The bathroom conundrum!!!Duh Duh Daaaaah!!
So I learned some stuff yesterday when I decided to wear a slightly bolder shade of lip color to work. Firstly, PEOPLE NOTICE THAT. I've been wearing full makeup for over a week now including eyeshadow, eyeliner wings, foundation, blush, nude lip colors in addition to all women's clothes but half the guys at the news station barely seemed to notice and girls were mostly giving me winky eyes like, "hey girl, I see you." But add a little brighter lip shade and BOOM, the guys are all taken by surprise!
I polled my girl squad about this and the consensus is that even for women wearing a bold lip shade signifies something and often elicits assumptions like, "Going somewhere fancy?" Ugh. I immediately regretted my choice but silly me, I used a marker like lip stain that I love that lasts super long and is REALLY tough to remove.
Before I was using the men's room with very little issue but I crossed some invisible threshold and now its completely awful. So, I used the ladies room... down the very long hall on the opposite side of the complex because I don't feel like having that conversation yet and I sit on my rear end all day so I need the exercise anyway. First thing I notice... they have awesome lighting and a full length mirror! You'd think we would have that in the mens room since the news anchors use it as their changing rooms half the time but no TERRIBLE LIGHTING.
Look at this dope lighting!
Anyway, baby steps. I chickened out later when I had to use the bathroom and darted into the men's room. When I came out I nearly gave a bearded old guy a conniption as he seized up after getting a look at me coming out of the men's room. I just apologized profusely and moved on but I gotta just pull the plug and go team ladies lest I seize up any more grandpas XD
Seriously though I wanted to crawl into a hole and die and I wish HR had just told me which to use. I could've used some strict authoritarian decision making and a company wide email stating my status (they denied this request stating it was "proven to do more harm than good." Okay?)
That leaves it on me to make the women at my work comfortable with me in their spaces and that's just... a lot. It's news so it's hard to know when to make that kind of talk.