Tag Archives: Bathrooms

Reading Summary #4

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Tick, Suzanne. “His & Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society.” Metropolis Magazine. N.p., Mar. 2015. Web. 25 Feb. 2016.

“His & Hers: Designing for a Post-Gender Society” explores the issues created in the post-gender society that is currently developing. The two main theaters Tick discusses this in are workplace design (primarily with regards to restrooms) and in fashion. For workplace design, she cites the current trend of modernism which presents a primarily male-centric design as well as companies like google that are challenging this standard by implementing gender-neutral bathrooms as well as the preexisting gender segregated bathrooms so that employees don’t have to specify a gender at work. For the deterioration of traditional gender roles in fashion, she gives the example of a women’s jacket with masculine tailoring and military style and a set of makeup that is designed to be appealing to the male buyer. This piece would be helpful to anyone seeking to explore how gender norms are being challenged in the modern day in fashion and architecture.

Reading Summary #3

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Bazelon, Emily. “Making Bathrooms More ‘Accommodating.’” The New York Times 17 Nov. 2015. NYTimes.com. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

This article, written by Emily Bazelon for The New York Times, covers the issue of integrating gendered bathrooms and cites several examples where people are trying to make that push. One example is in Texas, where a law that would prevent discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age, race, sexual orientation and gender identity was rejected with a campaign that used fear to influence voters to vote against it. It also goes through two different examples of high school transgender students and their efforts to push for accommodation in the schools’ locker rooms. Bazelon helps to clarify what she means by accommodation: “‘Accommodate’ can have a compulsory aspect — it’s a word that involves moving over to make room for other people, whether you want to or not.” This article would be useful to anyone seeking to analyze the gendered built environment and how it affects where people are allowed to go and where they are able to feel comfortable.

Annotated Bibliography #6

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Kopas, Matthew Bryon David. “The Illogic of Separation: Examining Arguments About Gender-Neutral Public Bathrooms.” Thesis. N.p., 2012. digital.lib.washington.edu. Web. 23 Feb. 2016.

This study examines how people who are generally unfamiliar with the debate surrounding gender equality with regards to bathrooms and the idea of a gender neutral restroom. It analyzed the different counter-arguments people presenting in their resistance to this new built environment, with the only argument left unaddressed being the argument that cited religious beliefs for the attachment to gender binary bathrooms. This study is relevant to the content of this class discussed in the session during which we analyzed the assigned reading about ending gender segregation in bathrooms. It relates to the built environment of Atlanta because while Atlanta is a relatively progressive community, it is still within the Bible Belt and religious beliefs still play a large part in how policy and law makers go about doing their jobs (as evidenced by the recent House Bill 575 and the rhetoric of Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle, including phrases like “God’s country”). This article is likely intended for the proponents of policy that would require gender neutral bathrooms so that they can better understand the arguments of those who seek to oppose these measures.