PC WC

Campus Report ^ | January 29, 2008 | Deborah Lambert

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PC WC

by: Deborah Lambert, January 29, 2008

If you think the level of academic conferences can’t sink any lower, read on.

Last fall, New York University offered a day-long seminar titled “Sex, Gender and the Public Toilet: Outing the Water Closet.” Cultural commentator/author Roger Kimball reported that it took four departments to tackle this weighty topic: the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, the Department of Media, Culture and Communication, the Center for Religion and Media, and the Council on Media and Culture.

Kimball noted that the gathering “brought together pioneering scholars of sex and gender with leading design professionals and activists to consider, critique and reconstruct the rest room.”

This alone could justify NYU’s undergraduate tuition of 52K per year.

But wait, there’s more...

[GeronL]

lemme guess, unisex bathrooms? or have they not decided yet?

maybe we need a 5-year, $50 million study

[SnakeDoctor]

These people think they’re brilliant — you’d think they’d find something more important to talk about.

H

[SnakeDoctor]

>> lemme guess, unisex bathrooms? or have they not decided yet?

I remember some European initiative to LEGALLY require men to sit when they urinate to correct urination inequalities ... I guarantee the idea was brought up.

H

[theFIRMbss]

You still really need
some kind of college degree
in the business world . . .

[CDHart]

They already have unisex bathrooms in hospitals everywhere.

Carolyn

[GeronL]

I don’t go to hospitals, so I don’t care =o)

[GeronL]

sounds like euro-peeons to me

[Da Coyote]

Morals? We don’t need no stinkin’ morals.” We’re academics.

[JimSEA]

This event also included the screening of an hour-long film called “Q2P,” followed by a discussion with the filmmaker concerning “who has access to toilets and who doesn’t, and how gender, power and the need to ‘go’ make up public space and bodily well-being.”

Not as bad as what I thought but still touchy (ick) feely liberal. My first thought was that this would be a demand for gay public sex rooms. Just show how I have been programed by the media.

[CDHart]

Smart man! It's best to avoid them if at all possible.

Carolyn