What do students think about it?
Gender-neutral toilets, as its name says, are designed to be more comfortable for all genders. Rather than using two rooms as toilets for girls and boys, the gender-neutral toilets are formed by separate individual rooms.
Recently, the Pudong campus of Shanghai American school changed the majority of its toilets into gender-neutral toilets. Despite not being the first school to make such a change, the new gender-neutral toilets still managed to cause discussion among students.
The majority of students indicated t that they like this change since the gender-neutral toilets is indeed more inclusive to all genders, while also bringing convenience and other benefits to most students. Here are some opinions from some anonymous students.
- It mainly benefits females since female toilets often suffer from too many people, and most females tend to use individual toilets. Gender-neutral toilets are more individual and are more convenient since they allow more people to use them. However, gender-neutral toilets prevent us from speaking to each other in the toilets, which of course isn’t a big deal. Overall, it is a good chance to support gender neutrality while providing more convenience for us.
- I think it is much more convenient while the toilet looks much cooler.
- I really enjoy the new gender-neutral toilet because you don’t have to be next to someone else when urinating, which makes me feel better.
- The new gender-neutral toilets are much more inclusive to all genders, which is what Shanghai American schools have always been focusing on.
However, though, gender-neutral toilets also face a variety of criticisms from students. Some students have claimed that gender-neutral toilets are inconvenient for male students because they now require students to walk into an individual space, lock the door, and open the toilet lid which wastes a lot of time over a long period.
Despite having many oppositions, the majority of students currently see gender-neutral toilets as a beneficial change. In the end, though, those brand new toilets which appear all over the campus are after all a change that had just occurred for about a semester, whether it is a good change or not, will slowly be reviewed as time passes by.