Gender Neutral Restrooms in the US

[Ed]

Already at conventions including some I have attended some of the restrooms have become Gender Neutral. I know that there has been a lot of talk both for and against. As for me I have no problem with them, I have used them every time I need to use them and had zero problems. Funny thing they are also the least used restrooms in the entire convention. I know every time I use one I have no wait. Which given how apart some of the restrooms are that is a good thing.

If you don't mind seeing a woman pass you on the way to the toilets all the while you are standing at a urinal. There isn't an issue, but still they are the least used. If others have issues, let them I'll just do what I need to and that's it.

[Greenbare Woods]

The "natural" grocery store my wife likes to shop formerly had two single person restrooms labeled male and female.  I noticed the last time I was there that it now has M/F labels on both.   That makes more sense since there was no plumbing or fixture differences.  Now the next person can use whichever room is available.  That will reduce waiting time if a same sex person is there first.

I have not seen any multiple people use restrooms in the US go unisex or gender neutral.   What conventions did you attend where that has happened?   Did they take over the former MEN's restroom and now allow women to also use?  Did they take over the former women's restroom and allow men to use?  Or, did they create a new larger restroom for everyone. 

During the Roman Empire they weren't so fastidious about bodies and body functions.  Toilets were arranged for Romans to sit and chat about the weather or politics while doing body functions.  They also did not have sex divisions.  This is Roman toilets.   Much more practical design.  Of course in England you would have to have weather protection for the whole group. 

[nuduke]

Gender neutral toilets don't have urinals, just cubicles.  I also feel one should be allowed a little privacy when enacting one's most personal functions!


I have a bigoted prejudice about gender segregation of toilets.  The men's never has a cue but the ladies does.  Why is that?  answer, ladies do all sorts of stupid slow things in the WC like refreshing their make up and spending ages on the pot!  Gender neutral loos simply subject men to having to cue and wait in smelly bogs!  And my experience of ladies toilets (which, whilst limited is more extensive than you might think!...er, I should add - for entirely ethical and noble reasons) is that ladies are dirty beasts when it comes to leaving the bog and sinks in a bad state!  Some of that experience has been from my wife who has had to visit sub-optimal ladies toilets in cues of women and has had horrendous and sometimes hilarious anecdotes to tell afterwards! 


One of the things that embarrasses me about the UK is that it is not difficult to encounter unhygienic, badly maintained, badly cleaned toilets especially in big public institutions like museums.  In my travels in the UK and Canada the standard of hygiene is exemplary in toilets (or restrooms!) everywhere (or almost).  I can never understand why we Brits cannot achieve similar standards of cleanliness and maintenance.


John

[Greenbare Woods]

Gender neutral toilets don't have urinals, just cubicles.  I also feel one should be allowed a little privacy when enacting one's most personal functions!

I have a bigoted prejudice about gender segregation of toilets.  The men's never has a cue but the ladies does.  Why is that?  answer, ladies do all sorts of stupid slow things in the WC like refreshing their make up and spending ages on the pot!  Gender neutral loos simply subject men to having to cue and wait in smelly bogs!  John

The industry is trying to encourage women to use urinals.   Here is the new female urinals.  I'm not sure where these are installed. 

Like you say, John, women tend to take a lot longer for a variety of reasons not related to passing water.   Their insistence on wearing men's pants rather than skirts, and insistence on wearing inconvenient underwear even with a skirt, will make use of a urinal more difficult for women. 
 

[BlueTrain]

There are ways around those issues, I believe, although most women wear women's pants instead of men's pants. They are made differently, you understand. Yet in some countries, everybody wears pants, in others, nobody does.

We have a gender-neutral bathroom in our house. It's the latest thing.

[Greenbare Woods]

We have a gender-neutral bathroom in our house. It's the latest thing.

Do  you have a urinal for men in your home?    If not, why not? 

[BlueTrain]

Nope. Why should we? The plumbing gives enough trouble without one more fixture to worry about.

All of this trouble with restrooms only began when those newfangled indoor privies started to become popular. What next? Gas lighting?

[John P]

A country boy, maybe from West Virginia, went into town one day and came home amazed. "They got these contraptions to wash your feet. Then you pull a handle, and it changes the water so you can wash the other foot!"

The Duke of Wellington called it "The biggest waste of water in the country. You spend half a pint, and wash away a few gallons." (I read that somewhere years ago, so it must be true.)

[BlueTrain]

It so happens that I am from West Virginia, although I grew up in a small town that was the county seat. It even boasted a courthouse designed by an architect educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. But when I was still in high school, we moved out to the country, in the next county (and in a way, in the previous century) where we lived in a log house (not a cabin, mind you) that had no indoor toilet, no telephone and, sometimes, no running water. I now live outside of Washington, D.C., with deer in the back yard.

"With every kind of comfort - every house is all complete.
You can walk to privies in the rain and never wet your feet.
They've gone about as far as they can go.
Everything's up to date in Kansas City."

[jbeegoode]

It so happens that I am from West Virginia, although I grew up in a small town that was the county seat. It even boasted a courthouse designed by an architect educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. But when I was still in high school, we moved out to the country, in the next county (and in a way, in the previous century) where we lived in a log house (not a cabin, mind you) that had no indoor toilet, no telephone and, sometimes, no running water. I now live outside of Washington, D.C., with deer in the back yard.

"With every kind of comfort - every house is all complete.
You can walk to privies in the rain and never wet your feet.
They've gone about as far as they can go.
Everything's up to date in Kansas City."

Where's teh quote from?

I was at a friends party during the holidays and she had an additional bidet system attached to the toilet. Not the usual. DAng ting squirted water from the toilet seat clear across the room and hit the mirror about four feet up. I had a mess to clean.
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

Those are a few lines from the musical "Oklahoma!", which opened in 1943. It also includes the song "Poor Jud is dead."

Oklahoma is OK. I was there for about six or eight months while I was in the army.

[Greenbare Woods]

I was at a friends party during the holidays and she had an additional bidet system attached to the toilet. Not the usual. DAng ting squirted water from the toilet seat clear across the room and hit the mirror about four feet up. I had a mess to clean.
Jbee

There are several different brands of add on body wash "bidet" things you can replace your toilet seat with.   I've thought about getting one if I have to move to a home without a bidet. 

Japan makes toilets with built in features such as warm water wash and music.   Not sold much in the US.   However you can order those add on things.  I've never used one.  That one that squirted across the room sounds like it needed some adjustment.  Probably the owner didn't know how to use or adjust it properly.

[Peter S]

It probably worked fine if you were sitting there instead of pressing the button to see what happened. Sounds like it would have been a forceful cleanout!

[jbeegoode]

Yes, bidets require some practice. In France, there seemed to be a consistent standard giving a degree of expectation about the contraptions behavior. It started easy and then got stronger.

This thing was just a high power setting and one would have to aim carefully, before turning it on.

I prefer a warm washcloth after paper does the job.

Doesn't bidet have intentions for monthly ladies issues?

The old places in France that we often stayed in the 60's often had a bidet in the room, but a walk down the hall was necessary for general plumbing. We weren't so sure about their uses. It saved a chilly walk and sometimes a wait, down the hall, but we knew that pissing in one was faux paux...for some reason.

Jbee

[nuduke]

A previous house had a bidet in the bathroom with a small multi-jet fountain that came up vertically from the bidet base.  I have to say it was quite an erotic experience having your scrotum, anus and perineum caressed by a gentle fountain of warm water!  Not so when the water was stone cold!!


I have peed in a bidet before...why not?  The water goes down the same drain as the toilet pan!  I didn't make a habit of it!


We have stayed in places with a bidet in the bathroom and discovered they are really useful for washing your underwear and socks in!!


Looking for something funny to write about bidets I read this just now on a bidet manufacturers website:  "The multitude of toilet paper options available for purchase are staggering. On average, one roll of toilet paper costs $3 and Americans use approximately 34,000,000 rolls of toilet paper a day, which means that we spend a shocking $102,000,000 a day just on toilet paper! Purchasing a bidet seat  or bidet attachment can easily cut your toilet paper spending by 75% or more."  And evidently the recommended hygiene procedure is to use just water and not soap which dries out the skin in those regions, the manufacturer opines.


When we had a new bathroom added to our house about 3 years ago, I wanted a squat toilet and a bidet in that one.  The wife was dead against the squat toilet on grounds that her arthritis doesn't allow her to squat plus, since the bathroom was downstairs, that would be the one that guests might use and the old conformity prejudices wouldn't permit that much deviation from the norm!  Squatting to defecate, as I think we have discussed before is the best cure for perianal haemorrhoids a man can get!  Take it from me.  As a sufferer from as early as teenage, I haven't suffered for many years now thanks to the discovery of squatting!  But I digress....


John