Bathroom Psychology

[spacebug]

My office shares 2 bathrooms on our floor with several other small businesses/artist work spaces. The bathrooms were labeled as a Mens and Womens. Earlier this year, one of our neighbor businesses petitioned to change the signage to unisex, which has since happened. There were a few reasons for this- I signed on because I think the designation is unnecessary in order to do what you need to do in there, and can be an annoyance (or in the case of one acquaintance, a major legal battle) for transgender folks.

Anyway, I note that people still generally use the bathroom with the label that used to apply to them, even if either one is available. This is true for me, but it's because the former womens room I find to be cleaner and, as it doesn't have a urinal, is free from the overpowering smell of urinal cake. It makes me wonder if the dudes still use the former mens room because having a urinal is convenient, if it's just out of habit, or if it's some other reason.

Comments

[spacebug.livejournal.com]

Hehe. Reminds me of Pretty In Pink when Duckie thinks the tampon machine is a candy dispenser. I don't think I knew of the existence of urinal cakes until my late teens or even early twenties. I think I first became aware of them because they were referenced in a Simpsons episode or something weird like that. Ah, pop culture.