Thursday, November 8, 2018

I Intentionally DON'T lock bathroom stalls or single-occupancy bathroom doors.. because I shouldn't have to.

Why? ....why the hell not??

A few reasons...

- I'm a fat person and stalls are fucking tiny annoying stinky cramped spaces
- I like having an "out" in case of unforeseeable emergency (earthquake, shooter, etc)
- I'm not a fan of doors...or walls... or enclosed spaces in general...
- I don't have an inherent fear of others seeing or judging my body
- Door/stall handles are the dirtiest thing in the bathroom (they aren't cleaned routinely like toilets)
- No one ever tries to enter my space (wiggles handle/knocks) when I'm seen
- It opens up space for chit chat (vulnerability breeds connection)
- If I run out of toilet paper, someone can actually hand me some
- I like to look my friends/family/etc in the eye when I'm talking, not yell over a door
- More often than not, stalls/bathroom locks are dysfunctional in busy restrooms anyways
- The idea of locking myself into a tiny corner with strangers around seems creepy
- I grew up using stalls in parks that never had doors on them
- Urinals don't have stalls in-between them... why the fuck do toilets?
- Most restrooms around the world don't have doors... and people manage just fine.
- Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation!! I don't want the stink to linger..
- Every animal on earth outside homo-sapiens doesn't give 2 shits (I mean, they do.. but..)

     I rarely encounter other folks not locking doors, and I find it odd.. outside disabled folks and little kids (the tiny innocent folks who haven't internalized societal body shaming yet) it's as if women are ashamed of their piss and their genitals. I can't say I'm surprised.. :/
     We don't all lock ourselves into little metal boxes when we put things inside our body.. (aka eating) we actually do quite the opposite and make it a social function... we tend to WANT to eat together. Why can't bathrooms be used as the valuable social spaces they are? (After all, we do ALL share the same regular need to go.. it's not as if anyone DOESN'T take dumps) ...In restaurants we all hold ourselves accountable for cleanliness because it's a shared space.. and that's rarely the case with restrooms... secrecy breeds some disgusting habits.. not flushing, not picking up what you drop, not using the plunger when you plug one up (ew) etc.. bathrooms are weird fucking spaces.. they remind me of the depths of 4chan, reddit and youtube comments where people go just to make trouble.
    There's even bathroom-messing fetishists... it's a thing! (I've seen it) wherein folks go into the secrecy of a stall, intentionally plug up a toilet with giant wads of toilet paper, then flush and run... just for the funsies of it... like a hobbie. (It's usually older retired women earlier in the mornings in larger department-type stores where they can't be easily caught.. they're surprisingly common!) It turns out that humans turn into irresponsible pieces of shit (pun intended) when left to privacy. Such.... bizarre.. spaces!! (Not surprisingly, I'm also a seasonal/recreational/social nudist.
     As always, the issue is gendered... it's completely acceptable for men to stand next to one-another and excrete bodily fluids as a group.. while the "filthy/nasty.. in need of protection because of our inherent feebleness-women" are expected to shut themselves away in a stinky dark un-ventilated germ box. No..fucking.. thanks.
I'll be keeping my door wiiide open, thank you! :)