To wonder why an MP is lying about womens bathrooms?

[TeaKlaxon]

Lucy Allen has tweeted that the Barbican has mens bathrooms and gender neutral bathrooms, but no womens bathrooms.

Lots of twitter users told her that was wrong.

The Barbican itself told her it's wrong.

But the tweet remains. AIBU to think that if an MP gets something wrong, they should apologise and remove the lie? Or to think that this is deliberate misinformation to further the myth of women being 'erased'?

twitter.com/lucyallan/status/1507076111871713282?s=20&t=D_TGgQBlnKkKZ6NEIjnzsw

@DdraigGoch

Could whoever was offering to visit the Barbican next week please count up just how many women's, men's, and gender neutral toilets there are in the building? I'm interested to know if there is an equal balance of male/female, or whether the Barbican have merely rebadged the women's toilets while leaving the number of men's toilets intact.

I will do exactly that! I will go into the women's toilets and count how many cubicles there are too. I might poke my head into the gender neutral ones and count there too so I can see how much female provision has been repurposed.

So the fact that lesbians are more likely to be impacted by their fake hysteria is absolutely relevant.

'Fake hysteria', eh? Interesting word choice.

So, summing up - you are saying the MP is lying because she quotes a woman, whom you also say is lying. Based on nothing at all, as far as I can see.

Your assertions are just as likely to be bullshit false as those of any other random anonymous internet poster.

334BU: Do the male toilets ,which are now mixed sex, have urinals? If they do then they can't be for women as well. The mixed sex lavatories on the autoroutes in France often have urinals. (Of course, no one uses them if there's any other option because they are vile.)

SamphiretheStickerist: Invented by and named after men... The John, The Jakes, The Crapper etc etc. Don't forget The Head!

Technically in North American English, a bathroom is supposed to have at least a sink in addition to a toilet, but not necessarily a bath, shower, or bidet. I suppose one could take a sponge bath ...

So, summing up - you are saying the MP is lying because she quotes a woman, whom you also say is lying. Based on nothing at all, as far as I can see.

This is the original tweet that OP has interpreted to suit their own political agenda:

I received this message today: “I was at the Barbican yesterday where there were male toilets, disabled toilets, and gender neutral toilets. I asked where were the female toilets as I am not gender neutral I am a woman and they laughed in my face. Women are being erased.”

Clymene, please update us on the number of male and female toilets (and if they are closed at daytime). I would very much like to know this now.

I also really wish people (usually men) wouldn’t call Women’s concerns “fake hysteria”, it is always used about women and so sexist.

As for the lesbians, what do they have to do with it? Why drag sexual orientations into this? I honestly couldn’t care less what sexual orientation a woman in the cubicle next door has, this is getting bizarre now. Are people suggesting that lesbians don’t menstruate? Or that they look like men? This sounds like old school homophobia to be honest .

Anyone who supports the Johnson government has to have either their competence or their honesty brought into doubt. Often both. And that tweet fits absolutely into the playbook of that dishonest sector of politics

'I don't like her and that proves she's a liar'

Technically in North American English, a bathroom is supposed to have at least a sink in addition to a toilet, but not necessarily a bath, shower, or bidet. I suppose one could take a sponge bath ...

For god's sake don't go giving anyone any ideas.

This would hardly be the first time that this MP has been economical with the truth. She altered a message sent to her on social media to imply that she'd been sent a death threat. She retweeted a post from a far right Twitter account stating falsely that Starmer had obstructed the prosecution of grooming gangs. She was reprimanded for the latter by her own party.

@TooBigForMyBoots

The GB News story about the bar in Belfast is utter bollocks. The Ladies Toilets in that bar are on the ground floor about 5 steps to the right of the sign directing the Mens and Gender Neutral toilets on the 1st floor.

Exactly.

All the feigned 'Oh but she never actually said there were no women's bathroom' is totally disingenuous on here.

That was the clear implication - by saying there were mens bathrooms and gender neutral bathrooms, the reader is clearly expected to deduce that there were no women's bathrooms.

It's bollocks in respect of the Barbican. It's bollocks in respect of the bar in Belfast.

@PurgatoryOfPotholes

OP, you were the usher, weren't you.

Next time a customer asks where the women's toilets are, politely direct her to the nearest one instead of laughing derisively, and she'll feel no need to contact her MP.

No. I wasn't. I don't work at the Barbican.

It's bollocks in respect of the Barbican. It's bollocks in respect of the bar in Belfast.

No. One does not prove the other.

I have never been to Belfast so can not comment.

But I have recently been to the Barbican... and have commented.

@334bu

Do the male toilets ,which are now mixed sex, have urinals? If they do then they can't be for women as well.

Why? Women can use cubicles too. I've been in gender neutral toilets that have urinals - it's generally been clearly marked as 'Gender Neutral with Urinal' as opposed to 'Gender Neutral without Urinal'.

Women can obviously make their own choice as to whether they want to use a space with a urinal. Some will, some won't.

@LittleMyTopKnot

Clymene, please update us on the number of male and female toilets (and if they are closed at daytime). I would very much like to know this now.

I also really wish people (usually men) wouldn’t call Women’s concerns “fake hysteria”, it is always used about women and so sexist.

As for the lesbians, what do they have to do with it? Why drag sexual orientations into this? I honestly couldn’t care less what sexual orientation a woman in the cubicle next door has, this is getting bizarre now. Are people suggesting that lesbians don’t menstruate? Or that they look like men? This sounds like old school homophobia to be honest .

If it makes you feel better, someone like Graham Linehan is the chief peddler of hysteria, so certainly not a term I only use in respect of women.

Are you a woman? You go in to the urinals? How do you think the men feel about that? Do you not think they should have some privacy? I'm sorry but that is just wrong.

Why does the word 'hysteria' always come out in these discussions.

@SamphiretheStickerist

It's bollocks in respect of the Barbican. It's bollocks in respect of the bar in Belfast.

No. One does not prove the other.

I have never been to Belfast so can not comment.

But I have recently been to the Barbican... and have commented.

You commented but got some basic things wrong.

Like claiming that the womens toilets were the only ones to be made gender neutral (according to another poster who has been there recently not correct) and claiming that the other womens toilets are 'further in and further up' - neither of which is true given there is still a woman's toilet on ever floor (and two of them on one floor).

Or like complaining that the womens toilet isn't always with the other toilets, as if this hasn't always been the case in that building. Most womens (and mens) toilets in the Barbican are not together and never have been because of the building's particular design.

@Franca123

Why does the word 'hysteria' always come out in these discussions.

Because there is a hyseria (led by men as well as women, FWIW) that results in these sorts of lies being peddled.

It reminds me of when we were all told that NHS workers were told they have to use the term chestfeeding instead of breastfeeding. A total lie. A total invention to whip up outrage.

@Franca123

Are you a woman? You go in to the urinals? How do you think the men feel about that? Do you not think they should have some privacy? I'm sorry but that is just wrong.

What? Is that directed at me?

If so, I am specifically referring to gender neutral toilets that have urinals, not mens toilets. Yes, I have used them (GN toilets that have a urinal). They would generally not be my first choice, but they exist to be used by people irrespective of their gender.

Jesus Christ. What a world. I'm giving up now.

Are you a woman?

You didn't answer the question op.

I'm just interested to know if you are a woman who tramples men's boundaries by crusing the urinals.

Or you're a man who enjoys eroding women's spaces.

I didn't see the men's loos that had been repurposed - I am not a man and didn't pop in and have a look. I didn't crawl over every inch of the centre, I was there for an exhibition! - and I needed 2 wees, because I stayed so long.

I said that the loos I was looking for had been repurposed., meaning I had a bit of an additional wait/walk until I found some women's loos.

You seem to be taking general comments, specific comments, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all into one big ball of confusion!

No. I wasn't. I don't work at the Barbican.

And yet you seem to know so much about the lay-out, and whenever someone on here describes something that doesn't chime with your memories, you never feel a second's doubt in your own testimony. So if you don't work there, how many hours a week do you spend there?

That was the clear implication - by saying there were mens bathrooms and gender neutral bathrooms, the reader is clearly expected to deduce that there were no women's bathrooms.

Yes, if a member of staff laughed in a customer's face for asking where the women's toilets are, the customer would conclude that there were no separate facilities for women. (I very much doubt a bathroom is available for customers!)

The fault does not lie with the customer, it lies with the usher.

hysteria (n.)

nervous disease, 1801, coined in medical Latin as an abstract noun from Greek hystera "womb," from PIE udtero-, variant of udero- "abdomen, womb, stomach" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. With abstract noun ending -ia. General sense of "unhealthy emotion or excitement" is by 1839.

www.etymonline.com/word/hysteria