Interesting Stuff
September 29th, 2005 at 11:17 pm (Thoughts)
Today brought two facinating topics to mind.
The first I read about at Shakespeare’s Sister. Apparently in Sweden one can now be promated after death! This turns the body to mulch that is used to make the soil richer and then people plant trees over the grave. I think that’s wonderful! Too bad it won’t catch on here for a very very long time.
The other thing is an issue that I rant about every once in a while, so it’s nice to see someone else talk about it for a change. The issue is unisex bathrooms. I would really love to see more public places with unisex bathrooms. Bradford Plumer talks about it too. It just makes so much sense in so many ways! Unisex bathrooms are cleaner in general, people wash their hands more, and lines are shorter. Most of the arguements against the idea involve safety. Ok, I admit, there is a great chance a woman will get stuck in a bathroom with a guy and bad things could happen. Ok, first off, put security cameras in the main area of the bathroom (not the stalls). That way, even if the assault happens in a stall the cameras will catch the people going into the stall and it can be used for legal reasons. The other thing would be to make rape a bigger deal than it is today. That’s really a whole different issue, but seriously, if we managed to change the current thinking that rape is the woman’s fault (she went out late wearing clothes, the hussy was asking for it) and that it’s not that big a crime it would make so much difference! As it is, women don’t report it out of shame and men get little to no punishment for having raped someone. It’s insane. Change those and maybe then sane things like unisex bathrooms and unisex hallways won’t be so scary. Again, though, it’s never going to catch on in this country. Not at this rate anyway.
Eva said,
September 30, 2005 at 1:55 pm
It seems to me that most of that saftey issue argument is a bit silly. I mean the only time when this will be a major issue is when there is only one woman in the bathroom, right? I’d like to point out to whoever is ultimatly letting that argument stop them from having a unis3x bathroom that most places will do nothing to stop a single man from going into the women’s room. So if single men were going to rape women in bathrooms they could do it just as well with two gender segrigated bathrooms as one mixed one. I find it far more likely that the reluctance to move to unis3x bathrooms is due to our unspoken rules about propriety and sillyness dating back to the Victorian period about how men and women should be separated at most times (certainly at any time when something improper has the vaguest possiblity of happening).
That said, I do think that unis3x bathrooms would cause a much bigger problem with peeping toms. While I find the idea of some guy using a mirror and a camera to look at me using the restroom nasty and unpleasant, I don’t think its a serious enough crime to warrent abandoning the idea of unis3x bathrooms altogether.