Transgressive

When people ask me about the gender breakdown at my school -- a formerly-all-women’s quasi-neo-countercultural liberal-arts college -- I joke that it splits about 40 – 40 – 10 – 10: forty percent straight women, forty percent lesbians, ten percent straight men, ten percent gay men. To be fair, at least a third of those lesbians are probably bisexual (I highly recommend this school!); a Venn Diagram might better depict the demographics than a bar graph.

With the general election not yet in swing -- it’s tough for the student body to stump for the Democrat when they don’t know the Democrat for whom to stump -- the latest passion project to play here was the recent move made by Transaction, the student-run transvestite/ transsexual-advocacy group, to abolish gender-biased bathrooms on campus. Late last semester, Transaction’s members -- many of whom were born with, ahem, members -- requested a campus-wide transition to gender-neutral bathrooms, “since a number of students’ gender identities are not the same as their biological sex,” as the campus newspaper reported.

Controversy ensued, of course, though not for the reasons one might have expected. Many of the bathrooms on campus were -- are -- “gender-neutral” to begin with, insofar as they have no urinals, only toilets, and are open to both men and women. Meanwhile, the remaining bathrooms, many of them men’s rooms, possess urinals and are therefore required by state law to remain men’s rooms (or, more precisely, men’s-only rooms). Transaction thus targeted a limited number of ladies’ rooms. Their proposal succeeded, and the dozen or so transgender students on campus now have more options.

One problem is the unavoidable side effect of the bill, which must have been transparent to anyone with a little foreskin-- er, foresight: Since the converted restrooms are now unisex, they are open to men as well, leaving fewer ladies’ rooms -- or, more precisely, fewer ladies’-only rooms -- on a campus predominated by women. PMS or long lines at intermission it ain’t, but the reduction in ladies’ rooms is still inconvenient news to the females whose biological sex matches their gender identity -- a drag, as it were, for the women not in drag.

The main controversy, though, has surrounded the signs on the doors. Transaction requested that the logo on the unisex bathrooms -- the traditional, internationally-identifiable stick-figure man, side by side with the traditional, internationally-identifiable stick-figure woman -- be changed to something gender-neutral. Here is what the school came up with:

Right. Well then. You can probably see where this is going--

...and when you’re done snickering, I’ll continue...

OK, good--

Oh. Sorry. Not done yet? OK...

Yeah, good? Good.

Now, as I was saying, you can probably guess how this turned out. According to the school newspaper, Transaction “argued that the current design -- an individual sitting on a toilet and reading a book -- was unsatisfactory, since it produced giggles in those who viewed it. They felt that these giggles deterred the desired message of gender-neutral bathrooms from being communicated.” Incidentally, those two sentences not only produced giggles in me when I read them but also deterred the desired message of the article from being communicated. A case of life imitating art imitating life.

Compounding the issue was the fact that the co-chairs of Transaction “interpreted the individual as a ‘man’ sitting on the toilet” -- as opposed to, say, a “woman,” whatever the hell that is. Transaction issued this formal statement in response: “We found the signs that have gone up to be neither gender neutral or [sic] even clearly indicative that they are restrooms.” Amen to that, sister! (Or brother!) The school’s response was that the above logo is what’s now being used in Scandinavia -- much to the offense, one presumes, of Danes who don’t read on the throne. (N.B. Upon reading that, Homunculus, for one, couldn’t help wondering if Sweden’s transgender blondes are as smokin’ as their natural-borns. Or at least, say, Britain’s natural-borns.)

Ultimately, the giggle-producing logo’s lifespan proved transitory. Transaction’s alternative suggestion was a sign labeled simply “Restroom,” with a picture of a toilet underneath. Sounds reasonable enough. The student life committee, however, found that one less than transcendent; they continued accepting proposals. Homunculus, I need not tell you, submitted a few of his own. Here is a sampling:

TRANNIES WELCOME

Unfortunately, the powers that be found my proposals unsatisfactory, since they produced giggles in those who viewed them.

In the end, the Student Life Committee went with a simple line-drawing of a toilet (similar, I've heard, to a piece at the MOMA called John in Profile.) Transaction, meanwhile, isn't finished. The latest word is that their next order of business is also loo-related: the transformation of two of the school's most heavily trafficked bathrooms.

You go, girls!