This week's "Prats of The Week" Award goes to the students' union of the University of Manchester, which has "de-gendered" union toilets. Temporary signs have been erected (can I say erected?) which now make the "ladies" simply "toilets", while the "gents" have become "toilets with urinals".
The new signs are there to help those transgender students, who complained that they were uncomfortable using the men's toilets.
The student union said it was needed to tackle transphobia.
Women's officer (why do women need an officer?) Jennie Killip told the BBC:
"If you were born female, still present quite feminine, but define as a man you should be able to go into the men's toilets - if that's how you define.
You don't necessarily have had to have gender reassignment surgery, but you could just define yourself as a man, feel very masculine in yourself, feel that in fact being a woman is not who you are."
All clear now?
University is meant to prepare people for real life. In the real world toilets are labelled according to sex (except for a few pubs in Sweden, where they are multi sexual).
How does this help transgender students when they become adults, and have to live in the real world?
The students' union of Manchester University, well deserving Prats of The Week!
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Mean while, here in the real world......
ReplyDeleteIt is this type of political correctness that makes the whole nation look stupid.
I wonder if the new signs still contain the image of a female Silhouette and a male silhoette on the "Bog with urinals." These images are used worlwide so those that cannot read or speak the local language can still find the correct loo. By not using the international signs, the PC "Woman's Officer" has alienated a large group just to make a VERY small minority feel good about themselves.
I have never heard such PC crap in my life and believe me, as someone that has worked in both the prison services and secure mental health services, I have seen some truly mind blowing examples of political correctness which, at times whilst working within secure forensic psychiatry, made me wonder if I was on the wrong side of the keys.
I am usually very receptive to the notion that people are unique individuals and should be treated as such. This time though I have a problem. Will someone please explain to me what a "transgendered" person actually is. Is it anything like a tanslupine person or wherewolf where they are one thing during the day and another at night or is it like a transsiberian express where you start in one place and travel for a long time and end up somewhere it wasn't worth going? Answers on a postcard.
ReplyDeleteMCO
I'm totally confused - why are written signs more transgender-friendly than 'male'/'female' symbols?
ReplyDeleteBTW I agree wholeheartedly with Tonk that this really takes the piss and, if this is what our finest minds are concerned about at Uni, then God help us all.
Jay
So, what happens if a man, not understanding the new signs, accidentally goes into the 'ladies' toilet, whilst there is a 'female' in there? Will they calmly accept matters, or is he likely to be accused of sexual harrassment, or even worse, sexual assault or even attempted rape? With this kind of crap becoming more and more common, no wonder this once fine country of ours has been brought to its knees. I've said it for some time, and I agree with your sentiments, Tonk:
ReplyDeleteTHE LUNATICS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE ASYLUMN!
younger daughter has just finished her degree course at Manchester.
ReplyDeleteI think the gender orientation of the Student Union toilets is the least of their problems.
Given the number of visiting students from China and other parts of the Far East who arrive with not so much English and different customs one does wonder whether they might be falling foul of some other PC ethics they might be fond of.
Given the numbers of incoming and local 'nearer Asian' students of certain religious beliefs the decision seems even more surprising.
Perhaps neither of the above groups frequents the Union, thus removing an possible conflict of correctness.
Actually I wonder if any students frequent the Student's Union these days. Most seem to have moved away from 'traditional' student life since the beginning of the 21st century.
Grant
Ken, any student union or body could win prats of the week anytime as they are infested with Guardian reading, sociology and media studes 'students' not to mention those taking sandwich making and hair braiding NVQ level II classes.
ReplyDeleteNo, this bunch must be awared cxxxx of the week - in a non sexual gender specific manner of course.
Ken, great post...
ReplyDeleteBut I must insist you repost it with the addition of pink text and featuring some flowers and soft cushion type graphics for those readers who like that sort of thing. You wouldn't want to piss-off a passing Woman's Officer would you?
Faced with a choice between a "toilet" and a "toilet with urinals" I would just assume that the former was for defecation whilst the latter was for micturation.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the reason for this little episode was that transgendered males (presumably) felt awkward using the men's toilets why didn't they just allow them to use the ladies' toilets...why do they have to be re-labeled?
It is also odd that the female students now cannot complain if a male uses the ladies' or vice versa...as long as they feel suitably feminine/masculine [delete as applicable] at the time.
Strange times indeed.
Is it not really all about power?
ReplyDeleteSocialists like ordering people about. If they can add a dash of righteousness the better they feel.
Number 6 said: “they are infested with Guardian reading, sociology and media studes 'students'”.
ReplyDeleteAs the old saying goes:
“If you’re not a socialist by 18, you’ve no heart.
If you’re still a socialist at 40, you’ve no brain.”
It’s a feature of most humans, that the brain doesn’t seem to kick in until somewhere around the ages of 27 to 32.
If I’d heard Ken’s story when I was a student, I’d probably have said:
“Well - when you consider that the toilet is just one room in a large building.
Which is one building out of millions on the planet.
And the planet’s been around for billions of years.
Orbiting a star that’s just one of billions in this galaxy.
Being one galaxy out of trillions in the Universe.
Itself, just one of zillions of universes ....
Does it really matter that some bod changed the words on the door from ‘Gents’ to ‘Toilet with urinals’?”
Although I’ve heard women take a very different view about ‘men’ turning up in the ‘Ladies’.
(except for a few pubs in Sweden, where they are multi sexual).
ReplyDeleteI lived in eastern europe for a long time and uni-sex toilets are common there.
Needless to say, Ugandan discussions are practically de-rigeur there as well.
How do you define pompous prats like "women's officer" Jennie Killip?
ReplyDeleteI remember being rather startled when using a Continental "toilet with urinals" many years ago to see a stolid middle-aged lady unconcernedly sweeping the floor behind the row of pissing male patrons.
An early example of political correctness, I suppose.
Anticant, if you’re easily startled then don’t use the public toilets in Central London.
ReplyDeleteThere’s one in particular where the middle-aged lady cleaner runs the place like she’s commandant of a boot camp.
I remember one time, walking towards a cubicle when she said:
“Don’t use those. I’ve just cleaned them. I’m waiting for the floor to dry. Use this urinal here instead.”
I am not easily startled, but am under doctors' orders no longer to roam unattended in Central London.
ReplyDeletePerhaps as well.
Congrats on delousing the site. It loaded properly without hijacking my browser.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd mention, Channel Four has started censoring the Simpsons.
Two episodes today;
1) Boxing they cut the bit where he gets hit with a pool cue.
2) Kidnapping Burns' son, they cut the bit where he gets shot.
It's pitiful.
Almost as pitiful as Manchester University.
What must be understood is that Universities have always been the breeding grounds of bossiness for it's own sake.
Don't go near the hell-holes unless you need an engineering or science degree, then get the hell out as soon as you can.
"Although I’ve heard women take a very different view about ‘men’ turning up in the ‘Ladies’."
ReplyDeleteI bet they do!
Grant, I work in the main library there and I can tell you that although the Chinese students are among the nicest and friendliest you could ever meet, I dread them actually setting off the book alarm when exiting the building because very few of them speak much English.
ReplyDeleteThe alarm goes off, you ask them if they have a book from another library (which tend to set off the alarms), and they just look confused and show you their library card. In the end, it's just easier to wave them through.
I don't dislike them at all; I just wonder what course they're studying - Applied Astrophysics In Cantonese, maybe?!?
Say hi to your daughter from me - she's probably passed me a few times, even if she doesn't actually know me (I'm the one with the dashing good looks, marred slightly by a terminally bored expression!).
When this item appeared on the local news without mentioning the name of the university, I thought "please don't let it be my university."
ReplyDeleteI should have known that the utter prattishness of the University of Manchester and the majority of its staff and students knows no bounds.