by Julia Garrison
The one thing I miss the least about my Holden dorm room is not the sagging ceiling, the cockroaches, or the living bat inside my heater. It isn’t the fact that I was sick almost the whole academic year in the room, either. It’s the fact that my hall had an all-gender restroom.
At first this opinion might come off as bigoted – but I’ll explain what I really mean.
When I selected my room as a rising sophomore, there was one room left: Holden 302 – the third floor of Holden on the Lowry side. My roommate and I found ourselves coping with our Holden fate. Arriving in my room last year, I was shocked to see that the communal bathroom on our floor was an all-gender restroom. To my knowledge, my floor was co-ed, not all-gender or gender inclusive. While I was fine with using and respecting an all-gender space – I knew others would not be so keen to it. The space was immediately treated with disrespect – not as an all-gender space. Toilet seats were left up and sometimes stalls would remain open while people were actively using the restrooms. People used the space as an opportunity to shower together inside our communal showers. Our hall was starting to feel like a free-for-all instead of representing the safety an all-gender space should provide. This led me to do some research on all-gender bathrooms across campus. Personally, I believe that the College boasts their number of all-gender bathrooms on campus – when in reality they are not treated like safe – or gender inclusive – spaces. My thought is that any all-gender restroom across campus should be a singular, private bathroom. If there must be a communal all-gender bathroom, assure it is in a dormitory where students have actively selected to live in an all-gender space and will treat the space with respect. It is important to not cause unnecessary discomfort for people in the name of performative inclusivity.
