"The segregation of public washrooms is one of the most basic ways that the male-female binary is upheld and reinforced. As such, washroom signs are very telling of the way societies construct gender. They identify the male as the universal and the female as the variation. They express expectations of gender performance. And they conflate gender with sex. I present here for your perusal, a typology and analysis of various washroom signs." She sure does!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
50
How can anyone be mad at this one?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5A9-dHdt46Q/TGkNkpdqNlI/AAAAAAAAAUw/3izNJia6G-Q/s200/used5.jpg
Legoland?
My cock is not the universe, but the universe revolves around my cock.
Uranus taint your cock, either.
hey, i'm all for making bathrooms genderless but if some assclown pissed on the toilet seat, know that it wasn't me. my momma taught me better than that.
also, maybe pick your battles?
That's the thing. Maybe we could get pay equality figured out before we worry about bathroom signs? Just a thought.
i think it's cute that iran has bathrooms for ewoks. those silly persians.
-lines sidewalk in front of Ahmadinejad's house with logs-
"Typically, these signs depict men as people, and women as people in skirts"
And there's me thinking they depicted men as people in trousers.
No bouys and gulls?
According to the author of that post, that is a horribly sexist thing to say and you should be ashamed of yourself and they bouys and gulls are just social constructs that the CISGENDERED-MALE-IDENTIFIED-DOMINANT PARADIGM is using against women to hold them back in the insidious form of restroom signs.
But the bouys are chained to their masculine identies just as they are chained to the ocean's floor whilst the gulls are free to soar in the sky and poop where ever they so choose.
@kitten: Just like women.
"Pointers and setters" is popular in my neck of the (tweedy) woods. I can only imagine what the author of the post would think.
Gef She did have those under:
"Somewhat related to the last category are the signs that pose the question: do you stand or sit when you pee?"
However someone pointed this out to her:
"A note from an anonymous commenter: ...the photo of the pointers/setters is from a restaurant in Philadelphia called the White Dog Cafe, where I worked for many years. There are four single bathrooms, all named after types of dogs (punny, I know) - and all explicitly non-gendered. Those bathrooms were designed in part with the West Philadelphia queer community in mind; when I worked there I had many LGBTQ coworkers, including someone who was transitioning, and it was an incredibly supportive environment. Duly noted.)"
Ummm - "buoys". [/spelling_nazi]
AHHHHHH THE BOWTIE/HAIRBOW ONE!!!! ALSHFSLKHFLSKHFLSKFH
I know?! And the PIZZA ONE?? They have completed me today.
I went to a Mexican restaurant in VT (I know, I know, but it was good!) this summer with bathrooms marked "Frida" and "Diego."
Fuckin' patriarchy keeping the pissing women down, man.
The set where the "women's" sign is an umbrella with a cherry on top is so confusing, people probably just pee on McDonald's floor to avoid making a choice.
Explains a lot, actually.
Or any of them?
Whoops that is @freezy.
Anyone ever notice that a W is just an upside-down M? Or is it vice versa? Let's deconstruct that for a bit, eh?
The avy is of great quality, Boy... of Deeessstinnny (GONG)
Perhaps the writer would be comfortable at Brio Tuscan Grill, where the "Uomini/Donne" bathroom signs lead to much humorous confusion.
I thought she made some worthwhile points, but she absolutely lost me at "This illustrates the way we assume the universality of the gender binary, when it is not universal. For example, hens have been known to behave like roosters..."
And men sometimes piss sitting down.
"As such, washroom signs are very telling of the way societies construct gender. "
What does "as such" mean in this context? "As washroom signs, washroom signs are very telling..."
"As such" has become a kind of filler phrase with no meaning at all. I suppose "per se" will be next.
As such = in my head.
I learnt something today: Women have penises and men have vaginas--no wait...
This reminds me of the Onion stories with occasional findings from the Institute for the Study of Obvious Shit.
I'd be in favour of extremely life like in their detail sculptures of penises and vaginas as door knobs.
How is that for breaking things down to their elements!?
There's some building in NYC that does have large anatomically correct handles on the street doors, but for the life of me I can't remember the address / business. Damn you, corporate webfilter.
@comments: but what about the women in the men's bodies? Won't those sculptures get them upset?
@Bittersweet: Who knows! This proposal is intended to get everyone upset about genitals and bathrooms. I forgot to mention that these 'handles' need to be cartoonishly large and really, really, detailed.
I can't see the gays having much problem with that, but the lesbians might feel a little uncomfortable.
I have two questions:
Don't you think it's so weird when there's a men's room and a women's room, and they each have just one toilet in them and a lock on the door? Is that supposed to be pee-on-the-seat protection?
OK but the pizza one is a work of art.
(I, uh, deleted the second question.)
Yes, THIS is the unreflective binary thinking we need to defeat. If you have two bathrooms... And they're both individual stalls... You have TWO BATHROOMS. I think the mens and womens can handle waiting in the same line.
I always thought it was so you could do drugs in them.
@Mary: I don't want to use the same restrooms as ladies. You guys seriously treat those places like a pig sty.
I notice she avoided the Mars/Venus signs. I was going to say they're pretty neutral but now that I think about it, I'm sure there's many patriarchal roads for the gender political types to travel down.
Now I have to open a bar with "homo" and "hetero" bathroom signs.
Fags n Hags?
Same shit, different day.
What I found on the girls bathroom door of my favorite dive bar:
http://twitpic.com/2ji3p0
My favourite bar labels the toilets by masking tape on the door in the shape of an abstract crotch on one, and cock and balls on the other. And it still confuses people.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/494602716_5cde01c307_o.jpg
http://www.emilynakkash.com/2010/mf/
Whenever I see the usual bathroom sign, I imagine the "lady" as a superhero.