I went to school in France one summer when I was in college and the bathrooms at the school I was going to were unisex... It was a little freaky to me at the time. They weren't individual or anything, they were the big ones like you see in a school with the row of stalls and row of sinks, but no exposed urinals so everyone had to use a stall for everything. There was one set of gender specific restrooms way up on the third floor off from everything else, and I'll admit I made that hike most of the time.
I don't mind them so much now if they are single unit restrooms. I don't know how I would handle a big group unisex restroom...
I don't mind them so much now if they are single unit restrooms. I don't know how I would handle a big group unisex restroom...
I'm ok with this one too (as long as they have a diligent attendant ) but multi unit?? Like at work or something?? I can't even imagine trying to pee with my male boss in the next stall And me, for example, refuse to do "number 2" in a public restroom anyway but men don't seem to have that same, shall we say, reserve. Just way to eewwwey to think of having to listen to some strange guy pooping 2 doors away
Doesn't bother me as long as it's a private/one stall or unit one. But, hey, I've been known to sneak into the men's room when I've had to go bad enough. When you gotta go, you gotta go.
As long as the stalls are separate, I don't really mind. I mean, there's no real difference to me between a man doing his business behind a closed stall door, and a woman doing hers.
Doesn't bother me as long as it's a private/one stall or unit one. But, hey, I've been known to sneak into the men's room when I've had to go bad enough. When you gotta go, you gotta go.
honestly- public restrooms all together bother me. i don't see any difference between being disgusted by just women and being disgusted by women AND men. lol.
i haven't come across a unisex bathroom yet myself- but i'm sure it'll happen here soon enough.
now unisex changing room at the gym might upset me a bit.
For me, I find it appalling to insist I use the same bathroom as men, while they are in there.. (MInd you, if it's a bathroom like in a house, and youlock to door, and the men wait their turn after your out, thats different) but those unisex where men and women are in there at the same time? EVEN IF it's the sort with the stalls, shows where today's world really is!
Loriann - does anyone really -insist- you use a unisex bathroom? I have, in liberal CA, never seen a bathroom that was unisex where everyone was in at once that didn't have a single sex (or single room for both sexes, but only allows one occupant at once) option somewhere nearby, perhaps on another floor. I can see maybe having a complaint if it was somewhere you had no choice but to be AND there was no private option available...I'm not personally uncomfortable with it, but think the option should be available for those who are.
I know in college dorms with unisex bathrooms, there is always a "private" option. The wait for that was usually longer.
For me, the wait for ladies rooms is often SO long, and sharing just makes sense. I don't see what someone in a restroom with an individual stall is going to see that they wouldn't see OUTSIDE of a restroom.
Loriann7, I see you're in New York. I read an article in the New York Times once saying how a lot of trendy restaurants there have unisex bathrooms, largely because the old buildings they're in are so small there's hardly space for one public bathroom let alone two (it said one restaurant marks the individual *stalls* by an arrow [for men] or a cross [for women]: as in the "male" and "female" icons [one stall has both an arrow and a cross]). I Googled to look for the article, it eludes me now but several hits I got suggested that hip restaurants in other cities have unisex loos too. Here in Minnesota I've never seen a truly public unisex bathroom, except that some shops and restaurants (I couldn't tell you if hipper Twin Cities 'rants have picked up on the trend since I don't hang out there) let customers use the staff loo which is in an out-of-the-way place and has just one pot, and on the floor of the building where I work are three one-pot loos which are marked unisex
The idea of unisex loos doesn't bother me on principle (it might help for privacy sake if the stall dividers and doors went from floor to ceiling instead of having a gap over/under them): it would be a boon to parents of young children of the opposite sex (maybe some child-friendly places here have a bathroom where parents of either sex can take their kids, since I don't frequent child-friendly places I don't know) or people with disabilities with an opposite-sex carer