<p>An article from Inside Higher Education reports that a student is suing her school because her dorm floor does not offer separate bathrooms facilities for men and women. That the bathrooms were used by both genders was not mentioned by the college ahead before she applied. When she said she was uncomfortable with this arrangement, the school designated a bathroom as women only but didn't object when men kept using it. See: News:</a> A Bathroom of Her Own - Inside Higher Ed</p>
<p>I know that when I visit schools with my daughter (and my son). I will ask whether single-sex bathrooms in the dorms are available and if not, cross the school off my list.</p>
<p>I am posting this because if anyone else has an opinion on this issue, you may want to add it to your visit checklist.</p>
<p>I had co-ed bathrooms 30 years ago, they didn’t bother me then, they don’t bother me now. There are stalls for the showers and toilets - I don’t really see that it’s a big deal.</p>
<p>seriously this is barely even an issue. It’s not like you are forced to streak around naked if there are coed bathrooms. Towels provide more than enough modesty as do individual stalls</p>
<p>Why? Clearly your daughter and son share a co-ed bathroom already. I don’t really believe this will be all that different. I chose a school knowing it had co-ed bathrooms, visited them for 3 days, and decided the only real difference between co-ed bathrooms and the non co-ed ones I had seen was that the single-sex school had managed to have bathtubs installed. </p>
<p>I’m surprised…does the girl in the article not go to a school where single sex floors are offered? Many schools offer that in case you do want a girls-only bathroom. But let’s be realistic, you’re going to have to use a co-ed bathroom for the rest of your life. Why should it matter if you do it in college?</p>
<p>I’m a very modest person, I might add. I’ll by bath robes in terry cloth so I won’t have to worry about it. But many showers have benches so that you can set your stuff down and dress and undress before you go in or out of the stall.</p>
<p>I’m guessing the likelyhood of anything untoward happening is also very low, because it’s very public and it’s a bathroom. The only thing I might worry about is hygeine.</p>
<p>Many schools do. What do you do about trans students? Or gay/lesbian students? You can’t pretend they don’t exist. They need acess to dorms and bathrooms all the same as any other student. Many schools allow for co-ed dorms and bathrooms because it’s simply easier to allow students to act responsibly.</p>
<p>I had no idea there were such a thing as co-ed bathrooms. We have single sex community bathrooms in my dorm, and it is strictly enforced as single sex. I would not be comfortable showering with men in the room. It might be more tolerable if the shower stalls actually had like real, locking doors instead of just curtains like we have, but I still would not be very comfortable with it. Not to mention that at night our bathrooms are dark and have plenty of hiding places. If men could easily get access to the ladies room it would perhaps be the easiest trap in the world. I could not get up to go to the bathroom at night knowing that it is that easy for a predator to be lurking.</p>
<p>That certainly isn’t to say that all or even many men are a danger, but I am certainly not going to take the risk. I go to such trouble to keep myself safe from physical and verbal sexual harassment, it seems a little counter intuitive to share a bathroom. Given that separate restrooms and dressing rooms are the norms everywhere else I’m not sure why a college dorm would be different. </p>
<p>“Why? Clearly your daughter and son share a co-ed bathroom already. I don’t really believe this will be all that different.”</p>
<p>I wouldn’t take a shower with my brother standing in the bathroom with me, I don’t think most people would. There’s also a big difference between family and total strangers. </p>
<p>And from the article…</p>
<p>“He said that the bathrooms feature showers with curtains, and toilets in stalls. But he said that while the female students generally disrobe and towel themselves behind the shower curtains, many male students do not, nor do the male students necessarily shut the stall doors.”</p>
<p>Gay students are men and lesbians are women- don’t they use mens’ and womens’ rooms now? Trans students can use whichever bathroom they are most comfortable in. I don’t see why a miniscule number of trans students should set the bathroom agenda for everyone.</p>
<p>The dorms that I’m familiar with all had multiple bathrooms on the same floor, so it was just the men’s one over here and the ladies’ one over there, just like any other public building.</p>
<p>Is this because previously single-sex dorms are being converted into coed housing, such that there is only one bathroom set-up on a given floor? </p>
<p>I don’t particularly care one way or the other, but it’s somewhat interesting to me that colleges are insisting on this, when in general, the societal norm seems to still be a men’s room and a ladies’ room in public.</p>
<p>I have a daughter and a son who share a co-ed bathroom already, but it IS different. The only activity they would engage in with both in the room is being at the sink / washing up / brushing teeth, etc. They don’t use the toilet or tub / shower with the other one there.</p>
<p>That’s funny, that’s never really happened that I’ve seen, TwistedxKiss. And frankly, the sad truth is, in today’s culture, Co-Ed bathrooms probably aren’t high on the list of potential places for harassment. You’re more likely to get sexually asaulted by someone you know than someone you don’t, and probably more likely for it to happen on a date or at a party than on a toilet. That’s not to say it can’t happen, but it is to say that women must be constantly aware of such dangers. I could give you a whole speech on the problems of ‘Rape Culture’ but I’ll leave it at: Bathrooms aren’t the only place we have to worry about. They’re probably much lower on the list than other places/situations. And I would be much more worried about a friend or family member than I would a stranger. [ [Shakesville:</a> Rape Culture 101](<a href=“http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.html]Shakesville:”>Shakesville: Rape Culture 101) I could go on, but, I’ll let this do that for me…]</p>
<p>But like I said, most schools do offer single sex floors and bathrooms.</p>
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<p>I was speaking mainly in terms of co-ed housing. If the troubling thing is focused on sexuality, why wouldn’t it make sense for a lesbian to be housed with a man? What’s the difference in two female students rooming together, and one female and one male? To say that all men or all women can’t control themselves around the opposite sex is to not think fairly highly of humans in general. We can control those base urges, and it is possible.</p>
<p>As for the ‘bathroom agenda’ really? Is that how you feel it is? It’s a co-ed bathroom, not a plan to take over the world.</p>
<p>"Is this because previously single-sex dorms are being converted into coed housing, such that there is only one bathroom set-up on a given floor? "</p>
<p>I don’t see why that would have to be the case. My building used to be an all male facility, and as such there are still urinals in the ladies rooms that they havent bothered to remove. We just have half the bathrooms designated as women only now, and you only have card key access to your own gender’s bathrooms. We also have private unisex bathrooms (unfortunately only a toilet and sink, no shower) on like every other floor and two in the lobby for guest use if you don’t have a friend to open the door for your opposite-sex guest. My boyfriend is over all the time and it has worked out fine for us, there is usually a guy around or the RAs have both keys in case he needed to shower and the unisex bathroom is just one floor down, closer than some of the ladies rooms I end up using.</p>
<p>Yurtle, trust me, I am more aware of that than most. Just because other places may be more likely does not mean it is remotely wise to regularly disrobe with men you do not know and therefore cannot trust in the room with absolutely no way to guard yourself. Don’t you think it’s a little strange that we preach basic common sense safety guidelines about how to keep yourself safe from creeps at parties, only to go home and shower with them instead?</p>
<p>D is a freshman on a co-ed floor. The bathroom is co-ed but only where the sinks and cubbies for their toiletries are stored. The boys go through a door on one side and the girls on the other. That is where the toilets and showers for each sex are. It has never posed a problem for D. The only issue she has is the fact that there are four showers for the guys and only two for the girls.</p>
<p>The (sole) bathroom on my coed floor freshman year was shared by men and women. That was in 1972. We all coped. We had a sign on the door with three options: men, women, and don’t care. I don’t think it was set to anything other than “don’t care” at any point other than parents’ weekend.</p>
<p>Don’t you think it’s strange we expect women to have to go out of the way to be safe, but somehow don’t often bother to tell guys “Hey, don’t rape people”? Because in all my experience, I remember being taught how to be careful, and how I should or shouldn’t dress, what times I can walk outside alone, but I never remember any MALES I know getting that talk about worrying about wearing ‘slutty’ clothes. And no, I can’t drink either, because someone might take advantage if I’m drunk, or spike my drink, and that would make it my fault? </p>
<p>Because, you know educating girls AND boys about that would solve the problem.</p>
<p>I’m a lesbian and generally really progressive on things like this (I think students should be able to request the gender of their roommate, and I see no problem with alternating rooms on a floor - i.e. girls room next to guys room). </p>
<p>But I really don’t want to be sharing a bathroom with guys…I mean…no. For all the reasons Twisted stated. I don’t purport to say this encourages rape or something crazy, but I can see cat-calling, or “accidental” glances or different ideas about modesty or all kinds of things being a problem. And to be honest, I just wouldn’t feel comfortable naked in a shower knowing guys are a foot away, and I wouldn’t like emerging in a towel with guys right outside. Dunno what it is, but I would just. Not. Like it.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t fear for my safety, but I’d be uncomfortable, plain and simple.</p>
<p>*But he said that while the female students generally disrobe and towel themselves behind the shower curtains, many male students do not, nor do the male students necessarily shut the stall doors."
*</p>
<p>no thank you. If men tell a dirty joke in the workplace, they can be fired for creating a hostile work environment, but women have to use bathrooms where men can disrobe in front of them and that’s “no big deal”???</p>
<p>*I just wouldn’t feel comfortable naked in a shower knowing guys are a foot away, and I wouldn’t like emerging in a towel with guys right outside. Dunno what it is, but I would just. Not. Like it.
*</p>
<p>Exactly. </p>
<p>And, it’s one thing for brothers and sisters to see each other clothed only in a towel - that is no big deal. Brothers and sisters are rarely ever sexually attracted to each other’s bodies. but, a lot of men would get turned on seeing girls with just a towel wrapped around them.</p>
<p>I’m with the posters who say “no thanks” to co-ed bathrooms. They can have co-ed dorms by floor or by wing. In fact it was my college bound son who asked the question on tours because he specifically does not want to live with communal co-ed bathrooms. I had no idea there was such a thing as co-ed communal bathrooms with the exception of the single occupant type with a lock. I would hope that the colleges that have that as an option also have the option for suite style or single sex bathrooms.</p>