Top marks to Oxford college for saying no to mixed loos, says VIRGINIA BLACKBURN
AT LAST a little common sense: an Oxford college has decided not to create gender neutral loos on the grounds that they would make women “feel uncomfortable."
Thank heavens for that. “Feel uncomfortable” doesn’t begin to describe it: loos are places for private functions and having some bloke hanging about is torture.
I briefly worked in some millennial-run copywriting agency and the loos were unisex.
It was agony. You could see everyone, men and women alike, trying to judge when only their own gender was in situ and dashing in when the coast was clear. Either that or crossing their legs.
I gather that men feel as uncomfortable as women in these opento-all-sexes spaces but it is still no surprise that the college that has refused to go with the flow is Somerville, which started out as all-female.
Because what people are totally ignoring is that there was a reason some places were for men or women only and it wasn’t just Victorian prudery.
People are vulnerable in places that require them to shed some clothing and nor do most women want men around when they are engaged in the more antisocial bodily functions.
There is a famous poem that I cannot alas repeat here about one man’s disillusionment when he found out that his beloved required a lavatory for a reason.
It’s nice to preserve a little mystery at all times. One bit of “gender neutral” policy pre-dates the current lunacy and it is mixed hospital wards, which have been around for years.
They have been a complete disaster, foisting indignity and embarrassment on people who were already in an extremely vulnerable position.
Research released this year said that in mixed sex wards women were at greater risk of attack. Well of course they are: it doesn’t take a genius to work that out.
And it is almost inevitable that with all these mixed sex loos, changing rooms and even showers, it is a matter of time before something horrible happens.
Look forward to hearing what the gender neutral brigade will say about that.
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Prince Harry and Meghan to wed at Windsor Castle in May
They say all men have a particular taste
They say that some men have a particular type of woman they find attractive: clearly the same is true in reverse.
Here is Mr Meghan Markle number one and here is Mr Meghan Markle number two. Remarkably similar, no?
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Pets need no presents
I bow to no one in my love for the animal kingdom and on the whole I prefer my cat to most people but this latest fashion – setting a place for them at the Christmas table – is daft.
It’s asking for trouble too: just how are you going to stop them from losing control and lunging at the turkey? Give them an inch and they’ll eat the whole Christmas lunch.
It’s like the nonsense about giving them presents. I hate to break it to you but when you present an animal with a gift, chances are they will be more interested in eating the wrapping paper (dogs), playing with the decorative ribbon (cats) or chewing the sellotape (my cat, someone said it reminds her of the innards of mice) than writing a thank-you note.
They’re beasts of the field, not humans.
Emma Dent Coad strikes again
Is there a more loathsome person in the country than Emma Dent Coad, the Labour MP for Kensington?
Just weeks after saying that Prince Harry couldn’t really fly a helicopter but sat next to the pilot making “Vroom-vroom” noises, the Toad is at it again, calling Theresa May ugly on the grounds that she has “ugly thoughts”.
So this is what passes for statesmanship in Momentum.
The sooner her constituents (and I am one) kick her out, the better. What a ghastly woman she is.
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Elbow spreading on trains needs to stop
There is a new type of man-spreading afoot: elbow spreading.
I have been on a number of trains recently and found my space encroached upon by people shoving their arms well beyond the armrests, sticking their elbows out and generally trying to colonise my territory.
Men, stop it now.