College Bathrooms

submitted by hippiepotomus from self.GenderCritical

This is in the US. I recently had to go back to my old college for a CE course. The course was in a multiple-story building and when I was a student there (7 years ago), each floor had 1 men's restroom and 1 women's restroom. The women's rooms previously had 3 stalls each, I don't know exactly what the men's rooms had but my guess would be at least 1 stall and probably 3-4 urinals. When I went to use the restroom before the course, I noticed that the room once labeled "women" now said "everyone" and had a picture that would indicate it was a "gender-neutral" restroom. I looked over and saw that the men's room was still labeled "men". The restrooms on this floor were closed, so I went to the floor below. Same thing, the former women's room was now for "everyone" but the men's room is unchanged. When I went into the restroom, the first thing I noticed there was now only 1 stall instead of 3. Just one stall, a sink, and a lot of empty space where the other stalls used to be.

Now I remember sitting in these lecture halls packed with students, and the mad dash to the restroom when the professor would give a 10 minute break during a 3 hour lecture. The line for the women's room would take forever, and if you were at the end of the line, you weren't making it back to lecture before they started again. This was when there were 3 stalls/floor, now there is only 1. I didn't explore any other buildings, but my guess is it was a campus-wide change.

This is bothering me on so many levels. It feels like a complete erasure of womanhood. There are men and there is everyone else. Man is standard, woman is no more. I keep thinking about how many women are going to be late to class because of this, miss material, and possibly have their grade/education affected by it. According to their website, the male-female ratio of the school is 41.3-58.7. Oddly enough their student profile doesn't include any non-binary options. So now nearly 60% of the students have 66% fewer restrooms available to them, when there weren't even enough before. Not to mention "everyone" includes men- so not only do men still have their own restrooms, but also technically now have access the only rooms women are allowed to use. Also several programs offered at the school are female-dominated. In classes for things like nursing and other health studies, there could be maybe 5 men in a lecture of 30+ women. These programs are rigorous and lecture attendance is usually mandatory. Being late can result in students being marked absent and having their grades negatively affected.

When I put it all together like this, it feels like an assault on women's education. I can't wrap my brain around how anyone thinks this is ok. How is this happening??

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[–]itsnotaboutewe 20 insightful - 1 fun20 insightful - 0 fun21 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

It's happening because nobody is organising against it. There is an obvious organised push for this to happen or they wouldn't have bothered doing it in the first place. It may be difficult to get people who are against it to put their names on a petition but an anonymous survey which asks users whether they are for or against these changes and asks for comments would give those in charge an idea of how popular or otherwise this current configuration is.

[–]ElectricSheep 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It also seems to me that the majority of trans are man-to-woman, not the other way around, so of course they want special uwu bathrooms for "women" and not men. Also, it's more of a stretch to leave urinals and call it "for everyone," so the unfortunate reality is that it's easier to do it this way. However what I've seen in other older conversions is that floor 1 has mens, 2 has womens, and both have a single "everyone" toilet. It's not excellent, but it's better than totally removing women's bathrooms.

edit: I've also noticed that bathrooms being built explicitly for "everyone" have massive amounts of unused space. What's up with this?

[–]lefterfield 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Are they built to accommodate wheelchairs, maybe?

[–]ElectricSheep 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I would make a disabled joke but I don't want to get banned

[–]hippiepotomus[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I'm not a student there and don't know anyone who currently attends. I only saw these two restrooms in this building, I'd be curious to check the other buildings to see if any women's rooms still exist in other parts of the campus. But I can't do that because of COVID restrictions.

[–][deleted] 18 insightful - 2 fun18 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

This is actually a violation of the Civil Rights Act. Not that you're going to be able to get anyone to care. Not even the women, if they're woke.

[–]hippiepotomus[S] 10 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

That's the problem. It seems like everyone is full-on 'trans rights' at all costs. Young women seem to be the most vehement supporters of this kind of thing, from what I've seen. I understand that trans people are going to exist and need to use the restroom, but how is this the best solution they could come up with?

[–]forwardback 12 insightful - 1 fun12 insightful - 0 fun13 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Wokeness agenda. This is another step in normalizing the retraining and repositioning of women in society.

Mmm. Do you have any ties to college organizations or clubs that used to have a women focus? Is there an alumni group? Are you still in contact with college friends? Were you a Member of a women's fraternity? Perhaps if you (or another likeminded alum) would ping the connections and relay such observations, along with concerns? Offer insight into past practices and facilities, history of the toileting-leash on women, urinary urgency impact on learning, and emphasis on male/female ratio of the student body of the college? (Needn't be Transmnop issue- just questioning, as you're doing in this post.) Seems history and past practices are being withheld from a/o denigrated in front of today's youth. A rational inquiry could be actionable. May be more effective to approach Administration via students and Alumni groups...

[–]hippiepotomus[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm glad you and another commenter mentioned the "toilet leash" because this is the first time I've ever heard about it. I have not had any involvement with the school whatsoever since I graduated in 2013, was never involved in any clubs or organizations. I don't really keep in contact with anyone from there and I don't know any current students there. I suppose I could write and email to idk who, the Dean I guess? The saddest part is I really don't think most people would give a shit, or see it for what it is, even other women. Plus the horrendous backlash from TRAs and fear of being labeled a hateful bigot.

edit I only saw these two restrooms in 1 building, so maybe there are still women's rooms in other parts of campus. But even still, in this building, the nearest women's room is not close by at all. You either have to go to a different floor or a different building, if they're there at all.

[–]forwardback 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I understand and empathize with you. I also didn't maintain contacts from years ago. This fact makes our desire to pushback more distressing at times, IMO.

[–][deleted] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

That's disgusting. Are you able to file a complaint, at least discussing the removal of stalls? The erasure of women was already bad enough, why take away spaces for women to use the restroom?

[–]hippiepotomus[S] 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

They probably knew that if they had multiple stalls in the everyone room then they would get backlash from women about sharing restrooms with males, so they made them single-person to avoid that. It wouldn't be quite as offensive if the same had happened to men's restrooms, but it didn't.

[–]eddyelric 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

When I put it all together like this, it feels like an assault on women's education.

You're right. That's why need to preserve women's bathrooms. Get some stickers and place gender neutral stickers on men's bathrooms. Try getting a petition with other women. try telling them about the urinary leash, where a lack of bathrooms can restrict education.

[–]hippiepotomus[S] 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I had never heard of about the urinary leash before- thank you for bringing that up. This would be awesome but I'm not a student there anymore, and with COVID you can't just walk right in, you have to have a reason for being there.

[–]CosmicFarmPrisoner 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That building no longer has any women-only restrooms? Sounds like a building code violation, at least it is for office buildings. I'd report it to the proper local authority and convince other women to do the same.