Powerful article about why we don’t want men in our toilets ( with distressing accounts )

[Destinysdaughter]

Jean Hatchet asked women on Twitter for their experiences of harassment by men in women’s toilets. I read some of them and they were very distressing. She’s now written this article about it. Please read. This isn’t a trivial thing.

jeanhatchet.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-gentleman-in-ladies.html?m=1

jeanhatchet.blogspot.com/2018/10/a-gentleman-in-ladies.html?m=1

Thank you.

Good piece by Jean there.

It's reminded me I was sexually assaulted in the loos. Had blocked it from my mind really and truth be told I'm not sure "how far" it went as I was hideously drunk (club/bar) - but I do know I had to use. LOT of physical force to shut and lock the door.

I'd like to add mine.

When I was around 14 I was in a ladies toilet with a 14 year old and 10 year old friend. It the was the toilet of an Indian restaurant and all of our parents were downstairs in the restaurant.

A group of lads walked past on the street below and I (foolishly) shouted something out of the window at them.

They thundered up the stairs to the toilet (the restaurant was through a separate door to the main door) so we hid in the cubicles whilst they all tried to kick the doors in.

Grown men trying to smash down the doors of the toilet to get to the children inside while their parents sat downstairs oblivious.

The cubicle lock was broken so I jammed my leg against the door while they tried to cave it in. They gave up eventually and I coldn't open the door afterwards as they had kicked it in so badly it jammed.

My 14 year old friend was in the cubicle next door and had to find the courage to go down alone and ask for help. The restaurant brought a screwdriver to get me and the 10 year old out and we pretended that we had jammed it playing a game.

We never told a soul what had happened with the group of men. I still think of it as all my fault for shouting out to them. I suspect those men probably do as well.

I'll add mine. Long summer night and I was enjoying a drink with some friends in a beer garden. Last orders had been called and everyone was drinking up (30 mins allowed for this in Ireland) so they had locked the door to the venue to stop more people entering. I knocked on the door so I could use the ladies. The man that let me in told me the ladies was out of order but I could use the mens. I laughed (thought he was just joking) and tried to get past him, down the corridor to where the bar area and the ladies were. At this point he picked me up and carried me into the mens. I screamed as loud as I could and was barely holding onto the door frame when help arrived. He was very big and very strong and I dread to think how things would have gone. It was a particular set of circumstaces which gave that man the opportunity to do what he did. Why anyone would want to increase opportunities for men like that, I have no idea.

Great article.

Sayhello and Flywheel so sorry to read those horrid accounts.

Jean Hatchett's earlier thread about this: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3391137-a-gentleman-in-the-ladies

Very sad, but needs to be published, article.

I was in a nightclub recently and a man entered at the same time as me despite me telling him “no, the men’s are there.”

I left, went straight to bouncers who immediately removed him from the loos and the club. After self ID how many bouncers will do this without thinking about the consequences?