God and Man and the Bathrooms at Yale, Or, In Which I Learn that the Sorry Future is Already Here

 

USA/When we recorded our podcast yesterday morning, James told Rob and me, half jokingly, that we were so quickly losing our sense of the distinction between male and female — of the difference between man and woman — that soon we would be expected to use gender-neutral restrooms. Whereupon yours truly predicted that gender-neutral restrooms would first appear on college campuses. “Rob,” I said to Brother Long, “the next time you visit New Haven, Mother Yale may expect you to share a bathroom with ladies.”

James, as I say, made his comment half-jokingly, and I made mine — well, let’s say I made mine a quarter-jokingly. In my inbox this evening, an email from a member of the Yale Class of 2007. I laugh no more.

My sophomore year (this would have been 2005) my residential college dorm room shared a bathroom with 2 other suites of girls. The configuration:
Open the bathroom door:

Left wall: 4 sinks

Right wall: Toilet stall, Shower Stall, Shower Stall, Toilet Stall

You may not to want to use a sink after man has shaved his face in it, incidentally, but after a girl has used it to shave her legs?

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  1. EJHill Podcaster
    EJHill
    @EJHill

    Well, if she shaved her legs with a Harry’s Shave razor…

    Segue into stupidity. Let’s make men and women share the spaces where they pull their pants down and then, yes then, expect them all to act like emasculated angels.

    What the Uncle Sam Hill is going on here?!?

    • #1
  2. user_7742 Inactive
    user_7742
    @BrianWatt

    Well, define “share”. As in same time sharing?

    I was uncomfortable enough using the men’s room in Düsseldorf, Germany during an international trade show in the late 1990s because there were women attendants cleaning and standing to one side waiting to clean while men were relieving themselves. I’m not sure I want to witness (or hear) women conducting their personal bodily business while I’m conducting mine. And I’m quite sure there are women who would feel the same way about men sharing their lavatory space.

    There are certain lines in the history of western civilization that should not be obliterated for the sake of Leftist agendas and the line to use the stalls or the urinals would be one.

    • #2
  3. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    EJHill:Well, if she shaved her legs with a Harry’s Shave razor…

    James, are you listening? We have another master of the segue on our hands.

    • #3
  4. Peter Robinson Contributor
    Peter Robinson
    @PeterRobinson

    Brian Watt:

    There are certain lines in the history of western civilization that should not be obliterated for the sake of Leftist agendas and the line to use the stalls or the urinals would be one.

    Well and truly stated, Brian, well and truly stated.

    • #4
  5. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    Peter Robinson:

    EJHill:Well, if she shaved her legs with a Harry’s Shave razor…

    James, are you listening? We have another master of the segue on our hands.

    With all due respect, I believe that is a callback to my ROTC high-heels segue. (He said, bristling at the notion of a rival.)

    I wasn’t really half-joking. Non-gendered spaces is a sign of enlightenment, and bathrooms without gender designation will be the hallmark of restrooms in chic little bistros that specialize in artisanal toast. The elect will know they are among the savages when they go to a suburban Applebees and the doors whose iconography reinforces a cisnormative paradigm.

    • #5
  6. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    I think it will hit in California before Yale.

    • #6
  7. Raw Prawn Member
    Raw Prawn
    @RawPrawn

    I grew up with two ugly blisters. I know women go to the bathroom. I don’t want to see them do it. I don’t want to hear them do it. I don’t want to be reminded they do it. Some realities are best left in the bottom drawer. Some illusions should be maintained for the good of society.

    • #7
  8. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Raw Prawn:I grew up with two ugly blisters.

    I have to ask, was that intentional (and very funny), or some sort of Auto Correct hijink?

    • #8
  9. Marion Evans Inactive
    Marion Evans
    @MarionEvans

    Tangentially related point:  Here is a case where women should NOT want equality. They have had equality and it has served them poorly. You have probably noticed at sporting venues, theaters etc that the line for the ladies’ restroom is a lot longer than for the men’s. That is because women visit the restroom more often and/or stay in there longer. Architects (who have been mostly men until recently) usually lay out M and W restrooms symmetrically and with identical size, replacing some stalls with some urinals. But restrooms at busy public places should be larger for women, include more sinks and stalls, and even a couch or two.

    • #9
  10. Raw Prawn Member
    Raw Prawn
    @RawPrawn

    Arahant:

    Raw Prawn:I grew up with two ugly blisters.

    I have to ask, was that intentional (and very funny), or some sort of Auto Correct hijink?

    It’s rhyming slang. I didn’t invent it.

    I forgot to mention: I don’t want to smell them either.

    • #10
  11. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    Raw Prawn:

    Arahant:

    Raw Prawn:I grew up with two ugly blisters.

    I have to ask, was that intentional (and very funny), or some sort of Auto Correct hijink?

    It’s rhyming slang. I didn’t invent it.

    I forgot to mention: I don’t want to smell them either.

    What do you have against rose petals?

    • #11
  12. Metalheaddoc Member
    Metalheaddoc
    @Metalheaddoc

    Marion Evans:Tangentially related point: Here is a case where women should NOT want equality. They have had equality and it has served them poorly. You have probably noticed at sporting venues, theaters etc that the line for the ladies’ restroom is a lot longer than for the men’s. That is because women visit the restroom more often and/or stay in there longer. Architects (who have been mostly men until recently) usually lay out M and W restrooms symmetrically and with identical size, replacing some stalls with some urinals. But restrooms at busy public places should be larger for women, include more sinks and stalls, and even a couch or two.

    No fair. Why should women get special accommodations? Learn to do your business faster.

    just kidding, of course. Yes, more bathroom facilities for the ladies. But no couch. The bathroom is for the immediate unloading of cargo. No loitering.

    • #12
  13. Timothy Coleen Inactive
    Timothy Coleen
    @TimothyColeen

    The couches are often used by women who are breastfeeding.

    I can only imagine how delightful it would be to sit in a stall in a co-ed bathroom while trying to nurse.

    Not that breastfeeding is much of a campus practice at Yale.

    But if you go to a women’s room at a department store at a mall, there will be a couch in there and the couch will be hosting at least one breastfeeding woman. Not every woman feels comfortable (for modesty and/or religious reasons) breastfeeding in public. But if you have to share the space with men, then what’s the point of going to a “private” place anyway?

    • #13
  14. The Great Adventure! Inactive
    The Great Adventure!
    @TheGreatAdventure

    Wait a minute! You guys are just becoming aware of this phenomenon? Lawrence Hall – which houses the School of Architecture at the U of Oregon changed all of the restrooms over to “People” back in the early 80s when I was still going to school down there. Caused a minor controversy on campus, but in general the attitude was “meh – it’s just the architects”.

    And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the ultimate irony of that particular department – Lawrence Hall is by far the ugliest building on campus.

    • #14
  15. Casey Inactive
    Casey
    @Casey

    Meanwhile, wives everywhere are forcing their husbands to purchase larger homes with multiple bathrooms with multiple sinks so they maximize their distance from man funk.

    • #15
  16. user_836033 Member
    user_836033
    @WBob

    What’s so odd about this is that there’s not even a pretense of trying to rectify some injustice, as if the existence of gender segregated bathrooms causes some kind of violation of rights. Rather, it seems to be a manifestation of a kind of Tourette’s Syndrome within the liberal psyche, where pressure is always building to find more and different inequalities to rectify. Like someone who is always obsessed by pieces of furniture slightly out of place or constantly rearranging picture frames and nick nacks on a night stand to make them equally spaced, the liberal’s obsession with equality is always building to a painful intensity and is relieved only by spasms such as doing away with traditional bathrooms. The problem is that, as with Tourette’s Syndrome, the build up of pressure never ends, no matter how intense the previous spasm was. There will always need to be a new inequality to be overcome. I just wish liberals would keep their problems between them and their psychiatrists and stop inflicting them on the rest of society, and I imagine that many people, women especially, who are forced to use gender neutral bathrooms in order to make liberals feel better about themselves would agree.

    • #16
  17. Basil Fawlty Member
    Basil Fawlty
    @BasilFawlty

    “the liberal’s obsession with equality is always building to a painful intensity and is relieved only by spasms such as doing away with traditional bathrooms. The problem is that, as with Tourette’s Syndrome, the build up of pressure never ends, no matter how intense the previous spasm was.”

    Perfect imagery for the topic!

    • #17
  18. Howellis Inactive
    Howellis
    @ManWiththeAxe

    I would take this new movement (no pun intended?) a step further. A woman in a restaurant or bar should no longer be allowed to rise and say, “I have to powder my nose.” Instead, she must by law be required to tell the truth: “I have to take a dump.” Or at the very least, “I have to drop the kids off at the pool.”

    • #18
  19. PsychLynne Inactive
    PsychLynne
    @PsychLynne

    I can only assume that the women who pursue this have either never been to a men’s restroom without the blinders of self-righteousness obscuring their view, or hold to the mistaken belief that if told and instructed, men will incorporate the behaviors that keep women’s rooms cleaner.  Time and data prove them wrong.

    I have multiple memories of my husband taking our boys to the men’s room (after a few years of going with mom) and listening for my husband saying emphatically/yelling loud enough to be heard in the hall:  DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!

    Which was often followed by my younger son saying “but mommie’s bathrooms are nicer.”

    • #19
  20. Illiniguy Member
    Illiniguy
    @Illiniguy

    Any guy who would accept such an arrangement is a sitzpinkler. Just start leaving the seat up; women will start demanding a return to the status quo.

    • #20
  21. Raw Prawn Member
    Raw Prawn
    @RawPrawn

    Illiniguy:Any guy who would accept such an arrangement is a sitzpinkler. Just start leaving the seat up; women will start demanding a return to the status quo.

    What comedian invented this phony grievance about leaving the seat up? Pee on the seat. See how they like that.

    • #21
  22. MaggiMc Coolidge
    MaggiMc
    @MaggiMc

    Man With the Axe:I would take this new movement (no pun intended?) a step further. A woman in a restaurant or bar should no longer be allowed to rise and say, “I have to powder my nose.” Instead, she must by law be required to tell the truth: “I have to take a dump.” Or at the very least, “I have to drop the kids off at the pool.”

    I have never in my life uttered the words “powder my nose,” but I nearly choked on my tea over this one.  It needs a laughter hazard warning.  Thanks a bunch.

    • #22
  23. user_1134414 Member
    user_1134414
    @Hugh

    This whole unisex bathroom thing has ‘backlash” written all over it.  How can you possible push the two sexes together in a room where the most delicate of activities are occurring and not expect trouble in our world of Rape Culture hysterics.

    The smarter feminists should be focusing on changes to reduce the line for the women (at the expense of the men of course)

    • #23
  24. MLH Inactive
    MLH
    @MLH

    When in Rome(an times).

    • #24
  25. TeamAmerica Member
    TeamAmerica
    @TeamAmerica

    A question, especially for any Millenials here- why the passive response to nonsense of this type?

    In the early sixties, there was a protest at Berkeley led by Mario Savio  in favor of free speech. Nowadays university students put up with speech codes, unisex bathrooms, etc., with nary a peep.

    Perhaps Obama’s chronic recession and the resulting economic anxiety may explain it, at least in part. But I would think that there would be a backlash and protest at some point. So why is there such a passive, submissive response to such idiocy?

    • #25
  26. Ricochet Member
    Ricochet
    @ArizonaPatriot

    PsychLynne:I can only assume that the women who pursue this have either never been to a men’s restroom without the blinders of self-righteousness obscuring their view, or hold to the mistaken belief that if told and instructed, men will incorporate the behaviors that keep women’s rooms cleaner. Time and data prove them wrong.

    I have multiple memories of my husband taking our boys to the men’s room (after a few years of going with mom) and listening for my husband saying emphatically/yelling loud enough to be heard in the hall: DON’T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!

    Which was often followed by my younger son saying “but mommie’s bathrooms are nicer.”

    I’ve been told — by someone who once had a job cleaning bathrooms — that the messes in women’s rooms are vastly worse than in the men’s

    I have no idea whether this is true or not.

    • #26
  27. Scott Reusser Member
    Scott Reusser
    @ScottR

    Men have the power to reverse the trend: Nationwide, seat-down peeing without aim. The male-female distinction re potties would return within the week.

    • #27
  28. user_1134414 Member
    user_1134414
    @Hugh

    Scott R:Men have the power to reverse the trend:Nationwide, seat-down peeing without aim. The male-female distinction re potties would return within the week.

    Yup, the gals have more to lose on this one. When it comes to bathrooms guys just don’t care that much.

    • #28
  29. J. D. Fitzpatrick Member
    J. D. Fitzpatrick
    @JDFitzpatrick

    Marion Evans:Tangentially related point: Here is a case where women should NOT want equality. They have had equality and it has served them poorly. You have probably noticed at sporting venues, theaters etc that the line for the ladies’ restroom is a lot longer than for the men’s. That is because women visit the restroom more often and/or stay in there longer. Architects (who have been mostly men until recently) usually lay out M and W restrooms symmetrically and with identical size, replacing some stalls with some urinals. But restrooms at busy public places should be larger for women, include more sinks and stalls, and even a couch or two.

    Plus a therapist.

    • #29
  30. profdlp Inactive
    profdlp
    @profdlp

    Arizona Patriot:

    I’ve been told — by someone who once had a job cleaning bathrooms — that the messes in women’s rooms are vastly worse than in the men’s

    I have no idea whether this is true or not.

    I was a building engineer for fifteen years and had to take care of all the plumbing in my buildings.  Even my female property managers agreed that the Ladies rooms were worse.  For one thing, some of these gals were so squeamish that they employed the hover method instead of parking their delicate keisters on the seat.  If Norden could do it for the B-17 why couldn’t he have come up with something to make ALL forms of aerial bombardment more accurate…

    • #30
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