How do you feel about Uni-sex Bathrooms?

Fun fact: a public toilet seat is likely to be considerably more sanitary than the keyboard you're typing on right now.

It might even stay that way when you put your ass on it instead of your piss.

edited 6th Oct '11 2:34:13 PM by Pykrete

@Bur: Dude, you're at 7 now; i'm going to stop eating after 5pm.

It's rape waiting to happen.

No, really, it is.

Care to explain that, Jason? Considering that it's entirely possible for men to rape other men and women other women, how is our current situation much better?

because more people are straight then gay/bisexual, therefore there is a higher chance of rape.

Like, 10% of people are gay, ok? that means that that rapist fraction of that 10% have the chance.

Now, if 100% of the population uses the same bathroom, then that's ALL the rapists who get one more easy place to rape people.

Gay/bisexual people make up only a small fraction of the population, the chances of the raw number of rapes being high is low, but when its the whole population the chances of the raw number of rapes being high is much more likely.

I'm not sure that rape is entirely about who you're sexually attracted to; I remember reading somewhere that it's often the 'power over other people' aspect that's attractive to rapists rather than the actual sexual attractiveness of the victim.

Besides - if there are more people using the bathrooms, there is a lower chance of the rapist getting the victim alone, right?

And if a man really wanted to rape a woman, what's to stop him following her into the ladies bathroom anyway?

two things,

1) what will stop him? going into the ladies' room is risky becasue people will see it as not normal

2) i have studied rapists and serial killers in quite some detail. that part about it being about power is only true for ONE KIND of rapist.

There are several kinds, the sadist, the power reassurance, and the sexual rapist are only a few kinds.

It is true for the rage driven ones that it's about the release of anger, the Sadist gets off on causing fear. but there is the sexual rapist, who SEXUALLY gets off on causing harm to their vitcim. Their vice isn't fear or rage, it's a heightened sexual state that is reached through it.

for the kind of rapist you are talking about the release of rage or fear is an end to itself; the sex is meaningless. to the sexual rapist, fear and rage is a means to an end, and the sex IS the end.

sexual attraction DOES play a role for a number of rapists. take for example the date rape, a guy is rejected or "doesnt get it" and rapes her out of stupidity or anger. he's sexually attracted to her.

edited 6th Oct '11 10:26:30 PM by jasonwill2

Well, I was assuming that if he (or she) is going to attack somebody in the bathroom, they're going to make sure there's nobody around to see or hear anything suspicious. That's true regardless of if it's unisex or segregated, right?

I'm scared of pretty much everything but even I don't think unisex toilets will automatically make more rape happen. Men and women are together in lots of places, and although I know rapes happen in toilets, I don't see that unisex toilets would create such an atmosphere to raise the number of rapes. If someone wants to rape someone, having seperate toilets won't make them think "oh, I won't bother then", and vice versa, someone isn't going to hink "oh, seeing as there's women in here I'll rape one of them".

And I don't think it's particularly the easiest place to do it, even though some people do. One large room, with lots of people in, only seperated by thin cubicle walls? Anyone who can get away with a rape in that atmosphere can probably get away with sneaking into the girls' toilets.

edited 7th Oct '11 12:08:28 AM by ArlaGrey

ok then, what about sexual harassment and voyeurism? much more subtle, and it would be much more easy and common in such a setting.

or how about you ask yourself this:

"Why DO we have separate bathrooms?"

or

"What IS the advantage of uni-sex bathrooms?"

Hmmm. I imagine if there's voyeurism going on, it will be in the form of women against men who are using the urinals (because really, most people do their clothing up inside the stall). Solution? No urinals, and cubicle walls that go up to the ceiling - a lot of bathrooms have this design already.

There is really no reason a bathroom should be any more prone to sexual harassment than another room where men and women mingle. It's not like people get naked in full view of each other in them.

you didnt answer the two questions

what is the advantage of a uni sex bathroom?

and why do we have seperate ones in the first place?

also,

why would you want uni sex bathrooms, what is your reasoning for them?

would it really fix anything? is there anythign to fix? what is the problem with seperate bathrooms?

Well, I think the answer to the first one has been discussed in the rest of the thread - decreased cost, decreased space taken up, equality when it comes to toilet lines and amount of facilities available, fairness when it comes to LGBT issues, equality for parents (you know, like if there's a baby-change table in the female but not the male bathrooms).

As for the second one, I guess they just came from a time when modesty and privacy were considered more important. Probably it comes from the idea that you can't trust men anywhere near naked or semi-naked women?

I can see segregated bathrooms having a place in schools, for example, becuase teenagers of both gender can be very immature and schools have a duty of care anyway. But once everyone involved is a functioning adult, why can't we trust them to be mature about it?

edited 7th Oct '11 2:23:56 AM by LoniJay

I'm not advocating a switch to unisex toilets, just saying that I, personally, wouldn't have a problem with them. But other people might do, which is why I wouldn't advocate it.

But I feel that the "There will be more rape" argument is a silly one, designed to scare people.

[[{{nightmarefuelstationattendant} you mean youve never thought of raping someone and the best way to do it and get away?]]

dude, ive seen videos of people having sex in elevators and getting away with it, WITH PEOPLE NOT PART OF THE FILM walk in and not even notice because of strategic positioning of how they stood.

now granted it was all in Japanese...

you dont even think there wouldnt be some Chikan going on? women are often too afraid to report says teh statistics, and all it takes is a split second for someone to pull their hand away if they hear someone coming.

and its more than maturity, the reason they do it is FOR safety and modesty.sexual harasment would at least be increased.

your all too idealistic and nieve. the real world is a crapsackworld. or at least it is overall.

edit: ok more like a world half full, but still humansarebastards for a reason

edited 7th Oct '11 5:58:38 AM by jasonwill2

I'm assuming you're talking about the phenomena of women being groped in Japan? If so, say so, don't use some random word that people are going to have to look up.

And besides, all your points there just say that sexual abuse/harassment can happen anywhere. It's not specific to bathrooms by any means.

And if women are too afraid/ashamed to go to the police about sexual assault, why on earth would unisex bathrooms make it worse? The proper solution for that issue is to convince more women to report abuse, not try to reduce the amount of contact men and women have in public.

All in all, I'm not sure where you're going with all this and the numerous spelling/grammar issues aren't helping.

edited 7th Oct '11 6:24:07 AM by LoniJay

I'm fairly certain there's a difference between two people having consenual sex and both doing their best not to be noticed, and attempting to discretely rape someone. Different people react differently to being raped. Some go quiet, but, if you're hanging round in the toilets and pick someone at random, there's every chance you'll end up attacking someone who will be doing everything in their power to draw attention to what you're doing.

But, as I said earlier, is someone wants to rape someone in a toilet, and they've thought long and hard about how they're going to do it, the toilets not being unisex is unlikely to deter them. So why would there be more rapes?

I don't really have anything to say on the sexual harrasment point. It may or may not increase, I don't know.

edited 7th Oct '11 6:44:43 AM by ArlaGrey

Raping someone in a public bathroom sounds like a fantastic way to be convicted of the same.

why the fuck do any of you care what public places do for expenses on bathrooms? its of no consequence to you. you honestly give a damn about equality IN THE BATHROOM?

i dont think its worth the risk, or that we should care if those blood sucker stores and restruant chains save a few bucks with this idea.

if it wasnt a big deal we would of already changed it all to uni sex

Keep it the way it is: less of a wait , if you're a bloke.

Bodily waste disposal is one activity folk don't need to be waiting forever-and a-day to do.

edited 7th Oct '11 9:27:40 AM by MRDA1981

Honestly, if you say rape can happen in public spaces without anybody knowing, wouldn't it not matter that the bathrooms are separated by sex?

Rape is basically a non-issue here. It doesn't happen much in places people walk into unimpeded on a very regular basis.

Sexual harassment, that's another cookie.

Yep. I care about equality everywhere else, why should I turn off my sense of fair play as soon as toilets are involved?

Seriously, though, I don't think anybody is really advocating that every bathroom in their country should be changed to unisex stat. That would be too expensive for whatever gains you got.

All I'm saying is, if public bathrooms start shifting in this direction, I don't mind and I don't think it'd be a bad thing.

edited 7th Oct '11 5:10:02 PM by LoniJay

WHAT EQUALITY??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!

seriously!??!?!? what the hell!

whos civil rights are being violated by this, what equality is there in such a thing??!? because we use the same bathroom? its not like we are making blacks and whites use different water fountains!

who is unrepresented here, what the fuck, what equality is there in making it the same bathroom? explain to me how someone is unfairly treated by having different bathrooms? in most places both are either a wreck or nicely kept typcially (not that ive ever been in a ladies room mind you, at least the only time ive been in one was when cleaning out the trash can in one for a church or private school when it was closed, and that was at a request)

what equality? is there? in it?

... geez, settle down. You asked why I cared about equality in bathrooms, and I answered. Prior to that, you asked what benefits there were to unisex bathrooms and I answered. One of those minor benefits happened to be 'equality' of bathroom availability.

It's not a huge deal. Nobody's saying it is except you.