Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Unisex: Violation of Expectations ?!?


Ooh, ooh,.. I forgot to post about this last week. So here it is now.

The Setup
For quite some time I've entertained conversations with a few coworkers about the labeling of what used to be the Men's Faculty Bathroom. Now it is the "Unisex / Handicap" bathroom. We often joke about the fact that very often people will go in to use it and not lock the door. At the same time we wonder if it is strange that people go in and lock the door, since it is afterall "Unisex". We always joke that one day we'll use the urinal and not lock the door and see if people still come in or if they immediately leave. To understand where this is going you need to know what the bathroom looks like.

The Bathroom Layout
There is an exterior locking door. Inside, there is a sink, a urinal (with small walls on either side), and one stall with a locking door.

The Event
One day last week I had to pee really badly. I left my office and went around the corner to the Unisex bathroom because it is closest to my office. (There's a men's room on another hall not 50 more feet away though). I opened the bathroom door to find a young woman styling her hair at the sink. Seeing as I had to pee really really badly,.. I politely said, "Oh, hello,... excuse me." and I walked right past her and started using the urinal. She left in quite a hurry thereafter. Once the door closed behind her I chuckled slightly as the wave of relief washed over me.

The comedy of it all - and the Questions this poses
There's a separator wall between the sink and the urinal. Should she have not felt uncomfortable seeing as it was a Unisex bathroom? Should she not have hurried out but instead finished styling her hair? I think if I walked in and some woman was using the stall, I'd still use the urinal. I mean, really,.. who gives a damn. We're adults.

I know a lot of students probably have not had a public bathroom experience, but I have (and no, I wasn't even in Europe). I know me continuing violated her expectations. As for myself, I think its rather comical. That'll teach her to use the Unisex bathroom! I can hardly wait until these young adults go out into the corporate world and have to use a bathroom where there are 40 stalls side-by-side and people actually *gasp* talk to each other while defecating.

1 comment:

Raene said...

I used a unisex bathroom in Japan. It was in a Kyoto McDonald's. I went in to use it, and as I was leaving a man was coming in hehe.