Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
... people really need to get some reading comprehension. Nowhere does the article Tracy linked say that any university is eliminating your usual multiple-stall, conventionally gendered men's and women's rooms, or not building them in new buildings.
What's happening is pretty simple: older single-occupancy bathrooms that already exist, where only one person can be inside at a time and you lock the door, are having unnecessary "men" and "women" signs replaced with a sign that says "bathroom." Anyone who's not incredibly uptight knows that these kinds of bathrooms are already used, and have been for years, by both men and women, because it means you don't have to wait in line and for god's sake, it's not like anyone else is going to be in there anyway. Ironically, these sorts of bathrooms are the safest for those who don't want to encounter transgender people, your personal stalker of either gender, or Larry Craig while in the bathroom. It's really better for everyone, especially when you consider that such bathrooms can serve as easily accessible handicapped facilities as well as changing-rooms that can be accessed by moms OR dads.
The Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC has a really good example of a gender-neutral bathroom that clearly advertises all of the above -- family changing station, handicapped accessible, single-occupancy bathroom with no "men" or "women sign." It's right next to your usual multiple-occupancy men's and women's rooms. That's hopefully the kind of setup we'll see in more places.
Plus, from what I understand advocates at universities are not insisting anything close to "all bathrooms must be gender-neutral." It's something more like, one per building, and letting people know where it is if they want to use it. That's not much to ask for, but of course some right-wingers spin it into an approval of transgender people (horrors!)
Why is it that Christo-fascists always confuse attempts to prevent teen pregnancy or STDs with attempts to sexualize children? What kind of person gets perverted ideas about a teenager privately requesting health care assistance for a very personal issue? Or maybe they are pretending to be confused about it because they don't want women using birth control at any age. They're just like the Taliban, and they're trying to run our country.
That for Republicans, they chose women who are in the media (and therefore, whose jobs rely to some extent on being pleasing to look at) and ignored all the Democratic women in the media, with the same qualification. Oh well, at this point...they're just reaffirming that to too many people in this world, a woman's looks trump every other single thing about who she is as a human being. I just wish this was ONLY a characteristic of conservatives.
Seconding the comments about reading comprehension and the bathroom issue. I work at a place that is among few universities with a single-occupancy, non-gender-designated bathroom. It was already single-occupancy. So there's absolutely no difference in how it functions except that more people can now use it.
Psychologists have shown that the sexualization of children is inherently harmful and yet society--even parents--insist that it is harmless. Pedophiles universally use this technique to groom children; they depend on it. Predators do not waste their time with "harmless" endeavors.
Just as the fight against obesity in young children is (obviously) not anti-eating, the fight against the sexualization of children is not anti-sex--in spite of the many pedophiles (and their apologists) in our midst who argue otherwise in order to justify their predatory behavior. The dangers over the sexualization of children is due to the fact that it only results in conditioning children to be the ultimate victims for rapists who will not only prey on their lack of physical defense, but also complete psychological vulnerability.
Peg Bracken, unsung feminist heroine who wrote "The I Hate To Cook Book" and "The I Hate To Housekeep Book" died yesterday.
Ms. Bracken's books, however "camp" today, were major breakthroughs for the trapped housewives (like my mom) in the early 60's. They dared to say that housework and cooking (strangely enough, she didn't touch on child care, at least not that I know) need not be the be-all and end-all of a woman's existence. If you can find short-cuts to cleaning the carpet and making a tasty meal for your family, by all means do so! That frees up time for you to relax, socialize or maybe actually do something that YOU want to do! (And for a lot of ladies, that eventually meant "Get a job" and other pre-feminist acts of rebellion.)
In other words, there was a REASON for Ms. Bracken, Poppy Cannon, and other "can-opener cookery" advocates to rhapsodize about convenience foods and their place in the family's diet. Such recipes freed up the post-war wife to make use of her time elsewhere. However snobby we may feel about such an approach to eating today, we must give the Pegs of the world their "props" for contributing, however unwittingly, to the feminist movement of today.
I am hopeful the school and society will just take over my kids since they won't consent to letting me be the parent and then they insist on doing things that I don't consent to.
1) Parental consent. If parents want to let their kids do something that is not illegal, well, I may not like, but I am not the parent. If parents do not consent to handing out BC pills because they already have a responsible method of talking issues out with their kids, I see no reason that the schools should be handing out BC pills OR condoms or non-teenagers.
2) I don't know what parental/kid pole dancing exercises look like. I understand that many women are getting poles installed in their homes. I am curious how you feel these poles should be discussed with their kids. Please help me out with that conversation. I suspect parental/kid pole dancing exercises are pretty tame. And unlike a jungle gym, they can be housed indoors and used throughout the year.
3) What is wrong with adults stripping? Why all the stripper hating going on? I thought we were all pro-sex feminists here and agreed that consenting adult behaviors were their own business.... I wish you folks would tag your comments so that we can tell with each one whether we are supposed to be pro-sex or anti-sex.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
