The writing is on the wall

The text(ure) of women's toilets in Australia

Bibliographic Data

ID8109938
AuthorsJan Schapper (La Trobe University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume19
Issue4
Pages494-517
Publication date2012-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueGender Place & Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0966-369X • E-ISSN: 1360-0524
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0966369x.2011.610094
OpenAlexW2052809575
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited53

This article is about public toilets for women. Drawing on data provided by the textual material posted in women's toilets in Victoria, Australia, it is argued that in western nations, toilets represent more than instrumental facilities for the disposal of waste products. Because they also serve as repositories of social anxieties about bodies, gender, cultural and religious differences and health/death, public toilets are sites used to order the disorder of women's bodies and activities. Cultural intolerances have problematised differences in ablution practices and ‘correct’ toilet behaviours are frequently prescribed. As unique examples in the west of cultural and gendered practice, women's toilets offer rich material on the discipline and meaning of gendered space in a range of different environmental settings

Business · Meaning (existential · Order (exchange · Sociology · Toilet · Engineering · Gender Studies and Social Issues · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Psychology · Spatial and Cultural Studies · Environmental Engineering

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