• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Unisex restrooms

Yazata

Yazata

Active Member
Moon said:
How do you feel about them? Call me old-fashioned but personally I’m kind of creeped out.
Click to expand...

At home it's normal. In public places, I don't like it.

My main objection is that it's other people trying to shove their own social-change agendas into my life, and making me conform to their will. I don't like the aggressiveness of it. It's all about power and public demonstrations of power, ultimately.

What happens in bathrooms is about as personal as anything in our lives, I guess. I really don't like others intruding into that personal space with agendas that I sometimes find bizarre and repellant.

In some of the newer upscale malls, I've noticed three bathrooms, men's, women's and unisex. I have no objection to that, everyone gets whatever they like. But it adds expense to the building construction.

Perhaps one motivation for unisex bathrooms in public places is that only including one bathroom reduces cost for the developer.
 
Subduction Zone

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
SkepticThinker said:
My grandmother grew up in rural Saskatchewan during the Depression. No running water. No bathrooms. No heat. Nothing. Dirt floors.

She used to tell me horror stories about having to go to the outhouse in the middle of the night in the dead of winter (Saskatchewan gets really, really, really cold too). They had a rope attached from the house to the outhouse so that you could find your way through the blizzardy snow and not get lost in the wilderness. There'd be all kinds of wild animals and giant spiders watching you pee. They even kept a rifle out there just in case things got too hairy with the animals. One time she said she looked up and there was an owl staring at her through the peeky hole at the top of the outhouse door, like, just waiting for her to leave. Oh and the bestest part - you'd have to wipe yourself with pages from an old Sears catalogue. They were like newsprint back then. Then grab the rope and make your way back to your shack with the dirt floors to heat up a brick by the fire to keep your feet from freezing while you slept. I used to love listening to these stories - it sounds like a completely different world.

I'll take unisex bathrooms over that any day of the week.
Click to expand...
No guns used, but my grandfather chased off a black bear at least one night. And they did not have dirt floors. I have been through Saskatchewan. Trees are not all that common. At least there was no lack of wood where my grandfather lived. They were true Finns. They had a house and a sauna. The sauna was a small two room building for bathing in. That was how the Finns kept clean. A quick wash, perhaps with some warm water heated on top of the wood stove in the sauna. Then a nice sit in the hot (180 degrees feels "cold" to some) while the pores opened up and the body cleansed itself from the inside with sweat. Then a nice cold rinse at the end.
 
SkepticThinker

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
Subduction Zone said:
No guns used, but my grandfather chased off a black bear at least one night. And they did not have dirt floors. I have been through Saskatchewan. Trees are not all that common. At least there was no lack of wood where my grandfather lived. They were true Finns. They had a house and a sauna. The sauna was a small two room building for bathing in. That was how the Finns kept clean. A quick wash, perhaps with some warm water heated on top of the wood stove in the sauna. Then a nice sit in the hot (180 degrees feels "cold" to some) while the pores opened up and the body cleansed itself from the inside with sweat. Then a nice cold rinse at the end.
Click to expand...
Oh man, I can't even imagine that. I've never encountered a bear in my entire life, thankfully.

Saskatchewan is mostly just grassland, as far as I can tell. I've seen photos of the shack my grandmother lived in and somehow it's nestled in among a bunch of trees and brush and stuff. Or at least it was back then. It's probably just abandoned now. Once I asked her why they didn't just put the outhouse closer to the house and as soon as I said it I realized I already knew the answer - because it stinks!

The sauna thing actually sounds like a brilliant idea. It sure beats sharing the same bathwater as your eight siblings. My grandmother was youngest so she'd be the baby they almost threw out with the bathwater. :D
 
Subduction Zone

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
SkepticThinker said:
Oh man, I can't even imagine that. I've never encountered a bear in my entire life, thankfully.

Saskatchewan is mostly just grassland, as far as I can tell. I've seen photos of the shack my grandmother lived in and somehow it's nestled in among a bunch of trees and brush and stuff. Or at least it was back then. It's probably just abandoned now. Once I asked her why they didn't just put the outhouse closer to the house and as soon as I said it I realized I already knew the answer - because it stinks!

The sauna thing actually sounds like a brilliant idea. It sure beats sharing the same bathwater as your eight siblings. My grandmother was youngest so she'd be the baby they almost threw out with the bathwater. :D
Click to expand...
Maybe they built there because there was wood. But did not have enough for flooring at the time. And yes, saunas are great. cI wish that I had one. I have rolled in the snow after a sauna. That is sometimes done in the winter. I did it only once, and it was surprisingly not all that cold. After parboiling your outside for a while it is very refreshing, but it was a quick roll and then back into the sauna. I did the regular rinse off after I was done.

And yes, they stink. Except when it is cold out. And cold does not start until 0 F.
 
SkepticThinker

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
Subduction Zone said:
Maybe they built there because there was wood. But did not have enough for flooring at the time. And yes, saunas are great. cI wish that I had one. I have rolled in the snow after a sauna. That is sometimes done in the winter. I did it only once, and it was surprisingly not all that cold. After parboiling your outside for a while it is very refreshing, but it was a quick roll and then back into the sauna. I did the regular rinse off after I was done.
Click to expand...
Oh probably, and there was probably a little river or something around it too - gotta have water!

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to saunas. I just find them so freaking hot and uncomfortable. I remember being at a resort in Mexico with my mother once and she asked me to go in with her. At some point I said to her, "can we get out of here now, I'm dying|" And she said "well, sure, but it's only been 37 seconds."

Yes, I'm a baby. You make it sound really nice and refreshing though. I have been in a hot tub in the winter time though, and I remember when I got out there was steam coming off my body and surprisingly, I wasn't all that cold.
Subduction Zone said:
And yes, they stink. Except when it is cold out. And cold does not start until 0 F.
Click to expand...
I guess there's one benefit to it being absolutely freezing cold outside. I wouldn't want to be around when that thing thawed out though. :eek:
 
Subduction Zone

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
SkepticThinker said:
Oh probably, and there was probably a little river or something around it too - gotta have water!

I have to admit, I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to saunas. I just find them so freaking hot and uncomfortable. I remember being at a resort in Mexico with my mother once and she asked me to go in with her. At some point I said to her, "can we get out of here now, I'm dying|" And she said "well, sure, but it's only been 37 seconds."

Yes, I'm a baby. You make it sound really nice and refreshing though. I have been in a hot tub in the winter time though, and I remember when I got out there was steam coming off my body and surprisingly, I wasn't all that cold.

I guess there's one benefit to it being absolutely freezing cold outside. I wouldn't want to be around when that thing thawed out though. :eek:
Click to expand...
I am probably no longer acclimated, but where I went to university we had a sauna in a gym I used to go to all of the time. We were always messing with the thermostat because it only went to 180 unless you wrapped it in cold wet paper towels. And that is so weird because on hot summer day it would be unbearable outside at 90, but the sauna felt cold if it was not at least that 180 temperature.
 
Jimmy

Jimmy

King Phenomenon
anna. said:
Well, no one's dropping their pants as soon as they walk in the door, so...
Click to expand...
Yeah somebody else said that but I don’t know I’m just old-fashioned I guess. Don’t really care to see women in the man’s restroom
 
Callisto

Callisto

Hellenismos, BTW
fantome profane said:
One morning when I was on safari I shot an elephant in my pyjamas.

How it got in my pyjamas I'll never know.
Click to expand...
giphy.gif
 
anna.

anna.

colors your eyes with what's not there
Moon said:
Yeah somebody else said that but I don’t know I’m just old-fashioned I guess. Don’t really care to see women in the man’s restroom
Click to expand...

How often do you see women in the men's restroom?
 
anna.

anna.

colors your eyes with what's not there
There's a popular restaurant where I live that has a common sink area but separated stalls for men and women. You walk in on the right for women, on the left for men, and then on to the separated stalls.

Here's the funny thing, though - the sink looks like it's backed by a mirror, but it's not - the other side is the men's sink. But not knowing that, the first time I walked in and no one was on the other side of the sink at the time, I wasn't paying attention to the sink, so it wasn't until I was washing my hands that I looked up and realized it wasn't me looking back at me. :tearsofjoy:

It's kind of unique, for the U.S., anyway, at least I haven't seen anything like it before. I don't think it's keeping patrons away, the place is always busy. And now I know what to expect. :)

Here's a photo (I didn't take it)

de6076af596a78d56b495516251b2bd5.jpg
 
W

Whateverist

Active Member
When we were in Japan about 30 years ago we visited Nara, the national capital before Kyoto. There is a park famous for being overrun with small mostly friendly deer and at that the restroom in the park was an old building and unisex. It was odd but I managed to pee while staring straight ahead as though I was in an elevator while all around me were men, women and children of mixed ages. Everyone seemed pretty okay with it and behaved pretty much the way I did. Fortunately I had no solid business to attend to. Never having been in the military that might have stopped me.

Apparently they have them at UC Santa Cruz which my son attend for three years. I read this guideline online:

All-Gender Restroom Etiquette

If you choose to use an all-gender restroom, you should refrain from gender policing (e.g., scrutinizing, judging, or categorizing another person's gender). No one should be stared at, questioned, asked to leave, or made to feel uncomfortable or out of place in an all-gender restroom.Jun 29, 2022
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top