraid I don't have too much sympathy for the grown women feminists uncomfortable with washing their bloodied hands in front of the men, or who feel they might just shrivel up and die if a man makes a "time of the month" joke in the workplace.

If feminism means anything at all it means sneering at women who aren't comfortable sharing intimate bodily functions with random male coworkers! Says Totally Awesome Feminist. Nothing is more feminist than asserting your own superiority to other women.

The sneering goes both ways Angry, as well you know.

Rat, I agree to an extent about pushing back, but I’ve had times in my life where I’ve felt able to be hardline, and times when I’ve felt vulnerable and just wanted privacy; I realise not everyone is the same.

Oh, and it isn't women who aren't comfortable sharing intimate bodily functions with random male coworkers that I've said I have little sympathy for, it's self-professed feminists who do it. There's no point my pretending that makes sense to me when it doesn't.

or who feel they might just shrivel up and die if a man makes a "time of the month" joke in the workplace

Did you want to add an 'hysterical' to go with that? Or was it of sufficient dismissal to women's concerns? It is far more than the joke thing, there are creepy dudes who track women's periods, and worse.

Of course hipster - but I think we do have to be able to discuss the best way to "feminist" without being accused of sneering.