How to make the world a better place for those who poo and pee, like yoo and mee!
When you hear “all-gender bathroom” you may think of one like the one in the late 90s legal dramedy TV show Ally McBeal (top left). As the only restroom for the law firm, it became a backdrop for awkward and embarrassing gags and inappropriate staff relationships. It mocked the idea of an un-gendered restroom. Viewers were given the impression that “unisex” restrooms were ridiculous, as this one was poorly designed on purpose. The McBeal bathroom was a typical bad design: flimsy partitions starting at knee level and extending only up to about person-height. These stall dividers are sometimes referred to as “surveillance stalls’’ in the divider industry. They have huge, intentional gaps between the panels that allow bathroom-users to be seen and policed by each other. They offer no sound privacy, leading to awkward pooping standoffs, where users wait for neighbors to leave before pooping or flush constantly in the pursuit of wasteful cover noises. These partitions offer little visual privacy, as the most common way to see if a stall is empty is peering at someone’s shoes or glancing through the large gaps on the sides of the door. Don’t get us started on smell privacy, which is non-existent.
WITH THESE HORRIBLE BATHROOM DESIGNS, IT IS NO WONDER PEOPLE SCOFF AND GIGGLE WHEN IT IS PROPOSED THAT WE DE-GENDER A RESTROOM ALREADY SOAKED WITH PRIVACY ISSUES.
Everyone Poops, but these design issues negatively affect certain marginalized groups more than others. Folks with digestive conditions such crohn’s disease and IBS, folks with disabilities who require attendants in the restroom, folks with religious requirements of privacy, people with shy bladder syndrome, and trans and gender non-confomring people are frequently made to feel unwelcome and unsafe in low-privacy, gendered spaces.
No one is proposing an Ally McBeal situation. Restroom design reform advocates, such as the advocacy group “Stalled!”, realize that recent political attention on bathrooms offers us a rare opportunity to address the long-standing design issues in bathrooms. Some relate to gender division and accessibility and some are more general design flaws. What bathroom activists, architects, and lawyers propose is one of two great approaches: the single-user or mulit-user design.
TWO IDEAL BATHROOM SOLUTIONS
THE SINGLE-USER DESIGN:
Just like in your home, a porta-potty, or an airplane, the restroom is a room with one toilet, one sink, and a locking door. While these designs serve everyone’s needs well, they are not very space efficient. New laws in many areas of the US (see map) now require every existing public bathroom like this to be made all-gender. Given the privacy, one wonders why they were ever gendered in the first place.
THE MULTI-USER, FULL-PRIVACY DESIGN
In this design, existing mens/womens rooms are torn down and replaced. Flimsy stalls are replaced with small toilet rooms with real floor-to-ceiling walls and doors, providing sound, smell, and sight privacy. The advocacy group “Stalled!” has made the construction of such bathrooms easier by reforming plumbing codes that once stood in the way of such designs.
URINALS, WE CAN’T STAND THEM
Ideally, urinals should be eliminated. Many populations cannot use them at all, including folks with shy bladder syndrome, which affects 7% of the population. Some religions prohibit their use entirely. Women are generally unlikely to use them. Urinals designed to be “unisex” have failed to catch on. Urinals cannot accept toilet paper which many people use when peeing. People who cannot stand cannot use them, making them inaccessible to many people with disabilities. About 15% of bathroom visitors need to defecate, and are unserved by urinals. Plus, the typical men’s room is so overwhelmed with urinals that wait times for the few stalls leads to serious issues for folks who urgently require them.
Splash issues ① have proven unsolvable, and many users insist on leaving a “gap urinal” making potential space savings moot ②. Urinals offer almost no privacy ③, when there are dividers, they don’t actually block relevant sight-lines ④.
Urinals are sexist, ableist, messy, and socially awkward. They should be replaced with private stalls containing a normal toilet. If urinals are kept, privacy should be provided with full-height dividers. Signage on the outside of any room with urinals should warn users so they can use another facility more likely to suit their needs.
LOW-COST SOLUTIONS TO BATHROOM PROBLEMS
While drastic architectural solutions are necessary and urgent, most businesses can’t tear down and rebuild bathrooms on a whim.
We can use cheap and easy harm-reduction methods safe, equitable, and enjoyable bathrooms for all! These DIY solutions shouldn’t need permits or pro help.
i.c.u.p (and poo)
Problem:North American bathrooms are designed for user surveillance, not user privacy, with intentional large gaps below, above, and between panels.
Solutions:
Good: Install “Stall Partition Privacy Strips” Cost: $20/stall
Better: Replace partitions with “no-sight” style partitions $$
Best: Tear down the bathroom and build something with privacy in mind $$$
Sign of the times
Problem:Gendered signage leads to unfair wait times among a bunch of other issues for users.
Inclusive signs shouldn’t have gendered imagery. Accessible bathrooms must have the person-in-wheelchair symbol.
Get low or no-cost, certified ADA-compliant signs at www.degenderator.org
Is it vacant?
Problem:Impossible to tell when a stall is vacant without peering at shoes or looking through gaps in the partitions.
Install occupancy indicating locks or the easy-to-install “Peep No More” indicator.
Missing Bins
Problem:Men’s stalls don’t have personal trash cans, causing serious issues for men who menstruate or who use catheters/other medical devices. They are often forced to flush them, ruining your plumbing.
Install personal trash cans near every toilet, just as are required in women’s rooms
Cost: $20/stall
Missing Menstrual Supplies
Problem:Men’s rooms lack menstrual supplies. Women’s rooms often lack condoms.
Provide the same supplies, for free, to all restrooms.
Cost: varies
I Hear You Pee and Poop
Problem:Bathrooms lack acoustic privacy, leading to nervous pooping and fart-rationing.
Install a white noise machine or an internet radio in the bathroom for nice ambiance and acoustic anonymity.
Cost: $60/room
I Fear the Toilet Seat
Problem:Toilet seat liners are wasteful, slippery, messy, and ineffective, made from porous paper which offers no protection from the imaginary threat of toilet-seat STD transmission.
Wall-mounted toilet seat cleaning solution dispensers allow users to sanitize the seat with toilet paper, making the toilet cleaner for everyone and reducing your clean-up burden.
Cost: $30/stall
My Baby Pees and Poops too
Problem:Despite parents being of all genders, many Men’s rooms lack changing stations for babies. New laws require changing tables in both rooms.
Install changing tables in all restrooms.
Cost: $100 /bathroom
i.c.u.p.
Problem:Urinals lack privacy, both for the users and for bystanders. See note above on why they should be eliminated completely.
Good: Install full-height shields (see image)
Better: Fully enclose urinals in private stalls
Best: Remove urinals in favor of more stalls with toilets
Cost: Varies
Email degenderator🌀robb.cc with questions about your sign or all things bathroom.
Special thanks to everyone who taught me about bathrooms and manufacturing, especially the team at www.stalled.online and the SF Lighthouse for the Blind.
