PEA Sees Addition of All-Gender Bathrooms
The controversial “Why So Gendered?” campaign of 2013 has made an institutional mark on Exeter through the establishment of gender inclusive restrooms. This addition to campus intends to communicate an overall climate of inclusion on campus by creating a space for gender non-conforming students to use the restroom with comfort. In addition, it aims to raise awareness of and call question to the prevalence of gender in everybody’s lives.
In the campaign from two years ago, anonymous advocates hung posters that asked “Why so gendered?” on bathroom doors and bulletin boards, frequently accompanied by copies of the E Book’s dress code guidelines with the words “For Boys” and “For Girls” highlighted. The campaign sparked an extensive debate over gender segregation within Exeter’s policies and in America’s culture as a whole. Since then, the Academy has established a gender neutral dress code, and the question of gendered bathrooms has additionally been addressed.
For a non-binary student on campus, lower Maria Heeter said that using the restroom can cause great discomfort “when forced to choose a bathroom that may not correspond to their gender, although it corresponds to their sex.”
Emily Lemmerman ’15 said that by drawing a distinct binary line that automatically declares one group of people different than another, gender segregation is a form of discrimination.
“Gender inclusive bathrooms publicly institutionalize Exeter's stance on gender.”
Since this idea of gender exclusivity was spotlighted in the campaign, students and faculty started the push for gender inclusive bathrooms on campus. Beginning in the 2013-2014 school year, students Davis Leonard ’14, Rowan McDonald ’15 and Lemmerman started meetings with Director of Student Activities Joanne Lembo, Dean of Students Melissa Mischke and Design Manager Anita Bailey. Because there is a national code requiring the campus buildings to have a certain amount of both male and female restrooms, they were limited in the bathrooms they could label as gender inclusive. Lembo said that there is an intent for a broader push to change the national code which inherently propagates gender norms. In the meantime, only gendered single stall bathrooms, which exceeded the required amount could be relabeled as gender inclusive.
Last year, the two single-stall restrooms in Jeremiah Smith Hall were labeled as gender inclusive. Over the summer, the renovations of Wheelwright Hall and the new fitness center in Thompson Gym included additions of gender inclusive single-stall restrooms. All future renovations will allow for the same addition. Signs will continue to go up this year on all pre-existing available locations.
The single-stall bathrooms are identified by their signs reading “Gender Inclusive,” accompanied by a symbol that combines the male and female symbols.
Leonard lauded the creation of gender-inclusive bathrooms as a great “victory” for gender inclusivity at Exeter. “Transgender and genderqueer students and adults can now use some bathrooms with the same ease and unthinkingness as cisgender members of the community,” Leonard said. “They support non-binary individuals by allowing them the dignity of not having to constantly choose or announce their gender.”
Upper Lauren Wilson agreed. “For transgender and non-binary students, not having to use a bathroom they feel uncomfortable or unsafe in is a breath of fresh air,” she said.
Lembo said that, besides serving as a place where anyone can feel comfortable going to the restroom, the restrooms are symbols for gender inclusion on campus.
Lemmerman furthered this idea. “Single stall bathrooms have always been de facto gender neutral, but actually labeling them is important because it raises awareness and starts a conversation,” she said.
Leonard said that in terms of practical steps toward broader institutional gender inclusivity, the addition of some gender inclusive bathrooms is small. But she said that the restrooms’ significance lies in the “conceptual possibilities they open.”
“When you introduce the idea that traditionally gender-segregated spaces don’t have to be so, you are opening up avenues of thinking. These everyday physical spaces are transformed into sites of questioning for community members who perhaps haven’t thought about these issues before,” Leonard said. “These bathrooms beg questions of those who use them: who is marginalized when we have gender-segregated spaces? What else on campus is arbitrarily gendered? What is gender, and what is my personal relationship to it?”
McDonald said, “Gender inclusive bathrooms publicly institutionalize Exeter's stance on gender. Because of the specific language included on the signs, students will be passively forced to consider their purpose.”
However, many students and faculty believe that there is much more to be done in creating an inclusive campus. “The bathroom is just a piece of a larger puzzle,” Lembo said. “We chose to start with the bathrooms because we figured it would be a tangible and achievable goal to show that we take this seriously.”
Lembo said that the school must continue to take an extensive look at all of their policies on campus, whether that be in regards to sports, housing or even assumptions made in paperwork. For instance, making a student fill out their “father’s” and “mother’s” contact information is not universally applicable to students.
Many students said that the next step to an inclusive campus is providing gender inclusive housing for non-binary students. Mischke said that this is something that she hopes the school can strive for.
“Our colleagues in other schools are trying to make changes and we’ve already tried to start thinking about [gender inclusive housing],” Mischke said.
Leonard believes strongly in Exeter as a place dedicated to feeling like home for all of its students, but she said that, after recent steps such as the gender inclusive bathrooms, there is a danger in feeling like the problems are solved.
“I hope that the community does not stop here but takes this exciting change as a first step in a farther-reaching push towards greater inclusivity for people of all gender identities,” Leonard said. “Don’t stop interrogating norms, discussing identities and inequalities and making radical policy proposals.”
Contributions from Jordan Davidson