What Do You Think?

anybody remember that scene in starship troopers with the co-ed showers? they made it look very natural and un-hangup-y. i think it's the wave of the future.

My answer is NO!

but anyway I saw a African American Female comedian who talked about the idea of Co-ed public  bathroom.  The joke ran something like this.

"Then my little girl say's, "No, I want to see it" and I said to her, "So does Mommy, honey but it's not polite to stare"

I got a kick out of it, if you can't make people realize how stupid they are, make fun of em.  Great plan!

No, why would anyone in their right mind consider it

You're going to thing I'm crazy for asking this:  :D

- What's the difference between a 'restroom' and a 'locker room'
- What's a locker room? (I know a restroom is American for 'public toilet')

No, why would anyone in their right mind consider it


There are co-ed restrooms in some buildings.

I don't think PUBLIC restrooms should be co-ed.  There are some things that should be kept private. I know I wouldn't want to be sitting in a stall next to some male who has horrible gas.

Locker rooms are usually in Gyms.

I voted restrooms only, but I'll add a caviate.  If its a single seater, or if it only has stalls. 

As to locker rooms (where, for our non-US friends athletes change cloths) its a high school freshman's dream to be able to  change and shower with the girls gym class, and yes, I admit to those dreams.  And it is too bad that we in this country can't be morerelaxed about the human body.  But even in colleges, I think there would be a good deal of opposition.

I don't think PUBLIC restrooms should be co-ed.  There are some things that should be kept private. I know I wouldn't want to be sitting in a stall next to some male who has horrible gas.

Locker rooms are usually in Gyms.


Women's body gasses smell better?  Here's a hint: The answer is NO!  ::)

I don't think PUBLIC restrooms should be co-ed.  There are some things that should be kept private. I know I wouldn't want to be sitting in a stall next to some male who has horrible gas.


A good point :)

No.

No way! And what's "co-ed" about plumbing facilities?

While I don't think there ought to be so many hang ups about it, there are, and it just makes everyone more comfortable to seperate the sexes. Perhaps an optional unisex changing facility would do.

I personally feel uncomfortable in public facilities anyway. I prefer to perform my hygenic activities in my own home. It's silly that it should be that way, but it's not like there's anything that will change it, at least in my lifetime. My history professor always says that inside every American lives a tiny Puritan that affects how we feel about things, even if we are very liberal and we recognise its ridiculousness, it's still there.

I voted NO, that'd just be too weird.
anybody remember that scene in starship troopers with the co-ed showers? they made it look very natural and un-hangup-y. i think it's the wave of the future.
Yeah, that was one of my favorite scenes in the movie.  ;) Wave of the future? No way. Unless they spiked the drinking water with saltpeter, no straight man would be able to stand there surrounded by beautiful young women lathering up their naked bodies, without popping a chubby.

no straight man would be able to stand there surrounded by beautiful young women lathering up their naked bodies, without popping a chubby.


I'm sure that not every man in every men's locker room is straight, but I at least have never seen anyone walking around with an erection in any locker room I've ever been in. I really don't think sexual preference has much to do with it. I think most adult males, gay, straight, bisexual, or trysexual, know there's an appropriate place to "let it all hang out" (or should I say up ;)) and can keep their arousal under control.

Then there's also the fact that it would be considered very rude to stare at them lathering up their naked bodies, so most people wouldn't do it.

I'd walk a mile for a CLEAN one, single-sex, unisex or whatever, just don't make me fear for my state of health when I go to do my business!
:o

um.....hell NO!





Erin :)

If done right, public toilets (restrooms) could definately be unisex. Hell, there are already a few around town and in public places (such as schools, universities, community halls etc)

Changing rooms (locker rooms) however, are slighly different, and should probably stay same sex.

However in a perfect world, this wouldn't even be an issue... but, unfortunatly, the world is FAR from perfect.

I don't have a problem with unisex toilets, in fact there is one here at work.  Changing rooms are a different matter though.

As was said earlier....as long as there are single stalls, I don't care who's "doing their business" next to me.

yes, i don't mean to be uptight but i simply MUST insist on the separate stalls. communal stalls, that's the stuff of nightmares! ew!

Locker rooms, IMO, are a different story.  I don't feel particularly comfortable naked in front of women and I sure as heck don't want to be naked in front of a bunch of sweaty men (unless, of course, it's my husband) and I'm sure they don't want to be naked in front of me (at least some of them).  Besides, if women were able to see them naked, they wouldn't be able to lie about their "size" ;)


oh no! the size issue! it's funny, someone from another forum once turned me on to doris wishman -- she did these nudist movies in the 1960s, pretty much totally nonerotic, but interesting... it's all pro-nudist, and they interview all these people who say that once people are naked all the time it stops being such a thrill. it could be co-ed bathrooms &c would be similar, once it settled in there wouldn't be much more lecherous staring than anywhere else...

yes, i don't mean to be uptight but i simply MUST insist on the separate stalls. communal stalls, that's the stuff of nightmares! ew!



When we were camping in Sweden a few years ago they had built temporary toilets.  They were single sex but each stall contain two places to sit and there were no doors on any of the cubicles! 

Of course they should be seperate.  Just because some places in Europe think something is a good idea, does not mean that it is a good idea.

Most malls and amusement parks have a "Family Bathroom", which I guess can be considered co-ed.  And how often are they ever used?  Many times I have gone into one simply because it was available and the other one was full (like after a movie gets out).

Of course they should be seperate.  Just because some places in Europe think something is a good idea, does not mean that it is a good idea.



Conversely, just because you don't like an idea does not mean it isn't a good idea

Conversely, just because you don't like an idea does not mean it isn't a good idea


No, and there are many reasons I think it is a bad idea, not just because of personal opinion.

For one thing, public bathrooms have long been the "haven" for pedophiles, and sexual predators.  I am sure we all know about where George Michael was arrested.  In California, bathrooms in public parcks are not a place to go to.  And there have even been cases like the one about 10 years ago in Las Vegas, where a teenage boy followed a young girl into the ladies bathroom, then raped and killed her.

At least if somebody had gone in after him, they could have questioned why a boy was in a girl's bathroom.  If they are made co-ed, then that is less likely to happen.

I think if the demand was really there, there would be more "family" bathrooms, and co-ed bathrooms appearing.  Since nobody seems to be asking for them, I doubt many would use them.  And we have covered co-ed lockerrooms in here in the recent past.  I think that most of us thought it was nuts.

I think family restrooms are a good idea, and I have recently begun to see them everywhere. It helps for people with children with them who might be of the opposite sex, and who feel uncomfortable bringing the child into the restroom correspoding to the sex of the parent.

No, and there are many reasons I think it is a bad idea, not just because of personal opinion.

For one thing, public bathrooms have long been the "haven" for pedophiles, and sexual predators.  I am sure we all know about where George Michael was arrested.  In California, bathrooms in public parcks are not a place to go to.  And there have even been cases like the one about 10 years ago in Las Vegas, where a teenage boy followed a young girl into the ladies bathroom, then raped and killed her.

At least if somebody had gone in after him, they could have questioned why a boy was in a girl's bathroom.  If they are made co-ed, then that is less likely to happen.



The way I see it, if the bathroom was co-ed it would be MORE likely that someone would have gone in and thwarted the rape.

Some family-friendly places started installing "changing stations."  First they annexed them to the women's facilities, but to be more equitable, they made them gender neutral.  Some places, like Barnes & Noble, put changing tables in the men's room.  I resent that.  I hate to sound sexist, but one time I walked in just as dad was walking out, lil' one in tow, and I found the guy had just trashed the place in the process of tending to young one's needs.  Deee-scusting!

Some of the seedier bars and clubs about town need a similar facility variety:  Men, Women, Shooting Gallery!

Others need this kind of arrangement: Female, Male, Shemale, Hemale, In transition, Undecided.
:-\\

Periodically on university campuses a demand arises from the "transgendered community" for the renovation of buildings to include facilities especially for them.  It flared up at UMass a few years ago, but has since disappeared from the radar.  I don't have a problem with the concept.  It'a question of budgetary priorities.

that's what actually started this, i think, i'd jokingly mentioned "you shouldn't be allowed to be fired if you dressed like a girl to sneak into the women's bathroom." it was this story on the radio about hiring practices and apparently there was this bill in maine that made it illegal to discriminate based on gender, "perceived gender identity" and a few other things. and this right-wing guy was on talking about how vague "perceived gender identity" was and this was his nightmare scenario, that guys would be dressing up like women to get their peepies on. seems sorta prespammersite to me, but at the same time i know this whole bathroom cam thing is pretty commonplace, pervy dudes putting cameras in bathrooms to peep on women. ugh. but somehow i think those guys would balk at dressing up like dr. frankenfurter just for the joy of going into some grody bathroom.

(ah! "grody"! i forgot that one! to the 80s slang thread!)

it reminds me of whenever gay marriage comes up, somebody always argues that it's going to open the door to people marrying their dogs and such. and that argument to me is SO offensive, i consider myself a FoGLBTG (friend of gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered) folks and to me grownup people of the same gender can TOTALLY be in love and want to be married. and that's TOTALLY different from "marrying your dog," that argument shows little understanding not only of gay people but of human nature period.

(ah! "grody"! i forgot that one! to the 80s slang thread!)



My mother like makes me do the dishes, I mean somebody else's food, barf me out, gag me with a spoon! Grody to the max!
--Moon Zappa

Hmm... we already have them segregated, and there's no point to integrating them.. no positive, why mess with success?

Hmm... we already have them segregated, and there's no point to integrating them.. no positive, why mess with success?


in my best of all possible worlds, someday we're going to view gender as this benign and secondary characteristic, more like height or hair color, rather than this essential characteristic that constitutes our basic identity. (i'd like to see the same thing happen with race/skin color, too, but that seems like that would be a bit further off.) i think in such a world there would be a lot less sexism, discrimination, sexual violence, and just plain goofy alpha male posturing or "heathers"-type female bitchiness and backstabbing, because we wouldn't feel the need to follow ridiculous rules that supposedly make us more "manly" or more like "real women."

all through our lives we get that drummed into us, that "they're" not like us -- they stand on the other side of the room at the junior high dance and they go to the other room to take a whiz or take a shower. look at this site! what's the immediate thing you look at about somebody: do they have the circle with the arrow, or the circle with the cross? i suppose a lot of people think this gender difference is totally burned into the psyche but i personally don't. i think we're trained into it over the years...

Hmm... we already have them segregated, and there's no point to integrating them.. no positive, why mess with success?


I would not characterize our society's current relationship to gender and sexual issues as a success.

I would not characterize our society's current relationship to gender and sexual issues as a success.



staaaaa-raight up....!

I would not characterize our society's current relationship to gender and sexual issues as a success.

I agree...but that's a whole other thread!

trysexual


I dont even want to know what that is lol  ::)

I think every bathroom should have one "Billy Florio Only" stall.  That seems to be the route we're going in if we provide facilities for every different variation on gender or sex. 

Now, I could make a semi-comical argument comparing the seperation of male and female locker rooms to pre-civil rights movement "seperate-but-equal" locker rooms, but it would be stupid, and it would just be covering up the underlying desire for having a bunch of girls changing around me.  And I wouldnt dare to make that argument with restrooms in mind, because I dont think anyone finds the sight of anyone sitting on a toilet and doing their business to be the least bit titilating.  (well, maybe saying no one is going a bit too far, but I dont want to know about it if that's your thing lol).   

Regardless of this, keep them seperate...I hate having to do anything in the bathroom when theres even someone else of the same gender in there...and I hate the one seaters because I always just get the feeling that Im holding a line of people up.  On second though, that "Billy Florio only" stall is sounding really good about now... :P

I dont even want to know what that is lol   ::)


It's a term used to describe someone who will "try" anything in the bedroom once.  ;D

I think every bathroom should have one "Billy Florio Only" stall.  That seems to be the route we're going in if we provide facilities for every different variation on gender or sex. 

along similar lines, i was talking with someone at work the other day who was complaining about how irritating she found it when she goes to the bathroom and someone's ripped the toilet paper between the little perforated lines, so that there's a half-square on the end of it. i've seen this but it never occurred to me to be irritated by it. so i ask why that bothers her, she says, 'because it reminds me someone else has been there.' i'm like, well, toots, hopefully you know that anyway. i'm not sure we as a nation can afford to build you a brand-new bathroom every time you gotta go.

Okay, that is someone with some SERIOUS issues....heck, I'm happy if the seat isn't wet ;D ;D ;D

Yeesh!  I know.  I just try to get in and out of there as quickly as possible, and contemplate as few things as I can about the state of the facility!
:P

nowadays with many things someone says or does being deemed offensive, it may not be a good idea.

People should worry much less about being deemed offensive, and worry more about not being offensive.

IMNSHO.
;)