SUGAR actually has a point when skin horse could deal with entities with potentially anything nonhuman, you need somewhere for them to poop. Having an all inclusive set of restrooms like Tamar suggested might be best. But that works best when you have several single restrooms as opposed to a men’s room and ladie’s room that can fit several each. I wonder what the building has already?
Having lived in a dormitory where all the restrooms could be used by anyone, including the showers… it’s actually not that big a deal. It’s not like you’re in the same shower stall or on the same toilet. The only difference was the urinals got doors.
I’m fresh back from the American Library Association Annual Conference, where (at our request) some of the restrooms are always designated all-inclusive.
Mind you, this also manages to comply with potty parity laws while still effectively giving an overwhelmingly female profession the accommodations it needs. 😉
If I could only find a link to the Star Wars bathroom from MAD Magazine’s adaptation… it’d be the only possible solution to the “facilities for all” conundrum!
Ask Tigerlily to set up a suite of extradimensional bathrooms all using the same space, with a “door” that teleports you into and hopefully out of the correct room, possibly reconfiguring themselves to match whatever user enters. Bang, done.
This gets into one of my favorite pet design problems: multispecies architecture! You not only need to accommodate different scales (as people do with the elaborate cat walkway constructions) but also things like this. And in a world with robots, the distribution of wall sockets becomes more than simple convenience…
I can’t vouch for government work—probably it’d be contracted out—but having a one-day repiping job done on my house was probably the greatest ordeal I’ve been through since I bought the house.
(We are trying to replace the bathroom signs here where I work with ones that just have a picture of a toilet. The “all-gender” sign currently in use shows a stereotypical man-figure and a stereotypical woman-figure, which, you know… points for trying, but kind of misses the whole point of the exercise.)
I’ve just had a horrifying vision of advanced aliens intercepting the Pioneer 10 space probe, cross-referencing the image on the plaque with cultural info from our TV broadcasts, and concluding that we want Earth to be used as one gigantic toilet.
Sorry to disappoint you, but we have the same implied-trousers pictogram for the blokes as other countries do.
And yes, I think you are right. But then I’ve occasionally used the men’s loo if there was a huge queue at the ladies’ (and no queue at the men’s). Nothing bad ever happened…
If you try to consider all lifeforms, it gets … complicated. A fictional world that I read stories in has a lot of “taur” (as in centaur-like) species. There the taur toilets are more like Japanese squat toilets – which is probably what species on four legs would prefer.
As for kilts – it depends on whether you mean issues with the fixtures or the signs 😉
I’m reminded of the scene in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe where the main characters are standing outside 37 doors for the 37 major races of the galaxy.
Add mad science to the mix, and Skin Horse’s new offices might break the record.
Easy solution. Remove all distinguishing signs, make them all generic.
Just do what a number of rest-stops do, have a third unisex restroom. Granted, those are generally meant for parents with small children.
Easy answer – does the hermaphroditic echinoderm wear trousers, or a dress?
(Yeah, I know. Five-legged trousers are just so inconvenient, no matter your gender identity.)
So, what about those who, like the animal in this strip, isn’t wearing anything down there?
Disposable slipcovers for the furniture, right away.
“His, Hers, Neither”.
SUGAR actually has a point when skin horse could deal with entities with potentially anything nonhuman, you need somewhere for them to poop. Having an all inclusive set of restrooms like Tamar suggested might be best. But that works best when you have several single restrooms as opposed to a men’s room and ladie’s room that can fit several each. I wonder what the building has already?
Having lived in a dormitory where all the restrooms could be used by anyone, including the showers… it’s actually not that big a deal. It’s not like you’re in the same shower stall or on the same toilet. The only difference was the urinals got doors.
I’m fresh back from the American Library Association Annual Conference, where (at our request) some of the restrooms are always designated all-inclusive.
Mind you, this also manages to comply with potty parity laws while still effectively giving an overwhelmingly female profession the accommodations it needs. 😉
If I could only find a link to the Star Wars bathroom from MAD Magazine’s adaptation… it’d be the only possible solution to the “facilities for all” conundrum!
http://cdn.bleedingcool.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/starwarspanelbv4.jpg
Ask Tigerlily to set up a suite of extradimensional bathrooms all using the same space, with a “door” that teleports you into and hopefully out of the correct room, possibly reconfiguring themselves to match whatever user enters. Bang, done.
Would you want to use a toilet made entirely of springs?
Metal or liquid?
Gah! see “The number of the beast” where the reality-traveling vehicle visits OZ and is provided with extra-dimensional bathrooms.
Simple solution: remove all gender-specific facilities and the signs and just cover the walls with stalls.
This gets into one of my favorite pet design problems: multispecies architecture! You not only need to accommodate different scales (as people do with the elaborate cat walkway constructions) but also things like this. And in a world with robots, the distribution of wall sockets becomes more than simple convenience…
I can’t vouch for government work—probably it’d be contracted out—but having a one-day repiping job done on my house was probably the greatest ordeal I’ve been through since I bought the house.
All-species restrooms, Tip. COME ON GET WITH IT!
(We are trying to replace the bathroom signs here where I work with ones that just have a picture of a toilet. The “all-gender” sign currently in use shows a stereotypical man-figure and a stereotypical woman-figure, which, you know… points for trying, but kind of misses the whole point of the exercise.)
I’ve just had a horrifying vision of advanced aliens intercepting the Pioneer 10 space probe, cross-referencing the image on the plaque with cultural info from our TV broadcasts, and concluding that we want Earth to be used as one gigantic toilet.
How do those countries with kilts handle this situation? Also, aren’t humans too hung up on gender identity anyway?
Sorry to disappoint you, but we have the same implied-trousers pictogram for the blokes as other countries do.
And yes, I think you are right. But then I’ve occasionally used the men’s loo if there was a huge queue at the ladies’ (and no queue at the men’s). Nothing bad ever happened…
Which one has the bidet? That’s the one I want to use.
Is an echioderm the same as an echinoderm?
If you try to consider all lifeforms, it gets … complicated. A fictional world that I read stories in has a lot of “taur” (as in centaur-like) species. There the taur toilets are more like Japanese squat toilets – which is probably what species on four legs would prefer.
As for kilts – it depends on whether you mean issues with the fixtures or the signs 😉
I’m reminded of the scene in The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe where the main characters are standing outside 37 doors for the 37 major races of the galaxy.
Add mad science to the mix, and Skin Horse’s new offices might break the record.
Given Shaenon’s known left-wing bent, it’s a pleasant surprise to see that sort of person cast as the bad guys.