VindictiveBathToaster
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Take a tour of a gender neutral bathroom in a public school from the perspective of a student.
I couldn’t find this for a comment so I’m reposting it.
Most Viral for a repost? Who would have guessed?
DJOldguy
This actually looks a fuck ton better than what we had at school.
foampants
I've been in the gender neutral bathrooms in the new Kansas City airport. They are amazing. Stalls are so private, no line out the womens'. I saw a husband helping his wheelchair using wife into one stall, used the next stall himself, then came and helped her exit. A dad took his toddler daughter in, no weirdness. It was great in ways I didn't even anticipate.
VindictiveBathToaster
Makes me wonder why people have such an opposition to this? I’ve been talking to people on here that have a severe aversion to the two-way mirror but completely ignore the fact that there is no doors in the entryway and have no problem with the video surveillance.
AmarettosMommy
Solid doors and walls that fully enclose a safe space precludes the need for separate bathrooms. This is 100% acceptable, and I can't imagine anyone having a problem.
VindictiveBathToaster
They’re all up in arms because of the two-way mirrors that allow staff and others to see into the common areas of the bathroom. They argue it’s a violation of privacy but ignore that it doesn’t allow free viewing into the stalls, the only thing that should be happening in these areas is washing hands and they ignore that this same area is under recorded video surveillance.
AmarettosMommy
As long as it is clearly posted on the mirrors that they are being monitored,there should be no issue.
VindictiveBathToaster
I mean, it’s not exactly a secret. The students can see in from the hallway.
Do we need the same warning for the surveillance camera?
nosnowyno
Are there ceiling vents that one could theoretically blow smoke into? Asking for a friend.
VindictiveBathToaster
Yes. Right next to the smoke detectors.
souplegs
Yeah, the kids vape in there
twsx
Oh look, it's like, almost every bathroom in western Europe!
upsidedownalarmclock
Not really mate
vanishinggirl
Was just going to make this same comment- also some places in Canada too- was just in Quebec City, and all the public restrooms are “gender neutral”.
WhatTheFrog
I'm French and have never in my life seen a bathroom like that.
twsx
You must not get around much then. I was in one that looked mostly like that (safe for the windows obviously) at an aires near Strasbourg while driving through just over 2 weeks ago.
WhatTheFrog
So it was just like in the video except for the main feature, eh? Anyway, if the first thing you do when someone points out that you're wrong is act like a condescending prick, I have no interest in talking to you.
twsx
.... ok, good talk.
ScoundrelPDX
Every house I've ever been in has gender neutral bathrooms. People who get upset about them are creepy and weird.
VindictiveBathToaster
BigDaddysMeatWagon
Oh to have a stall with walls that actually locks properly. These kids are so lucky.
erikleorga
Those I dealt with in elementary through high school would latch, but it was super easy to push/kick them open. I was super nervous all the time about going to the restrooms because kids loved to kick the doors open while you were in there.
stewgru
Exactly! I never even had a door until middle school. Elementary me had to shit in the open. Then middle and high school had a door that had such a gap you can see everything. Probably why I fear taking a crap in a public facility
EroticZombiePants
There are 2 kinds of Americans: Those who fear taking a crap in public places due to their school's restrooms, and those who are completely shameless about taking a crap due to their school's restrooms.
WaterUnderTheRocketAppliances
Give it a couple years. Those locks will be fucked and the doors barely on their hinges.
VindictiveBathToaster
Those doors, hinges and locks are better than the ones I use on my house!
mormacil
Weird that never was an issue at my European highschool with full doors like this.
necrojoe
Eh, they are absolutely built better than the typical shit latches/locks on the modular bathroom stall systems. I've sourced both for the same start-up-y tech company (the kind with beer on tap, and a slide and video games in the lobby), the "old" style was destroyed in 6 months. The remodel with "rooms" lasted for several years, and still worked fine when I stopped working on that account.
kitsunova
I went to a TINY high school (a little over 100 students) back in the early 2000s and all our washrooms were single occupancy and gender neutral. Glad to see this becoming more common
ElbowDeepInYou
Every bathroom in every house is gender neutral. These look like what all bathrooms should be like.
imgurmage
You could stick a hand through the gaps in the stalls at my high school back in the day. I would have loved these stalls.
hellsgunslinger
One of the gyms at my high-school didn't even have walls around the toilets. Just 2 toilets out in the open for everyone to see.
SpacecouchCowboy
In elementary school kids would pee on your shoe under the stall if you went to take a shit. They would peek through the stalls. They soaked paper towels in water and threw them over the stalls. They stole bags that were placed on the ground. I had such a fear of public restrooms for so long after that. These stalls are amazing.
JarethCutestory
Middle school and high school also, what bullshit
Trustrup
That’s like a standard European bathroom, minus the windows, why have those to the hall?
Puvaradivi
To shame those using the gender neutral bathrooms. The windows aren't included on the girls and boys bathrooms, just the gender neutral. Right wing school board directors angry they're being installed at all, so they came up with this idea.
Monsoonaluna
Oh I hope that is not true because that iss messed up this should be the norm for all bathrooms. You need privacy at the toilet not at the sink and mirror.
Puvaradivi
Unfortunately it is
https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/gender-inclusive-bathroom-window-pennsylvania-middle-school-rcna173917
SoraHjort
Just a hand? Lucky.
Elonth
you had doors?!
whatspaulplayingtoday
Same. Locked doors? Some semblance of privacy in an utterly imprivate environment? I'd have been in heaven.
suchpun
Americans: Naked in the sauna? Oh, the horror, I need my privacy!
Also Americans: Yes, we have huge gaps in the bathroom stalls so that everyone can see you take a dump. Totally cool and normal!
Cthulhuonabike
The bathroom stalls in the boys locker room at my high-school didn't have doors of any kind, just the side partitions
76000BatteryLlamas
Your stalls had doors??
popejubal
You know those crappy bathroom stall doors that have the 1/2 inch wide gaps that people can look through? Yeah, my high school was worried that kids would smoke in the stall, so they removed the doors from the stalls entirely.
MadamPuddifoot
Lots of teens be fuckin in them, or at least trying
DeguRatface
I found that almost everywhere when I went to an America and absolutely nothing could have prepared me for it. I didn't know it was a thing, I was horrified and rarely even wanted to leave the place I was staying due to it. It's absolutely insane to let people look at you on the toilet like that....
HavokRH
No one was trying to look at you. Seriously, nobody over the age five tries to look in a bathroom stall. You were worried over nothing.
DeguRatface
Wild thing to say. 1. People bring their five year olds into bathrooms, I don't want those looking at me either. 2. It's pretty natural for people to automatically look at other people if they can see them. 3. It's also natural for people to want absolute privacy while shitting or pissing.
AmbassadorOfAndrew
3 doesn’t always apply. I was taking a dump at work once, and some guy got in the stall next to me with a support dog, and the dog was peeking at me, it was pretty great.
NeynasGhost
uh, as an American who has been dealing with terrible public restrooms all my life - why would I want an under-five looking in the stall while I piss, and why would I NOT have a problem with the total lack of any privacy in most stalls, especially when you add trying to keep my purse safe and hygienic at the same time? I hate hate hate using public restrooms and avoid it wherever possible outside of the few places that have reasonably secure stalls.
Zombingaround
People who oppose gender neutral bathrooms innately believe male boy or men are inherently rapist given the opportunity. Same reason why women can’t go alone, can’t be in large public gatherings in some countries. It is, of course, also about patriarchy.
JonSnowAKAAegonTargaryen
As always...my response to people who are snowflakes around gender neutral bathrooms:
drspangle
Trains and planes, too
JesaraB
Saw a nice little troll post of someone informing a MAGA neighbor that they had 3 gender-neutral bathrooms installed in their house, which of course horribly offended and disgusted the man, with the post ended with something like 'I wonder if he'll ever realize?'.
supercatpig
Good point. With the restrooms in the video.. why not make all of them gender neutral? It beats the doorless ones at my old school.
MapleSyrupMafia
Not so fun fact, you can open those from the outside by pushing and sliding the occupied/empty sign. Had to open one after a festival as we were doing a round to make sure the site was empty, one toilet was red. Dude got in, puked and shat himself, then fell asleep in there.
uzetaab
Generally speaking, most toilets can be unlocked from the outside for this very reason. Including bathrooms in most homes. Normally you just need a flat object like a coin. There is usually a slot you can turn.
uzetaab
Like this slot. Now you know how to open the door when your small child gets stuck
CheeseGreaterGood
And he couldn’t be woken up?
MapleSyrupMafia
He didn't wake up when I opened the door at first. Luckily enough, the paramedics were within flashlight distance and dude woke up the moment they got there... Poor souls having to escort him and check if he was ok. I've done pretty much all local festivals, including the FEQ (Quebec City) and it was easily the worst fucking smell of them all.
Nyxaura
Omg privacy?! How DARE they.
VindictiveBathToaster
“BUT THE WINDOWS!!! IT’S CREEPY!!!”
Nyxaura
Keeps the kids from smoking in the bathrooms though
JadeNB1729
I know the risk of JAQ, but I swear that's not what I'm doing; I'm just not familiar. I don't understand about the see-through glass. Is it to make sure that you know who's in the bathroom before you go in? Why is it needed for gender-neutral bathrooms with locking doors and private stalls, but not for gendered bathrooms?
ImHereToGetDownvotes
Glass it to keep the public area as public as possible so there isn't any funny play behind a wall where someone can't call for help. It helps insure that when you do go into a private stall, you're not followed because people can see in.
RevolutionOnHerLips
because transphobes aren't consistent in their beliefs. they're not trying to stop sexual assaults from happening, they're trying to stop trans people from using bathrooms, and they try to hide it behind the same "think of the children!" virtue signaling they use any time they try to remove some civil liberty.
Alaaraaf
Seemed to me that it was to address the, 'But horrible rapey men will attack people in the bathrooms!' It makes that part effectively a public area.
Setsylarper
I genuinely had to rewatch to see if I missed the mirrors. I think that aspect is a poor design choice and removes the ability to use a bit of water to fix hair or makeup, while also forcing folx to wait or crowd around the loan wall mirror. I think the windows are wholly unnecessary and dumb, but I would choose full length fuckin doors over mirror access. Transphobes is the worst reason for those windows, but any reason feels like a dumb one.
VindictiveBathToaster
How about the fact that anybody can see into the bathroom, not the toilets, to make sure there isn’t anything bad going on such as bullying? Having two way mirrors in the bathrooms that can be easily monitored by anyone including school Staff is a safety measure not a perversion. It actually has nothing to do with transphobia.
Setsylarper
Didn't say it was a perversion? I meant that if the reason for it's existence was some transphobic panic about Trans folx sexually assaulting someone, that's a stupid reason for the windows. That also looks like a straight up window, not a two way mirror, though I could easily be wrong on that. As far as preventing bullying goes, if studies back that up, then cool. Otherwise, I don't see the benefit of removing this bit of privacy for students.
VindictiveBathToaster
How much privacy do people need when they’re at the sink? The windows don’t allow viewing into the toilet stalls. They’re washing their hands, maybe touching up their makeup. It’s not a locker room. Is the common area of a bathroom. Note that there is no door to the common area from the hallway and there’s video surveillance.
Setsylarper
I know it would've made me incredibly anxious in high school if I couldn't wash my hands in privacy and I would still feel awkward washing my hands/being in a bathroom where I could see the public. Maybe if I had grown up without the expectation of privacy in all sections of a bathroom it wouldn't be weird. As it is, I personally think it's weird and without data supporting a decrease in bullying, see no benefit. If it's only in gender neutral bathrooms, then I worry it would increase bullying.
VindictiveBathToaster
It’s more along the lines of the fact that anybody could walk by and see what’s going on in the bathroom, which would prevent people from doing bad things in the bathroom such as bullying.
razark
But that doesn't address the "Why is it needed for gender-neutral bathrooms with locking doors and private stalls, but not for gendered bathrooms?"
unluckyandbored
If a predator is going to assault someone in a bathroom, the fact that it's the wrong bathroom is not going to stop them.
VindictiveBathToaster
If staff or anyone else can see in, the predator is likely to avoid assaulting someone. Throw into the mix, the same area is under video surveillance. Is it going to entirely stop bad behavior? No. Does that mean they shouldn’t even bother trying to stop it, absolutely not!
moodytravesty
or they drag them into a stall and lock it
VindictiveBathToaster
Honestly, why do bathrooms need to be gender segregated? I can’t think of anything that’s done in the common area of a bathroom like this that needs to be gender segregated. It’s not a locker room. People aren’t getting undressed. They’re using the toilet, washing their hands and leaving. Maine there’s some makeup action, but not much else. I honestly don’t think it’s a big deal. In fact, from an efficiency perspective, I prefer this design.
razark
Absolutely true. But these windows are only being put in the gender neutral ones. Feels more like someone wants the people using these to be on display, for some reason. It wouldn't be so damn weird if it was all restrooms.
VindictiveBathToaster
Honestly, I think it would be more apt to say that they’re being put in new or remodeled bathrooms. The fact that this a gender neutral bathroom is coincidental.
SilenceIsTheMotherOfTruth
AKA every bathroom in Europe.
Efreeti
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania - https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2024/10/horrified-parents-speak-out-after-school-installs-viewing-windows-in-trans-inclusive-restrooms/
VaultGirl69
They're going to be having sex in those. Which, you know you can't keep them from having sex. Just educate them about consent and safety.
pacmanownsyou
When I was in school the stalls didn't even have doors. Parents freaking out over gender-neutral restrooms are dangerously concerned with the sexuality of young people.
EmailFail
I always knew where I could get a private bathroom when I had to poo. There were three in my school and the rest were wide open
SomethingOtherThanMyRealName
At my old high school the toilet at the gym had 2 stalls, no doors, the side walls only came out to your knees, and you faced the entrance. There was no door to this bathroom, so if you were taking a dump, you'd get to see everyone walk by, and they got to see you.
AriPlanetLord
I would have died from not using the bathroom. It sounds like it could be a circle of hell.
Corduroyrockhopper
I went to school before people realized they should drink water during the day. So we never peed. The whole day. It was good though because our stalls had the doors taken off for "safety" so no one could do drugs in there.
bikergeek6249
Yeah same with my high school...no doors on the stalls. I think I went the entirety of K-12 without using a school bathroom once.
RevolutionOnHerLips
My school took off the stall doors AND the door to the bathroom. From the right angle you could see the feet of whoever was using the first stall from out in the hallway that all the students went past. Didn't use those bathrooms at any point in school. lol
gradeD
I believe first and foremost they've had their higher reasoning short-circuited by disinformation.
VaultGirl69
And they should be more concerned with kids getting shot at school. But it's one of those, "I choose to ignore this because it hasn't directly affected me" things. Just busy bodies who have really stupid priorities.
alwaysacleric
It's right wing Christian lunatics that don't remember puberty and think their kids are perfect angels.
LordHosk
They remember sneaking out of their parents houses at night to meet up with their boyfriend/girlfriend on Saturday night, they remember skipping lunch for handjobs under the bleachers by the football field.
thats what terrifies them, they know exactly what they did as teenagers and they want to act like 1. they didn't do it, and 2. they can prevent their kids from doing it.
for 100,000 years teenagers have been sneaking out and parents have been saying "I would know"
DJOldguy
Oh no, that's not right, they do remember puberty, and how much it frightened the shit out of them, and that they have never gotten over it. That's why they are so fucking scared of their kids growing up and doing grown up things. Keep them ignorant and they will be safe, fucking morons.
Twrecks123
Do you remember the rubber flaps?
Mercurybird
We need to use our words for genitalia. We don’t call them ‘flaps’ or ‘rubber flaps’..
Twrecks123
A long time ago, they used to have this black flaps that hung down in the entry way of a stall, instead of doors. They were thick like the stuff swing seats are made out of.
Mercurybird
Corduroyrockhopper
Um what?
Twrecks123
They used to have these black rubber flaps that hung down instead of a door. Ike a weird car wash looking thing.
spicetothefoo
Perverts.... The people dangerously concerned with youth sexuality are perverts. They just operate to control others vs themselves.
kddk8s
I had over 100,000 likes on this when I downloaded it from TikTok and posted it to Instagram last year... Truly many WTF moments with the folks in the comments.
Congrats!
VindictiveBathToaster
It’s exhausting.
I only reposted it because I wanted to use it as a comment for another post and couldn’t find it.
Exdeath5000
UserMad42
That's the way ALL public bathrooms should be, whether in schools or not. Why people are expected to sh*t and p*ss in a group setting with NO privacy, like animals in a barn, is inexplicable to me.
Theory89
I mean, I could do without it being open to the hallway, so the smell of shit doesn't just waft through the building every time someone comes out.
SploogeMcDuck316
Yall remember trough urinals?
VindictiveBathToaster
The good old days when we posed in a roof of ice. No barriers, no separators. Hell, I remember using a temporary one at a high school stadium that was outside and in view of the grand stands!
andHeLaughed
My kids were horrified when I told them about those
AverySillyName
Mcmaclassie
Stall doors that go all the way to the floor? Sign me the fuck up!
override367
replace every single bathroom in America with these please
pdhackley
Looks like a Buc-ee’s bathroom!
Iggythemushroom
Isn't that just a European public restroom?
Alaaraaf
Nicer than most in the UK.
The Everyman cinema chain (in their Leeds cinema at least) have individual cubicles like this that all have their own little sink.
harthram
This is a superior design. It should be standard everywhere
executivedisfunction
No schools with POC kids will ever get the funds for these Much more expensive restrooms to build. Many white schools can't afford this. If they became system/state wide mandated, suppliers would compete with mass produced products for this standard, rather than most likely being custom, and costs would plummet.
Ranb40
This looks like almost every other gender neutral restroom I have ever used. Some of them had their own sinks and diaper changing tables though.
VindictiveBathToaster
With the way they’re going about sex education these days, the schools may need baby changing tables.
Ranb40
What has changed recently regarding sex education in schools? Are you actually expecting that student mothers are going to be bringing their infants to school with them? I don't think that the conservatives discouraging/prohibiting birth control and abortion will allow teen mothers to utilize any sort of child care in a high school.
VindictiveBathToaster
I was saying it sarcastically, but there are some school districts in this country that have restricted sexual education to anti-masturbation and abstinence only education. Demonstration of contraceptives and their safe and proper use is prohibited. Shame is promoted and any actual, truthful sexual education is discouraged. But we all know that lack of education isn’t going to stop people from masturbating or having sex.
DJThuglifeSupreme
I’ll be selfish and say the only reason I wouldn’t want gender neutral bathrooms is I like having urinals and never waiting to pee 🤷♂️
EroticZombiePants
Break out the pissin' troughs!
SmartAverageBear
Just pee in the sink if there's a line
vegangreen
Where I live it's just become default not to provide urinals. Slows everything down, so everyone is worse off. I guess it ticks some equality box for people who aren't smart enough not to cut off their nose to spite their face.
ImOnlyHereForTheComments
I never thought about it, but great point. Stall availability is always much lower than with urinals / Throughput is higher with urinals. when you're only given 6 minutes between classes...every minute counts.
lysani
If a student has to go, then they can just get up during class and head to the restroom, they don't need to rush between classes. Teachers legally cannot stop students from going.
RevolutionOnHerLips
there are gender neutral bathrooms at some of the bars here... you walk past the stall and sink area to turn a corner where there's a row of urinals against the wall. Use them, come out and wash your hands in front of the stall area. ez pz.
Snowraptor
First stall I went to in a gender neutral bathroom had a pee covered toilet seat. Fortunately this was a museum so it was pretty empty and I was able to not piss on my own seat in relative peace.
khora
Just go to the gender neutral urinal.
SpikedDoggos
I don't know if this has them, but they put these in a new part of the Seattle airport and there's a massive wall of stall doors and a massive wall of sinks, then around one corner are frosted glass sliding doors and being that, a wall of urinals.
Felt weird (different?) for a moment but it is an awesome setup
WaterUnderTheRocketAppliances
Kind of dumb to have windows instead of mirrors above the sinks
DelendusSum
They’re two-way mirrors. If you’re standing at the sink you have a mirror to look in like normal. From the outside you can see in which a) lets you not go in if you don’t feel comfortable with someone who’s already in there and b) reduces the argument that assaults will happen behind closed doors in mixed-gender areas.
lysani
You can see in the video that those are clearly just windows above the sinks, with a mirror on a side wall by the exit.
WaterUnderTheRocketAppliances
But kids are definitely gonna stand on the other side and make fun of people using the mirrors and probably take video.
DelendusSum
They’re kids so, yeah, probably. But they’ll make fun of other kids even without these, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DelendusSum
They’re kids so, yeah, probably. But they’ll make fun of other kids even without these, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Midioto
Blows my mind. Just 2 days ago this made the rounds here and Imigur was LIVID about how Evil this was and how “Parents were horrified after far-right school board installs viewing windows in trans-inclusive restrooms.” It was straight up called Conservative pedophilia. Now… I guess it’s not? Today it seems everyone is pretty happy with these things.
Midioto
Heck, one commenter today is saying how “these kids are so lucky.” Personally, I more align with this version of events but man, I just got whiplash. I had gotten a lot of downvotes a few days ago. /gallery/SpNDAkd/comment/2420831491
VindictiveBathToaster
I’m having a conversation with one guy whose position is that these windows are taking away the students privacy in the name of safety. Trying to get him to tell me, privacy from what washing their hands? Checking their makeup? The windows don’t allow people to view into the toilet stalls!
VindictiveBathToaster
The parents, you know, the people who aren’t using them, are the only ones that were “horrified”. They act like people are monitoring students using the toilets, but the windows, which are actually two way mirrors, only allow people to view the common area of the bathroom, which is the sinks. An area in which people should only be washing their hands or checking their makeup. A way for staff to make sure that nothing against policy or against the law is happening in their bathrooms. Simple shit.
andexer
Honest question: are these safe in an emergency (where emergency personnel need to reach someone inside)?
EccentricNut
There's a keyhole on the outside of the stall, so presumably there's a master key to unlock them
pianostacatto
But the concern is always response time. If the doors work as a decent deterrent to delay and stall helpers, then the person inside has a higher chance to succeed. Either as a self-inflicted ordeal, or trapped with a killer ordeal.
In the case of the restroom in the video clip, the latching mechanism is a bladed turn-key switch. What's to stop someone from pre-calculating what would be needed to "perfectly" fit the space in between the handle and switch so it cannot be turned?
vidmagnuson
Not saying that you don't have a point, but given enough planning there is a countermeasure for -every- safety override. Someone who does not want to be reached in time will always find a way to avoid being reached in time, that is not a reason enough to do away with the privacy and safety considerations as they exist for their intended purpose.
Efreeti
What the fuck are you talking about? As an European, is this the kind of bs you've been told to justify two foot gaps around stall doors?
pianostacatto
I don't know if you really are Europe-located or not, but these are legitimate concerns the rest of us "normal" Americans often have to worry about. I am not saying the "2-foot" gap is better, nor am I promoting it. But America has a ton of troubled youths and the option for absolute privacy is pivotal for certain events. Like being home alone, as an example.
Thing A has benefit! "Yay, praise, great! Wonderful!"
But, Thing A can also do this! "Oh no, what if, can we, will it be too late?"
NeynasGhost
Yeah, it's always stuff like "what if a homeless man comes in and shoots up (drugs) in there and DIES" as if that's a common enough occurrence to justify literally no one getting privacy.
Efreeti
I mean, like, custodial services usually have keys to get in these kinds of doors even when locked from the inside, to use if strictly necessary, no?