Gender neutral facilities: A conversation hopefully done the right way

[Polyxo]

I know that gender-based discussions are banned now. I'm hoping that we can sort of skirt around this, because I think it's something we can actually talk about, carefully. I would like everyone to be careful not to derail things into a gender discussion. If this is simply not possible, or the thread gets de-railed, I apologize.

I have pretty extensive experience with gender-neutral facilities, so I'm pretty much for them. A few times a week, I go into a locker room, and change my clothes among a bunch of men. Some of them get naked and shower. It's for hockey, and the places I play usually don't have a women's room, because they don't have that many women playing. It was awkward the first day or two, and then I got used to it. It seems everyone else is used to it to, as we all casually talk hockey, or work, or school, or movies or whatever while we're changing to play, or back into our clothes. I haven't had any leers, or snide remarks, or anything like that.

Anyway, I'm wondering, does anyone else have an experience with gender neutral facilities (bathrooms/locker rooms/dorms/etc), and was it okay, or did you encounter something less pleasant. In the interest of keeping this out of a discussion about gender at large, I would like to request that people mostly just post about their experiences with gender-neutral facilities, or questions or discussions about other peoples experiences with them.

[May90]

Not exactly such a facility, but when we with dad attended a central swimming pool in our previous city, some of the workers in the large wardrobe were women, so they got to see a lot of naked men. No issues.

I think nudity is overly tabooed in our society. Gender neutral facilities with both genders seeing each other nude isn't going to cause any more trouble than gender separated facilities with homosexuals in them. Same with, pretty much, anything involving two genders interacting in an intimate setting: as long as all of them are sane individuals, there aren't going to be issues.

[Underverse]

I don't have any experience using gender neutral facilities other than the occasional 1-person bathroom. But I would support them. I just don't see a legitimate argument in favor of segregation.

[Everwake]

I have two gender-neutral bathrooms in my house. That's how progressive I am! Anyway, I am for each gender having their own facilities, with a neutral bathroom/shower/locker stand somewhere nearby, i.e. the kind of locked, single person bathroom you find at most grocery stores.

[Flutterguy]

Co-ed showering facilities when?

[Moralgy]

I'm in favor of them. Sure it would be kinda weird for a bit, but everyone would get over it pretty quickly. Just convert the typical two system to one with child friendly things and one without. Since a lot of buildings were created, around where I live that at least, when women were the primary caretakers in almost every situation, this would fix a lot of "needing to remodel" issues and fix problems dad's have with changing babies and such.

"Peeping tom" type laws generally should be enough of a deterrent to people being creepy, though some people are going to be creepy no matter what the situation.

[Drekker17]

I don't see a good reason to make all bathrooms gender neutral. In my experience gender neutral bathrooms are dirtier.

[Arganis]

Last thing I want is to share my restroom with woman, there's always a fucking line.

[GrinningMan]

Just wait for a guy to rip a monster shit in the gender-neutral bathroom and you'll see outrage like you've never believed.

[slavrix]

Last thing I want is to share my restroom with woman, there's always a fucking line.

Nothing more true has ever been said.

[ringpriest]

I've been to a few nightclubs with gender neutral facilities; never had a problem, never saw a problem, never heard anyone else mention a problem (specifically related to the facilities that is).

Also, anyone interested in the topic should go watch Starship Troopers - purely for research reasons, of course.

[FuxieDK]

I don't want unisex toilets; I enjoy the short waiting time..

[breadisfunny]

i'm against them. i already don't like the idea of having to use the bathroom with potentially other men in the room i don't want women in my bathroom either.

[Lantoran]

I think it would be kinda difficult to change the norm in the society as it is now. Many people are comfortable in gender-specific bathrooms and would be uncomfortable in gender neutral ones. Maybe not for reasons so extreme as "maybe I'll get raped" but because of "I don't want a man/woman seeing me and I don't want to see them". It would be difficult not to think sexual thoughts - easy enough to ignore them, but some wouldn't even want the concept to be there. I think a move in the right direction would be gender-neutral but with such privacy that nobody could see the others sexual organs, so basically a lot of stalls. Nudity is natural and all, and there might not be many extreme cases in gender-neutral facilities, but that's not the problem for many. We'd have to remove the taboo on sex in general for that to happen, which would be a much more difficult problem to tackle. So, in my opinion, gender neutral facilities are a good step forward but only with extensive privacy in buildings when gender-specific ones are not provided

[Deleted]

On one had they kind of make sense on another they don't... I can see longer lines for the washroom overall. Say what you will but two dozen guys peeing into a trough going around the room at a ball game is faster then two dozen toilets that need to be closed and flushed.

That and I can see some issues coming up with kids that really would lead to awkward moments...

I see segregated bathrooms as working and I don't really see benefits to unisex washrooms safe for very small buildings.

[Deleted]

Male bathrooms have urinals, and unless women would be alright with them then I don't see the point. Tbh, I don't see the point anyway. Most, if not all, public locations already have gender seperated bathrooms, and there's no point spending extra money in changing them. While 99% of experiences in gender neutral bathrooms may be seamless and peaceful, there are always stupid people that may do stupid things and I don't see the point in risking that for the purpose of making gender neutral bathrooms. Most people don't talk to each other anyway in bathrooms, so I don't see the point in trying to force cross-gender socialization in what is not a very social place anyway.

[Deleted]

I'm a guy and I wouldn't use gender neutral restrooms. I like to use urinals lol.

If I gotta take a dump, it's a different story.

[Andyclan]

Last thing I want is to share my restroom with woman, there's always a fucking line.

Hahahaha sooo true dude, it's one of the perks of the separate bathrooms... Not to mention girls are dirty as fuck. When I was a teenager I worked at target, and I used to have to clean restrooms from time to time. I hated cleaning the women's restroom.... it was absolutely disgusting. So in short, no I would not like to share, for the two reasons I just mentioned.

[princehenry]

I'm a guy and I wouldn't use gender neutral restrooms. I like to use urinals lol.

If I gotta take a dump, it's a different story.

das racyst

[Mormolyce]

Last thing I want is to share my restroom with woman, there's always a fucking line.

No line for the men's public toilets. We'll go to any lengths to avoid using those toxic biohazards.