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?

rosy

Cheers Poofus for the mental image

If any one asked me to sign a petition against unisex loos I would and I don't support just sticking a sign up and saying "these loos are now unisex" if "these loos" are traditional stalls with gaps and paper thin partitions.

You can wash your moon cup using water from flushing the toilet if you need to. It’s just water!

Though completely agree to not want shared toilets anyway!

oh yeah, lets wash our hands in it too, even drink it why not

Absolutely lass

And why is it suddenly our job to fight for it? It's not be ause some women don't care, or don't mind, or are too cool. It's because men have decided we mustn't be allowed to have them any more.

It's something thatall the toilets are being made unisex, not just the women's.

In the 80s a friend of mine went to the fairly newly mixed sixth form of a former boys school. The toilets and changing rooms were labelled "boys" and "non boys".

Seems as though in a lot of cases were reverting to "boys" and "non boys", so making everyone equally uncomfortable is arguably marginally better.

I asked my 10 to DS if he'd mind if the school toilets were unisex and he was strongly opposed to the idea. I don't think it's something the majority of either sex want.

This reminds me of the skirts / trousers discussion.
Some people think school uniform wranglings could be stopped by all pupils wearing trousers only.
I would have HATED that. Even when young and very slim I had a womanly bottom and it shows more when it wiggles when you walk in trousers. I don't mind wearing trousers now because I am a confident woman and if people are looking at my bum, let them. When I was 15 I would have hated to have been forced to wear trousers to school and my bum was quite, quite different to a boys'.

It is a myth that pretending everything is naturally unisex takes the sting out of the issues associated with the woman's body. Not everyone is affected by them in the way way or to the same extent but there are certain physical things that it is comfortable to have accommodated for many women.

Also, to those freaking out about washing out moon cups: have you never dealt with real nappies, or things like that? No one thinks this stuff is nice. the toilet and its basins exist for it to be dealt with in a particular place, including thorough handwashing, so that the rest of life isn't contaminated by it. What is the alternative? not having a body? Sounds attractive but I am not sure how it is done.

And why is it suddenly our job to fight for it? Because in sitting back, others will eat away our rights.

I'm also a bit surprised at the number of people who get blood, urine and faeces on their hands.

That’s how bacterial and viral contamination works. You don’t need to have visible stuff on them, and you WILL have stuff on them if you’ve wiped yourself, regardless of whether you think you do or you think the loo roll has formed a kind of hermetic barrier against contamination- it doesn’t. If you’ve been to the loo, and you’ve wiped, your hands are contaminated.

Trust me on this, I spent several years proving it to students as a way of showing them culture methods.

That’s why there’s a blanket recommendation to wash your hands after using the toilets. If you’ve been to the loo, you wash your hands properly.

It’s no wonder stuff like norovirus spreads like wildfire.

Well this has escalated. OP doesn’t want to pee next to Bob from accounts, 29 pages later and we’re on to drinking menstrual blood

I used to work in a modern office building doing basic desk security, maintenance calls and overseeing cleaners coming in and out. It had unisex toilets.

1. Men did not seem to care about sanitary bins. They were just there.
2. Both men and women can be very messy in toilets. Men just miss. Sometimes I wondered if on purpose. Some women hover and seem to use some kind of sprinkler attachment.
3. Often easy to tell if a woman was on her period - taking their handbag with them.
4. It was older men and younger women who often were sick due to hangovers from parties etc. Older men cant drink like they used to and younger women were in the full embrace of the laddette culture at the time.
5. On the whole I think that people would prefer separate facilities but that 99% of the problems mentioned here are vastly overblown.

99% of the problems mentioned here are vastly overblown.

That's because WOMEN are trying to find a way to get it into MEN'S heads that we don't want to give up our separate facilities. We shouldn't have to be arguing about it at all. It's irrelevant that the problems are overblown, or not.

Stay the fuck out of our spaces.

5. On the whole I think that people would prefer separate facilities

Smashing. I agree. So why are we being forced to change them?

but that 99% of the problems mentioned here are vastly overblown.

Where sex segregated toilets are removed, sexual assault, assault and voyeurism crimes rise. That’s not trivial.

You don’t need to have visible stuff on them,

Yes but posters were talking about washing visibly blood stained hands as being embarrassing.

@Choosegopse: You can wash your moon cup using water from flushing the toilet if you need to. It’s just water!

No, it's not "just water" when it's flushed into a toilet bowl and coming into contact with the faecal bacteria in the toilet bowl. Have you ever heard of bacterial vaginosis?

I’ve only done it once! I thought if you held just under the rim and got the fresh flush...I stand corrected!

There seems to be an assumption on this thread that it's men's fault that unisex toilets are been introduced.
My understanding is one of the reasons for introducing them was to make more cubicles available to women.
Nobody I have spoken to want to change to this system including men.
You will probably find out that it was a woman who came up with this idea.

It’s not men per se. The average bloke doesn’t want a unisex loo any more than women do.

It’s the TRA lobby. And transwomen are men... so... yeah a small percentage of men.

Vicky:You will probably find out that it was a woman who came up with this idea.

Do you have an opinion on the issue? I ask because you have played this same note on every thread and I am begun to wonder if you have any other string to your fiddle?

just under the rim

That's where most of the germs lurk because it's hardest to clean there properly....

Public service announcement: please do not rinse your mooncup in toilet water!!

It's trans identified men who want this.

Even if ‘just under the rim’ was as clean (ie not very) as the basins, who knows what filth lurks in the cistern.

Washing your mooncup in flush water is nuts and I hope the pp was on a wind up, tbh. Ewww.

Do they Pratchett? I thought they specifically wanted access to the women's to affirm their identity (leading to boys and non boys facilities). I don't want all unisex either but at least it better than keeping the men's plus not changing the women's layout but labelled unisex!