CEO of Rape Crisis Network Ireland on unisex toilets

[Mermoose]

A good piece written by Clíona Saidléar, CEO of Rape Crisis Network Ireland, questioning the introduction in Irish schools of unisex toilets.

www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-40292030.html

That is an excellent piece. Thank God they don't allow comments - I would be depressed all over again if I had to read the full time MRA's who seem to fill up the comments section of each and every article in the Irish media about women's rights.

Of course, we all read the article and think it is common sense and "sure we all know that" but then, why is the Department doing what it is doing?

We all need to wake up and ask WHY these changes are happening to the hard fought single sex provisions women and girls have finally achieved in Ireland.

And we need to ask WHO is pushing this agenda and HOW they are getting access to law makers while women and girls, who are shouting stop, are being demonised.

I was automatically expecting bad news. (It seems to be my default state these days.)

It worries me that these changes are being made even though they break the law, because people know how hard it is to challenge them. It shouldn't be this difficult. It shouldn't be left up to individuals (who have to be directly affected) to have to fundraise.

Thanks for the link. That is an excellent article.

Thank you.

I’m an older person and worry about this move to unisex toilets.

Will they have urinals?
I don’t think I want to see that.

I think I would be frightened to go in and be in a small space and a man might attack me.
I know that sounds awful, I know most men wouldn’t do that, but I would feel vulnerable.

I think I would have to ask my husband to accompany me.

I know there are many situations in life that present a risk, like walking alone at night etc. I avoid that at all costs. But now I feel a social occasion could be spoiled by worry about needing to go to the toilet.

Do people think they might become widespread?

If only Rape Crisis Cambridge had the insight to recognise our need for female-only spaces: www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/07/27/cambridge-rape-crisis-centre-transgender-volunteers-transphobic-attacks/

Girls will still go to the toilet in groups because changing the signage won’t have changed their lived reality — that they get to escape for five minutes in the girls’ toilets before they re-enter the fray of a culture that is violently misogynistic; five minutes to armour themselves again to run the gauntlet that is everyday sexism, five minutes' respite to build mental health resilience because, whether we name it or not, perhaps one of the most compelling reasons girls and women go to the toilet in gangs is not because of what happens inside these places but because of what is happening outside of them.

Excellent.

Brilliant article. She’s well aware of the issue at the heart of this