Many years ago on vacation in Newfoundland we were waiting for a boat tour of Western Brook Pond. Six ladies waiting to use the marked rest room and no one in the Men’s Room. As I started to enter one of the waiters said that there was a woman in there. I said that it wouldn’t bother me any and entered.
She was in the stall and I used the urinal and we had a nice chat during. All very civilized.
A number of you hit the nail on the head… the primary reason I didn’t go in the women’s restroom is social conditioning. Plus, what if a server or the owner saw me go in there? Perhaps they wouldn’t mind. Or perhaps they would freak out, call the police, kick us out, etc. Even if I was justified from a logical POV, I don’t need that kind crap in my life. Too much risk. Better to just wait.
And yea, if the’re both single-use restrooms, why not just make them both unisex.
That’s similar to mine as well, the stalls get used by guys needing to pee but don’t like the troughs, some guys are really pee shy.
Carry a screwdriver. Remove “men’s” and “women’s” signs from toilets. Single-occupancy, multi-occupancy, all of them. This is a small public service that you can perform. I’m not even kidding.
This is what I consider positive vandalism.
There’s a restaurant in Luzern that, after a recent renovation, had unisex stalls (stalls here have doors which go from the floor to the ceiling) and a shared sink. Someone pointed out that this is actually against the law foe restaurants in Luzern.
They currently have an agreement that they don’t get fined while Luzern works to change the law.
That said, for some insane reason the new trains which will travel through the Gotthard basis Tunnel were ordered with gender-specific bathrooms. Sometimes I think Switzerland is going backwards.
I’m with you. I’d only use the women’s washroom if it was either that or sh*t or pi** my pants. However, at my work one set of washrooms have changed the signs to unisex so not sure what’s up with that.
I did have a discussion with some female coworkers about gender reactions with the “wrong” gender using the washroom. If a man sees a woman in the mens’ room, he’s likely to find it funny, however, if a woman sees a man in the ladies room, she would likely be quite annoyed. They totally agreed with me.
Really!? I was in a similar situation a few weeks ago. Not cornfields, but vegetation and far from an actual restroom. And I needed to pee. So I found a spot where I wasn’t visible from the road, pulled down my pants, and emptied my bladder. I have to admit, it didn’t occur to me that I’d get in legal trouble.
Or not solved. They are moving to make the half-time break shorter in next years Grand Final here. To please the TV stations, which loose viewers at half time. It’s traditional to walk away from the TV at half time, take a break, have a kick-to-kick in the street outside.
And it’s expected to cause a little more chaos than usual at the ground, because the break will be 30% shorter, but the number of people trying to use the toilets isn’t going to be 30% smaller.
So, the two things you could get into trouble for are ‘committing a nuisance’ and ‘exposure’. The one where you are peeing on something, the other when someone sees you pee. And around here, people come up in the courts for both.
It’s not something that has or would prevent me from taking a leak in place not visible from the road, but it is certainly something I’d be aware of.
I’m guessing they see it dozens of times a day. I am having a hard time understanding why people are so worried about this simple action.
Speaking as a woman…
The issue isn’t not as much “Thar’s a MAN in here!” as a man potentially sneaking in with bad intentions. If a man announces that he is coming in - maybe he has a bodily waste emergency, maybe he has a young girl child with him, or a baby and there’s no changing table in the men’s room (less common than in the past but it still happens) - it is not such an issue since he is very much NOT sneaking, and it gives anyone totally uncomfortable with the idea an opportunity to object (which doesn’t occur that often in my experience).
So, guys, if you MUST use the Ladies’ don’t be shy about it - let any potential occupants know, let the restaurant manager know, whatever. I get that you have concerns with being seen as a predator, potential arrest, etc. If you reassure me you’re no threat I’ll reassure you that I’m not a risk to you either - deal?
Well, that’s why I made sure I wasn’t visible from the road – I didn’t want to be “exposed”, whether or not it might be legal. And I wouldn’t pee where a little pee would be damaging. I suppose a lot of pee on the ground might create a problem, but if a lot of people are all peeing somewhere, there might be a good reason for it…
So, still not too worried about the legality.
I completely agree. If you knock, and say, “hey, the men’s room is full, anyone mind if I come in here?” I will say, “no problem”. It’s a bathroom. The facilities are pretty much always in a stall in the ladies room, so basically, you have your own little room.
If it’s a one-fer, well, it’s always polite to knock, first. And if you lock the door, no woman will inadvertently find you in the restroom and be afraid. And if someone should see you walking out… well, you are leaving, so what’s to complain about?
I don’t disagree with this - but it’s not actually an issue in the set-up described in the OP , with two single occupant restrooms, one labelled “men” and the other “women”. TBH, I don’t understand why those are labelled at all*, and if any women are annoyed, it’s not because they think a man is going to go go in there and hide behind the still-open door waiting however long it takes for a woman to enter so he can attack her. After all, it’s very unlikely that a man will enter one of these with a woman waiting for it, and even if a woman sees a man entering while she’s walking toward the room, she simply won’t enter until he leaves.
Some of you may be interested in the old thread What’s the big deal about gender-specific bathrooms? and in some of the links therein to articles explaining the history.
They probably didn’t care. I don’t think it’s about them being afraid to complain. They simply didn’t care and more than likely figured it was a good idea for you and the others to do it.
So I paint murals for a living and that usually means working in spaces that haven’t asserted the parameters of what bathroom is which. I just recently finished a job the dang day they opened and that means they arbitrarily designated one bathroom for men and one for women.
I literally used either to wash my paint brushes up to the point they posted signs, literally zero difference in the bathrooms. Then I had to debate myself about rinsing a brush in the lady’s sink when someone was in the men’s room and it’s so stupid I hate myself because I paused.
Social conditioning is a strong force.
I’m a dude but have, maybe three times in my life, used a women’s bathroom when the men’s room was unavailable and I really had to go. Each time I knocked and opened the door just a crack to ask “Is there anyone in here?” before entering and using it. Be assured I didn’t dawdle. Never has a woman walked in on me when I did this.
Can you provide a cite for this ever actually happening? The legend of the ‘easily offended’ me-too, SJWs having people arrested and put on the sex offender registry is quite prominent, but when I look for examples of people being harassed in the bathroom like that it’s consistently right-wingers who are the ones offended and making accusations and (attempting to) get people arrested.
For an example, a rather butch friend of mine (shaved head, demin and leather clothing) had a woman look over the stall at her in the restroom, and say ‘just making sure you’re supposed to be here’. My friend complained to management, management was shocked, called the woman out and told her she was banned, woman said she was doing what was right and wouldn’t leave, so manager called the cops and the peeper got arrested for trespassing and some sort of sex offense. If she was convicted she would be on the sex offender registry, but I’d expect her to get a good enough lawyer to plea it down.
While that is an example of someone risking the sex offender registry, but I think that people who go into the bathroom to look at other people’s genitals in violation of their wishes are the sort who belong on the registry. And it’s not someone just using the bathroom. And it’s not a ‘me-too’ or ‘SJW’ being easily offended, it’s the ‘upstanding conservative’ who’s taking offense.
I don’t care if women use the men’s room, but it seems like men should stay out of the women’s room because there could be creeps in there.
Favorite arrangement - private individual unisex.
Least favorite arrangement - Army latrine with commodes in 10x4 rows with no partitions whatsoever. We all learned to buy newspapers and keep our faces buried in them, except that one guy who inevitably wanted to talk.
Man here who wouldn’t use a women’s room unless it was an absolute emergency. My bladder and poop chute still do their jobs so I can handle it. Generally, women have longer lines for the rest rooms. If I’m on the receiving end of that gender imbalance once in a while, I can live with it.
Annoyed at least or possibly afraid. I’m not doing that to a woman if I can help it.
I was at a bookstore when the Breast Cancer walk was in town which isn’t quite a women’s march but may as well be. The bookstore chose the moment the marchers arrived to close the multi-occupancy women’s room for a 30 minute cleaning. The women took over the men’s room and guarded the entrance. No men were allowed in because there were women in there (although I think I was the only one to approach it). When the women’s room reopened, they all decamped to the women’s room and the men’s room closed for cleaning. I don’t begrudge the women for their actions but I also didn’t wait for the men’s room to reopen. I just left.