Almost Going: What's Wrong with School Bathrooms, Locker Rooms and Public Restrooms?
by Amy Zidell
05.11.16
The question about who uses what bathroom misses an important issue: Who wants to use a public or school bathroom? I know I'm not unique in my preference to avoid public restrooms. I've seen references in sit-coms. Remember the Rob Lowe Direct TV ad with the caricature of a fellow who was not comfortable 'going' in front of other people? Such outrage was voiced that the Rob Lowe commercial series was booted for a talking horse and model riding bareback in bikini bottoms. They couldn't, they wouldn't have made a commercial making fun of this preference avoiding public bathrooms if it didn't exist.
A misinformation /disinformation meme is being perpetrated -- that people wanting to cause harm, who don't belong in a bathroom, won't be in a bathroom. Let me tell you, when a female high school student athlete reported a strange -- as in an unfamiliar -- man in the women's locker room it was frightening. Coaches, school administrators, and police were quick to respond. So don't tell me that public bathrooms are safe places. Here's a news flash: a bad person, no matter their gender identity, is not going to let the universal stick figure graphic on the door of a bathroom stop them from being a bad person or committing a crime. Just consider how often doors clearly labeled "Push" are pulled and visa versa. We've all done this ourselves. Though, if labels on doors have such power perhaps banks, jewelry stores, businesses, and homes should begin clearly posting "Do Not Rob" signs. Maybe people claiming that there has NEVER been a case of a pervy man or woman hanging out in a bathroom are right. Maybe? Nope. They are flat out liars.
In elementary school, in a girl's restroom, I was bothered by a fellow female student. She thought it would be fun to hike herself up such that she could look over the stall wall and watch me while I was using the bathroom. Maybe that's why I avoid public restrooms as much as possible. Also in elementary school, there was the time when a safety/hall monitor was after me for some something I'm sure I didn't do. I could run faster than they could however, and ran all over the playground and ultimately hid in the restroom while perched on a toilet seat in a bathroom stall. I'm not sure what the psychological implication of that is.
At an early age, I was familiar with the story of my grandfather being jumped, beat up, and robbed at a gas station bathroom when he was on a business trip. If not for his ability to fight off his attackers, he might have been drowned in a restroom toilet bowl.
Women are told to be careful of hanging purses on the door hooks on bathroom stalls as they are easy pickings for thieves.
How many times are toilet seats wet? How many times are floors wet? How many times are toilet seat protector dispensers empty? Is that tissue paper really going to protect us from anything? How many times when you go out to eat and wash your hands first do you find NO HOT water? If that happens, I go to another restaurant. If I can't wash my hands with hot water, neither can the people preparing and serving my food. How many people don't wash their hands after using the bathroom and then grab that door handle on the way out? How gross is all of this? Forget the potential scary people, the dangers we can't see with the naked eye comprised of germs, viruses, microbes, and fungi makes one proclaim yeck!
For years, I've had dreams centered around bathrooms. Typically, I am looking for a bathroom and if I can find a bathroom that's open, sinks are overflowing, toilets are overflowing, and trash and debris is scattered about. Stall after stall is an example of horrors. Once a reasonably acceptable stall is found, there often is a problem with the door, or the lock, or both. There may not be any paper and paper may have to be retrieved from an overflowing stall and brought to the 'safe' stall before someone else snakes it. Then the dream chapter changes.
Public bathrooms, of course, serve an important purpose. Without rest stops, people would have to find a tree along the side of the road if they wished to travel any distance by car. This is much easier for men. If you have to go al fresco ladies, you've got to calculate topography, wind direction, humidity, and privacy coverage. Who says women don't have math and engineering aptitude?
Generally, there are laws against relieving oneself outdoors in public whether 1 or 2, or birth certificately noted biologically male or female. Could this be an example of over regulation? Are not the private confines of public restrooms exactly what make them dangerous after all? Don't get me started on door-less male bathroom stalls. Freaky. Not only do men's public bathrooms have shorter lines, some of them don't have doors. Maybe that's why the lines are so short. I can't remember this insight to a men's room being due to a work related task, a prank, or desperation of a ridiculously long ladies room wait and a strained bladder. Men's bathrooms are disgusting. There should be laws against them.
Curiously, I learned about federal regulations regarding toilets after a disreputable plumber insisted that changing a 30¢ flapper would cost as much as changing an entire toilet out and I ended up, for a limited time, with a horrible toilet. Federal regulations exist that detail the amount of permitted splash levels from a toilet. Splash is legally permitted from a toilet you ask? Yes. Germ infused water droplets aerate bathrooms within regulated standards. I can't find the citation now, or, in about twice the regulated time interval amount required for workers' bathroom breaks. I previously read PDFs of code citations while trying to understand the splashy toilet with an uncomfortable seat edge. A Prevention Magazine article cites a study finding toilet flush droplets, "spewed up to 10 inches above toilet seats with every open flush."
Laws regulate how much water a toilet can use in a flush. Regulations dictate how close a toilet can be installed to a wall. Many, many regulations, none of which seem to factor the clogging effect on the existing sewer infrastructure low-flow toilets have. That's a topic to flush out another time.
All this bathroom talk makes me wonder if a very strong plumbing lobby is secretly behind pushing changes in bathroom policy. Is it not a natural evolution that private, individual bathrooms will ultimately replace communal bathroom designs as a result of recent tumult?
Public bathrooms are not always horrid. There are those times á la the Sex in the City episode at an exclusive club where a table was unattainable. In a chance encounter in the ladies room, the hostess was in need of a tampon and Carrie amiably handed one to her. Carrie and her pals never had trouble getting a table at the club again. Most of us ladies have paid it forward in a lovely feminine karmic cycle at some point. Sometimes we're caught without our bag or off schedule. I had a similar experience that demonstrated the extremes of graciousness and bitchyness. I was in a wedding party and making a final pit stop before needing to get in place five minutes ago and discovered I needed a tampon and was without one. I popped my head out of the stall and asked, if anyone had a tampon. While a nice lady instantly began fishing one out of her bag, a bitchy woman, waiting in line, chastised me for not having my own. I hoped that if she ever found herself un-expectantly needing a feminine hygiene product, that she would come up empty and break a heel.
If we are going to restate bathroom rules of the road, can we also include rules that bathrooms be fully stocked with paper towels, facial tissues, seat protectors, and toilet paper? Could the toilet paper be somewhat suitable for sensitive body areas? Could the paper towels be reasonably absorbent? Will hot water be mandated? If motion sensitive faucets are used then instant hot water must accompany else the water won't have time to get hot. Soap should be well stocked but fragrance free as people with allergies suffer otherwise. Trash receptacles should not be overflowing. Bathrooms should be cleaned regularly, and at an increased frequency than typical. An increase in the ratio of sinks to paper towels should be better matched. Why should your drippy hands have to travel several feet before reaching dryness? How annoying is it when you want to wash your hands and there's a line to wash hands? Doors should be handless to minimize the amount of things one has to touch in a public bathroom. While we're at it, if the counter is a 1/4 inch too low or too high, offer a 'fix it' option rather than running businesses out of business with aggressive lawsuits by professional sue-ers, faux plaintiffs, who seek only to improve their personal profit rather than any sincere interest in improving the bathroom experience of others. I could go on, but I gotta go.
[Tags]
Bathroom, bathroom laws, male, female, North Carolina, unisex, plumbing, Direct TV, public restrooms, locker rooms, mens room, ladies room, pervs, pervert.
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