Everyman Cinemas and toilets for 'everyone', a woman's review. AIBU?

[bigbadbadger]

Apologies if this seems frivolous, I know that women have bigger fish to fry in terms of oppression but this pissed me off so I thought I would share.

I thought it would be nice to have a treat and go to the fancy Everyman cinema in Leeds to watch the bum numbing 3 hour Avengers End Game. The film was great, the seats were great, the food and drinks lovely, all fantastic. The toilets were absolutely revolting and utterly unacceptable.

Designed as a unisex block with a closed door labeled 'everyone' you walk into a long corridor with enclosed cubicle/sink units on each side, every toilet seat and floor was covered in urine. I had to clean the toilet before my daughter could use it and it absolutely stank. I needed to go during the film and walked in as a woman forcefully pushed out past me looking distressed. In the second cubicle was a man urinating with the door wide open, shouting to his friend. I turned to leave and heard him loudly fart and shout 'there goes another one', I am not sure if he was referring to his fart or another woman being forced to leave the toilet. I found a female member of staff who said she could not do anything but would 'pass it on to management'.

The thought of DD12 going into the toilets to be confronted with that is quite upsetting to me, and parents who had not visited the toilets themselves might be unaware of the situation as the toilets are hidden round the corner.

I used the disabled facilities which I feel upset about doing. I am not a selfish inconsiderate person. When I exited there were 2 women waiting, looking embarrassed.

I wrote and complained when I got home. The reply basically said "That's the way they were designed and that's how they'll stay. If we refurb we'll take your views into account".

So the Everyman cinema expects it's female customers to be unpaid cleaners for them, and offers no increase in frequency of cleaning, have staff check cleanliness, have staff trained to deal with poor behaviour etc. It's just tough shit women, if men want to piss on the floor they can, and we expect you to clean it up.

AIBU to think that the Everyman should not expect it's female customers to work as unpaid cleaners when they visit?

Surely a true unisex toilet cubicle would also have a urinal in it. That was everyone gets what is easiest for them to use. Obviously that would be expensive and a waste of resources.
I also think mixed sex toilets are a bad use of resources - needing full height walls and doors; hand basin; sanitary bin in each cubicle - the most environmentally friendly way is to have separate female and male toilets.

Thank you for all your comments, its really interesting to read different views. Had a long discussion about this at work last night and talked about the different sorts of unisex toilets we've encountered, what works and what doesn't. There is definitely a preference for an open corridor - not a closed room, and for it to be open and visible. DH said he has used well designed unisex toilets in Germany that were arranged in an arc so the entire set of doors in easily visible, reducing anti social behaviour.

I assume that the man behaving obnoxiously was oblivious to the discomfort he was causing, several young men at work were genuinely shocked that a woman wouldn't enter a room where a man was openly urinating and didn't seem to have a clue about how women feel about being in a closed room with a man they do not know in those circumstances.

I have written to them again but get the feeling they are well aware of the problem but intend to ignore it.

OP thanks for the alert, I will have to check the situation at the local cinema, it's not an EveryMAN but everywhere has gone crazy

we are in London. You might have heard about the pop up open air urinals in central London? Horrendous. Originally they were meant to be late night but now you can be walking by at 2pm and there's a guy pissing right in front of you, and it's been sanctioned.

so given that London - and Paris too I hear - are meant to be okay with this, I'm not sure how far we will get with our complaints. It's a fecking nightmare.

They have responded in a much more sincere fashion now. They have offered to refund the tickets and said they will increase checks to the toilets. They have also made a sincere apology that it was not dealt with on the night. I am glad they've taken it seriously. It was a woman who replied this time which I think will have made a difference.

I think it can be embarrassing waiting for a toilet in a public corridor, especially for self- conscious younger women and girls (I know my dds dislike and won’t use the school unisex toilets that open onto the main corridor because they find it awkward and embarrassing.

Put your thoughts on trip advisor. Contact environmental health. Inform management of he cinema that the behaviour veers dangerously close to indecent exposure in front of minors.