Toilet gender politics

[samvara]

The poor planning often associated with toilets at public events sometimes leaves me speculating about some sort of decrease in female bladder size over the last 50 years. Alternatively maybe women didn’t go to many public events. Or perhaps voluntary dehydration similar to self imposed malnutrition to appear dainty and able to subsist on the occasional deep breath of air.

At the Duxton our merry group ignored gender and ended up using the facilities according to the symbols on the signs. People wearing skirts used the ladies and people wearing trousers used the gents (this was incidental but amusing). Other than water everywhere (apparent inability to turn taps on gently) it’s not unpleasant in the gents but I wonder how the men feel.

Does it bother men if the women use the gents?

Comments

[strangedave.livejournal.com]

Generally, men used to going to large public events, such as festivals and outdoor rock concerts etc, are used to women deciding to use the gents when the lines for the ladies are far too long.

Most men will even use the urinals while women are waiting in the same room - after all, the guy is always facing away.

No doubt some men are bothered, but they seem to be in the minority. Presumably those men who are bothered simply use a cubicle.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

It doesn't bother me personally - from an efficient use of resources perspective I would prefer that more toilets were non-gender specific. I quite liked the café I used to go to that had two loos under the stairs, one for tall people and one for short people (the latter had a lower ceiling due to the aforementioned stairs).

At one of the petrol stations J & I stopped at while driving down to Walpole last year there was a fairly long queue for the ladies, so I stood guard outside the gents while J used them, who was then followed by other women. There was only one cubicle, so my biggest concerns were the prospects of either a more conservative male not wishing to be caught at the urinal or a woman not wishing to come across someone else using it.

[scotsnow.livejournal.com]

I think unisex toilets are an excellent idea, and a superb use of resources.

The line for the women's toilet at, for instance, the theatre or a concert is always ridiculously long and having both toilets unisex just makes sense to me.

But that wasn't your question. Your question was: does it bother men if women use the gents?

Well I don't mind.

But do women mind sharing with men though?

[ariaflame.livejournal.com]

Long term I believe the ladies' smell better.

And presumably in the men's they wouldn't actually be sharing a cubicle with same.

I suspect if it was a choice my bladder would win.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Smell is mostly a maintenance issue - if urinals don't have effective germ killing blocks in place or adequate ventilation they can get manky. This is apparently far more of an issue than flushing, as demonstrated by the growing numbers of waterless urinals that are starting to show up around Perth that don't smell at all, as opposed to the flushing but out-of-antibacterial one at the pub I was at tonight that was dire.

Interestingly, I've spoken to a office cleaner who claimed that in her experience girls loos are usually messier than boys, at least for gender balanced offices. (It's a bit different when you've got a floor of 70 men and four women..)

[ascetic-hedony.livejournal.com]

I just assume that guys are more likely to pee on the floor, particularly when drinking.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Well, there is that. I try to forget that my sex puts me in the same bucket as those idiots :(

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I've never minded, but I was raised by people who didn't care. I am *so* going to ask my mother about this now!

It depends on the context really, I've shared facilities with men and had it be utterly OK. You can make any experience creepy if you try though!

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

Eh, smell wasn't an issue - then again except for the weird splash basin effect at the hand sinks the Duxton has nice facilities.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of tall people and short people facilities!

When I was working in the Northern Territory, the gold mine I was on didn't have toilets for women. We all used the same and I just tended to wear very discreet underwear. Also read a lot of very dodgy magazines.

[black-samvara.livejournal.com]

I figure the rules are different at need and a long line is definitely a good reason to change the rules.

[scotsnow.livejournal.com]

Solution: sit down to whizz. If it's the middle of the night and you're staggering around half asleep - sit down. If you've had too much to drink - sit down. If you can hit everywhere except in the toilet, for godsake - SIT DOWN!

Or stand real close to the urinal. These people need to realise the floor is not a toilet for crying outloud. :P