Friday, November 30, 2007

about time we get rid of the binaries


Megan saw this in the building that houses Cornell's ROTC. She comments "Don't ask don't tell just got a little more complicated".
As a side note, ladies' rooms at historically male institutions are often hilarious - I have a deep love for one at Calvin Theological Seminary. Maybe it's the "womens" room when the line for the mens' gets too long.

7 comments:

jspencer said...

This seems to be getting more and more common. Is this all that new-agey gender identity stuff?

bethany said...

one can only hope. In fact, that's the new title, since I forgot to make one originally.

Megan said...

At one of the old buildings at Radcliffe college (formerly the women's college at Harvard) they only have a women's bathroom and a handicapped bathroom. That pretty much sums it up, huh?

Love the blog.

Shannon @ Some Fine Taters said...

My husband is a Marine. There are about 10 men in his shop, no women currently. The sign on their women's bathroom *should* have quotation marks!

Anonymous said...

I don't care which gender designated restroom you find yourself in,it's importsnt to never wave your hand under the stall, even if you have a legitimate "question"...

Anonymous said...

My "Ladies'" Room Story

Penn State's Electrical Engineering West was built when women were not allowed in the engineering school. So, it was built with only male bathrooms. When forced to admit women, the administration dealt with this by re-labeling (but not otherwise changing) the two least conveniently located bathrooms. One of those was in the basement, which years later (in the late 70s/early 80s) became the home of the Engineering Computing Laboratory. The students and staff there were exclusively male ... other than me. Since all the original fixtures remained intact, the guys used the bathroom conveniently located down the hall, which for both of those reasons would certainly have deserved quotes around "ladies'".

Someone once asked me if I would be embarrassed if I met a man in there. I said no, but I bet he would be. And, indeed, it eventually happened. I walked in one evening (with a bad knee and a building with no elevators, I wasn't going to go to the only other bathroom open to me, which was on the third floor) and there was one of of the guys at a urinal. I said "Hi, Jim" and went into a stall to do my business. Behind me, I heard the sound of a fly being zipped with such force that's it's a wonder he didn't bobbitize himself. He wouldn't meet my eyes for the rest of the day, and forever after, when nature called, it called him to the first floor.

Ted Striker said...

If it said "Women's" there would be no need for quotes. "Womens" are another thing...