Printable View
I cannot say that I am a person that travelled all around the world, but fortunately I have been able to visit a couple of countries.
On "one" stupid country, I visited a unviersitary campus, there were NOT female or male restrooms. Restrooms were unisex and all of them individual.
Why is this policy not followed everywhere?
It should be. Some parts of Europe it is getting quite common. France very much so, especially on camp sites etc. The UK unfortunately is a bit old fashioned about these things despite being very modern thinking towards the TG population these days. In another 100 years I'm sure it will all be this way and they will look back on this current segregation with confusion.
I have seen them in France. I have seen women use men's restroom in France too, when women's line was long.
"Why is this policy not followed everywhere? "
Because it's cheaper and uses less building space to just build two restrooms with individual stalls. Perhaps a university is not concerned with cost and space use but private businesses are.
I don't know about cost. The newer Starbucks seem to build two single-server restrooms and label both of them "Gender Neutral." It makes perfect sense, and costs no more than labeling the restrooms "Men" and "Women."
Krisi, Being an ex builder so to speak, it is definitely not cheaper to build two separate restrooms as you describe. It is cheaper to build one and make it gender neutral or two if the expected volume justifies it. Larger restrooms with multiple stalls is needed for larger crowds at one time, like between larger restaurants, schools, shows and half time at sports venues.
Some Canadian universities have a neural rest room to accommodate LGBT students.
In the District of Columbia, it seems in most new restaurants, this is the policy.
I was very surprised when I was in my parents small town in Italy at a small pizza restaurant, I came out of the toilet stall to find a women in front of me fixing her hair. I apologized I thought I went into the wrong washroom. The women asked me why I was apologizing when I didn't do anything wrong.
My family there said it's very common there to have one washroom shared, there are only toilets in the washrooms.
back in y service days I too was well travelled and agree with other posters here, most if not all were unisex type facilities, also have noticed of late a lot of "family" bathrooms, do not know whether it is there expressly for families or if it is a neutral way around the gender issue ,here in conservative e wash st that is how I read it
The "family restroom" idea is actually one of the good bits of fallout over the TG bathroom debate -- a number of states have updated their laws to say that any single occupancy restroom has to be a "family restroom" which actually makes it convenient for more people and makes the use of space more efficient.
Macada,
Yes it's far more common to have unisex facilities , you will also find the Europeans won't hesitate to swap if the line is too long , OK so women do wait longer than men! I did find it disconcerting standing at the male urinals and finding women wandering through because the they couldn't wait any longer .
They don't have the childish, Puritanical hang ups about sex we do.
When I traveled there in the 70's there were magazines with naked women on the covers openly lying around in book/newspaper stores. If Miss Jackson's tiny boob flashed on TV screens in Europe? Not only would no one be "offended"? No one would have noticed!:straightface:
While unisex single stall restrooms are more common these days in the US, and in some places mandated by law in new buildings, multi-stall ones are rare and I have never seen one. I can understand the reason since there are a number of people uncomfortable, or in some cases forbidden, using the restroom with the opposite sex. The only solution I can think of is also having one or two single stalls available for those needing one. Americans are still fairly stunted regarding "sex" compared to others parts of the world, and I suspect it is going to be a while before unisex multi-stalls restrooms are not a rare beast.
I am full-time, and I must admit I like having a place where I can converse with friends or other women in a safe place without any guys around. I would get accustomed to unisex restrooms for all, but would miss the sanctuary of a women's only restroom.
If you are going to accommodate several people at the same time (Lowes, Home Depot, Kohls, Pennys, office buildings, etc., it's cheaper and takes less space to build two multi user restrooms than a dozen individual ones.Quote:
Originally Posted by AllieSF
In some cases, laws dictate separate restrooms for men and women.
One stupid country sounds very smart to me. :-)
I've experienced shared toilet facilities while in France and initially it takes a little getting used to as it goes against our British ingrained Victorian puritanism. That said it doesn't take long to become accustomed. I often found the cubicles were at one end of the room and the urinals the other behind a half height modesty screen.
last time I went to a pub in the Gay Village in Manchester they had 2 toilets. One was urinals only, no stalls and labelled as male only. The other stalls only and dual sex. At firsts this took me as strange but thinking about it, it made perfect sense. Males were able to go for a "quick splash and dash" leaving the stalls free for those of whatever gender persuasion who required them. As far as I could ascertain there weren't any female only toilets. Didn't seem to cause any problems with those frequenting the pub.
I think it's better to keep the bathrooms separate. Men are slobs who pee standing up with the toilet seat down. Poor ladies will have to deal with messy seats that they wouldn't have other wise.
Plus perverts will likely dig in the trash for used tampons.
It's also just awkward being a man and hearing girls talk while doing business. I used a fitting room that was for both genders and I felt very awkward hearing a mom and daughter in the stall 2 doors down talking. It reminded me of the time I was a kid and my mom took me into the womens fitting room.
Americans are "stunted"? That's pretty insulting to a lot of people. Just because you have a certain viewpoint doesn't mean anyone with a different viewpoint is "stunted".Quote:
Originally Posted by Melissa Rose
Sorry Krisi but I see where Melissa is coming from. In the early 1980s while living in Germany men and women shared showers/bath/changing facilities for road races and none of the locals, men or women, batted an eye. Let me know the next time you see that here in the USA; it will be the first.
Btw, I don't think she meant it as an insult, rather an observation.....which I can verify.