Saturday, June 22, 2013

A Double Standard

Today, while in Sears waiting for my hubby to try on some new clothes for work, I spotted a woman coming out of the change room.  A few minutes later, another one wandered in there without even hesitating at the doorway.  I checked, and the sign just said "Change Room" but it was the Men's Department, after all, so I didn't quite understand what I was seeing.

Later, as we sat having a beverage, I mentioned that there were women in the change room while he was in there.  He said, "I know," in such a way that I knew he was as amazed as I was.  There were, of course, individual doors on each of the change rooms, but it still seemed strange to see women traipsing in and out of a seemingly designated men's area.  I supposed that they were taking in clothes for their husbands to try on, or something. Hubby said one of them was a mother, helping her teenage son.  I do remember seeing them later at the cash. 

I commented that I sure wouldn't appreciate men wandering around in the women's change rooms, even if we did have individual doors. Of course, men wouldn't do that anyway. They wait quietly outside, if they are around at all. 

Then I started to thinking.  Mothers take little boys into the ladies washroom when they are shopping together. Men never take little girls into theirs. It's all a double standard and I guess guys are trained to accept that early in life.

1 comment:

  1. When I was little my Dad was always the one to take me to the public pool. Until he felt I was old enough to go into the change room alone he brought me into the men's change room with him. I assume the same happened if we were out and I needed a washroom but my Mom wasn't there.

    Shannon Wattie

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