I was in favor of unisex bathrooms, but someone pointed out that women are constantly harassed by men and the only safe way to escape unwanted attention is to retreat to a place that men basically cannot enter.
That is, it can be unsafe for a woman to tell a man to leave her alone, or that she's not interested, or similar. She can go to the bathroom though.
I don't know if it differs outside of Canada but "unisex" means single occupancy just like a toilet at home. Where TF are unisex bathrooms where both genders collect en masse a thing? That's just asking for sexual harassment.
Some workplaces have "all gender" restrooms with multiple stalls. Intel is one. Men and women can use it, but IME I've only ever seen men use it to poop in peace.
If you wanted to record restrooms, you could just set the camera eye level at the sinks. Something that physically can't see into closed stalls(and make the stall wall/doors go from floor to ceiling).
You're getting downvoted, but I'm extremely cautious of unisex bathrooms because a creep did exactly this at a bar, using the guise of the unisex bathroom to follow me in and sexually assaulted me.
As you stated, I'm sure he would have found any avenue to isolate me without causing suspicion that he could have found, but this certainly provided an easy method for him.
Also, edit to add: this was a couple years ago and I'm doing much better now :). Fuck that guy though, I hope he gets hit by a garbage truck.
Some people are citing safety concerns at bars, but the whole architecture of public restrooms could be engineered for bar safety. Real doors on stalls and glass doors or walls between the general area and sinks.
Oh you see that at bars all the time. Utterly stupid.
When I was at university in the late 2000s they did that with the university toilets, there was just a row of them off a corridor, all self-contained with a sink in everything, half of them were male and half of them were female, but there was literally no difference. No one ever paid any attention to the signs on the doors. No one ever cared back then.
patriarchy enforces itself on boys starting as early as when they're five (that's when i was first told boys and girls can't be friends). the patriarchy supports the types of people who are consistently republican. republicans consistently step in to defend and enforce patriarchy. if you're familiar with the shit Akademiks got caught doing recently, that's… that's how patriarchy enforces itself on boys when they're 13-16. it's republicans doing the grooming, and republicans accusing us of grooming. and so we are clear, i am not letting the democrats off the hook here. their tolerance of intolerant philosophies is actively harmful to our survival effectively they groom us to be groomed for our patriarchal roles
My fifth grader is going to go through his “human growth and development” series this spring in school, and they’ve stopped separating them by gender and everyone is all in the same classroom. Very different than when I did it in the mid-90s. It’s especially good because there’s kid at school who is nonbinary and I know of at least one other who is questioning.
I went to an Alamo Drafthouse once with an interesting bathroom set up.
When you walk up to the restroom, there's a large bay of sinks. To the left is a door that leads to a room of urinals and to the right is a hallway of stalls. Everyone just goes where they need to and since the sinks are out in the open where everyone sees and passes by, there's more social pressure to wash your hands.
The best, bar none, engendered public restroom I've ever seen was less of a restroom and more of an area. It was basically just a hallway coming from a main area in the establishment. The hallway was lined with doors. Each was a "stall" that was just a closet with a toilet. Full hight doors for privacy. At the far end of the hall was a line of sinks to wash your hands afterwards.
Now, do I think this is perfect and cannot be improved? Hell no. It's pretty flawed, but I'll tell you that it's less flawed than what most buildings that are open to the public have.... Far less flawed. Gendered bathrooms are weird. IDK why people are so adamant about keeping them. I mean, I don't have a men's room and a ladies room at my house, do you?
I've never understood the privacy argument. There's a door for a reason so no one can see anyone in there anyway. Do women not want men watching them wash their hands? I don't get it.
Yeah, they're great, I hadn't seen or heard about those before going to that Alamo. A hallway of stalls is a better phrase for describing it than I used. I did like that the alamo drafthouse had a room for urinals, so you don't end up with pee all over every street from missed aiming.
They could add a little dispenser of cleaner to the stalls, like they have at bucees. It's like a soap dispenser at the sink. You squirt it on some toilet paper and can use it to make sure the seat is clean before you sit down.
We have 1 unisex bathroom (literally 1 toilet) on the entire campus here, tucked away in a corner. I only ended up finding it by accident in my 3rd year. I personally would be in favor of removing the distinction everywhere, but I doubt that's going to happen. There was some strange blowback from some people who didn't like the change. On one hand, it felt pretty weird considering 99% of students didn't even know of the existence of said toilet before, but it became clearer to me after seeing how it was communicated.
I went to a theatre a few months ago that had the bathroom setup with several stalls that had full floor to ceiling walls and doors and an open sink area. There was a wall blocking the view of the main entrance to the building, but it was open enough that, at least to me and granted I am a CIS white male, it seemed like a solid setup that didn't feel so isolating that were something to happen in there, someone would pretty quickly know.
I thought that style of setup should be the norm, honestly I think it's the weird stalls that don't actually block anything and have locks that 80% of the time are misaligned and broken that prevent us from having decent unisex bathrooms. Also, we don't need urinals they don't really save any room or anything.
The only other change I'd make with this setup is I'd probably have a separate room for baby changing stations just because the one example I had was small enough that if you had that in there, it would just be in the way of people trying to get in and out.
Bonus tip: If there's no witnesses around, you can put an official-looking unisex bathroom sign on any stray bathroom. Most people aren't gonna question it.
All for it though it's best done when renovations are possible. Was at a place where they did it with multistall bathrooms and you had to guess which one had urinals.
Edit: of course could also just add a sign saying urinals here.
There should be two restrooms. One with only stalls, one with only urinals. That way we get the efficiency gains of urinals (very important at football stadiums), and nobody has to see a dick if they don't want to.
I mean, I don't know who goes to public bathrooms to see dick. I don't even want to be in there in the first place. Seeing someone else's bits is pretty low on the list of things I want to see in there, right above shit smeared walls.
They're super good for efficiency though; water, time, and space efficiency. Particularly the modern ones that basically have a one-way fluid valve so they don't require flushing. It's unfortunate that not everyone can use them.
There should be two restrooms. One with only stalls, one with only urinals. That way we get the efficiency gains of urinals (very important at football stadiums), and nobody has to see a dick if they don't want to.
Lol, I really don't care. I'm a cis gendered dude and I'm completely comfortable using the men's bathroom. It just defeats the stated purpose to have a 3rd bathroom for people who feel uncomfortable in the other 2.
Side note: for the love of god if you shit at work clean up after yourself. Bring baby wipes if you have to.
When I had digestive issues, I was a shy pooper, and just the thought of a stranger lady, let alone a stranger dude making eye contact thru the stall gap was... Unpleasant. Now that I learned very simple exercises to push the poop thru the intestines, and I drop human scat that could choke an anaconda. You are all welcome to bask in my glory in a unisex bathroom if that is truly what you wish.
But it keeps out around 50% of the population whose presence would deter assault. People usually don't get assaulted in a place with a lot of random witnesses.
Some people seem to think that public toilets need urinals and that urinals couldn't be at e.g. the end of the toilet behind a cover, so people don't have an accidental peek on a dick.
On entry, A sideview of the urinals and potential dicks are mandatory. If not at least 6 women see me pee against their will, I will sue the government. Look at my dick, woman!!!/s
People are just weird and can imagine that, like you don't go out of your way to look at people change in locker rooms, you don't go out of your way to see dicks on a public bathroom and that obviously unisex toilets would change how we build toilets.
As a man, I haven't seen an other man's dick on the toilet in months... Honestly I think years but I don't want to lie.
Well with the bathrooms divided shitty things already happen. I'd actually like to counter your point and say this'll actually improve the issue. If someone has a bunch of guys ready to beat their ass if they do something fucked up, they might decide against it. Literally everyone in that bathroom would have to be a piece of shit person to let something like that happen whereas right now you just need one piece of shit to sneak into the other bathroom.
Say you've never been to NYC without saying it, you ever walked by a homeless guy jacking off? I'm also distrusting your "group of guys ready to beat ass hanging out in the bathroom." Who signs up for that bedside weird perverts?
And at the same time if you had a bunch of other guys in the bathroom to beat his ass that'd be a plus too. I ain't afraid to punch a pervert in his stupid face.
Maybe just better Multiperson bathrooms or single person only?
Honestly Bukiees the gas station, has a pretty great Multiperson bathroom experience. Add just a little more to that so that they washing area can be fully public (i.e. cameras), and for some places with less traffic some occupancy sensors for the toilet rooms, and bam. We can have private, safe feeling bathrooms that can handle higher volumes. No need to have people feel like their in little assault traps regardless of gender.