Washington State has a new law that trans people can use the restroom/locker room appropriate to their gender identification. A conservative radio show seemingly gender identified male was saying that his daughter could now be traumatized for life by the sight of a penis in the locker room.
Wow. I didn't know that the sight of a penis could traumatize a woman for life.
So are daughters not supposed to see a penis until they are married? Should girls not see penises until they are of age? What age? Are penises inherently traumatizing to women visually? Is that why we use almost naked women to sell nearly everything, because titties are pretty and penises are traumatizing?
Meanwhile, why don't urinals have stalls? Is this because penises are visually traumatizing but men are brave and therefore can withstand the sight of another man's penis? I had no idea that men had to endure this. No wonder men don't go to the bathroom in groups. And no wonder they space themselves, I've heard, at the urinal furthest from any other man who has his dick in his hand. This actually explains a lot about men and I am now much more sympathetic for their failure to be able to handle and express emotions. They all have penis PTSD.
My daughter proposes that we have two bathrooms in businesses and public spaces in the state of Washington. An open urinal bathroom for those with courage and able to endure the visual trauma, and a bathroom with stalls and toilets for those who prefer privacy. I think we could just put stalls around the urinals and everyone could just use the bathrooms. My daughter said it would be harder for men to get into them in time. I said, "Well, they aren't PREGNANT." Of course, some of them carry prostates the size of a 20 week pregnancy, but they could deal with that. There are treatments.
What IS the history of urinals not having stalls? I know that the Rotary Club was started by Chicago businessmen who decided to give back to the community: their first project was downtown bathrooms for women who were shopping. There were no public bathrooms in the downtown for women.
Not having stalls is cheaper, I suppose, but weigh that against visual penis trauma. One man tells me that in really low scale facilities, there are TROUGHS. Well. He thinks that peeing standing up is strictly for the woods.
Meanwhile, if we have separate urinal bathrooms, women could use them too, merely by investing in a tool such as a Go-girl. This might make life much easier for pregnant women on the go. I suppose shy men could invent a male version of a Go-girl which in turn would prevent the traumatic penis sight. What would we call it? Bone-boy? Or the shy men could use the stall bathroom.
And here is an article that explains that even if a girl doesn't get traumatized by seeing and envying a penis when she is young, there are arguments why she will still endure that trauma: "First, that people have an inherited memory of penises, so the actual experience of seeing one is not necessary for envy." Oh. I am going to do some serious digging into my inherited memories of penises later on, though I probably won't share that with an audience.
In some countries there is neither a sit down toilet nor a urinal. There is a place to squat, with a trough between. Some have plumbing, some have a bucket. When I was still delivering babies, the 25 year plus veteran obstetrics nurses said that they thought more women were having back labor with the fetus in the less favorable position because women don't scrub the floor on hands and knees any more. I wondered if not squatting is an issue too. Sometimes labor saving comfort devices are not the best thing for muscle tone. Perhaps we should have squat toilets as a third option. Meanwhile, someone has thought of a way to make up for the western squatting deficiency and make money: behold the squatty potty
I am actually still a bit confused about the whole seeing a penis is traumatic thing. I am a female physician and I have male and female and transgender patients. Sometimes some of them have complaints, illnesses or concerns about their penises or scrotum* or testicles. The state does recommend that I have a chaperone in the room during genital exams and recommends it regardless of sex. I guess my childhood was so rough that the comparative trauma of sometimes having to do a penis exam just hasn't registered on me that much.....
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/feb/18/man-undressing-womens-locker-room-fuels-drive-upen/
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/states-rules-for-transgender-restroom-access-set-off-debate/
https://aclu-wa.org/sites/default/files/attachments/Transgender%20Guide%202015.pdf
*What is the plural? Scroti? Scrofulous? Scrotums?
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spiregrain says: I've been to relatively upscale facilities (i.e. they have bog trolls seeking tips for handing you hand towels and spraying cologne around), and they have TROUGHS which have little SPLASH SHIELDS for you to tuck your feet under. A "bog troll" is a charming colloquialism for a toilet attendant, who loiters in upscale restrooms to prevent drug use, assignations, etc. while appearing merely to help with the hand towels, etc. My current employer's main office building (London, UK) has a older wing with normal male and presumably-normal female toilets; but in the newer wing there are individual unisex/pangender facilities with an individual toilet AND sink/basin in each "stall".