(Dis)ordered Spaces? Managing the Competing Rights of Children in the Gendered Space of the School Toilet
Journal Title: Open Access Journal of Reproductive System and Sexual Disorders - Year 2018, Vol 1, Issue 5
Abstract
Rights are often perceived as unproblematic and normative, perhaps particularly in childhood where rights are primarily positioned as protective and participatory. However, in a landscape where the rights of trans* and gender non-conforming persons are an increasing focus, rights are once again revealed as being contested, controversial and in-conflict. While trans* identities are constructed by some as being normative, simply part of the continuum of gender identity, for others, trans* is perceived as ‘disorder’ both biologically and socially [1]. Here, we take the space of the toilet and its binary structure, as emblematic of wider “mechanisms of gender regulation” [2]. We consider the challenges faced by schools (and other social institutions) in managing toilet spaces and the competing and contested rights of those who lay claim to them. Toilets in the social sciences operate as contested spaces, variously defined sites for the management of ‘dirt’, emblematic of impurity and pollution [3], a literal and moral escape from the unacceptable as this pollution is made to disappear [4], a site of hard-won equalities [1], a place for sexual pleasure [5] and a site of peer relations and bullying [6]. Toilets are the spatial realisation of the intersection of private and public [7] where the division of space maps onto the division of bodies and their functions [4]. The gendered nature of the toilet is ubiquitous, emblematic of gender operating as one of the deepest organising principles of western societies. Toilets as technologies of separation appear simple in their binary nature but the space of the toilet is deeply ambiguous - a site of shame and decency, anonymity but interchange, aiming to contain the dirt but themselves considered dirty.
Authors and Affiliations
Jessica Clark, Sarah Richards
Keywords
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- EP ID EP639712
- DOI 10.32474/OAJRSD.2018.01.000122
- Views 72
- Downloads 0
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