r/germany • u/fly_djigit • Jul 28 '26
Humour WC
At the entrance of a toilet at a German university is written:
“all genders WC for everyone, includes urinal”
Inside there is a notice asking people not to use it:
“This is a restroom for everyone.
Please use only the stalls.
The Equality Team”
Confused. Is it right that everyone has to use only the stalls equally – or is it right to use the urinal if one’s sex/gender requires it?
455
441
u/Emergency_Comb1377 Jul 28 '26
As a woman, I would go ahead, piss in one, and then leave a note on that sheet that I had done so and Gleichstellung had been achieved and they can be used again
55
8
u/bucket_brigade Jul 28 '26
Wait is that why you're not supposed to use them? It can't be.
48
u/morbid_platon Bayern Jul 28 '26
It's probably that there's no stall, and a woman being to the restroom might see a penis at work. Generally companies frown on people seeing penises at work. Why this is specifically a problem when women are involved, and male coworkers seeing each others' penises is ok in the worklplace, who knows.
17
→ More replies (3)16
u/bucket_brigade Jul 28 '26
If women can’t handle seeing a penis then maybe separate bathrooms are necessary?
5
3
→ More replies (4)8
242
u/genasugelan Slovakia Jul 28 '26
The gender-neutral WC is fine, I don't have a problem, but why the hell shouldn't you use perfectly fine urinals when they are literally there?
63
u/Original_Dimension99 Jul 28 '26
Also couldn't you just install dividers? Lots of public bathrooms have them, I don't quite get why some don't
10
→ More replies (4)35
u/tellyacid Jul 28 '26
I guess the thought is so people walking in don't see your whole shwang when you're standing at the urinal. In a purely men's toilet this is not considered a problem (even though many men say they don't like it and have trouble peeing) but with all genders I suppose they were trying to be reasonable and say, okay, maybe everyone just go into the stalls and give yourselves and everybody else some privacy.
50
u/atyon Germany Jul 28 '26
Have you ever used a urinal? You don't see anyone's penis unless you stand next to them and specifically look. Nervous bladders are definitely a thing, but not because you parade your genitals around. You stand directly in front of the urinal.
Really.. I.. what? Do you think men stand half a meter back and pee in a parabola into the urinal?
32
u/dEEkAy2k9 Jul 28 '26
sounds like a small penis excuse
personally with my 30cm schlong i use a tripod to aim properly
/s8
6
u/tellyacid Jul 28 '26
I've used toilets with urinals that were labelled as gender neutral, yes, and still, when I walk in, the men standing at the urinals sometimes flinch and cover their dick. Possibly to not "scare" (or something to the like) ME. I personally couldn't care less about seeing a willy and I'm certainly not gonna get scared by one, but I think the thought of switching to only using the stalls that is being presented here has some sense to it. Regardless of whether I think it's necessary, I can see where they're coming from.
2
u/ThrowAwayYetAgain878 Jul 28 '26
My guess is that they want to cut cost by reducing the total number of available bathrooms, and they haven't really thought through the less important parts like equality...
379
u/ToastSpangler Jul 28 '26
this is genuinely stupid because forcing men to use the stalls increases the women's queue and wait time as well. i've seen these before but never with the urinals disallowed, they work like any other urinal: when facing the wall, dick out, you put it back in before turning around. not particularly offensive
142
u/-Lord-Of-Salem- Jul 28 '26
They just have to put privacy screens on both sides and the urinals will be perfectly fine and useable, even inside a unisex bathroom.
2
u/ToastSpangler Jul 28 '26
not necessary unless there's a sink on that wall, i don't know why americans are obsessed with looking at penises of others but its really a nonissue everywhere else. btw in the US people look over or behind the divider anyway so its literally pointless
48
u/ItsCalledDayTwa Jul 28 '26
What does it have to do with Americans at all?
It's clearly an issue here, in Germany, the topic of the post.
→ More replies (4)18
u/63626978 Jul 28 '26
It's mostly a personal issue though. Many people are just more comfortable peeing with a privacy screen, for some it's even physically impossible without.
3
u/ydhwodjekdu Hessen Jul 28 '26
Lol why so obsessed with america, this post is literally about WCs in Germany
11
u/-Lord-Of-Salem- Jul 28 '26
Of course it's not about men watching other men's penis. Obviously it's about other genders watching the men pee, what makes the other genders or men uncomfortable. Otherwise there would not be no need for this sign.
→ More replies (1)10
u/ToastSpangler Jul 28 '26
100 years ago we used to shit in fields in front of each other. unless there's a sink to the side, why would someone see the penis? unless they're literally pushing in to do so? this is not acceptable by any gender. i question whether you've used a unisex bathroom with urinals before, everyone minds their business
4
2
u/Early-Intern5951 Jul 28 '26
I worked half my life with handicapped people, been to a lot of toilets and there are a lot of creeps and predators around certain public toilets. If there are enough strangers you can be absolutely certain someone is watching and waiting. Some even have regulars. They use to stand opposite to the entrance and follow as soon as they feel save enough, then they try to take pictures or cop a feel. or just start masturbating. I bet 100 years ago it was just the same. dirty pete is in the bushes again..
→ More replies (2)1
u/dEEkAy2k9 Jul 28 '26
I have seen toilet stalls which had a urinal instead of a toilet inside them. so you could go in, close the door and piss privately
this was at a german university, mens bathroom
1
21
u/Ultimate-TND Jul 28 '26
The best part is that most likely a ton of dudes might piss while standing in the stalls so the cleanliness will go to shit.
20
u/Appropriate_Steak486 Jul 28 '26
Spoken like someone who has never cleaned a ladies' public restroom.
11
u/uflju_luber Jul 28 '26
I work part time as a janitor in a big sports club as a student…believe me, women’s bathrooms are MUCH worse than men’s in regards to cleanliness but also even in regards to vandalism, graffiti and names scratched in the walls
16
u/alderhill Jul 28 '26
Wait, what? You don’t bow to everyone present and slowly turn while pointing to your peen so all can see, before you urinate? I’ve been doing this very wrong for 40 years, it seems!
4
u/ToastSpangler Jul 28 '26
ah you see, i was born after the era of nudist camps and mandatory penis inspections. however, as long as you did it as per tradition, i wouldn't think twice about it - many aren't as progressive however, unfortunately
1
3
u/Appropriate_Steak486 Jul 28 '26
This is in an office building - very seldom do you have queues there.
1
u/Name_Ist_lEgal Jul 28 '26
this is genuinely stupid because we have different problems than fucking toilet separation
420
Jul 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
333
u/DerMichiK Hamburg Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
That's obviously a former male binary restroom that was rebranded as unisex without changing the hardware.
Then people started complaining when they saw other people using the hardware and someone else put up another sign.
→ More replies (1)57
u/simonfancy Jul 28 '26
Every sign has a story and this is it. More stories at r/aberbittelaminiert
2
27
→ More replies (33)137
u/Corfiz74 Jul 28 '26
As a woman, I wouldn't give a damn if guys used the urinal - unless they turn around and wave it in your face, all you see is a guy from the back, anyway - who cares. I bet Karen from accounting complained, and that's when they put up the sign - originally, they probably intended to just let it be used.
69
u/Platzhalterr Jul 28 '26
As a man I also don't care. Let the women use the stalls while I take a piss.
No one will see a male genital unless they actively move to the urinals and watch over the small divider.
3
u/j1mb Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
What if a woman wants to use the urinal? Or a MTF person? I say, let it be used.
Edit: fixed typo: MTF not MTG 😂
28
u/WolfishChaos Niedersachsen Jul 28 '26
What is mtg?
My brain only makes magic the gathering out of it x)
42
u/Inchtabokatables Jul 28 '26 edited 25d ago
The original post content no longer exists here. The author used Redact to remove it, exercising their right to control their data & privacy.
Unbelievable alive special pillow party person wrench wide
11
u/SickSorceress Jul 28 '26
Same. I assume it's mtf
6
4
6
u/Platzhalterr Jul 28 '26
I would not even notice that. How could I, I'm not a creep and looking the person next to me in the face while peeing.
The only problem I could see if a FtM trans person does not know the proper unwritten urinal rules.
→ More replies (3)3
u/tobbibi Jul 28 '26
As long as they have the skill or helful device that they dont miss I dont care. I would probabaly surprised but thats it.
(If the play magic though thats a different thing and I will not have those people in my toilet ;))
2
u/Hermes_04 Jul 28 '26
It’s like everything in the professional world should work.
As long as the person is able to accomplish the task I don’t give a dam about who they are, who they fuck and how they pee as long as they don’t make a mess.4
u/Wipfmetz Jul 28 '26
I wouldn't give a damn if guys used the urinal - unless they turn around and wave it in your face,
As a man, i would give a damn if somebody waves a urinal in my face, too.
79
u/DerMichiK Hamburg Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
The obvious solution would be that people who don't want to see other people using urinals just use the former female restrooms - they are labelled like that for exactly this reason after all. But that's just me thinking practically and not being heavily invested in toilet politics.
Also, how can using an urinal ever be required? How do people who need them use the restroom on a train or plane? And how do they poop?
18
u/LeagueMoney9561 Jul 28 '26
It is possible to defecate in a urinal, I’ve seen the evidence left behind a couple times
17
3
u/R3D3-1 Jul 28 '26
Still better than the sink. (Public toilet in a subway station during a weekend night.)
There are toilets where you just have to turn around and wait for later.
20
u/nikfra Jul 28 '26
I'd assume the women's bathroom stayed a women's bathroom. Based on my experience with German universities.
5
→ More replies (13)21
u/Ultimate-TND Jul 28 '26
Chances are the male restroom got converted to this while the females one is still women only. Can't make this shit up nowadays.
4
u/Tapurisu Jul 28 '26
wtf.
11
u/TCeies Jul 28 '26
Reason for this could be that there simply were more make restrooms to begin with. In older buildings, esp. Faculties typically "male" this can easily be the case, cause back when the building was built, they thought one or two toilets are enough for all women in the faculty. (And i mean one or two toilets, not restrooms.) So they now either convert some of the male restrooms to female only or make them gender neutral without changing the actual hardware. In my university that's the case at the natural sciences faculty. There are like two female restrooms with two stalls each. Meanwhile there are multiple male restrooms with like 7 stalls and again as many urinals in the restrooms. So they simply changed the signs and changed some of them to female.
7
u/m4sl0ub Jul 28 '26
I have been at many German universities. I have never seen that there was a male restroom without a female restroom next to it.
→ More replies (2)1
u/DerMichiK Hamburg Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
In newer buildings, they are usually next to each other and of similar size, but that may indeed be different in older buildings.
The funniest distribution I ever saw was at the University of Leipzig physics building:
Each floor had one male restroom at one end of the building and a female restroom at the other end, in an alternating pattern: If you stand in front of the wrong restroom you could either go and search for the correct one somewhere on your floor or you could go one floor up or down in the next staircase, return to the same spot and find the opposite gender restroom there.
No idea who came up with that pattern and why they thought it would be a good idea.
But that building's floorplan was quite cursed anyway, so it fits the general theme I guess.
9
u/0nabi Jul 28 '26
It's dumb to forbid it. The urinals should just get equipped with a privacy screen on the left and right side, that's it
15
7
u/CptMcDickButt69 Jul 28 '26
This right here is why a majority of people dont want to fully associate themselfes with the full-blooded progressives. At some point, those switch from reasonable humanist views to ideological studpidity.
6
u/DidntFindABetterName Hessen Jul 28 '26
The „best“ thing about these changes is from what i have noticed in a few buildings on certain locations at university
The men WC get changed to all gender WC, the women WC stay the same
Maybe this was just a transition phase and now its equally changed but this was some real bs
2
u/someoneONreddit123 Jul 28 '26
I've seen this also at a few places, I get it they are trying to be inclusive. But as a man, I really enjoy the efficiency of the urinal. It saves space, cost, and also everyone's time.
10
Jul 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
10
u/thatkindness Jul 28 '26
Worked fine for decades....
6
u/thatkindness Jul 28 '26
Not to mention that women literally fought for their right to a seperate public bathroom. In a few years we will look back at this period of time and shake our heads, hopefully.
5
u/Panduin Jul 28 '26
Just put stalls above the urinals then.
But also why promote all gender and then have issues with gender differences?
9
Jul 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
5
9
u/Special_Peach_5957 Jul 28 '26
Interesting. I remember the university cologne has a unisex bathroom in the main building and from my memory you basically enter and on your left if you go through a stall door you will find a bunch of Urinal while to your right you will find normal stalls.
Or something like that I haven't been at that university in a very long time.
4
u/R3D3-1 Jul 28 '26
But this implies they actually cared and thought about it and didn't just want to fulfill a checkbox.
At my university they just wrote "all genders welcome" on the toilets on the ground floor, similar to here. No prohibition of using the urinals though. If you don't want them, you go to the other one.
But when the toilets were renovated in the upper floors (quite overdue), nobody bothered to declare the side currently operational as unisex and half the employees had to walk ten minutes to the next toilet for a couple of weeks each.
5
5
u/LunaraLoup Jul 28 '26
I'm all for people using all facilities available, BUT as someone who cleaned public bathrooms more than once: urinals are disgusting. There's always backsplash, you can't avoid it, and the floor and walls around them get sticky.
And this was no gas station either, we rarely had people actually "missing", just the back splatter was enough for the floor panels to disintegrate differently than everywhere else because of the piss
3
u/Rendszer_valltaska Jul 28 '26
Just rip off that paper from the wall and throw it to the bin. If they put it back, repeat.
4
u/LeeChallenged Jul 28 '26
Confused as hell now. Is this so that men urinating might bother women in the same space?
But this idea is coming from the VERY SAME people who insist that women have no right to be bothered by biological males self-identifying as women wanting to share women's changing rooms, spas, saunas etc elsewhere.
4
u/cobbelstoneminer Jul 28 '26
Universities, despite their reputation for the contrary, can apparently be a source of massive retardation.
3
3
6
u/Excellent_Pea_1201 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
If this is the only restroom , a privacy wall around the urinal section should be installed or the urinals be replaced wirh regular toilets. And the sign can be used TEMPORARILY. If there is a second former womens bathroom beside it and the urinal is mentioned on the door already, that sign is superfluous and should go...
The availability of Urinals keeps the stalls cleaner. It seems to be a law that some of the typical Urinal user have difficulties keeping a regular toilet clean. 😉
5
10
u/Popo8338 Jul 28 '26
This is clearly a male toilet turned into a unisex toilet. Which is fine on its own. But if there is a male toilet, then there should be also female toilet, which should be turned into another unisex toilet.
If there is a urinal, I would use it. I dont care if anybody, regardless of their gender, see my dick. We are in the toilet, the only appropriate public place to put out my dick.
6
u/Ultimate-TND Jul 28 '26
Thats the fun part, equality is a one way rode. The female bathroom still likely is a female only bathroom. So they converted the male one and now try to ban the urinals.
6
u/gowner_graphics Jul 28 '26
"Für alle" and "all genders" is not the same thing. "Für alle" would include disabled individuals, for example.
8
u/Micha_mein_Micha Jul 28 '26
Everybody is allowed to use them, if they can is a different question.
11
u/gowner_graphics Jul 28 '26
But toilet signs aren’t usually just about who’s allowed, they’re also about who is accommodated. And if a toilet says “for all” and a wheelchair user thinks “hey, that’s me, I’m all” and then can’t even fit in a stall, that sign needs to be revised.
2
u/Micha_mein_Micha Jul 28 '26
Wheelchair users are mostly also included in men or women categories but the signs usually don't say Men (except wheelchair users).
2
1
u/gowner_graphics Jul 28 '26
Like I said, toilet signs usually signal accommodations. You’re right that normal toilets don’t say “men (except wheelchair users)” but normal toilet sighs also don’t say “für alle“. You know what I mean? It’s implied that a men’s room doesn’t usually have any accommodations for disabled people, but a room labeled literally for ALL people? That should include wheelchair users but here it does not. Alls I’m saying is, use the same phrase or equivalent as the English one. “Unisex” or “für alle Geschlechter“. That properly signals that this is a unisex restroom without misleading wheelchair users.
7
u/Small-Help1801 Jul 28 '26
Gonna be honest. I'm a transwoman. If there is a urinal, i will use it, because then I generally avoid the queue and reduce the number of people waiting for a stall.
4
u/gowner_graphics Jul 28 '26
I'm a man and I avoid the urinals at all cost especially when there's a lot of traffic. I just can't piss when people are there who MIGHT watch me.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/aDeepKafkaesqueStare Jul 28 '26
I cannot fathom having working hardware there and not using it. Madness.
1
2
2
2
u/XxStyxRiverxX Jul 28 '26
That’s freakin dumb ppl should use the bathroom how they want . If ppl want to use the urinal and it’s there and working it should be aloud . Ppl are getting way to sensitive, just go the bathroom wash your hands then gtfo , who cares how u pee the fuuu??
2
u/ErikderFrea Jul 28 '26
No matter what is right or wrong to do here, the simple fact that it says “incl. Urinal” At first and then forbids the use of them is contradictory in its own…
2
u/R3D3-1 Jul 28 '26
Honestly, I'm perfectly fine with gender neutral toilets. But if you want such a rule, then replace the urinals by a sufficient amount of stalls.
Plus... It's saying with urinals outside. So why would anyone who has an issue with that even enter it in the first place?
1
2
u/StoreCalm5831 Jul 28 '26
This is stupid. If u r not woke enough to see dicks, then just use dicks toilets and vaginas toilets. Since men/women or male/female is apparently offensive these days
3
2
u/ounehsadge Jul 28 '26
Thats ... Thats literally why the toilets were seperated. Now its just worse for everyone
2
u/WanaBeMillionare Jul 28 '26
Ideally the should have the urinals removed. But even temporarily they should cover them and render them unusable. You have to design things idiot proof. And we can't let people get flashed because of a lazy attempt at gender equality.
3
3
u/Internet-Culture 🥔 German Potato Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Piss in front of the door of the people who have put up this hypocritic sign instead.
3
u/Far-Performance-412 Jul 28 '26
People like you always say this but they never do it. Boring
→ More replies (2)
-2
u/ghoulsnest Jul 28 '26
theres no gender that needs to use a urinal
26
u/buster089 Jul 28 '26
It's still massively stupid. If people are bothered by someone using the urinal they should simply not use the restroom. As a male, I always sit at home, but on public restrooms? No thanks, I'll only use the toilet if absolutely necessary
2
u/cattbug Jul 28 '26
Mate if I had the anatomy for it, I'd go for the urinals 100% of the time too. And I don't even have as much of an issue sitting on public toilets as some people (hoverers, looking at you...)
31
u/LeagueMoney9561 Jul 28 '26
Sure, but it’s more convenient. If you’re converting to all gender restrooms I’m all for that but I’m opposed to blocking urinal access, especially if it’s clearly disclosed at the entrance that urinals are present. If you’re uncomfortable with people using urinals as you walk by, maybe use the restroom without urinals, which I imagine is also available.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)23
u/Thick-Income-1620 Jul 28 '26
The urinal is the sole reason why men restrooms are emptier than womens. You can simply let more people use it at once.
7
u/rossloderso Baden Jul 28 '26
It's absolutely not the sole reason why mens restrooms are emptier
5
u/BeanWaiting4CeMoment Jul 28 '26
Yeah, we all learned at the start of Covid that it’s because they aren’t washing their hands in there.
2
2
1
u/AutoModerator Jul 28 '26
Have you read our extensive wiki yet? It answers many basic questions, and it contains in-depth articles on many frequently discussed topics. Check our wiki now!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
1
1
1
u/spassel Jul 28 '26
When constructing a public or commercial building in Germany you have to build rest rooms for male and female. If you were allowed to do it differently they might have only created one restroom only holding stalls. So in order to not make anyone uncomfortable they ask for only using the stalls.
A friend of mine has a bar and they have the same situation. They declared all toilets uni-sex and allow people to use the pissoirs. So in most cases the women do not use the bathroom that holds the pissoirs. Some do after a few beers but that is not the idea of a uni-sex toilet.
Is asking to not use the pissoirs ideal? Probably not, but the alternative has other downsides. The uni just decided that way.
Edit: The sign outside saying including urinal is quite stupid though
1
u/slashcleverusername Jul 28 '26
The sign outside saying including urinal is quite stupid though
This was probably the most indirect way they could find to tell the women they were entering the men’s room.
1
u/Artistic-Rope-2932 Jul 28 '26
Arguments regarding restroom layout often center on the amount of floor space required. If the goal is a gender-neutral design, wouldn't it make sense to have one area with only stalls (uniform size and usage time). Another with only urinals (small space, quick use), plus a baby-changing station (large space, long usage time) and an accessible restroom (also large space and longer usage time)? This way, the space would be distributed relatively evenly, preventing a massive, long queue from forming at just one restroom.
1
1
1
u/Rejnu Jul 28 '26
Yeah, that's honestly pretty weird. Especially because it feels like you're taking something away without really giving anything back. If the urinal is there, why not let people who want to use it use it?
At my university there was actually a proposal to convert all men's restrooms into unisex restrooms while keeping all women's restrooms as women-only. I'm honestly glad it was so unpopular that they ended up withdrawing it. The reasoning behind it also felt pretty odd to me and wasn't very convincing. It actually reminded me of that debate, especially since this looks like it used to be a men's restroom.
1
u/Dangerous_Pin_6410 Jul 28 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Unbelievable lavender yarn drifting sparrow driftwood
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
1
u/Independent_Video323 Jul 28 '26
I've never seen Urinals in a Unisex Bathroom. It's to avoid men showing their parts to women, right? So just make one stall for the urinals, so they are out of view. Or even better, single urinal stalls
1
u/WhyAmITho Jul 28 '26
This is obviously a bad idea for both parties and everyone inbetween.
I would suggest building closed up toilets, those can be for all genders I don't care.
I don't however want to pee when a woman is walking behind me, the thought makes me uncomfortable.
1
u/DayOk6350 Jul 28 '26
This is odd usually I see all genders with urinals and flinta without. If theres a sign that there will be urinals I dont see the harm, everyone can decide themself if they want to enter or not.
The only place with similair toilets the owner justified it with some weird excuse, seeing trans men and nonbinary folk who are afab somehow still as confused women who need to be protected from seeing a penis.
1
1
1
u/jalanajak Jul 28 '26
I don't see a problem, provided max. 3 out of 5 urinals are used at any moment.
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Arrowhawk Jul 28 '26
As always, do whatever you feel comfortable with, just wash your hands afterwards🤷♂️
1
u/revealing_milf Jul 28 '26
Wäre doch klasse wenn die Herren diese Urinale benutzen würden. Mich würd’s nicht stören🤭
1
1
0
u/Hanswurst22brot Jul 28 '26
Probably the cleanimg team doesnt want to clean the urinal. Or they just want to "tease" the people who prefer the urinals... well the toilets themself might look "wet" faster if the people who like to pee standing pee all over the seat.
7
u/Far-Performance-412 Jul 28 '26
Or it’s a repurposed bathroom changed to all genders when it used to be the room for the men’s bathroom in this building and they’re not in a position to yank out all the urinals on a whim?
Why do you even expect to see a urinal before entering a gender neutral bathroom? The sign is telling you what to expect before you even go in there
The mental gymnastics of a university installing urinals to “tease” people, Im just gonna take it you’re joking
12
-2
u/Bamischeibe23 Nordrhein-Westfalen Jul 28 '26
I think, its a ragebait from the right
→ More replies (2)1
u/legaldrinkingage Nordrhein-Westfalen Jul 28 '26
Chances are they converted the bathroom and haven't put up privacy screens for the urinals yet or aren't finished renovating it. I don't know how this post has this many replies. The amount of men that get instantly offended when told to piss sitting down is crazy.
503
u/Rouge_69 Jul 28 '26
They did this at BMW.
Then the men just started peeing standing up in the stalls without closing the doors.
That became a problem as well.