There is a lot that can be read online about transgender and public toilets. I personally see no reason for which a bathroom or a toilet needs to be assigned to or reserved for a certain sex. Granted, there are a lot of people that I would rather not share a bathroom with, but that relates to their personal hygiene and their social behavior.
In large parts of Europe, unisex toilets are commonplace, sometimes simply because the bar, café, gas station, or restaurant is so small that there is only one. One of our favourite restaurants has two separate stalls and they recently removed the male/female signs. They now are both unisex.
But this is not the toilet issue that I am talking about.
Being an occasional crossdresser, occasional for several reasons - as regular readers of my blog will know, I spend surely less than 5% of my days out of the home en femme. However, when I do go out en femme, it tends to be for somewhere between 4 and 12 hours and I have visited the lady’s room in many different places: restaurants, shops, theatres, etc. And I love, by the way, the spacious counters to put down your handbag, the large mirrors to freshen up your makeup, and the complimentary lotions that some of these provide.
Recently, going out as my male self, as I do for more than 95% of the time, the following happened several times. I was at a restaurant, I needed to go to the bathroom, I came around the corner, and there were two doors, one for men and one for women. And for a split second, I questioned which one I should take! And I found myself smirking over the fact that I was contemplating that very question. It even lead to the situation that a man, leaving the men’s room at that moment, noticed my hesitation and incertitude and looked somewhat puzzled at me.
Have you had the same experience?
PS: the picture to this post is that of a toilet sign (obviously) at the “Musical Dome” in Cologne/Germany. Franziska watched “Moulin Rouge – the musical” earlier this year at this venue. What a steaming hot show, goodness gracious. So much fun!
What a great reflection! Kudos to you for having this thought.
ReplyDeleteI've also had the same idea cross my mind but don't go out presenting as female as often as you. When I do it's with girlfriends who offer some degree of security for using the Ladies room. The only time I went out alone was on Halloween; I used the Mens bathroom and got worse looks there than I would have in the Ladies room.
One non-trans story that amused me was when visiting Disneyland. In the Epcot area (which pretends to be places from around the world) there was a Spanish pavilion. In a restaurant there I went to the bathrooms and a middle-aged American man was standing in front of the two doors obviously perplexed on which to enter. He said aloud, "What the hell is a Caballero?!"
Dear Shybiker, Thanks a lot for visiting my blog and for your great comment. I have had similar experiences needing some seconds to interpret the sign, symbol, or word on toilet doors. I have also been to a number of places where intuition needs to be your guide to pick the right door. Best wishes, Franzi
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