You get to decide who uses the bathroom in your home. Usually you know those people. And usually (unless they are children or teenagers) they clean up after themselves.
Right, because a locked bathroom stall door doesn't have gaps under and over the walls/door, and, as we all know, those doors are so VERY hard to unlock. Not to mention voices carry very easily. Not all abuse is restricted to physical.
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Picture this:
7 year old goes into a public washroom. It's empty, except for one stall, which is closed. The entire time the child is in their stall the person in the stall next to them is making comments about all the sickening things they'd like to do to the child. The predator doesn't stop until the child leaves or someone else comes in.
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The child doesn't know what to do. They leave in tears, feeling ashamed. By the time they work up the nerve to tell anyone about it (assuming they do), the stranger is long gone.
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You can assign genders as you see fit in this scenario, the main point of it was that pretending flimsy, partial walls can protect children from predators is beyond asinine.
Additionally, if they WANTED to get at the child in question, again, it is NOT hard to open a bathroom stall door from the other side, or crawl beneath it.
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If something like this were to occur with a completely enclosed, full-room bathroom (like the ones within a home) the predator would have a much more difficult time getting in, or harassing the child verbally, as they'd literally have to stand at the door and/or raise their voice decently loudly, increasing the likelihood of being noticed. Additionally, if they attempt this in your home, presumably you are also home, and would realize in short order.
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Comparing bathroom stalls to enclosed-room bathrooms is like comparing using a urinal to pissing into a manhole in the street. Yes, they both go to the same place, but the environments are very different.
Gaps in the stalls is basically just an American thing and even then it's basically just an American old building thing. Most other places have floor to ceiling walls and doors flush against them and America is moving to that as well.
You said yourself that it can be any gender doing that to children. It being a gender neutral bathroom doesn't make a difference in that.
And if you'll actually notice I never once said this was a problem caused specifically by gender neutrality. I specifically said "the main point of this is that pretending flimsy walls can protect children from predators is asinine."
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However, if you want to argue that route, if I remember correctly studies have found that there's as many as 11 heterosexual paedophiles for every single homosexual paedophile. Meaning the likelihood of a child being victimized is increased when exposed to the opposite gender. Additionally, many paedophiles who prey on their own gender are considered "bisexual," since they often also have "relationships" with the opposite gender.
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This does not include statistics for adults, where 1 in every 4 women is assaulted, as opposed to 1 in 5 men, and the assailants of women are very seldom female.
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*my phone constantly autocorrects the word pedophile and at this point I've lost interest in stopping it.
Additionally, saying that "gaps in bathroom stalls is just an American thing" that they are phasing out is not correct. There are other countries that have gaps in bathroom stalls (my own is one of them), and them phasing them out, if it IS true, is not a fast-moving situation from what I've seen. Indeed, many bathrooms I've seen renovated in the last year-- in Canada and in America-- all have the traditional stalls-with-a-gap.
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So far as I can see, this indicates that wall-to-ceiling stalls are not mandatory currently, and business owners are free to input stalls according to their personal ethics and budget, and yet people are demanding people share bathrooms despite this. I don't even know where urinals fall in this list-- I can't imagine men are comfortable peeing in front of women all the time or visa versa, but I doubt they'd be pleased to see urinals done away with altogether.
I've also encountered several high school and younger people who have expressed extreme discomfort over these situations.
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And yet they are mocked, made fun of, and told to essentially shut up and suck it up because the discomfort of other people who don't want to share bathrooms with specific genders is more important than THEIR discomfort over sharing bathrooms with specific genders.
Okay, so, I don't know about everyone else, but for me: if you have those single toilet, fully enclosed room washrooms, I genuinely don't care who used it before me or who uses it after me.
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If there are stalls, however, with gaps in the doors (all stalls have them), and gaps at the top, and gaps at the bottom, and urinals, congratulations I'm now uncomfortable sharing these spaces with the opposite gender. And I'm not sure why I should suddenly be forced to. Or why some people can't understand why this WOULD make people uncomfortable (I guess they've never been to India or Japan, or experienced any encounters of their own..)
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Especially when you're out late or in a secluded place. Admittedly a lot of people in that particular scenario won't be deterred by gender-specific washroom signs, but some will, and even if they don't, the chances of someone else noticing something odd has been increased significantly.
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And I know plenty of people, both male and female, who feel the same
It's fascinating to me that people don't understand the difference, why it makes people uncomfortable, and, even further, why people feel they have some kind of moral highground for judging someone for who they want to share their bathroom habits with. Hypocrisy runs amok it seems
Okay, we don't use the bathroom in the same fookin room at the same time. Happy?
1Reply
deleted
· 5 years ago
I see what this is going for but it's different.
If I was making the rules, I'd consolidate every bathroom that is split for the sexes into one big bathroom, make it so the stalls touch the ground and the doors don't have one inch fucking gaps in them, and let them act like adults.
I remember when this was a big talked about thing a few years ago and men hated it because they didn't feel comfortable letting their little girls use the same restroom as strange men. These same guys let their sons go to the bathroom by themselves seemingly unaware that pedophiles also like little boys. Who knew?
I have no problem with gender neutral bathrooms that are their own room with a sink etc inside. But I have been in a gender neutral bathroom set up like your everyday 3+ flimsy stalls and a man came in and pressed his body up against me while I was washing my hands and mocked me for panicking and rushing out, so now I feel scared of that kind of set up.
'
Picture this:
7 year old goes into a public washroom. It's empty, except for one stall, which is closed. The entire time the child is in their stall the person in the stall next to them is making comments about all the sickening things they'd like to do to the child. The predator doesn't stop until the child leaves or someone else comes in.
'
The child doesn't know what to do. They leave in tears, feeling ashamed. By the time they work up the nerve to tell anyone about it (assuming they do), the stranger is long gone.
'
You can assign genders as you see fit in this scenario, the main point of it was that pretending flimsy, partial walls can protect children from predators is beyond asinine.
'
If something like this were to occur with a completely enclosed, full-room bathroom (like the ones within a home) the predator would have a much more difficult time getting in, or harassing the child verbally, as they'd literally have to stand at the door and/or raise their voice decently loudly, increasing the likelihood of being noticed. Additionally, if they attempt this in your home, presumably you are also home, and would realize in short order.
'
Comparing bathroom stalls to enclosed-room bathrooms is like comparing using a urinal to pissing into a manhole in the street. Yes, they both go to the same place, but the environments are very different.
You said yourself that it can be any gender doing that to children. It being a gender neutral bathroom doesn't make a difference in that.
'
However, if you want to argue that route, if I remember correctly studies have found that there's as many as 11 heterosexual paedophiles for every single homosexual paedophile. Meaning the likelihood of a child being victimized is increased when exposed to the opposite gender. Additionally, many paedophiles who prey on their own gender are considered "bisexual," since they often also have "relationships" with the opposite gender.
'
This does not include statistics for adults, where 1 in every 4 women is assaulted, as opposed to 1 in 5 men, and the assailants of women are very seldom female.
'
*my phone constantly autocorrects the word pedophile and at this point I've lost interest in stopping it.
'
So far as I can see, this indicates that wall-to-ceiling stalls are not mandatory currently, and business owners are free to input stalls according to their personal ethics and budget, and yet people are demanding people share bathrooms despite this. I don't even know where urinals fall in this list-- I can't imagine men are comfortable peeing in front of women all the time or visa versa, but I doubt they'd be pleased to see urinals done away with altogether.
'
And yet they are mocked, made fun of, and told to essentially shut up and suck it up because the discomfort of other people who don't want to share bathrooms with specific genders is more important than THEIR discomfort over sharing bathrooms with specific genders.
'
If there are stalls, however, with gaps in the doors (all stalls have them), and gaps at the top, and gaps at the bottom, and urinals, congratulations I'm now uncomfortable sharing these spaces with the opposite gender. And I'm not sure why I should suddenly be forced to. Or why some people can't understand why this WOULD make people uncomfortable (I guess they've never been to India or Japan, or experienced any encounters of their own..)
'
Especially when you're out late or in a secluded place. Admittedly a lot of people in that particular scenario won't be deterred by gender-specific washroom signs, but some will, and even if they don't, the chances of someone else noticing something odd has been increased significantly.
'
And I know plenty of people, both male and female, who feel the same
If I was making the rules, I'd consolidate every bathroom that is split for the sexes into one big bathroom, make it so the stalls touch the ground and the doors don't have one inch fucking gaps in them, and let them act like adults.
I remember when this was a big talked about thing a few years ago and men hated it because they didn't feel comfortable letting their little girls use the same restroom as strange men. These same guys let their sons go to the bathroom by themselves seemingly unaware that pedophiles also like little boys. Who knew?