A Progressive Bathroom in Peru

As an animal, I am used to excreting waste on a daily basis. As a traveler, I know just how different the experience can be based on where you are (see one of my earliest posts, “Pooping in Peru” for more details. As a man who often used public bathrooms, I've made an interesting observation: most of the stalls in the men's bathroom are empty most of the time. I've also observed that a line for the men's bathroom is practically a freak occurrence, while a line for the women's bathroom, while not quotidian, is hardly a surprise. At some point back in high school it occurred to me that it would be much more efficient if women waiting in line could enter the men's bathroom and take care their of their business in the unused stalls. It was just a passing idea.

When I first read about the drama in North Carolin about the nature of people's genitalia when they are peeing and/or pooping in the same locale, I remembered my idea of women using the empty stalls in the men's room. What if, instead of separate bathrooms based on the business between our legs, there was just one giant bathroom? There could be urinals for men who only need to urinate, and plenty of stalls for women and men who have to take care of some more serious matters. Having bounced the idea off some friends, I've learned that some women are weirded out by the idea of men standing at urinals. This could be easily solved by having a separate urinal area of the bathroom, hidden by a wall. This is already how some men's bathrooms are divided up (right for pee, left for poop, wash your hands on the way out).

There is something that repulses us culturally about sharing bathrooms. It just seems...icky. It brings out the old "girls have cooties" public health campaigns from elementary school. But I've shared bathrooms with plenty of women (mother, sister, community mates, etc). It could be argued that those are single occupant bathrooms that I don't use at the same time. But I also can remember going out with a group one night and everyone needing a bathroom break. The women's bathroom was out of order, so all of us rushed into the men's bathrooms. The girls took stalls, the boys took urinals, and everyone used sinks afterwards. Waste excretion handled, we continued about our group outing.

But it wasn't until recently, at a Chinese restaurant in Cusco, that I came across a public bathroom that was actually designed for multiple occupants of different sexes.

Look at the sign above the door.

There was a shared sink area. Two stalls were designated for women, and two for men. One of the two men's stalls had two urinals instead of a toilet.

The idea was that each person could enter and handle their business, and then wash hands next to each other without catching cooties.

There're plenty of opinions and ideas about how to deal with the reality that everyone pees, but that some people do it standing up and others do it sitting down. I'm not proposing that every mall in the US change over to gender neutral bathrooms,* but gender neutral bathrooms are worth considering. If it can happen in Peru, it can happen in the States.

*except the ones in N. Carolina, because that would probably be illegal.