I was at a softball game for my daughter today (guy dress) and there was a line for the men's room. One of the women said, " use the Ladies' room it is just a toilet".  I looked at her dumfounded (to me it is much more than a toilet); I did not know what to say. She made perfect sense and she was so cool.

One more thing. There were 2 free woman's rooms and I was the only one in line to use them

LOL - yes it is totally mental in a way to make that separation and then have people of one gender stand in line being uncomfy while there are perfectly fine toilets next door. Though the other way round of course is more common - women use mens bathrooms all the time if there is a long queue - which is the more common situation I guess as some geniusses have not yet figures out that obviously it does not make sense to put in one womens toilet for each mens toilet, but that in most cases women need more (because they take more time to pee, pee more often and of course dont pee standing without something to hide in).

Quote from: Cynthia Michelle on September 08, 2013, 07:43:18 PMOne more thing. There were 2 free woman's rooms and I was the only one in line to use them

There be cooties in there, do it too often and you'll turn into a girl!

 

I always find the archaic notion of male/female separation to be fascinating. its one of the things that continually act as a tool to create the perceived differences in gender over physical sex. I would imagine if people could manage to get away with a co-ed bathroom (just stalls, so it wouldnt get weird) that the sexualization of restrooms might actually disappear. I Know it would certainly make things a heck of a lot easier for trans folk.

A woman's restroom without a line? 

In some countries, there are some differences between men's and women's public bathroom.

In my country (S. Korea), every local government tries hard to attract visitors and invests a lot of money in constructing luxurious public bathrooms. For women's room, a vanity table is a must. I see a crowd of college girls powder their nose in women's restrooms near the campus. For them, women's room is a kind of refuge. Usually women's rest room is more cleaner than men's, and I prefer women's.





All public restrooms are free here, but I found that they do charge in a lot of European countries. In Italy, I thought it is absurd that they charge 1 Euro for each person.

barbie~~

Oh yes, I am annoyed of that money thing with restrooms. I like clean restrooms as much as anyone but to actually mandatory charge for peeing is really stupid. Especially in public places like rail stations and such. I often encountered these and did not have money or no coins with me and then what - you really have to pee and have to ask people for change and such. In the end I just got used to redefine the big yellow M as a symbol for public restrooms

Re the separation thing. The weirdest thing is if they set up these chemical toilets at events or festivals. They are all 100% identical, even have a urinal in them. Yet they still put a fence between them and say that the ones where people are standing in line if dor women and the other one is for men. But occasionally I did see them not doing this. But I admit that this is not that great - I really dont want to be in the same room as a used urinal. Ugh.

 I recall something a few years ago about a woman who got arrested (the charges were dropped) for using the men's room. She wasn't trans or anything. It is was a ball game and the usual long line at the women's room and no line for the men's. Funny thing she got kind of treated like a celebrity after she got arrested (which is perhaps why the charges got dropped when they saw how silly it looked) and got invited to the Jay Leno show and so on. Why I remember it. Hmmm.

I do think it's silly. I don't agree that the women's room is necessarily cleaner. I think women can be pretty messy, esp when they squat instead of sit to avoid sitting. And the sexualization is rather troubling. If someone wants to assault women they aren't going to go to the trouble of going in drag.


--Jay

Indeed - I doubt a rapist would dress up to get there. LOL, that would be really weird. But who knows - some transhaters seem to thnk that And yes - womens restrooms can be a mess. Most women dont really sit down in public restrooms I believe - unless maybe they put a lot of toilet paper on the seat (which creates clogged drains and the paper ends up partially on the floor) or there is some self-cleaning toilet or a desinfectant available. Otherwise they squat and that never is perfect. I often wish they'd rather use the southern Europe style of restrooms for public places. You know the ones made for squatting without seats....

Anyway, when I was in Italy, I entered women's, as I wore exactly like my avatar (the avatar photo was taken in Slovenia, next to Italy). Usually an aged women collected coins in the front of both men's and women's room. I do not know the law of Italy, but I did not want to embarrass anybody.

When I was in Helsinki, I once entered men's, as I wore a men's jacket and long pants. But my long hair alone made the men there surprised. One man tried to enter the room, looking at me, and went out, checking again the sign. There were many men with long hair, but I guess the ethnic difference played a role. After this, I usually use women's in foreign countries.

barbie~~