Thursday, April 19, 2007

Unisex Bathrooms

I know it has been awhile since I have posted but I have been busy and haven't had much inspiration. However, inspiration hit last night when I went to Cafe Asia for dinner with 2 male co-workers and 1 female co-worker. One of the males excused himself early on in the dinner to use the restroom. When he came back, he told us that the bathroom was unisex. I of course checked it out for myself and I will admit it was rather strange to round the corner and see a guy washing his hands as I was walking to the bathroom.

To be a little more descriptive and paint a better picture, here is what it looked like. The sink is like a trough - one long stainless steel sink with a lot of facets. All of the stalls have doors that go to the ground and have ceiling to floors walls. There are actually portals on the doors with etches of men or women. I think you can go in either because the stalls are the same but it does kind of force you to pick the girl or guy one depending on your gender.

The unisex bathroom challenges a lot of social norms like girls going to the bathroom in groups to talk/gossip about their dinner companions. I noted to one of my male co-workers that I could now ask him to go gossip in the bathroom. Of course that also leads to thoughts of the mile high club bathroom scene but it wouldn't exactly be mile high. Also if you think about what goes on in the bathroom, I am not sure I want to know what guys are doing and vice versa. So this unisex bathroom idea intrigued me. I thought it was interesting - not necessarily bad but an interestering experiment that challenges social norms. Thought I would share so you all could ponder.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

I don't think I would have been cool with that bathroom. Not that I'm a modest person but I get "stage fright" pretty easily so knowing that guys were around would probably not help that problem. I have a funny email to send you also about bathroom-related issues.

Anonymous said...

My only experience remotely close to this was at Bluepointe in Buckhead. The restrooms there were right next to each other, and the wall between them didn't go all the way to the floor. It was a little freaky. The only place I ever see unisex restrooms are in serious dives (where you can't touch anything without fear of getting hepatitis) or trendy places. Is men and women peeing together trendy all of the sudden? What am I missing here?

Brooke said...

If you think about it - there are actually a lot of unisex bathrooms, just not in social settings. Your house bathroom or hotel bathroom for example is unisex. This is a personal bathroom so you decide how clean it is. But you also could be in the next room while someone is using it. Also, porta potties are unisex and you are side by side while a mixed line of people wait for your bathroom. But those are gross so I won't use those as a good argument. I guess they are trendy or just a social experiment. Maybe we are moving backwards to when everyone use to pee in the outhouse!

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