just a girl dancing thru life

pinebark:

[Image Description: Two photos of nearly identical single-room public bathrooms. Each has a gender symbol covering most of the door — the left has a “female” and the right has a “male” stick figure.]

These photos were taken at the Queen Street West, Toronto location of Dark Horse Coffee. I don’t understand why businesses and restaurants feel the need to gender bathrooms in cases like this, where each is literally a single room designed to be occupied by a single person at a time.

I felt that this instance was particularly egregious, since the gendered stick figures — normally rather small — were enlarged to the point that it was impossible to ignore them as one entered. (I suppose that might have been the point.) At least these bathrooms were tucked away in the back of the shop, where customers might be less likely to be hassled for making the “wrong” choice.

I’m working to encourage local businesses in Seattle to remove gendered signage like this. If you know of any restaurants or coffee shops around the University of Washington area that maintain this type of pointless gender separation, please add them to this Google Doc. I’ll then be contacting these businesses with information and attempting to convince them to make these bathrooms open to all patrons. Also, if you know of any establishments that already have gender-neutral bathrooms, please add those as well!