At first I didn’t really think about it. It was yet another thing that my parents taught me and I just accepted. Boys and girls need to have separate toilets and locker rooms, so that the boys wouldn’t do nasty things to the girls. Simple.
But one day a cleaning lady came in to the boys’ locker room. And one day a female teacher come in. How come? Why can they see half-naked boys, while our female classmates cannot? That got me thinking and trying to find any sense in that.
Even more when I started realising I was gay. Since I fancy other guys, and since girls might fancy me, should I be always given a private locker room and bathroom, so that nobody sees anyone they might fancy?
Showers in the male locker room at my gym were in renovation for over two weeks. Having to go back home all sweaty and stinky – not the best experience, trust me... The solution could be really simple – just temporarily let the guys use female showers. Nothing would happen. I have no problem not raping or assaulting anyone, no matter how hot and muscular they are, and I’m sure straight guys wouldn’t do that either, if they saw hot naked girls. It’s not a darkroom, it’s just basic hygiene, grow up!
Assuming we only strip to our underwear in the school locker room[1], how is that different from just enjoying a beach in our swimsuits? We don’t separate those by gender (not anymore, at least). Did the world collapse? Did the beaches become dens of iniquity? Did we stop controlling ourselves just because we can see almost-naked persons of the opposite sex? No.
And what’s the deal about the toilets? We have to unnecessarily build separate public toilets for two genders, because what? Because urinals? Man, if someone were inappropriately looking at my junk while I’m pissing in a public restroom[2], I would be pissed – totally regardless of whether it’s a female or male pervert. And except for pissing in a urinal, it’s not like we do anything intimate in front of other people. Why would I care at all, what gender is the person in a next stall?
The separation of restrooms and locker rooms is not just idiotic and baseless, but can often become problematic, if you don’t easily fit into binary gender division. And I’m not talking only about the transgender, transsexual and nonbinary people. You can encounter some problems even if you’re a cis, straight person. In which locker room should a mother help her little son change, so that none of them feels uncomfortable? To which toilet should a father take his little daughter, not to be regarded a pervert?
The whole thing with the gender division makes no sense on any level. Can someone explain to me, why are we still doing that?
[1] Why the hell do people prefer to keep stinking with sweat for the rest of the day rather than just take their pants off and take a shower, is a separate topic. Hint: homophobia.
[2] Well, except if it happened like in a gay bar or something 😉
