Express and Star article - head of British Toilet Association pushing for mixed loos

[Fenlandmountainrescue]

Apparently, in order to get us all back shopping again, it is essential that we should all share toilets. Because that is cleaner?

link?

Sorry. On the mobile. I think its www.expressandstar.com/news/uk-news/2020/05/24/drastic-changes-needed-for-public-toilets-after-pandemic-says-report/

I thought they were just closing urinals to keep people apart.

This makes no sense at all. Removing urinals slows down everything. It will mean longer queues and waiting times and dirty cubicles with seats left up and pee on the seats and the floor.

Who wants mixed toilets?

Some males. Looking at which males exactly proves quite interesting. Mr Lord for example.

Who benefits from mixed toilets?

Some males. (Particularly since the push back got stronger about females not being willing to surrender female only spaces)

Who believes that females should never be permitted any space reserved only for female people regardless of need because too upsetting for males who want to be in female spaces?

Some males.

Who does not benefit from mixed toilets?

All females.

Ooh look, it's more male supremacism. Fancy that.

Surely urinals are better, you just need them further apart with screens like in shops and a queuing system. Forgive me if I have little experience but you dont actually touch them do you?
Why uni sex - the queue would be a mile long, what's the advantage? Another try at disaster misogyny.

And I'll bet the head of the British Toilet Association is rubbing his little hands and thinking after having inflicted mixed toilets on the populace 'because of Covid', it'll be so much easier to just say 'well look, it's worked' and carry on with all toilet facilities being male owned spaces permanently.

@Imnobody4

• Surely urinals are better, you just need them further apart with screens like in shops and a queuing system. Forgive me if I have little experience but you dont actually touch them do you? -

Some urinals have little flush buttons at the top but these are rare in the UK. Automatic flushes set for regular periods are more common. And in McDonalds and som other places There are even water-free eco-friendly urinals.

I agree that moving to all cubicles would be mad and if nothing else would just increase queuing times overall and space requirements.

This is what it says in the article:

Instead, one-way gender neutral facilities could see men and women queuing at one door and exiting on the other side with individual cubicles in between.

Would require huge building changes and I can't see what covid related problem it is designed to solve.

I agree that moving to all cubicles would be mad and if nothing else would just increase queuing times overall and space requirements.

Exactly. We already know men have higher risk associated with Covid. At least with urinals it reduces the time they spend in an enclosed space ,and reduces the amount of surfaces they need touch.

I’m looking at the money, and how much i would cost to make all these changes. Shopping centres would see a dramatic fall in women and families shopping, so its not in their best interests.

There's a British Toilet Association?? That's my mind blown.

Does he mean a corridor design? That doesn't work for pushchairs and wheelchairs.

What? What remotely is the point of that? If you want to restart commerce, failing to provide appropriate toilets for either sex isn't the way to do it. Is he high?

What? What remotely is the point of that? If you want to restart commerce, failing to provide appropriate toilets for either sex isn't the way to do it. Is he high?

I'm sure Jeff Bezos is pissing himself laughing somewhere. Amazon customers don't need bathrooms other than their own (obviously the workers do but that's a whole other story).

Also - the whole country is entering into a massive recession. Where the hell would the money come from to refit all these toilets?
Let’s keep it how it is with public messages everywhere to “wash your hands.”

Surely the obvious solution is to mark the existing urinals with appropriate spacing? It would half the existing Male provision making it closer to equivalent currently female provision.

Didn't Target stores in the US get a big drop in customers after switching to unisex toilets?
Apparently they've started quietly reintroducing single sex toilets again.

FFS now covid-19 is being used to push the mixed sex loos argument?

Men can just learn to wash their hands better after a piss. Makes no sense to get rid of urinals.

Obviously for a certain pressure group though, this might not actually be about hygiene, that is just the on the face of it argument.

I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised at how quick the DM readers picked up on the real reasons behind the suggestion. (I don’t care if you judge me, I read lots of papers to get a range of views except the red tops. I have SOME lines I won’t cross) The top comments were along the lines of food you think we don’t know what your real agenda is?” Lots of people saying that they had no intention of sharing with the opposite sex and it put women at risk.

That first bit makes good sense "foot-operated flushes and self-closing seats to sensor-activated taps and soap dispensers." Many places have those already and they can be retrofitted without too much hassle.

I'd add self opening doors at the exit too. What's the point of washing and drying your hands properly, when you have to grab hold of a door handle (previously touched by everyone else leaving before you, many of whom will not have washed at all) and pull the door towards you to get out.

To go from "let's improve hygiene in our facilities" to "let's give perverts a boner and put women and children at increased risk" is astoundingly dodgy. Yet another example of attempting to sneak a change for the worse in under cover of some other much needed improvements, just like they did with self ID in Malta and Ireland, and very nearly got away with doing here too.

British Toilet Association’s managing director Raymond Martin needs to listen to women. A good start would be for him that brilliant woman who could explain to him why we have women's toilets in the first place, and what the provision needs to be to comply with equality regulations. I've forgotten her name but I bet someone will have a link.

I’d like public toilets to ensure they always have soap and hand drying facilities first. I’m not asking for much.

A good start would be for him that brilliant woman who could explain to him why we have women's toilets in the first place, and what the provision needs to be to comply with equality regulations. I've forgotten her name but I bet someone will have a link.

Professor Clara Greed

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0038026119854274?journalCode=sora

manfridayuk.org/2018/04/27/the-problem-with-gender-neutral-toilets/

Was ManFriday 2 years ago??