Sunday, April 20, 2008

Fitting Room and Bathroom Inequality (NNR)

I am hearing more and more from disgruntled male shoppers about what they feel is the ineqaulity of the gendered fitting rooms in clothing stores. The number one and two complaints are the size and availability. The male shoppers who need to try on their clothing before they can decide whether or not to make a purchase contend that there are far less rooms available to them and that the sizes of the rooms themselves are much smaller than the ones designated for female shoppers. These differences result in endless lineups and on any given day that brings out the male shopping populace the queue to those coveted small spaces is endless. I think that this is a fair trade off as there exists a definite inequality in terms of available stalls in any given public facility. Endless lineups of women and assorted children (some are BOYS!!!) is the norm when a woman attempts a visit to the washroom and this is diametrically opposed to what you see outside the Men's room; nary a queue and in fact the men go in and out with such ease that it appears to the watchful eye that the men's washroom has a revolving door! I know several women who have decided to buck the system and make use of the men's facilities so I would suggest that the sour grapes men do likewise when they need to use a fitting room.

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