Comments on: Dressing Rooms: Legal, Physical and Emotional

By: Kael

Kael — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 03:20:55 +0000

I agree completely and even extend it to bathrooms. I’m not naked outside of my own little cubicle so I’m fine with anyone coming into the dressing room/bathroom. Me going into a guy’s bathroom might be a bit different, since while I don’t personally care how many dicks I see in a bathroom, guys might take offense that a short delicate woman like me might catch a glimpse as I walk to do my business. Even though I’ve probably seen more dicks than they have in porno and NSFW gifs, and am far more complicated than just a short delicate woman.
But for dressing rooms? It’s not like you see anyone naked. And the attendants are there to prevent situations like sex or harassment, by stopping it when it happens. Not allowing one gender to enter a dressing room is old fashioned, implies that the attendant is too lazy to do their job, and favors those of the homo-orientation by letting us peek. It’s one of those things that needs to catch up with the times and won’t change until the majority realizes that things aren’t as simple as boy or girl and straight or gay.

By: Steph

Steph — Tue, 15 May 2012 20:20:38 +0000

I get quite annoyed with this, I, like many women, prefer shopping in the mens section and in gender specific changing rooms, it gets tricky when the changing rooms you HAVE to go in are on another floor/across the store, with arms full of clothes and no trolley/basket option you’re forced to haul it all across the store, getting weird looks from other customers and angry glares from staff who think “I’ve got to put that shit back when she’s done” and I know it’s what they’re paid to do but it’s annoying- why can’t we try on the clothes in the closest changing rooms- it makes THEIR lives easier in the stores.. we’re almost doing their work for them AND paying their wages when we buy the clothes.. ugh it’s beurocracy gone mad I think..

By: Dee

Dee — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:26:57 +0000

Here in my city most of the stores have that annoying lady standing there with a numbered plastic card ready to stick in your face. It really drives me crazy,but other stores like Victoria’s secret,AE and the thrift stores could care less. Quick fix here,let us change where we choose,take that stupid m/f sign off the door.Like a few have said,half the time you choose clothes and then have to walk across the store to the changing room.I have started not caring anymore and just finding one,going in(if the crazy lady is not there guarding it)and doing what i have to do.

By: lilyv

lilyv — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:38:45 +0000

i’m not going to lie, i read your comment on my cloudy days

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:28:18 +0000

Again, I never ask, I just go. It’s all about attitude if you ask me…

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:27:13 +0000

I never ask, I just act like I belong there. My money spends just as well as anyone elses, and I’m there to try on clothes, not peek on the other girls. If anyone is looking at me funny I never notice…

By: Healz

Healz — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:55:07 +0000

I often get read as a man by passersby, sales clerks, fast food and coffee cashiers, etc. Usually, they “sir” me and then apologize after a second look or after I speak. While I don’t really care about being “sirred” when I’m getting my coffee, my being read as male at first glance is enough to make public washrooms (I use the women’s room) uncomfortable.
Similarly, it makes me generally avoid sex-segregated change rooms. I try on shirts/sweaters/jackets on the store floor over my t-shirt and try pants on at home in this cases (or avoid the store altogether).
One day this winter, however, I was at Walmart (in Toronto, Canada) with my girlfriend and we were both going to try on some clothes. While I have a butch aesthetic in general, that day I was interested in trying on some very sparkly dresses for my genderplay dress for New Year’s Eve.
My girlfriend walked up to the change room first and was directed into a stall. The change room attendant came back to the front and ignored me. I held up the dresses in my hand and indicated I would like to try them on. The attendant said, “Oh, you’d like to try those on?” I said yes and she said, “Ok, well you have to come over to this side then” and proceeded to bring me to a stall on the other side of the dividing wall (what I assumed to be the men’s side.)
After a few minutes, my girlfriend wanted to show me the pants she’d tried on and called out “Honey, where are you?”
“I’m on the other side,” I responded.
Apparently, after she came out of her change stall, the attendant approached her and said, “Is that a man or a woman? Because of that’s your friend, she can come over to this side.”
My girlfriend wasn’t sure to be more offended at the attendant “that”ing me or at the assumption that if I were a woman, I must be her friend rather than her partner.
My girlfriend responded, “She’s my partner and she’s a woman” and then came over and came into the stall with me to show her my pants.
I hadn’t heard any of this and whispered to my girlfriend, “I think that attendant is really confused by why there is a man trying on sparkly dresses.”
When we left the stall the attendant had vanished.

I can laugh at this experience because I did not feel unsafe by being re-directed to the men’s side of the change room (it was empty except for us) and because I didn’t feel that my identity was being challenged.

I did find it fascinating, though, that in an empty change room, where the person I was clearly with had just been escorted to a stall on the women’s side, and I had an armful of sparkly dresses, I was re-directed from the side of the change room I was on–the side I was self-identifying with–to the men’s side.

I kinda wish that attendant had left for the night thinking there was an awesome, brave man trying on an armful of sparkly dresses in the men’s section of Walmart.

By: howlieT

howlieT — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:44:55 +0000

Same, and even if you were in the mens you wouldn’t be bared for being a girl. Especially with the current “boyfriend” trends

By: howlieT

howlieT — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:44:09 +0000

I’ve never come across gender segregated dressing rooms here in the UK. You just go into the one nearest the department you’re shopping in?

I will note however that I am a cisgendered femme presenting woman, so maybe it’s never come up for me.

By: Stefanie Stokes

Stefanie Stokes — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:58:02 +0000

Hmm strange in most places in the UK that I’ve been in unless the shop is really big (like men’s on one floor, women’s on another) the fitting rooms are usually unisex.

By: anon

anon — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 06:35:53 +0000

I don’t actually know if the stores I usually buy clothes at even have gender-specific dressing rooms. I don’t really pay attention to the signs. I sometimes buy from male sections, but I use whatever changing room is closest. No one seems to have noticed, or if they did, they didn’t care.

By: JfC

JfC — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 04:35:25 +0000

Same thing in Canada too! They’re just a bunch of single stalls that anyone can go into.