But this begs the question, why are bathrooms made this way in the USA, and always have been? @echolocatechoco found a link above that seems reasonably well researched. I’m curious if the state of affairs on stall privacy is consistently better in other countries too.
Er… what? The men’s room is always more disgusting because a) dudes are messier/sloppier than women on average and b) there’s more, er… “room for error” with aiming due to the male equipment.
Actually I think the problem is the design of bathrooms is quite bad for your particular use case, as we’ve discussed above. It is strange because I don’t think the majority of non-trans people would object to more privacy in the bathroom either. The current design is OK, but more privacy is generally better for everyone isn’t it?
The sensible thing to do is push for changes to bathroom design standards, and see how practical it is to lobby for at least a few common private lockable bathrooms in every building for people who have special privacy needs.
That’s just piss. When I worked at a fast food place, part of the job of the front cashier was to clean the bathrooms. The men’s wasn’t bad. The women’s though…
One of the complaints my transmen friends have is that once they DO feel OK passing, the filth level of the men’s bathrooms completely skeeves them out.
Well there ya go… if there’s one sure-fire way to solve a problem, make it a problem for men as well. Then it magically becomes much more likely to get fixed.
I agree with you. Changing systemic design of bathrooms in general in the US is definitely a good goal. However to cause a massive overall change to the architecture of America’s bathrooms might take a bit of time. It might be more expedient to shift societal perceptions so that those that react with violence to trans* are seen as socially repugnant. It might be more realistic to change perceptions of trans* issues, than change how the bathrooms are built.
Also, this plan to lobby for different bathroom designs will not help me come Monday at school.
The problem is it only takes ONE of these creeps who react with violence alone in a bathroom with you to cause a problem. Hence the privacy issue.
Which is easier to change, the design of public bathrooms, or society’s perceptions to trans folks? I’m going with bathrooms on the time scale that we’ll be alive in. There isn’t any good remotely easy answer. At least for peeing you have more options.
Let us not let the forces of evil drive a wedge between engineers and social scientists! Join hands ye robot makers and community organizers, together we can solve all the problems.
