Thinking about peeing

[beetiger]

I got Rhys a potty, since he's been really interesting in flushing the toilet whn I use it. I took off his diaper and put him on it; he promptly hopped off, stuck his head in it, and peed on the floor. Not sure what to make of that.

I've been thinking a lot about gender-neutral bathrooms these days. I was at a performance of the Vagina Monologues last weekend, and the bathroom situation was just silly -- lines down the hallway for the women's room, and no one in the men's room. I couldn't get any of the women to hop overto the other side, though I suggested it to several. Part of it is the cultural taboo, I think, but part of it is just...the urinals.

Urinals are weird. We don't have them in bathrooms at home. Women's rooms don't have them, and generally they don't have extra stalls to compensate. I would think that standing with your genitals exposed in a public area would be really odd. So, why?

I have to know.

[Poll #448516]

Comments

[collie13.livejournal.com]

I'm a tall person for my gender, and I loathe being squeezed into a stall so small I have to practically stand on the toilet to open the door. Equally annoying is having my knees jammed up against the door in order to sit. So I prefer the handicapped access stalls -- they're larger, & often they have their own sinks and mirror too. Frankly, I understand there's an issue with how many stalls can be fitted in if they're large ones, but why not combine two gendered restrooms into one unisex one, with completely private stalls? I'd far prefer that.

Regarding the poll, even though I'm female I answered it as well. I have no issues with using an empty men's room if there's a line at the women's room. The main reason I don't just go there anyway is I don't want to scare and/or antagonize men standing at a urinal and not expecting a woman to walk in. I've also waited quietly in a stall for a man to finish using the urinal & leave, for the same reason. I may not have an issue with using a men's room, but that doesn't mean I have the right to assume everyone thinks like I do, after all. ;)

That being said, I've had occasions where men have encouraged me to go ahead and use the men's room when the women's room was overly full or closed. Admittedly, these were often camping or college situations, where I expect the men are usually a bit more mentally flexible.

I've also "stood guard" for male friends using the women's room when the men's room was closed or overly full, but that was mostly because we were worried women would be very upset at walking in and finding a man in the women's room -- we recognized it was a different social dynamic than the reverse, regardless of how we might personally feel about it.

Yeah, thinking about it... count me as another vote for unisex, closed-stall restrooms. ;)