Just a
heads up, I use potty-talk not in an attempt to disgust you, the reader, but I
feel it is important to flush out some things that we don’t always discuss regarding
the bathroom and its subjects, which would be everyone who is privileged enough
to use one. Also, an easy way of
breaking the ice is often with humor. Furthermore,
I feel that in order to talk about making the bathroom safer and more accessible
to people who do not conform to a prescribed gender or sex, we should be more comfortable
talking about the bathroom as well—not in too much detail though—and also acknowledge
what happens when we use the toilet; for instance we say I have to go to the
bathroom because it is human necessity.
I will
draw on the section “An Introduction to Transgender Terms and Concepts” from Susan
Stryker’s book Transgender History to
help unpack the terms: sex, gender
Identity/presentation; in order to get a better understanding of their meaning. Stryker specializes in theories of gender and
sexuality, and is the author of The
Transgender Studies Reader.
Sex:
One’s biological assignment as either male or female (sometimes
intersex) at birth. Sex is not synonymous
with gender. “Sex is generally
considered biological, and gender is generally considered cultural.” Sex also
refers to genitals, which can be a vagina, penis, or a variation of these
(intersex). “The words ‘male’ and ‘female’
refer to sex.” (Stryker 4.)
Gender:
Gender
is not the same as sex, “gender is generally considered to be cultural, and
sex, biological.” Gender identity is one’s
internal sense of identifying as masculine, feminine, neither, or a variation
of both, and so on. Gender presentation
is how one portrays their gender identity through signs like clothing,
hairstyle, consumption patterns, etc.. It
is something that you do, as if it were an action—a naturalized one that we
aren’t always aware of. “The words ‘man’
and ‘woman’ refer to gender.” (Stryker 11-13.)
This
is a description of how Stryker defines these terms, but in the context of the
rest of the section of her writing it is also important why she is defining
them. These terms are very naturalized as
she puts it, “we simply experience these things without thinking about them too
much—as we do with gravity, for example or breathing” (Stryker 7.) She says it is important when talking about
these definitions they “should not be taken to mean that there are only two
kinds of bodies (male and female) or that all bodies are either one or the
other of only two possible kinds of bodies” (Stryker 8.) Gender and sex have a tendency to become
conflated in everyday speech or conversation and it is important to separated them
and break them apart to better understand their meaning. By conflation I mean it is assumed, for
example, that if someone is female (sex) then she (gendered pronoun) is also a
woman (gender identity) who acts feminine (gender presentation) and is expected
to use the gendered bathroom that matches to that. However, these categories do not always line
up to the perceived assumptions.
Contextualizing that, Trans- is generally conceived to be
an umbrella term that covers identities that do not conform to the male/female,
man/woman binary. Transgender is then “implies
movement away from an initially assigned gender position. It most generally
refers to any and all kinds of variation from gender norms and expectations”
(Stryker 19.) And transsexual refers to
the same premise but is changing of sex, which involves surgery. To my interpretation of this it seems that
the word transition can also apply to this concept, as if a person’s identity
was in transition, possibly from one gender or sex to another, but not limiting
that transition—if it has an end, to two ends.
As stated earlier, going to the bathroom, in the sense
of the removal of waste from the body, is necessary to sustain life. Gender and sex also tend to get conflated with bathroom
assignments. In which people are perceived
to be a particular gender by the signifiers that they wear on their bodies, which
are all too often conflated to the person’s sex and other intersections of
identity, and don’t always match up to the norm. Bathroom assignments based on the conflation
of gender and sex usually reduces a person to their body parts, or what they
are perceived and then expected to have.
There
is a dichotomy with privacy and public restrooms; we are all entitled to our
privacy when doing our business and everyone should be able to it in a safe and
accessible (also clean) space. I would
find it difficult to use the facilities if I were nervous or under pressure. The most common, or normalized signage for public
restrooms in US culture are typically assigned and separated by gender, as men’s
and women’s restrooms; rather than biological sex, in terms of body parts. Most likely because gender rather than sex
has to do with image and perceived body parts.
Why
separate bathrooms based on sex? We will hopefully in the future look back on
this time and wonder why we separated them by gender segregation.
So
what is a “gender-neutral bathroom”? When searching the web on Wikipedia for “Gender-Neutral
Bathrooms” the online encyclopedia presents it as:
A unisex public toilet, or unisex toilet, unisex
bathroom, family toilet, or gender-neutral bathroom, is a public restroom or
toilet that people of any gender or gender identity may use
But, what is a gender-neutral bathroom at
Allegheny? Residence Life offers “gender-neutral”
housing options for some first year students and cohorts of upperclassmen. There is a gender neutral section in Baldwin
Hall and all of Allegheny Hall is labeled as “gender-neutral” by the office of
residence life. Below is the description
for Allegheny Hall listed under housing information for the campus community:
“The Gender Neutral- Residence Hall located in Allegheny
hall will focus on Gender-neutral lifestyle. Restrooms are gender-neutral and
students are paired by expressed gender. This is an intentional community for
those who promote inclusivity among all persons, regardless of sexual
orientation, gender-expression or sex.“
Possible miss use of the term “neutral”—as
in presenting no particular characteristics—compounded with the term gender possibly
suggests that in these spaces there is no perceived gender. However, after living in Allegheny Hall for
the 2012-2013 academic year my experience living in that space has revealed
that even in these spaces gender happens.
The bathrooms are gender neutral in the
sense that the toilets, sinks, showers, and anything else that one may find in
a bathroom are shared by the residents that live there. It does
not conform to the male/female gender binary or its other boundaries. In other words it is just a restroom that
does not segregate; people of all identities can pee (preferably in the toilet),
poop (please flush after), wash their hands (with soap please) and wash. And turn of the light when you leave.When in doubt...
Stryker, Susan. "An Introduction to Transgender Terms and Concepts." Transgender History. Berkeley, CA: Seal, 2008. 1-29. Print.
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