Nowadays, though, the bathroom ratings would have to include who was allowed to pee where. You know what? I don't really care. The toilet debate is dumb. I don't care what your plumbing is, I'm certainly not going to stop and do a visual inspection on each person who's entering a public restroom, and considering that the trans person is more likely to be hurt by a stranger in public than the cis-gendered person, I think the people who should get the most say in this debate are trans folks.
Besides, Ally McBeal decided this issue fifteen years ago! I only saw two or three episodes, but I remember Callista Flockhart, Lucy Liu, and Peter MacNicol having a discussion in the shared bathroom, and I remember that stupid dancing baby. I never saw an episode with the dancing baby, but my god, that viral video!
Anyway, the law firm's bathrooms on Ally McBeal were mixed gender. It was a LAW firm. Do you honestly think they'd do anything that would lead to people getting up in arms and suing? No. Of course not. They just went pee when they had to then walked out. Well, that and they stood around gossiping - both the men and the women would gossip. I figure it was a better way to keep women and men on an even playing field than all going golf together was.
It's not just a random tv show, though. I've been using "unisex" bathrooms for ages. Restaurants, coffee shops, etc. are filled with them. The main places I find mixed bathrooms these days are offices, schools, and museums. Heck, even my train station has a shared bathroom (which I recommend nobody ever use ever under any circumstances oh by the gods avoid it - after using it in desperation once I understood why the stairs by the bus stink of urine).
I've also been using men's rooms for years. The women's room tends to have a long line, and the men's room is short, so I'll hop over and pee with the guys. Nobody's ever freaked and tossed me out, although I have gotten some odd looks. I realize that's because I'm FAAB and fit the gender stereotypes for it, therefore, I am assumed to be non-threatening.
Seriously, why does anybody care? As long as you don't spray the seat or floor, I sure as heck don't care where you do your business!
Instead of women's and men's separate bathrooms, I think we need separate sitting and standing bathrooms. Plan to actually sit on the seat? Use the bathroom I use so I don't have to sit or stand in your sprinkle. Wanna stand? Use the other one and spray all you want. Just to be clear, both women and men leave dribbles when they don't sit. It's a common problem in women's public bathrooms because cis women will hover and then leave piss spray all over the seat or even on the floor. Penis holders don't seem to care in public bathrooms (and sometimes in private ones), and they'll just splash urine all over the seat and floor.
Here's the thing. Some penis wielders sit at home because they don't treat their personal toilet like a public urinal. So they, and anyone else who wants or needs to sit, should get the privilege of not having a stand-sprayed seat. Some people have to sit - short people, folks with various physical requirements, etc., have no choice but to sit, and when standers and hoverers leave a mess, we've got to gag and dry it off and cover the seat with toilet paper and pretend we're not grossed out by the whole process.
So get over this whole equipment-checking to use the bathroom and separate the bathrooms by who sits or stands. Better yet, just let some people use the sitting toilets and others using the standing and/or hovering toilets and just have one big public restroom. Life will be a heck of a lot easier. Parents won't have to worry about if they're too old to bring their opposite-sexed child into the bathroom with them, trans folks won't have to worry about getting beat up no matter which bathroom they choose, and I won't have to sit in your nasty smelling pee. PROBLEM SOLVED.
2 comments:
Omg I wish I had known about your potty blog, I would've read it religiously! I have so many things to say about potties and how to pee, so many things. I hate standing pee'ers. They ALWAYS make a mess. As you know, I had a certain male visit me who peed all over my bathroom floor not once, or even twice, but three times. It was the most disgusting and obnoxious thing to step into when stepping out of the shower. The mad pee'er didn't even notice it had happened - how the hell do you not notice that?!?! There was a giant puddle all over the floor! And yes, he has gone down in history as the mad pee'er.
We've got a mad pee'er in training at my office. I know exactly who he is too since he's the only male working right now. He drips. It's disgusting. So, so disgusting. There's all these spots on the floor in front of the toilet from his drips. Sometimes I can't take it and I use a wet paper towel and my shoe to wipe it away. I can't even tell him how disgusting it is because it's an unspoken rule at work - never ever ever discuss what your coworkers do in the toilet. NEVER! You don't complain that they go to much, you don't talk about how the walls are thin and you hear them farting, nothing! Bathroom time at work is sacred - you pretend that no one ever uses that room because that's what's best.
My dad became a sitter when he got custody of my sister and I after the divorce. Honestly, I don't know how he peed before the divorce... I do remember him telling my older brother at his first visit home post divorce to make sure he sat when peeing. He was so afraid my sis and I would walk in and see a penis. As a single dad with two girls he was always afraid of that sort of stuff. We couldn't have sleep overs because he was afraid the kid sleeping over would catch him peeing and call it molestation.
I was all kinds of messed up as a kid and I always dreamed of running away and making my own life. Oddly enough, I would evaluate handicapped public toilets for prospective occupancy. Yes, crazy, yes I know. I would sit there and wonder if I could fit a cot in there, if the walls were low enough for privacy when changing clothes, if it was safe enough to leave my stuff in, could I lock the door, etc. I would imagine how I'd arrange things: cot against this wall, dresser and lamp over there, and so on. Invariably someone would fart and their stank would drive me back to reality.
Like you, I've used the men's room when necessary. My mom taught me about that. She always told us that the ladies room will be dirtier than the men's room and that the line for the ladies will never be shorter than for the men's (I have found no exceptions to these). Her rule was that if the line was longer than 3-4 ppl then we'd check next door. There was never a man who complained about it. As an adult I once accidentally wandered into the men's room by mistake during a late night drive to Vegas. I spent 5mins in that stall trying to figure out how to get out without being noticed. Finally I pulled myself together and strutted out of that stall like I owned the place. A couple of guys were at the urinals and sinks and I sauntered up to wash my hands and said, "nice night gentlemen". They all nodded and went about their business. No fuss, no muss. BTW, Wtf is faab? Fabulously always amicable babe?
Second half of HUGE potty comment below:
I say the only way for ppl to pee is sitting so they don't make a mess. Any male visitors to my house need to be told about this because I will never again clean up a man's pee. I need maybe a kitschy sign or a painted rock in the bathroom. How else can I notify them? You know, without dictating how they should pee to their face.... maybe I can text it to em?
Now then, did you hear about the TX bathroom bill that passed? Is this where this post comes from? I think that regulating which room a trans person (or any person) pees in is along of the lines of the unspoken "nobody pees at work" rule. There was a boy (girl?) I went to school with who had no idea which sex they were (hence my confusion). That person used whichever bathroom they felt comfortable with and nobody cared. Sure, we made fun of that kid for not knowing which sex they were but nobody ever made it dangerous or uncomfortable for him/her to pee. The worst name callers were even expelled one time and we were all spoken to (whole school, it was a 2hr assembly even) about being accepting of someone who is obviously very confused and in need of accepting and kind friends.
What I don't understand is how TX can justify saying that the law is meant to protect defenseless women who may be raped by trans women who need to pee. When I need to pee I can't take the time to rape some ppl first, I need to pee. Why the hell else would I enter a disgusting public bathroom?! How the hell could you rape anyone on a disgusting public bathroom floor or sink or wall or any-disgusting-where? Besides that very gross and immediate reality, it is trans persons who are in danger when they enter a bathroom that society says isn't for them!
That boy/girl I grew up with ended up using the ladies room all through high school. When someone finally asked why the switching stopped, we found out that he/she was terrified of being killed by some testosteroney asshole male in the men's room. It had happened to him/her somewhere on the reservation (he/she was Hopi) at a store. Two fully grown testosteroney asshole men had beat up a 14yr old for using the wrong bathroom. They thought he/she was a man in drag and they couldn't allow "that sort" to stand next to them at the urinal.
I'm just waiting for this TX shit to become exactly that, shit. Bunch of fucking asshole white male entitled bigoted homophobic transphobic Republicans just itching to beat down those that need our kindness and support the most. So what do think? What would your elected leaders do to the kid in the "wrong" bathroom? I live in AZ, so they'd probably shoot em....
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