One of the bigger debates of recent years has been the Bathroom Bill in the United States – where states were actively trying to pass a bill that would regulate the public facilities used by transgender people.
The issue has been flushed through the media over and over, as people literally argue over where someone can have a slash. Don’t forget the ample protests against the laws, either.
Now, there’s a study demonstrating who has had the most to say about where people drop the kids off at the pool, and it turns out it’s mostly dudes.
Blokes are significantly more likely to care about who can and cannot use women’s bathrooms than women themselves. Y’know, cisgendered guys who aren’t actually actively using women’s bathrooms. They’re the ones who apparently care the most.
The study, which analysed over 1,000 comments left on more than 150 articles about gendered bathrooms, found that cis-males are the most likely to be worried about who uses women’s bathrooms. Read: the same people that can literally piss wherever the fuck they want to because they can have a lot to say about where transgender women can relieve themselves.
Now, women’s bathrooms are not some kind of mystical place that exist beyond the doors with the little skirt-wearing symbol on the front. I should know, I use them often enough.
They’re not a fantasy Narnia-style realm where people go in and disappear for hours at a time, though I can understand why dudes would think that.
They’re literally the same as any other bathroom, save for the troughs and the piss on the floor in the men’s. Yeah, I’ve accidentally walked into a dudes’ bathroom and honestly, I don’t know how you put up with it.
Mostly, this study points to the idea that men are far more transphobic than women – especially considering they’re giving more of a shit about a space that is specifically designed to be not for cis-men – and that’s something that needs changing immediately.
The researchers theorised the heightened transphobia in men by noting that men are less likely to accept transgender women as women:
“We theorize that the heightened concern seen in males in these comments stems from them being more likely to view transgender females not as females, but as males who are lying or mistaken about their gender, and consequently they view themselves as protecting females from these males intruding into private, female-only spaces.”
When you think about it, bathrooms at your home are for all genders, so what makes public bathrooms any different? Who cares where people go to relieve themselves? As long as its not on the floor.
Source: SMH.
Photo: Universal Pictures.
Photo: Universal Pictures.
