Join the mixed-sex loo resistance movement!

[WomanBornNotWorn]

Ideas for what we can do:

Theatres etc - go up to box office loudly asking 'where are the ladies'?' again and again as loudly as you can so the representative has to keep repeating the answer - if you're in a group, take it in turns for variety.

Ring an offending restaurant and book a table for six. Then ask 'I assume you have separate men's and women's loos?' then when they say no, say 'ah no, that doesn't work for us. I'll cancel that and we'll book at (name bitterest rival restaurant that does have separate loos) instead'. Get everyone you know to do it. Make sure you've blocked your number.

Come out of cubicle with full moon cup and wash it out in front of any men present (just pray they're not menophiliac).

Stickers. Lots of stickers.

Learn the statistics so you can recite the evidence of sexual assaults in mixed space etc etc whenever you're contradicted. 'In fact, Home Office statistics show that xx% ... ' etc.

Train your daughters to understand why we are saying no and to have the confidence to speak out. And your sons, too.

If this all you have to worry about in life, complaining about bloody toilets?

Again, logic fail. Because all you're doing is complaining about people complaining about toilets. 🤣

Nice try SwanNecking.

Although a bit too basic and stupid.

So actually not nice.

Just dull.

Charities working on girls/women's rights/education in the global south are relentlessly/tirelessly campaigning for access to single sex facilities. They repeatedly tell us that not having access to single sex facilities impacts girl's ability to access education and have a life outside of the home and hugely increases incidents of sexual assault.

Exactly Butch.

Building boundaries with one hand and getting the general public to donate towards it, whilst dismantling them with the other, and getting the general public to donate to it.

It's almost the very definition of insanity.

I like it better like this because there are shorter wait times/queues - woman take bloody ages if you go to a woman's only toilet!

Like @Datun said, this is just such flawed logic. Women won't stop using (previously designated) women's toilets and start using (previously designated) men's. We will stick to our old toilets but there will be more people in there because there are also men. Duh.

But the other thing with this argument is that it proves why we need single sex provision. Women take longer in toilets because we have more complex biological needs (periods, pregnancy, menopause, breastfeeding issues etc.). We don't dawdle, we get in the cubicle, get what we need to do done and leave. It just takes longer than men because we need to take longer. The reasons we need to take longer are also the reasons we need single sex facilities. And more of them. And bigger.

@SwanNecking No, we're also worried about rape and sexual assault and periods and pregnancies and miscarriages and childcare.....

It is datun and butch.

Really is

Taking your kids and baby to the loos is a struggle enough when you can’t close the door without some men waiting in the queue. Watching

What I wanna know is wtf as are supposed to do with our drinks.

If we get spiked it's our fault for leaving them unattended. So we take them into the toilets with us. Except now the blokes can follow us in and spike our drink there as I usually left mine on a windowsill as theres no where in the cubicle.

Suppose that would then he our fault again for going out in the first place

@Datun Yep, complete insanity. I actually also think there's an underlying racism there too. Of course women in forrin countries need single sex spaces because them forrin men are sex-crazed animals. But our men aren't, our men can be trusted to use women's facilities and not act inappropriately because our men are civilised. Our women, though, paranoid harpies.

@SarahTancredi Obviously you should stop going out to pubs and nightclubs altogether and stay indoors at all times.

yy BB

Yeah racism right there

Also changing a tampon and your toddler determined to help and shouting out instructions so the men in the queue can hear 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

If all women stayed indoors and looked pretty and did the ironing, none of this would be an issue. I blame the introduction of public toilets for women for the complete moral collapse of our society. The sooner they all get given back over to men the better.

@Hullygully Well, yes, I quite agree. Bloody women, demanding to be allowed out of the house. We'll start asking for the vote next

We have mixed sex loos at my work now (since May). In some ways there’s more privacy as it’s all fully enclosed cubicles with sinks. I actually do rinse a mooncup there now and didn’t when it was the women’s but sinks not in cubicles. I don’t want female colleagues seeing me rinsing a mooncup either.

However they are much dirtier generally and I hate bumping into male colleagues in the little corridor they’re off. Feels really weird.

”I was talking about this and my sister said she recently bowled into a loo and found a man peeing at the urinal. She reckons he go the bigger shock - so I think men may start complaining?”

I suggested on the Old Vic Twitter thread that groups of women should go in to any “mixed sex with urinals” space as often as possible. Sorry if this means a few decent men will be made uncomfortable, but the whole point is that women are being made uncomfortable, but if we complain, we are less likely to be listened to.

I meant that I wished people who say 'it's just a toilet' and 'you can pee next to me' would consider why we have these provisions in the first place.

You can't pee next to me if there's a remote possibility that you might be getting off on it.

We didn't initially get these provisions just so we'd have somewhere to empty our mooncups without the poor delicate masculine flowers coming over all faint. Although admittedly it is a bonus or would be if I could get the damned cup to work properly.

I wrote this on the history of women’s public toilets and the attempts to force us back onto the urinary leash.

uncommongroundmedia.com/flushing-womens-toilets/

I was in New York last weekend. I went to one place where the formerly separate loos now both had gender neutral signs on the doors. One still had urinals in, plus cubicles, the other just cubicles.

They were those typical US toilets where there is a foot of space under the doors and partitions, gaps around the door and the top of the partition is about 5'6 high. Tall guys would easily look straight over.

Brooklyn Brewery, if anyone would like to boycott their beer....

No way! Loos in the US are awful for a Brit at the best of times!

Oh yes littlbrowndog I bet there are loads of stories about toddlers embarrassing their mothers in the loos on Mumsnet. At least in all-women toilets you'll get sympathy (as well as some amusement). Can you imagine how some men would react to "Why do you have all that hair down there, mummy?" or similar?

"Loos by their very nature are gender neutral, they're inanimate objects. But provision should remain single sex, not mixed sex, in line with the Equality Act 2010. No, gender identity is not a protected characteristic. Really, it isn't. Go and check. No, you can't just rewrite an Act of Parliament because you feel like it. No, it hasn't been changed. Otherwise it wouldn't be dated 2010, would it?"

I’m stealing these words.

Thanks Datsun

For those saying they don't see the problem, a miscarriage is also not a one off event, you can be bleeding for a while and all they time that is going on it's distressing going to the toilet.

After pregnancy some people have horrendous levels of bleeding during their period for months afterwards. I lost great clots of blood that soaked through everything I was wearing in a great gush the period on my first business trip after maternity leave so I had a major cleanup operation in a ladies toilet. Fortunately no male clients sharing it with me, very male environment so no one else in there, thank goodness. The predominantly single men I was dealing with would have had no idea what to do and me regaining my credibility as authority would have gone to fuck after they'd seen me in that state. Who among us hasn't had to stand semi naked by a hand dryer trying to dry an item of clothes they've just washed in the sink?

You know those really brilliant posters on the back of ladies loos doors informing women about the Ask Angela campaign - ie going to the bar and asking for Angela if you feel threatened on a date, or just in general? That's that gone then.

And Peri menopause erratic and heavy as fuck uncontainable periods