A world of unmentionable suffering: women's public conveniences in Victorian London.
@article{Penner2001AWO, title={A world of unmentionable suffering: women's public conveniences in Victorian London.}, author={Barbara Penner}, journal={Journal of design history}, year={2001}, volume={14 1}, pages={ 35-51 } }
This 9,500 word paper provides an in-depth analysis of a dispute that broke out in 1900 over a proposal to construct a women's public lavatory in Camden Town. Its aim is to provide a detailed account of how the decision to build an everyday object such as a lavatory for women was implicated in producing, maintaining and contesting the patriarchal power structure of late Victorian London.It seeks to build on the work of feminist cultural geographers like Doreen Massey and Gillian Rose and…
22 Citations
‘Fountain’, from Victorian necessity to modern inconvenience: Contesting the death of public toilets
- SociologyUrban Studies
- 2021
Drawing on the politicised history of Public Conveniences in England since the 19th century, this paper traces the socio-political motives for their provision and for their gradual withdrawal in…
The politics of the toilet: A feminist response to the campaign to 'degender' a women's space
- Sociology
- 2014
The toilet debate: Stalling trans possibilities and defending ‘women’s protected spaces’ 1
- Sociology
- 2020
As one of the few explicitly gender-separated spaces, the toilet has become a prominent site of conflict and a focal point for ‘gender-critical’ feminism. In this article we draw upon an AHRC-funded…
Public toilets for women: how female municipal councillors expanded the right to the city in Sweden, c. 1910–1925
- History, SociologyWomen's History Review
- 2021
ABSTRACT This article shows that women’s formal political citizenship is intertwined with the right to the city. Using Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be’ approach, we study how…
Marginal bodies: actualising trans Utopias
- Art
- 2014
This PhD focuses on transgender subjectivity and explores the ways in which trans is negotiated and compromised by and within social space, with particular attention to the dynamics and…
Violent cistems: Trans experiences of bathroom space
- Sociology
- 2017
abstract Transgender people in South Africa face problems with safe access to spaces that have been shaped and gendered by colonisation and apartheid. Cape Town, despite being labelled ‘the gay…
School toilets: queer, disabled bodies and gendered lessons of embodiment
- Sociology
- 2018
ABSTRACT In this paper we argue that school toilets function as one civilising site [Elias, 1978. The Civilising Process. Oxford: Blackwell] in which children learn that disabled and queer bodies are…
Private needs, public space: public toilets provision in the Anglo-Atlantic patriarchal city: London, Dublin, Toronto and Chicago
- HistoryUrban History
- 2013
ABSTRACT As part of the reconstruction of their built environments at the beginning of the twentieth century, London, Dublin, Toronto and Chicago confronted the question of whether to provide public…
Protecting the Ladies: Benevolent Sexism, Heteronormativity, and Partisanship in Online Discussions of Gender-Neutral Bathrooms
- PsychologyMass Communication and Society
- 2018
The recent adoption of bathroom bills restricting trans* people’s access to public bathrooms of their choice in the United States has elicited a vigorous public debate invoking benevolent sexism,…
Scrutinizing the U.S. Equality Act 2019: A Feminist Examination of Definitional Changes and Sociolegal Ramifications
- Sociology
- 2020
The U.S. Equality Act, which amends civil rights statutes to explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, passed the House in May 2019 with unanimous…