Gender Neutral Bathrooms

1665 Words4 Pages

Society is extremely dominated by what we call normal. In this case, normal is male or female with no in between or recognition of other labels of sex. What is transgendered space? The abundance of ignorance when it comes to answering this question proves that there isn't much space, if any, that transgendered people can call their own, at least not public space. This bigoted thinking built into the foundation of the world is what leads to the lack of transgendered space. This is what forces them to be outcasts and constantly feared and discriminated against because of our lack of knowledge about their lifestyle. The made-up boundaries we create is what keeps us segregated at a disproportionate level and the fact that transgendered people don't …show more content…

Jeannie Suk touched base on the idea by discussing why there are not gender-neutral bathrooms. If you think about it gender-neutral bathrooms do exist however most of the time they are placed separately from the male and female bathrooms which can be an inconvenience and are more private. Many public gender-neutral bathrooms consist of one stall placed in a separate area from the other bathrooms. Not only can the location be an inconvenience but the fact that this one stall is so isolated shows how we literally isolate the transgender community. Why are they not allowed to feel comfortable and be treated like everyone else and be able to be seen on a social level rather than as other? I feel like the only reason those gender-neutral bathrooms are usually present in public space as one stall compared to the female and male stalls that have multiple stalls are just for society to claim they tried when it comes to equality. They assume because they are there they fixed the problem of the transgendered community feeling isolated. This is not the case if anything they could possibly be having the opposite effect by its difference in quantity and location in public spaces. "Perhaps the point is precisely that the public restroom is the only everyday social institution remaining in which separation by gender is the norm, and undoing that separation would feel like …show more content…

When they are recognized they are recognized as being different and not really classified based on their own labeling. This is a result of the fear of not knowing about their lifestyle. However, how can people expect to know about their lifestyle if efforts to recognize them are ways to isolate them? This becomes a continuous cycle where we force the transgendered community to remain separate from the heteronormative thinking of needing to conform to male and female gender roles, but we don't recognize them as a gender role at all just an anomaly of gender. This labeling as an anomaly is what forces them to stand out in public space and makes them classified as inferior to actual gender-specific roles. The foundation of the issue is that being transgender is considered the opposite of norm. The ideal views of life seem to be the normal life and as a result leads to the fear of any other type of life but normal. This fear and pressure to assimilate to normal culture is what keeps the transgender community silent, therefore, leading to the society ignoring transgender spaces and it’s

Open Document