NBC Charlotte learned Tuesday night, due to an anonymous tip, that the University of North Carolina-Charlotte campus now allows transgender students, faculty and staff to use the restroom of their choice…
UNCC posted an update on it’s website, reading, “The current policy states that any student, faculty or staff member may use the restroom that corresponds to the individual’s gender identity.”
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Mixed Messages and Mixed-Sex Bathrooms
What with all the brouhaha lately about so-called “rape culture” on American university campuses, as well as the increasingly watered-down definitions of rape and assault, one wonders why a university would want to make it easier for men to have access to women’s bathrooms:
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8 comments:
It'll all be roses and sunshine until some little girl gets molested by someone who suddenly isn't female inside, outside or sideways.
You know what's weird? Sensible people can make this work. I lived in a 3 story dorm of 60 people … bottom floor, all women, with bathroom; 2nd floor, all men, with bathroom; and 3rd, my floor -- 1/2 men, 1/2 women -- but it was a women's bathroom. So, we decided it would be a coed bathroom--and this included hovering, although the men only showered if the 2nd floor was full. And … nothing bad happened, because we treated each other with respect. I don't understand why you can't make all bathrooms coed -- it might take a while to get used to, but it would definitely take away the stigma ...
Max, it might work in dorms, but I can't see it working well in classroom buildings, which are public spaces which have less controlled access. In other words, in a dorm, those people are your roommates and neighbors. In a classroom building, you can have people coming in off the street to use the facilities.
Plus, in hindsight you had a group of sensible people. What if a couple of those people had not been sensible?
I'm not sure that sharing bathrooms is going to lead to increased sexual assault, or anything else. But, who knows? If one of us had ac ted inappropriately, he or she would have been shamed by the rest...
I wonder if anyone has the statistics on incidences of transpeople being beaten up by people who feel threatened by their existence, vs. incidences of transpeople beating up and/or molesting people in the restroom.
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And... for those who are of the opinion that people should use the restroom that matches the biological sex they were born with (ignoring for the moment the 1 in 100 births that result in some degree of intersex), does that mean that you think a transman born with female body parts who has been taking testosterone for 20+ years and has a muscular masculine build, wide jaw, full beard, etc. should use the women's room?
Red herring much? No one here has mentioned trans people beating up, or being beaten up by, others.
That's exactly what I was thinking, Max--you had a shared agreement. It wasn't forced upon you, but chosen and enforced by common consent.
I can't assume that public group toilet facilities are going to be the same way. Knowing human behavior, I expect that there are likely to become unofficial "one-sex-only" facilities, for those who don't want to share. How this will be enforced, I'm not sure.
This also makes things problematic for Title IX: if bathrooms are truly multi-sex, then the male-use urinals need to be distributed evenly.
I think a pertinent question is this: check out the administration's own toilet facilities located away from student traffic--are they going to hold themselves to the same rules?
I'm not sure that's true. Men like urinals, for speed, but you don't NEED them. So, keep all existing restrooms exactly as they are; label the men's M/w and the women's W/m so the people know what they're in for … the vast majority of people will probably choose the one they've used all along … but it expands opportunity to lessen lines. And I guarantee you, women, who are often forced to wait in long lines at events, will welcome the choice. So you take away nothing, but expand possibilities. And for the squeamish? Most high volume areas have 'family restrooms that are single toilet and lock.
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