Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Man or Woman??
One of my last courses in my undergrad was History of Sexuality and Gender. We discussed transgendered people and teens as one of our focusses. I am just wondering what my peers think about the idea of having a bathroom with both the girl wearing the skirt and the man wearing pants on the same door so that transgendered teens or teens who feel they are not what they have been labelled may feel more comfortable. What are some other alternatives?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I think this is an excellent topic to be raised. It's amazing how something so simple as going to the washroom can be an self-identifying issue - and as teachers we should realize that students will have issues that most of us won't have encountered personally. One option would be to have a 'gender neutral' bathroom, such as a single bathroom (no stalls). Should a school spend money on making extra amenities for such a small section of the population? They do for people constrained to wheelchairs. In some cases, a gender neutral washroom could also be used as a wheelchair access washroom, although I doubt a transgendered person would want a 'handicapped' association to their identity either.
Many schools have a Pride organization, sometimes called the Gay/Straight alliance - where youth of any sexual orientation belongs and supports each other.
Educating teachers on how to be sensitive to these issues is very important so that changes to physical school layout and emotional/psycological approaches can shift. Considering the wider context is also the various families that our students come from.
A helpful website for teachers in Victoria is: http://www.victoriapridesociety.org/links.html
I think just a single gender neutral washroom would be fine, but I'd be worried about having a big washroom full of stalls that was gender neutral..because that could cause some big problems. I can't even imagine what transgendered people must go through on a daily basis, what with P.E. classes sometimes divided into different genders, and the lack of understanding that might come from some or most of their peers. We have such thought-provoking issues being raised on this blog!!
I really like this idea. I know I had read articles about this happening in Thailand and a lot of the transgendered students they interviewed really liked that they had this space where they felt comfortable and where they felt they weren't making anyone else feel uncomfortable. I was also thinking about the idea of tolerance and what schools can do to promote tolerance. Maybe this is something?
Post a Comment