I have never once seen a woman rinse a menstrual cup in all my years of being afab and having to use womens public restrooms. Why would you make an effort to do it in a gender neutral bathroom?
I could be wrong, but I was under the impression the best way to do it is in a bathtub because it kinda makes a mess
It needs to be emptied out more frequently than once/day for most people. In public a lot of people just empty it out in the toilet when it’s full, re-insert, and wash their hands. The risk of toxic shock is pretty low compared to tampons. And with a little technique from repetition you can minimize mess. But if I saw someone rinsing one out in the sink I’d just chuckle to myself and move on. Being disgusted by menstrual blood feels childish to me. But leaving messes for our proletarian janitors and cashiers is inexcusable.
That said: PSA, cups are more sustainable than pads tampons both in reducing waste and on your wallet, and they’re about as easy to clean as other silicone unmentionables.
All bathrooms are gender neutral bathrooms, ALL BATHROOMS ARE GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS! :screm-a:
I’m starting to believe the people who clean bathrooms. Maybe men really do clean up after themselves better. These people clearly don’t.
this is anecdotal as fuck and ultimately meaningless, but i grew up in a household outnumbered by and run by women. the home bathroom i shared was always clean, i felt like the gross one for being different with my face pubes and boy smells and was told so.
at the end of high school, i got a job at this medium-upscale restaurant as the dishwasher/everything gross kid. like, when the manager/chefs got shitfaced the night before and left a bunch of dirty dishes with half eaten seafood at a table for the 7am shift, that became my problem. or when a bunch of fish went bad and had to be carted to the dumpster, dumped, and containers rinsed/cleaned. animal and food waste don’t bother me that much, because i’d have to eat it to get sick generally since zoonotic diseases tend to be known and somewhat controlled for in food supply chains. like i’d rather clean a stall of 50 lbs of sloppy cattle shit than 5 lbs of human turds.
anyway, i had to clean/mop both bathrooms twice a shift (before and after rushes), and i think it was my 1st shift when i was traumatized by whatever it was some of the affluent women were doing to the bathrooms and leaving behind. it was all so gratuitous. paper towels clogging toilets that were then shit in/on, used tampons tossed on the floor. the mens was like generally water splashed around the sink, piddles on the floor near the urinals, and stale farts.
my mother and sister said i was exaggerating/lying. i talked to a lady friend about it. this like straight shooter creative writing type who worked the worst service sector jobs. i told her about my experience and she said, “haha yeah, some women turn into animals in there.” she told me about working in some fancy neighborhood bookstore when some lady came up and told her the women’s bathroom needed attention. and like, she goes in there to find someone made a turd on the ground, wrapped it in TP and used it as a sort of crayon to write “FUCK” on the wall, before throwing it at the mirror where it stuck/slid down to the sink. she went to her supervisor and said if they made her clean that up she would quit on the spot, so they hung an “out of order sign” and called some company that sent some undocumented cleaners because you know that’s who handles the worst of the worst.
after that i stopped believing in gendering hygiene and cleanliness. some humans are clean and considerate of shared spaces. some are disgusting little goblins and think getting low paid workers to clean up after their bodily fluids is hilarious and brave.
Compromise: Make the bathrooms gender neutral, but forbid terfs from pooping in public. Shouldn’t be a problem, everybody that full of shit must be an expert at holding it in anway.
they’re gonna gross each other out then accuse each other of being trans. mark my words.
