Poll: Mixed Gender Showers

[rasputin0009]

Imagine if you meet a really cute girl or boy somewhere, and you follow each other into the bathroom accidentally. And then, one of you proceeds to take a massive, stinky, noisy shit. Not so cute anymore, are they?

There's nothing wrong with having some gender barriers. We are different in a lot of ways, and that's fine. Even traditional gender roles are okay to an extent. Having more open nudity would help with desensitizing it, but I don't think it will help with social issues as much as we think.

 

[Trasch17]

About 2 years ago, I was on vacation in London. The hostel where I was had mixed bathrooms/ showers. No problems at all, but there was this weird moment, when I just finished showering only wearing a towel around my hips, a girl came in, froze as soon as she saw me, made a noise that sounded like "Mip" and disappeared again.

I believe co-ed showers and bathrooms would lead to lots of awkward moments.

 

[distortedreality]

Eh, not my kinda thing, i'll stick to my shower at home thanks.

Somethings are better left private than aired in public.

captcha - local derby.

Hmm.

 

[Hectix777]

I really don't see how coed bathrooms will help in the whole societal sex division. I mean a bathroom's a bathroom, not a courthouse. It's the place I got to tend to private needs that need not be discussed in the open.

 

[JLML]

I grew up in a society where sitting in a heated room, naked, sweating, with complete strangers, is considered having a good time.

Guessing Finland? Sweden here, with lots of relatives from the northern parts (am living in the southern-ish parts though, unlike them) and not exactly unfamiliar with sitting in a hot box with naked strangers, either. Is kind of a good time, to be honest. Still, around here (that is, the southern-ish areas, not too sure about the northern areas though) the hot boxes tend to be separated by gender. Not that it makes much sense, really. What could possibly be sexual about a bunch of naked, sweaty bodies? <.<


Bit more OT: Haven't been any place with mixed gender bathrooms/showers, but think it's a pretty logical idea. No actual negative effects (except the perceived ones by people using it, but that's just there 'cause of how they've been thought to think) and saving space, time and money building and maintaining. So personally, totally for it.

 

[ShiningAmber]

I don't understand why any american women would be in favor of segregation - having separate bathrooms just reinforces the tired notion that some groups of people are inherently different than others

I think they (I'm a woman, not American though) are uncomfortable with the idea of showering with men they don't know. I currently live in the States, but there is NO way I would ever do this. It's a shower. Not a show. I don't care if your random boner is an accident. It's gross and creeps me the hell out. I'll shower by myself thanks. Want to look at women showering? I'm sure there's porn for it. If we're concerned about equality measures, let's look at different areas instead of showers.

I don't think we have to start with women being naked and able for men to view in the showers to strike at equality (and vice versa). Some people want privacy. I don't know what is so hard to understand about that.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

As some of you know, I am in the Armed Forces... and I live in the Mess. Our messes are quite old, and many of them don't have en suite rooms. This means that for the last 4 and a half years I have moved from room to room, usually with a communal bathroom all gender, because when the mess was built, it was a single sex service. (A majority of our messes were built in 1939 or before.)

This has never been a problem for us... at all... Like seriously.. never a problem!
Even when living in the field, and all we have to wash in is a bowl in a tent with water from a boiler/water we have heated in a tin, we don't have problems... we tend to put times on the door for male/female ablution times...

This is a serious non-issue, and is just a case of people being inconsiderate of eachother than it actually being a problem...

Reeducate people, don't go spending thousands on infrastructure!

 

[Meg Galuardi]

Since my showers have curtains that don't do a great job of closing and you can see from the sinks into the shower area, I have to say no. I think there should be small unisex bathrooms for the sake of extremely private people and LGBT, but I want boys to stay out of my bathroom please.

 

[Lightknight]

I don't understand why any american women would be in favor of segregation - having separate bathrooms just reinforces the tired notion that some groups of people are inherently different than others. Just rephrase the OP as 'would mixed race bathrooms improve society' and you'll realize relatively small things like this have far-reaching effects.

As for the whole 'depraved' issue, gay and lesbian people shower with the gender they're attracted to all the time without constantly plowing... unless you count porn or greek baths that are really more sex club than bathhouse.

Women are INHERENTLY different than men. That's not a quality judgment (differences don't necessarily mean inferiority, though it often means varying strengths/weaknesses).

If Americans have the notion that one sex is different than another then it's probably because they're not lying to themselves. Physical and hormonal differences impact more than you think from power output to psychological differences. Pump a man full of the same levels of estrogen women experience and see if he doesn't behave differently than before. The Olympics don't seperate by gender just because it's archaic, it's out of necessity for all the differences I mentioned above.

To that effect, it must be understood that we are at our most vulnerable in bathrooms and while naked. A women's only bathroom is a place she may "feel" safer from bigger, stronger males. Segreggated bathrooms is just keeping that in mind. The rate of rape is no less in the UK because of co-ed bathrooms. 2010 saw them at 28.8 per 100,000 and the US at 27.3 per 100,000. Interestingly enough, the US has been declining while European countries have been bouncing around. Sweden is a confusing one at 63.5 per 100,000 in 2010 but it's difficult to compare these numbers between countries due to reporting differences.

But regardless, my point is that coed bathrooms do not make things safer for women. They are still weaker than their male counterparts and creating male-free zones where women may be "vulnerable" is important. Women should not have to live in fear and wonder if that man a few showers over is considering taking advantage of her just because they're alone together.

As some of you know, I am in the Armed Forces... [snip]
This has never been a problem for us... at all... Like seriously.. never a problem! [snip]

Yeah, because we all know that the military isn't known for raping women [/lie]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rape-armed-forces-brave-soldiers-share-horror-stories-nation-shame-article-1.1143974

There are any number of articles on the subject. The military is one of the worst offenders. If a shower is particularly close to other people then it won't usually be the place that predators use to assault the victim for fear of being found out immediately.

 

[DoPo]

I don't understand why any american women would be in favor of segregation - having separate bathrooms just reinforces the tired notion that some groups of people are inherently different than others. Just rephrase the OP as 'would mixed race bathrooms improve society' and you'll realize relatively small things like this have far-reaching effects.

That's not actually the same thing. Furthermore

As for the whole 'depraved' issue, gay and lesbian people shower with the gender they're attracted to all the time without constantly plowing... unless you count porn or greek baths that are really more sex club than bathhouse.

I think you're over focusing. Why are shared bathrooms needed? You talk like the only issue is if shared bathrooms are about all sexes or none but...why have shared bathrooms at all? Any specific reason there? You could have a coed bathroom with separate cabins, you know. And nobody (well, a lot less people) would care.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I don't like the idea because I don't want men looking at my nekkidness and certainly don't want to see their dangly-bits. But this all depends on what we mean by mixed gender showers. Is it one big shower that is open, or one room containing lots of separate shower stalls/cubicles?

I've been in a Hostel that had the latter and it was super awkward because I just didn't feel comfortable knowing that there could be some creepy guy in the next cubicle. That said, at school we had a big open shower in the girls changing rooms which I didn't mind because I knew it was just girls in there. When I was at Uni our pool had an open shower for everyone to use but then noone was naked in it so it wasn't really an issue, just a quick wash to get the chlorine and piss out of your hair then off home for a proper shower. They also had a mixed gender changing room where there were lots of individual cubicles to get changed in which was a bit weird since there was a big gap between the walls and floor that you could look under if you wanted to see butts. But it saved on space and made it easier to keep the floors clean, so you just had to deal with it.

I'm not convinced that shared showers will really work out. In an ideal society there wouldn't be an issue, but between people like myself who want to be separate and those who think the naked body should never see the light of day I think there would be too much of a fuss to make everything mixed gender.

 

[Lightknight]

Since my showers have curtains that don't do a great job of closing and you can see from the sinks into the shower area, I have to say no. I think there should be small unisex bathrooms for the sake of extremely private people and LGBT, but I want boys to stay out of my bathroom please.

The private bathroom for LGBT would be extremely offensive. It would have to be available only as a courtesy rather than actually intended to segregate gays and lesbians (this would be awful, a throwback to racially divided bathrooms).

I do recall reading an article about a man being kicked out of a pool for walking around nude (around female children) in the girls' locker room. Once it was found out that he was transgendered the pool actually apologized to him, like they'd done something wrong by kicking a physically male person out of a room designated for females (sounds like an awfully convenient thing for predators to claim to let themselves do this). It would be silly to create a room for people who are mentally a different gender as the distinction of the bathrooms is along the lines of sex, not gender. Sex being anatomical and gender being identity.

 

[Lightknight]

I don't like the idea because I don't want men looking at my nekkidness and certainly don't want to see their dangly-bits. But this all depends on what we mean by mixed gender showers. Is it one big shower that is open, or one room containing lots of separate shower stalls/cubicles?

I've been in a Hostel that had the latter and it was super awkward because I just didn't feel comfortable knowing that there could be some creepy guy in the next cubicle. That said, at school we had a big open shower in the girls changing rooms which I didn't mind because I knew it was just girls in there. When I was at Uni our pool had an open shower for everyone to use but then noone was naked in it so it wasn't really an issue, just a quick wash to get the chlorine and piss out of your hair then off home for a proper shower. They also had a mixed gender changing room where there were lots of individual cubicles to get changed in which was a bit weird since there was a big gap between the walls and floor that you could look under if you wanted to see butts. But it saved on space and made it easier to keep the floors clean, so you just had to deal with it.

I'm not convinced that shared showers will really work out. In an ideal society there wouldn't be an issue, but between people like myself who want to be separate and those who think the naked body should never see the light of day I think there would be too much of a fuss to make everything mixed gender.

Co-ed showers are a common sight in Europe. Just FYI. There's no discernable benefit to society. Though it does save on construction costs.

 

[Actual]

I'm male, I'd have no problem with this personally. I don't have an impressive body but I think we could use open plan communal showers without it being sexual. I would have been more concerned in my teens but I've gotten over those hang-ups as I've gotten older.

However, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a hypothetical girlfriend using them...so I guess I'm a hypocrite.

 

[DoomyMcDoom]

I dunno really whether it would make too much of a difference, at least where gender neutrality is concerned, it may however help people to stop hating their body when they don't see everyone laughing at them naked like they think everyone will internally. I personally used to hate the sight of my own naked form, but using certain communal showers and not being humiliated kinda solved some of those issues for me.

But then again, everyone is different, so who am I to say.

Also I'm a guy, and unlike most men, I've kinda given up on any sexual intentions I have, as they are... Unlikely to bear any more fruit, the best years of my life sexually ended when I got herpes, and as far as my ego is concerned, it's not so much deflated from women treating me like some kind of leper, as it no longer exists, because even thinking of having sex started to bring me pain on an emotional level, so I just stopped thinking that way, kinda like mercy killing my libido.

I mean apart from the unconscious fear response I get when women touch me now, I find life a bit more tolerable now that I don't give a shit about love or any of that bollocks.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

In terms of moving towards a more "ideal society", then yes. However, in terms of practical application, there might just be too many hurdles to overcome.

 

[Vorpal_Smilodon]

Since my showers have curtains that don't do a great job of closing and you can see from the sinks into the shower area, I have to say no. I think there should be small unisex bathrooms for the sake of extremely private people and LGBT, but I want boys to stay out of my bathroom please.

The private bathroom for LGBT would be extremely offensive. It would have to be available only as a courtesy rather than actually intended to segregate gays and lesbians (this would be awful, a throwback to racially divided bathrooms).

I don't see why segregating by race or transgender is immoral but segregating by sex is not only okay but preferred. I understand why people say they would find it uncomfortable, as I couldn't imagine showering nude in front of anyone at all, but a large number of people seem to think that shared bathrooms will result in more rapes, as if the only thing preventing men from raping a woman is the inconvenience of having to take their clothes off first. (Rapists are lawbreakers by definition, so they have no problem walking into the women's shower as it stands)

 

[Goofguy]

Sure, as long as there are individual shower stalls. Like anything, it just takes acclimatizing. When I joined the army at age 17, I was freaked out my first time in a communal male shower. Ten years later and it doesn't bother me at all. The unspoken rule is you just don't look at other dudes' junk. And I'm straight, so why would I want to anyway?

Granted taking this to the next level by making it coed would be different but after a bit of time, I think it'd be old hat for everyone.

 

[DeltaEdge]

I suddenly feel very fortunate, as I happened to pick a college that has a bathroom connecting two double occupancy rooms, so I only have to share a bathroom with 3 other people, and there are doors and whatnot, so you get complete privacy, unless your suite mate is being a dick-head and blasting his rap music too loudly to hear you say I'm in here! 3 times (Or to hear the shower, which you can hear in the hall sometimes) before opening the door and closing it again. I have to say though, communal showering sounds really gross. I only just recently started hearing stories about how you should wear flip flops into the shower, just to avoid getting gunk on your feet. That sounds absolutely putrid. /rant

Anyways, as for co-ed showers/bathrooms in general, although I was completely against the idea at first. I do think it would be a neat idea for a generation that hasn't been trained to be live by gender stereotypes, and doesn't have the obstacle of gender identity and general discomfort around the opposite sex to tackle before being able to attempt something like this. I think it would definitely eliminate that layer of disillusionment about the opposite sex if you hear that hot guy/girl taking a huge smelly shit, or seeing them shave their armpits or doing some other typically unattractive task.