Sorry Wagamama I love your food but I HATE “gender neutral” (mixed sex) toilets. They’re just a gift to sexual predators & voyeurs. Women need privacy & safety. I won’t be eating at your restaurants again if there are no women only bathrooms.
“Wagamama has always prided itself on being a welcoming space regardless of gender or sexuality, and encouraged our guests and colleagues to be all in and proud of who they are,”
“As the world moves on, and in the spirit of good change (or ‘kaizen’), we have to keep updating what that means for both our colleagues and guests.”
said Ross Farquhar, chief marketing officer for Wagamama.
Hmmm, nice marketing slogan but I think Wagamama need to remind themselves of some basics and why we have women’s loos in the first place.
The reason we need them hasn’t changed. The world hasn’t moved on for women…..
Can you imagine how terrifying using a mixed sex toilet must be for a woman who has suffered male violence?? (And if you do a bit of research you’ll find they’re not a tiny minority but a pretty large group)
And what about women & girls from certain faiths & cultures for whom being in intimate spaces like these with males is impossible. You’re okay with further marginalising already marginalised groups? That’s not very inclusive of you, is it??
Maybe Wagamama should stop and think about what the lived experience of toilets are for women before they jump on this bandwagon and alienate half of their customer base.
They could read this excellent article from Helen Saxby
“The reason these spaces are SEX-segregated is that men can be violent and sexually predatory towards women and children (no, not all men, and yes, women can be violent too). The stats are stark, and divide the sexes up quite neatly according to likelihood of violence and abuse. 98% of sex offenders are men. Most of the victims are women and children. It is not just the most serious sex crimes which inform this public policy of sex-segregation however: there is a whole raft of other, lesser, crimes committed where men have access to women in intimate spaces. These include indecent exposure, voyeurism and sexual harassment. Added to that there are the almost exclusively male types of antisocial behaviour, such as indulging the fetish of listening to women urinate, public masturbation and peeing on the seat”.
Or this hard-hitting article written by Cherry Austin.
“It was at a pub in St Alban’s. I’d been bleeding huge clots for days; the hospital told me my baby had ‘broken up’ – but there she was, a seemingly perfect tiny human, curled on top of the gory wad inside my giant pants. I rested her on my hand and gazed in awe and shock until I’d committed every beautiful, miniature detail to memory. Then I gently wrapped her in tissue, said goodbye and flushed her down the loo”.
Or this shocking account from Shona Craven
“But it wasn’t until I had entered the neighbouring cubicle and sat down that I realised he was hiding in the toilet rather than using the facilities. When I got to the sinks I made sure to get him in my eyeline in the mirror. As soon I did, he dodged to one side. I moved, and he did it again. When I turned to face him he stood still, eyeballed me, and lowered a hand to the button of his trousers. Once he’d got the reaction he wanted from me, he fled.”
Or this account by a mother with her 9 year old daughter
Women need male-free spaces, including toilets. More so now that ever. #ThinkAboutIt.
Guest Post, by Josephine Liptrott