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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Men in gender neutral toilets

33 replies

BTWifiwithFON · 18/11/2018 11:17

I don’t have a problem with gender neutral toilets at all. But twice recently I have been at gigs where the toilets are gender neutral only and I’ve opened a door to find a man mid wee who hasn’t locked the door. Is this a creepy bastard thing or do men not think to lock the doors? They are full floor to ceiling doors so I couldn’t tell if occupied or not if the door was unlocked.

OP posts:
R0wantrees · 18/11/2018 11:18

I think its a good idea to call them what they are, 'mixed sex' toilets.

BTWifiwithFON · 18/11/2018 11:22

Yep, these had big signs on the door saying Gender Neutral Toilets. No other toilet option. Lock the bloody doors, men.

OP posts:
Carpetglasssofa · 18/11/2018 11:22

Could be either. Blokes are used to communal pissing, and I can imagine that after a few pints they may forget/not care much.
I'm not saying perverts in gender neutral toilets don't exist.

LikeDust · 18/11/2018 11:23

Men don't have the same fear, shame and bodily vulnerability of women. They probably just don't consider it.

Maddy70 · 18/11/2018 11:23

I just think they are so used to urinals that they don't consider closing the door. It doesn't bother me particularly

AlecTrevelyan006 · 18/11/2018 11:24

it is very common in men's toilets for men to not lock the door if using a cubicle just to have a wee - it's almost compulsory! Most of the time the door isn't even closed let alone locked. For blokes, you quite quickly 'learn' that urinals are for when you have a pee and cubicles are for when you have a poo.

as an aside I was a business meeting on Friday in a swanky London office and had the misfortune to use a gender neutral toilet - only the second time I've been in one. Absolutely hated it - fortunately there was no one else in there at the time.

TorchesTorches · 18/11/2018 11:30

Intresting point. I took my son to the toilets in a restaurant on holiday (he is 5) There was 1 female and 1 male cubicle. The sink area was shared. I opened the male door for my son and it was unlocked and there was a man sitting there. Clearly no mal intended, but bloody lock the door.

SchnitzelVonKrumm · 18/11/2018 11:34

Men never lock the door. They also piss all over the seats, thus forcing women to clean up after them. They should be called gender enforcement toilets.

KatVonGulag · 18/11/2018 11:37

I caught my husband drunkenly doing this at an event with mix sex loos (that were utterly trashed by that stage in the evening).
I made him apologise to the queue.

HamiltonCork · 18/11/2018 11:48

I think it is just general unthinking but it will put off some women from using them. So the best thing is that women should stay at home, get on with the housework and stop taking up public space. It’s very progressive.

R0wantrees · 18/11/2018 11:53

August 2018, Daily Mail article:

'Female Home Office employees are refusing to use new £36,000 gender-neutral toilets because they feel 'distressed' by their male colleagues leaving the cubicle doors open
Notice on bathroom at Westminster headquarters asked men to keep doors shut
Five male and five female toilets have been converted into ten unisex facilities
Home Office said bathroom was designed to create a comfortable environment'
(extract)
Women have been avoiding new £36,000 gender-neutral lavatories at the Home Office because men are leaving their cubicle doors open while they’re inside.

A notice has been placed outside the unisex toilets at the department’s Westminster headquarters asking men to ensure they only use them with the doors shut because their behaviour was keeping female colleagues away.

‘Women are finding use of the toilets quite distressing and are not using these toilets as a result,’ (continues)

thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3337295-DM-Women-avoiding-new-gender-neutral-toilets-in-the-home-office-because-men-cant-close-the-door

R0wantrees · 18/11/2018 11:57

current thread re Sunday Times article today:
'Ambulance chiefs trap defacer of unisex signs
NHS bosses have hired a handwriting expert to identify the worker who mocked gender-neutral changing rooms'
(extract)
"The changes, aimed at helping transgender people, were revealed by Jules Lockett, head of emergency operations centre training at London Ambulance Service, and joint head of its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender network, at a conference in the capital.

Lockett said the service had faced down “bravado” to bring in gender-neutral lavatories, showers and changing rooms “across our stations”. She said: “We did get a lot of people trying to rip the signs down, so we just printed a lot off and were just going round and sticking them back on.”

Lockett said dissidents in ambulance crews had taken “a permanent marker into the toilet to make changes on the signs, et cetera, that we’ve put up . . . What people don’t realise is we’ve had one of our directors who has collected these signs, collected the handwriting and asked for a professional analyst to compare that handwriting with the handwriting they used on their patient report forms, and we have found [a] person.” Lockett insisted staff had no right to be concerned about the changes: “It doesn’t matter. If I walk into an ambulance station . . . there will be people getting changed. Whether they are male or female, it doesn’t matter.” (continues)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3426959-NHS-managers-called-in-a-handwriting-expert-to-track-down-opponents-of-transgender-friendly-toilets

BTWifiwithFON · 18/11/2018 12:24

@HamiltonCork 😂 that must be it. I’ll stop my gig going and clean my own toilet instead.

OP posts:
ChattyLion · 18/11/2018 12:44

I agree with everyone else who says these are ‘mixed sex’ toilets. Let’s call this what it is.

I would write to the venue and complain about the experience, OP. You and every other female gig goer doesn’t want to see randomers’ cocks as part of that or deal with their pissy seats, or depending on what you are heading to the toilet for, how sober, and how alone you are.. risk getting harassed or sexually assaulted or worse in a confined space.

‘Gender Neutral’ is basically just PR speak for ‘we don’t give a fuck about women’.
Mixed sex adult toileting creates inherently unsafe spaces for women which undermine their privacy and dignity.

Also ‘gender’ is never neutral.. gender is a really fucking harmful social hierarchy that is used to hurt women and anyone of either sex if they don’t toe the correct line around femininity or masculinity.

All single-sex toilets are by their nature inherently already gender neutral anyway-females can gender non-conform or not, in the female toilets. No problem.

Most women don’t want to be forced to validate people who are NOT female by being obliged to share with them spaces in which women need to be vulnerable.

CAAKE · 18/11/2018 14:51

I work in a school where the staff toilets are individual little MIXED SEX rooms opening off a busy corridor. I have opened toilet doors three times now to find male colleagues inside mid piss.

VickyEadie · 18/11/2018 14:52

I don’t have a problem with gender neutral toilets at all.

But twice recently I have been at gigs where the toilets are gender neutral only and I’ve opened a door to find a man mid wee who hasn’t locked the door. Is this a creepy bastard thing or do men not think to lock the doors? They are full floor to ceiling doors so I couldn’t tell if occupied or not if the door was unlocked.

So, you DO have a problem with them!

BTWifiwithFON · 18/11/2018 19:28

@VickyEadie I have a problem with the men who don’t lock the doors. I don’t want to see their wangs.

OP posts:
PipGoesPop · 18/11/2018 19:37

FFS men. Leave the seat up, piss all over the seat, leave the door open and do your flies up as you're exiting (ie haven't washed your hands).

Who is teaching themthis shit or do they just adopt a dirty bastard attitude as soon as they get to go to the toilet by themselves in a public loo?

Disgusting

hdh747 · 18/11/2018 19:50

I'm post menopausal and never used a mooncup but I'm sorely tempted to get one and some sachets of ketchup just so I can wash it out at the basins if I ever have to use a GNT.

R0wantrees · 18/11/2018 20:28

WPUK speech,
'Professor Clara Greed is Professor of Inclusive Urban Planning at the University of the West of England, Bristol, and a specialist in toilet provision with particular emphasis upon women's needs'

www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD92aLqgtTA

Charley50 · 18/11/2018 21:31

My DP went to a new workplace with mixed sex toilets recently.
He walked in and a woman was in there. He felt really uncomfortable and walked out. He didn't want the woman to feel uncomfortable either.

Charley50 · 18/11/2018 21:32

He realises it makes women feel more than uncomfortable.

NaturalBornWoman · 18/11/2018 21:56

When men are allowed in they either piss on the seat so we have to clean it to sit down, or leave it up so we have to touch it to put it down. Why doesn't anyone think of these basic facts before making ridiculous decisions. I don't want to wipe or in any way mess about with public toilet seats. And they shouldn't be in there anyway, for all the other reasons. Just leave us alone.

insertamusingIDhere · 19/11/2018 11:00

I can't imagine it's just women who find the idea of neutral toilets awkward.

I'm a man but I am also aware my presence may make others feel uncomfortable. That's very much something I do not want to do and as such it's a location I will always avoid.

AngryAttackKittens · 19/11/2018 11:07

Mixed sex toilets are a terrible idea. Especially at a gig full of rowdy drunks.