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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

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Original poster

Uncomfortable about unisex toilets at work

803 replies

Onlyinanemergency · 08/05/2018 12:05

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?

OP posts:
thebewilderness · 08/05/2018 23:54

You have a desk with drawers? Wow!

LassWiADelicateAir · 08/05/2018 23:55

I am loving the idea of using a tampon from my desk when I was miscarrying. You haven’t a clue

I said nothing about carrying a tampon. And you have no idea whether I "haven't a clue" or not.

LassWiADelicateAir · 09/05/2018 00:00

You are obviously just better at womaning than any of the rest of us, Lass, as you remind us repeatedly, daily, ad infinitum

Yes well women we have periods, not really a surprise is it? I'm genuinely astonished that the idea of keeping a supply of sanitary products at work should be such a revelation to so many of you.

Greymisty · 09/05/2018 00:04

Lass I'm an actual woman who has an actual miscarriage but yeah im obviously an actual clueless teenager because I didn't schedule it???

thebewilderness · 09/05/2018 00:05

Especially important for the pregnant, menopausal, and those of us who have had hysterectomies, I'm sure.

Pratchet · 09/05/2018 00:05

My daughter is an adult. Her bodily privacy and dignity is not in your gift. It's not to be dismissed do fucking lightly.

How dare you be so dismissive.

Pratchet · 09/05/2018 00:07

'Hello cis bitches. My handmaidens let me into your bathroom'

Report and get me deleted if you want

LassWiADelicateAir · 09/05/2018 00:07

You have a desk with drawers? Wow!

Actually I used to keep a packet of towels and tampons on a lower shelf of a bookcase. Not at eye level but visible so that anyone who needed them in an emergency could find them. Female colleagues knew they could help themselves. Sorry if that doesn't accord with your idea of being a woman and fails to perpetuate the idea that we shouldn't let anyone know we have periods.

LassWiADelicateAir · 09/05/2018 00:08

My daughter is an adult. Her bodily privacy and dignity is not in your gift. It's not to be dismissed do fucking lightly

And where have I done this?

spontaneousgiventime · 09/05/2018 00:10

LassWiADelicateAir My niece worked in a young offenders institution. She had no desk. She had to have her bag searched when she entered the building then place it in a locker. She couldn't access her bag during her shift without leaving the 'floor' to go to the locker room beside the staff entrance. Not everyone lives neat tidy lives where sanitary protection is just a desk drawer away.

Pratchet · 09/05/2018 00:11

Dismissive, moi?

Throughout

LassWiADelicateAir · 09/05/2018 00:14

Especially important for the pregnant, menopausal, and those of us who have had hysterectomies, I'm sure

No clue what you are on about. Goodness knows what offices some of you work in. I've never been in one where you didn't know there was always at least one woman who could be relied on to be able to help out.

thebewilderness · 09/05/2018 00:14

Same problem for me. Everything was locked up in the ready room except the gear on my belt and back.

LassWiADelicateAir · 09/05/2018 00:16

Not everyone lives neat tidy lives where sanitary protection is just a desk drawer away

But this thread is about office toilets- not young offenders institutions.

spontaneousgiventime · 09/05/2018 00:16

thebewilderness - Lass has no idea about women's lives outside her own little bubble.

LaSqrrl · 09/05/2018 00:16

Names: Most women have no desire for any man to know when they are menstruating.

This is true, and not because women are necessarily ashamed/embarrassed by their periods - it's a privacy/dignity issue about bodily function. That and, some creepy dudes will think it hilarious to make "jokes" about "that time of the month".

thebewilderness · 09/05/2018 00:16

Lass
Are you being thick for a joke or do you really not know all women do not work in offices? Srsly! You are having real tunnel vision on the subject.

Pratchet · 09/05/2018 00:17

Ugh how rotten for women to have to share their cubicle toilets with men.

thebewilderness · 09/05/2018 00:17

But this thread is about office toilets- not young offenders institutions.

Way to late to complain about off topic.

spontaneousgiventime · 09/05/2018 00:17

LassWiADelicateAir I think you'll find the thread is titled "Uncomfortable about unisex toilets at work. People work in all sorts of places, not just offices. HTH

Pratchet · 09/05/2018 00:18

Oh not just creepy dudes. Most men would do an eyeroll. Junior men would eyeroll to each other if you disciplined or corrected one of them. I don't think I know a man who wouldn't.

fascinated · 09/05/2018 00:22

Lass, I think you are speaking from a position of severe privilege. Your workplace is full of well educated and seemingly mostly well brought up people. You have space to store products. Have some empathy for the women who are less fortunate and have far less comfortable lives and workplaces, and far less polite male co-workers.

LaSqrrl · 09/05/2018 00:24

You are obviously just better at womaning than any of the rest of us, Lass

You are as hilarious as ever, thebewilderness. Luckily I was not drinking coffee at the time! Grin

Pratchet · 09/05/2018 00:29

Fascinated: Lucy from Deptford is very eloquent on the privileged giving away the privacy and safety of the less fortunate. Less advantaged women are so outside their realm of consciousness.

GlueSticks · 09/05/2018 01:01

I'm a bit confused by the way this thread has gone. Arguing about being unable to keep any item on you, even sanitary protection, is not going to help the case of needing to use a vending machine to access sanitary protection because vending machines need cash. Men (and women IME) who are likely to comment on "time of the month" will do so regardless of whether it not you have been spotted buying tampons.

I also don't agree with the protestations about needing to wash out mooncups because washing them in a public sink is gross. If it is a cup full of blood don't wash it out anywhere unless you are willing and able to clean the sink thoroughly afterwards. If public sinks are so disgusting that a bit of blood shouldn't bother anyone then why the hell would you wash out a mooncup in one and then insert said mooncup back in to your vagina?!

As for blood covered hands after changing a tampon, WTAF? What are folk doing in single sex toilets, presumably undoing locks and opening cubical doors smearing them with blood before making it to a sink? Or, more likely, wiping the blood off with toilet paper, flushing it and then exiting the cubical without visible blood on their hands. I have literally never seen a woman exit a cubical in single sex toilets with blood on their hands (even in the rather dodgy nightclubs of my youth). Maybe I'm just suffering from severe privilege (unlikely) or maybe some posters are being a tad over the top.

Properly enclosed toilets sound like heaven to me, even if it would mean washing hands next to a man. Though I will admit to preferring the properly enclosed toilets with a sink inside the cubical.