Bath Leisure Centre, naked men in ‘changing village’

[MrsSnippyPants]

Can anyone local confirm what the changing facilities are for swimming?
twitter.com/jeanhatchet/status/1082908745682829312?s=21

Little Britain - Emily Howard at the swimming pool.

Ah, but women don't exist anymore. All spaces are men's spaces. Or if they aren't already - they will be.

Shout 'Pervert' out loud! That should shame them.

Several things demonstrated there:

1. unisex is going to be the first go-to way for public spaces to avoid the litigious battles over policing boundaries for those who want to use changing rooms by personal choice instead of sex based reality.

2. The general public are not going to accept it. At the moment public services are scared to in theory upset certain very loud, very aggressive lobbies. However they're going to be more scared in practice of large numbers of complaining women who form a large amount of their income and won't use those services without female only areas, and they will mean female only.

3. Oh the naivety of those who think insisting on sex separate changing rooms is going to mean no naked men in there

4. There will always be men who will exploit any loophole offered to them to view, intimidate, harass and sexually abuse women.

Francis I was just thinking I wonder if the centre based this on surveys filled in by liberated types going 'oooh but what about the single dad taking his daughters swimming/ my ten year old son too young to go in the mens area alone' - but the Twitter responses show, and the MN threads show, women don't like men in their spaces .

The answer will have to be mens/womens/families - but that won't deal with those determined to be where they want and to force compliance with their internal beliefs.

I notice several tweets too in the second linked thread about 'what about the cultural issues for some women'. No one other than LM has been prepared to answer on this, and LM's response basically was that they should abandon their faith if it clashes with TRA.

All my local swimming pools have changing villages. The one where my dc have lessons have a row of women only cubicles but I don't think the other 3 we use do.

The only single sex provision is for school groups.

Is it a coincidence that Bath and North East Somerset has been the top Stonewall Local Authority Champion since about 2015?

Tbh I don't have anything against changing villages, as the mum of a disabled boy I find them very useful. That said, I've never been to one where there are naked people on display of either sex. Maybe the answer is proper cubicles and strict enforcement of no nudity?

So what is the correct etiquette when faced with a stark bollock baked man in the changing room (remember - it could be a ‘ma’am’ or a ‘sir’ you are dealing with)?

I’m asking because I start a new gym next week in a student facility (one of the unis who seems to pride itself in voicing utter nonsense with regards to gender) so I’m preparing myself for a good old bit of right on student nonsense with regards to changing rooms.

Do you have to go to reception and announce ‘there’s a person in the changing rooms who is parading abut naked with his/her/their willy/weirdly penis-shaped lady bits hanging out.’ Or shall I just flick the offending piece of anatomy with a wet towel? Or - as I say to flashers ‘that looks just like a penis - only much smaller!’

Pam, Somerset Libraries were the ones who were hosting the Drag Queens read stories to kids thing.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-46753018

So I'm kind of odd in that I'm quite unabashed about nudity in single sex spaces in that I will (quickly and not intentionally to show anyone, just out of practicality) get completely naked when changing in single sex spaces.

I don't believe there should be any shame in my body being naked for practical reasons in the presence of other women and girls. Quite the opposite. I think it's actually important for girls to briefly see how real women's bodies look when naked so as their begin to change they have some context for what's normal, instead of just what they are forced to see in movies and porn. I would make the same argument for boys. I know I was a bit embarassed to see it in locker rooms as a kid, but that became useful to me later. As my body changed and I felt intensely uncomfortable, I thought back to what I'd seen and I realized that my body was completely normal.

Including trans women in men's facilities, or trans men in men's facilities, OR this sort of unisex changing village actually has two costs. The first, more obvious one, is that some women will be absolutely excluded, as they cannot be seen in any state of undress by members of the opposite sex. The second, is that girls will no longer see the normal range of adult human female bodies as part of their normal lives unless they happen to be nudists. Alternatively they will be gaslighted as TRAs believe they should be into thinking that "having a penis" is part of the "normal range of adult human female bodies".

Including trans women in men's facilities = Including trans women in women's facilities .

Our changing villages all have separate cubicles, so no one will need to be seen in a state of undress, if someone was walking around naked they would be told to cover up, At the one there are lockable showers in the toilets and the others have lockable cubicles within the main areas.

So what is the correct etiquette when faced with a stark bollock baked man in the changing room (remember - it could be a ‘ma’am’ or a ‘sir’ you are dealing with)?

Take photo/video (evidence). Post photo to Twitter and copy in local radio station, leader of the council/CEO, FairplayforWomen and Daily Mail.

If a woman can be chucked out of a pub for wearing a t-shirt, then it is legitimate to ask why a man is given the privilege to strip off and embarress, distress and alarm other users.

The pictures of the changing areas indicates cubicles with no open/bench space for open communal changing similar to Centre Parcs and many swimming pools around here. I have never seen anyone but the youngest children naked in this situation. Anyone changing out with a cubicle or showering naked should be dealt with swiftly by staff.

People shouldn’t have to be informed of this as it is common sense but they may need some signage.

lucked I agree, maybe because this has been the 'norm' for so long around here that it just seems to work. I too have never seen anyone naked, I'm not saying it never happens, but it can be dealt with by someone (staff or member of the public) telling them to cover up.

We have had this style of changing cubicles for over 5 years now. I hated them at first as when swimming with 2 young children it was a nightmare as there were only 4 family cubicals and if they were gone me and 2 girls had to squeeze in a single cubical. When the youngest was changed I had no where to put her while I got dressed as couldn't leave her on the bench without fear of falling or on the floor without sitting in a pool of water. One day I got the pushchair to put her in, and kept the door half open with the pushchair wedged in the gap. Gave an old man quiet an eyeful as I dropped my towel as he walked past.
My girls are now older but the swimming pool have recently taken down dividers between some cubicles and blocked off the 2nd door to make bigger ones so we finally have about 15 family cubicles. Over half of the roof there are bars, i initially thought it was somewhere to put clothes but it got pointed out that its to stop people standing on the bench and looking over the top.
These cubicles work well as long as you have the door shut. But certainly I remember the ease of my mum taking me and my brother swimming. There was a communal female area that the mums used rather than the female cubicles which even had a playpen in the middle. There was also the same communal area in the men's changing area that I had been in with my dad when I was younger.

I think it's actually important for girls tobrieflysee how real women's bodies look when naked so as their begin to change they have some context for what's normal

I agree with this.

Why aren't these naked men being confronted? Is it unrealistic to expect that a man might feel an element of shame if a woman walked right up to him and asked him what on earth he thinks he is doing being naked around children.

If there is one thing that men fear, it is being labelled as perverts or paedophiles.

I actually doubt very much that there would be very much abuse toward any woman from a man confronted in this way.

We shouldn't have to do it, of course. But am I being naive to think that it is a simple case of shaming them and making a fuss.

Its naive to assume its safe to confront men in public. They know they aren't supposed to act that way, its not an accident.

Slight derail but grateful for insight. I tried to view the tweet in the opening post and couldn’t as it said I’d been blocked.

Literally the only tweets I have ever made on my twitter account have been in response to commercial promotional tweets with a short message and #twitterlosingwomen. Mostly I just read. I don’t follow the person in question although I know of and respect their work.

Any idea what I might have done? I’m feeling a bit disconcerted.

@Marmelised

I am not on Twitter - never been a user, but CAN see all the tweets.
I am guessing that as a Twitter user it can see that you are logged in. If you try logging out of Twitter temporarily then you may be able to see the tweets.

@andyoldlabour
Thanks for your reply. I hadn’t thought of that so have now done it and seen the tweet but am still puzzled why someone I don’t follow and with whom I have never interacted would take the trouble to block me.

Literally the only tweets I have ever posted have been responses to businesses where I’ve used the #twitterlosingwomen hashtag - so not even promoting a conflicting point of view.

Not a big deal, just don’t like the feeling I may have offended someone.