Gender, Place and Culture Vol. 11, No.

3, September 2004

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem: (re)materialising sexed sites, (re)creating sexed bodies
KATH BROWNE University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

ABSTRACT This article introduces the possibilities of a new term, `genderism', to describe the hostile readings of, and reactions to, gender ambiguous bodies. Genderism is used here to articulate instances of discrimination that are based on the discontinuities between the sex with which an individual identies and how others, in a variety of spaces, read their sex. The article suggests that intersections between queer theories, that destabilise the dichotomy of man/woman, and performative geographies, that recognise the (re)formation of space, could facilitate, and indeed necessitate, a consideration of how the illusion of dichotomous sexes is (re)formed at the site of the body (re)constituting men and women in context. Nine women, who participated in a wider research project about non-heterosexual women's lives, spoke of being mistaken for men yet understanding themselves and living as women. Using these narratives the `bathroom problem', where women are read as men in toilets and as a result subjected to abusive and even violent reactions, is examined. These policing behaviours demonstrate the instability of sexed norms as well as how sites can be (re)made `woman only' and simultaneously `women's' bodies (re)produced. The article then examines how women negotiate the policing of sexed spaces such that bodies, sexed sites (toilets) and the location of these sites (nightclubs, service stations) are mutually constituted within sexed regimes of power. In this way the article aims to explore how sexed power relations (re)form the mundane `stuff' of everyday life by examining moments where boundaries of gender difference are overtly (en)forced.

Introduction
Janet: I know that I'm out tomorrow night and I am in the toilets and I am getting verbal abuse off of some ugly girl that has come in and said I pinched her bum or something Then I forget about, I forget about trying to be strong and not pretending that it bothers me When it comes to it in the situation where you're getting, where they are not letting you use switch cards1 to pay for something, or you're in the
Correspondence: Dr Kath Browne, School of the Environment, University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building, Lewes Road, Brighton BN2 4GJ, UK. E-mail: K.A.Browne@brighton. ac.uk
ISSN 0966369X print/ISSN 13600524 online/04/030331-16 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/0966369042000258668

332

K. Browne toilets2 and someone is shouting abuse at you and you see the bouncers3 coming in to have a look, to see what's going on. You know, it bothers me then. And there's not much I can do about it. (Janet, individual interview)

Geographers exploring processes of social exclusion have recognised the importance of cultural understandings that situate people outside taken-forgranted norms (Sibley, 1995; Cresswell, 1996, 1997; Aitchison, 2000). When disturbing the presumed naturalness of the manmasculinity/womanfemininity binary individuals may nd themselves subject to abusive comments, exclusions and physical violence (Butler, 1990; Namaste, 1996; Halberstam, 1998; Munt, 2001). This article introduces the possibilities of a new term, `genderism', to describe the hostile readings of gender ambiguous bodies. Genderism is used here to articulate often unnamed instances of discrimination based on the discontinuities between the sex/gender with which an individual identies, and how others, in a variety of spaces, read their sex/gender. This article centralises `women' who are read as men and those who do not identify with either sexed category both of whom confront the necessity of dening oneself in relation to dichotomously sexed sites such as toilets (in this case women's toilets). Geographies of gender for the most part have assumed male/female and man/ woman binaries, and address a diverse plethora of issues pertaining to the spatialised sex roles of men and women (exceptions include Cream, 1995; Namaste, 1996). Genderism, however, cannot be understood within the binaries of male/female, man/woman as women are read in ways dissonant to these categories. Although queer theorisations of gender transgressions have recognised the movements between man/woman, the formation of sexed space has yet to be fully addressed in these discussions (see also Nelson, 1999; Brown, 2000). This article argues that a dialogue between recent gender theorisations and performative geographies could offer an opportunity to understand more completely the mutual reformation of sexed bodies and spaces and address the dearth of literature regarding gender disidentication within geographies of gender. The mundane `stuff' of women's lives (Moss & Dyck, 1999) discussed here is drawn from empirical research which was undertaken in 2000/2001 with 28 nonheterosexual women who live in the South of England to examine their everyday lives. They were recruited using snowball sampling (see Browne, 2003; 2005) and participated in six focus groups, three coupled interviews, 23 individual interviews, 22 diaries and six sets of auto-photographs. This article focuses on nine women who either mentioned or spoke in detail of their experiences of being mistaken for men (see Table 1)4, and uses the term genderism to give a name to their experiences, for example those outlined by Janet in the opening quote. The next section will outline the uid conceptions of gender and sex and performative geographies that understand space as continually (re)created. This facilitates an exploration of the processes through which sexed bodies and spaces are (re)xed, disempowering those who do not conform to the binary categories of man/woman, male/female. Drawing on these debates the use of the term genderism will then be justied and explained prior to examining the materialities of living between man/woman and particularly the `bathroom problem'. Toilets, as sites that are separated by the presumed biological distinction between men and women and their different excretionary functions, can be sites where individuals' bodies are continually policed and (re)placed within sexed categor-

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem

Table 1. Participants who described experiences of genderism Name Andie Julie Stevi Nat Pat Janet Nina Angela Jenny Age (years) 2025 2025 2530 2025 1820 2025 1820 2025 2530 Occupation (at the time of the interview) Factory (unskilled manual) Carer (unskilled manual) Volunteer work Retail (unskilled manual) University student University student University student PT university student/ PT employment agency (manual) Education (second level, teaching assistant) Methods

333

AP, D, FG, I (August 2000) D, FG, I (August 2000; individual interview November 2000) D, CI, I (August 2000) AP, CI, I (September 2000; individual interview February 2001) AP, I (October 2000) D, FG, I (November 2000) AP, D, FG (December 2000) AP, FG, I (January 2001) AP, FG, I (January 2001)

AP: auto photography; D: diary; FG: focus group; CI: coupled interview; I: interview.

ies. Finally the article will investigate how genderism is negotiated, in multiple ways, by those who are continually subjected to it. In this way the article seeks to explore how sexed power regimes are materialised through examining the processes that (re)create `women' and `women's spaces'.

Destabilising Sexes and Sites Diverse movements between categories of sex (man/woman) and gender (masculinity/femininity) have been identied in gender and queer theory. Intersexed individuals challenge the biological dichotomisation of sex (Cream, 1995; Hird, 2000), while transgender and transsexual individuals contest the `natural' connections between sexed embodiments and sexed lives. This is because they live between the categories of male/female, man/woman or as members of the opposite sex to which they were born or. Intersexed individuals may exhibit genitals associated with both sexes while transsexual individuals, by altering their genitals, illustrate the uidity of sexed embodiments where the sex of a body is not necessarily permanent (Mackie, 2001). Obviously, biological sex does not necessarily map onto gender roles, as has most cogently been argued in relation to drag and the performance of masculinities and femininities (Butler, 1990). Other discussions of non-normative femininities have explored the life stories of women who are mistaken for men (Devor, 1987, 1996) and compared `butch' lesbians to female to male transsexuals (Lee, 2001). These, and many other similar, discussions destabilise dichotomous sexes and their presumed links to specic genders and sexualities (see Butler, 1990; Armadiume, 1987). `Male roles' played by women have, however, been associated primarily with `butch' lesbian identities (Feinburg, 1993; Morgan, 1993; Ainley, 1995; Halberstam,

334

K. Browne

1998). These lesbian identities have rendered invisible a myriad of gender identities and expressions (Halberstam, 1998). For example, because there are two vaginas present, when reclaiming lesbian herstories what could be termed transgenderism is often considered lesbianism (Boyd, 1999; however, see Feinburg, 1993). This recourse to biology is apparent when `butch' identities are easily equated with lesbian sexualities retaining the man/woman binary. Munt (1998, 2001) contends that women's experiences of being mistaken for men can be understood as homophobia: From my own experience of homophobia in toilets I am painfully aware that being challenged about one's sex is not usually the issue; my body is read `correctly' as female but my gender causes the problem, hence the question `Are you a man or a woman?' is a displacement of the unutterable `Are you a lesbian?' (Munt, 1998, p. 205, original emphasis) Munt (1998) asserts that gender disidentication, where women are not readable as female, is related to butch lesbian identities. While there may be occasions where `are you a man?' may equate to `are you a lesbian?' for the purposes of this discussion I wish to partially disentangle sex/gender and sexuality, recognising that these are mutually (re)formed. I now nd myself in complex semiotic paradoxes. Like Butler (1990, p. 9) it may be that by employing terms such as gender, sex, man and woman I am reinforcing and essentialising that which I seek to destabilise. As Butler (1992) suggests resistances may reinforce hegemonic power relations through establishing the very thing we seek to resist (see also Rose, 2002). While I wish to contest the boundaries of gender and sex, I also seek to be intelligible and engage with participants' narratives regarding the experiences of transgressing gender dichotomies. Consequently, a tension exists between challenging the borders of gender and sex and using these terms to enable a discussion of embodied experiences. This is exemplied in my use of the term `women' to describe the participants in my study. I use this because it is how the participants understood themselves. This is similar to Devor (1987, pp. 12) who contends that certain `people of the female sex' can be `socially interpreted as sufciently masculine to earn them the social status and some of the privileges of men' but nonetheless they identify as female. In this article I am arguing that these individuals move across and between man/woman, masculine/feminine. They are outside the discursive possibilities of sex/gender but they live in contexts where sex/gender is crucial to their everyday lives. Thus, in order to make sense of their narratives and to stress the problems associated with not tting dichotomous sexes, it is necessary to use these sexed terms. However, I hope that in using them in this context I also render them unstable and uid, and through their disruptive (mis)use, illustrate the impossibility of these puried categories (see also Butler, 1990). Women who are mistaken for men contest the supposed `natural' links between sex and how one's body is read. They seldom intend to transgress gender borders and boundaries, in that they understand themselves as `women' (Devor, 1987). Thus, they (often accidentally) render uid what is contested by transsexed, transgendered and intersexed individuals and in different places and at different times they will be read differently (see also Valentine, 1993). The processes which produce the binary categories of sex and gender thus occur in context. Considerations of spatialities can further problematise the stability of gender, sex and sexuality because gender, sex and sexuality are not only performed they

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem

335

are contextually enacted (Brown, 2000; Longhurst, 2001; Bondi, 1992; Bell et al., 1994; Monk, 1999; Moss and Dyck, 1999; Nelson, 1999; Rose, 1999). In accounting for context it is important to outline briey how concepts of space and place are to be used in this article. The congealing of power geometries that materialises bodies and sites is read here as unstable (Massey, 1994). It is contended that sites, locales, regions and nations come into being through sociospatial relations and enactments. Thus, socio-spatial relations do not simply differ between places (sites, locales and locations); performances, spatial relations and interactions (re)produce places (Massey, 1994; Hubbard et al., 2002). Moreover, socio-spatial power relations (re)form sexed sites and, in turn, the (re)constitution of places sexes bodies (Bell et al., 1994; Massey, 1994; Rose, 1999). Therefore, it can be argued that just as place is (re)making (and sexing) us, it is being (re)made (and sexed) (Brown, 2000). Performative geographies have begun to explore the materialisation of bodies and spaces (see for example Longhurst, 1995, 1997, 2001; Moss and Dyck, 1999; Valentine, 1999). Setting itself alongside these studies, this article seeks to examine the policing processes that sex bodies and sites (re)forming `women'. Genderism: `playing' power Everyday life can problematise the `playful' image of gender transgressions that is often presented within queer theory (see for example Queen & Schmeil, 1997). Despite theorisations of power as continually (re)made our lives are lived as though entities such as sex exist (Nast & Pile, 1998; Allen, 2003). The constitutive processes and relations that form sexed sites and bodies within the ctions of man and woman are maintained within powerful regimes (Butler, 1990, 1993, 1997). Despite the instability of sexed bodies and sites `men' and `women' are often presumed to be `natural', xed and distinct identities and embodiments. Normative sexed regimes must be regulated in order to maintain this illusion (Butler, 1990, 1997). Those who move between man and woman contest naturalised conceptualisations of man and woman (Butler, 1990, 1993) as well as the normalisation of space within gendered norms that distinguish men and women. Genderism articulates how those who transgress the accepted dichotomy of sex are policed recognising the potential pain associated with `playing' with gender norms. Violence associated with policing gender norms has been named `gender bashing' `to articulate the ways in which violence affects men, women and transgenders differently, depending on the public (or private) space occupied' (Namaste, 1996 p. 38, original emphasis). Importantly, Namaste (1996) conceptualises this violent policing of space as constitutive of public and private spaces and also the identities and bodies of those doing the policing and those being policed. However, genderist5 processes are not always violent, even when threatening, and consequently the term `genderism', rather than `gender bashing', is used here. Genderism offers a related consideration of the (re)making of bodies and spaces through the policing of gender transgressions. In using the term `genderism' it may appear that I am agreeing with the sex/ gender distinction where gender is the social construction of a biological sex. Instead, I wish to proceed from the premise that through reiterated performances bodies are materialised and naturalised as either man or woman and gendered cultural codes and norms are reproduceda process Butler terms performativity

336

K. Browne

(Butler, 1990; Gregson & Rose, 2000). Butler (1993) uses the term `sex' to illustrate the materialisation of sex through enactments and discourses, but I could not employ the term sexism, as this is already associated with discrimination between men and women. However, I do wish to employ the rhetoric of the `isms'. This is partially to validate the claim to prejudice, and also to use the implicit assumptions commonly associated with racism, sexism and classism. Specically, these connote hierarchies of power, which are prejudiced, negative, draw on stereotypes and are spatialised as well as producing particular spaces and spatial congurations (see Sibley, 1995). Genderism, however, differs from these prejudices as it requires a contextual understanding of the spaces between male and female (see Rose, 1999 for a discussion of spaces of betweenness). The women I spoke to did not have a name for their experiences of being mistaken for a man. However, in the opening quote I highlighted Janet's use of the word `it', the italicised ` ``it''s' could be substituted with the term genderism illustrating that this discrimination exists as an often unnamed experience. The naming of these experiences even using a `boring' term such as genderism (see Bornstein, 1995, p. 74), highlights that there is hatred and pain associated with maintaining gender norms. Throughout the women's narratives it was often possible to distinguish between discussions of discriminations based on sexuality and those based on gender: Janet: With me anyway it's not about who I am with. It's a lot about me as well just because of the amount of shit I get. So you know going out for a meal and stuff if I need to use the toilets and you know stuff like that I worry about I know I get shit. (Janet and Lorraine, focus group) For Janet some forms of abuse were related to her and particularly her `masculine' appearance rather than her relationship with another woman6. Moving on from the partial disentanglement of sex and sexuality, I wish to contend that genderism and homophobia/heterosexism are different yet related and interlocking forms of discrimination. Having examined the theoretical understanding of the uidity of sexes and spaces; it is the verbal abuse and violence Janet and other women `get' in toilet spaces that is the subject of the remainder of the article. Sexing Toilets: (re)making (embodied) sites and sights of embodiment The site of the bathroom has been given limited attention in discussions of gender transgressions (Halberstam, 1998; Munt, 1998, 2001), although recent geographical studies have illustrated the importance of toilets to citizenship and access to public spaces (Cooper et al., 2000; Kitchin & Law, 2001). Greed (2003) contends that the site of the toilet is not `biologically' or socially designed for women. In this way, she begins from the premise that public toilets are segregated dichotomously by sex and looks at the provision of these places for women. While this practice of separating public toilets into male/female may not be universal, where they are these sites can be problematic for those who move between apparently distinct sexed categories. The moments where boundaries of gender difference are overtly (en)forced can illustrate how sites and bodies are mutually constituted within sexed power regimes. Participants spoke of a diversity of sites, such as restaurants, supermarkets and at work, where they are mistaken for men; however, the sites of toilets were constantly and consistently problematic. The `bathroom problem' is where

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem

337

individuals are challenged in toilet spaces and their gender questioned or they are simply assumed to be `men' in `women's toilets (see Halberstam, 1998; Munt, 1998, 2001). Munt (1998; 2001) terms the policing of sexed sites such as toilets `abuse'. This, along with the term `bathroom problem' may be controversial. However, transgressing `natural' boundaries through entering strictly dened sexed spaces can be traumatic: KB: do you get mistaken for a bloke often? Janet: Like I said to you, every single day. Every single day I get, I can't use public toilets I have been thrown out of (name of straight club), which is now (name of straight club). [KB: okay] It was in my rst year it was toga night so I was wearing my bed sheet and a sports bra. And one of my mates was being sick and so I was in the toilets with her and someone screamed there was a man in the toilets. And three bouncers came in a chucked me out of the club and I was wearing a sports bra. Yeah I haven't got much up top, but you know I was wearing a sports bra. And by that time I was just like wearing a sheet around my waist and that was it and they still chucked me out. KB: Oh my god. Janet: I can't use, I can't use service station toilets. I have had old women batter me out of toilets before. KB: Really? Janet: Yeah not being serious, I mean I am being serious. I am usually in there with my Mum and they used to have a go at me and my Mum just used to walk up to them and go `you lot are so just, you are so fucking rude'. D'you know? `That's a girl'. And you know they don't look at my face or anything they just look at my build and look at my height and look at my haircut and they just instantly assume that I am some dirty man in the women's toilets so. KB: Oh my god. Janet: I know I can't use the women's toilets. (Janet, Lorraine: focus group) Janet, in the toilets of the nightclub and motorway service stations7, transgresses feminine boundaries. Munt (2001, p. 103) contends that by `butch consensus' in the United Kingdom motorway service stations are the `worst places for this kind of abuse'. In these spaces people are travelling through space and therefore may want to `stabilise some boundaries (gender) as they traverse others' (in this case regional) (Halberstam, 1998, p. 20). However, boundaries can also be stabilised in spaces where there are heightened (hetero)sexual tensions. Toilet spaces in heterosexual nightclubs are often perceived as `sacred spaces' where women can be alone to discuss men, reapply make-up and generally stylise their bodies for their `frontstage' performance on the dance oor (Goffman, 1959). Despite wearing a signier of femaleness, a sports bra, Janet is seen as invading `women's space' and is therefore removed from female toilets. Because of her presence in what is dened as female-only spaces, Janet is seen as `dirty', a perverted man in women's toilets (Douglas, 1970; Sibley, 1995; Cresswell, 1996, 1997).

338

K. Browne

Longhurst (2001, p. 66) suggests that bodily boundaries which are transgressed through urinating and defecating need to be resealed for public scrutiny. Crossing boundaries of sex therefore may be even less acceptable in toilet spaces in part because the leakiness of bodies cannot be associated with uid possibilities of sexed bodies. In other words, where bodies are revealed as unstable and porous, owing between sexes may be more threatening; where one border (bodily) is contravened others (man/woman) may be more intensely protected. However, rather than focusing on the boundaries of bodies in terms of defecation, urine or sexual intercourse (see Leap, 1999; Longhurst, 2001) or examining the motivations which cause people to react to certain women in abusive ways, in this analysis participant's experiences of, and reactions to, the bathroom problem are centralised. Munt (2001, p. 102) labels bathrooms `discomfort stations' because women's bodies can be made as `out of place' in the `ladies' bathroom: Stevi: At the end of the meal I went down to go to the loo and this lady said, as I actually I was helping her out of the toilet door because she got locked in, and instead of saying `thank you' she sort of just looked at me horried and said erm `are you in the right toilets?' You know and I was just astonished (pause). And afterwards you always think of the things you could say. I just didn't. I was just like `yeah' really pathetic and I just died d'you know what I mean? So erm all in one night! (Stevi, individual interview) Munt (1998) argues that toilets can serve as sites where gender is tested and proved. Stevi because she was asked if she was in the `right' toilets `failed' the female gender test. The term `right' implies that Stevi is in the `wrong'. She is seen as transgressing the male/female divide by being within a female space yet read as male. In attempting to (re)make the toilets female-only, the woman challenges Stevi, who does not t into her conception of feminine norms. Skeggs (2001, p. 302) argues that within toilet spaces those `who appear feminine are authorized and granted the power (in this small space) to evaluate others'. In this situation the woman, condent of her taken for granted reading of female, (con)tests Stevi's gender. The reiterated and naturalised sexualisation of toilet spaces is thus revealed. Geographies of gender have contended that landscapes can reect gendered power and meanings (Bondi, 1992; Monk, 1999). In societies that separate male and female toilets, in this case the United Kingdom, only two possible sexes are built into these environments. When you `fail' the gender test and are not understood as a woman, it is assumed you are a man. The physical sexed segregation of bathrooms reproduces the illusion of a natural, biological binary separation of sex and physically (re)places bodies within dichotomous sexes ordering these sites. This arrangement can be heavily policed: KB: Nina: KB: Have you ever been mistaken for a bloke? Yeah it has happened to me twice. What happened?

Nina: The rst time it was my friends 19th birthday and we went to erm wine bary type place. And I was wearing black trousers and a shirt cos you had to be quite smart to get in there. It was [the] bouncers in this

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem wine bar, in this really posh wine bar and amm I went to the toilet and he followed me up the stairs and I went to the women's toilet. And he kicked the door down and said, `get out, get out, get out, you're a bloke, you shouldn't be in here.' KB: Oh my god.

339

Nina: I went to complain to the management and got like four free drinks so that was but that was the rst time. (Nina, Di, Michelle and Mary: focus group) Nina describes how she was harassed by a bouncer who read her body and how she dressed as male. Nina depicts being followed up the stairs and physically removed from toilets by a male bouncer, who is also `out of place' in women's toilets. However, the irony goes unrecognised. In the `breach-zone between public and private, between gender and the body' (Munt, 2001, p. 103), the contestation of gender dichotomies exists as an immediate and dangerous threat to the `sanctity' of female spaces and embodiments. As these women move across the boundaries and borders of man/woman, male/female their existence in woman only sites can result in genderist behaviour and violence (gender bashing) in order to `protect' `real' women. These `real' women are being (re)created as `naturally' existing in these locations through the regulation of `unnatural' bodies. Those who police toilet spaces (in this case the bouncer) demonstrate the necessity of maintaining this common-sense order through enactments which (re)create sexed bodies (see Cresswell, 1997). Through the reiterated and assumed use of female toilets, these sites (re)make `women' as such and thus a woman is `occupying space as it occupies her' (Munt, 1995, p. 125). Consequently, female only spatial relations and interactions are continually materialising and toilets as sexed sites (re)place bodies within the opposition of man/woman. Everyday spaces can be `disabling environments' for those who do not correspond to presumed gender norms. Similar to disabling environments, it is the normative constructions of sex that are both built into and enacted in everyday spaces that (re)produce the `abnormal' (Imrie, 1996). These deviations from the presumed `natural' order can question the presumed xity of sex: Obviously, in these bathroom confrontations, the gender-ambiguous person rst appears as not-woman (`You are in the wrong bathroom!'), but then the person appears as something actually even more scary, notman (`No, I am not,' spoken in a voice recognised as not-male). Not-man and not-woman, the gender-ambiguous bathroom user is also not androgynous or in-between; this person is gender deviant. (Halberstam, 1998, p. 21) Not only is the person not-man or not-woman, when bodies `fail' to be (re)placed within the category `woman' the site of toilets as female is rendered unstable. This instability is threatening and consequently intensely but ordinarily policed. It is the gender ambiguous woman who is at fault because she is not `readable at a glance', her body is not `ordinary' in this place, her presence does not pass unnoticed (see Sibley, 1995; Cresswell, 1997). The deviation from the norm can reveal the commonplace as produced (Bell et al., 1994); in this case sexed bodies and sites as constantly becoming female rather than existing as such. However,

340

K. Browne

because this `violation' is untenable within man/woman opposition, women who do not pass the gender test face discriminatory practices. Public Conveniences? Embodying betweenness, living with women's toilets The bathroom problemseverely limits their ability to circulate in public spaces and actually brings them into contact with physical violence as a result of having violated a cardinal rule of gender: one must be readable at a glance. (Halberstam, 1998, p. 23, my emphasis) Halberstam suggests that `gender deviants' limit their spatialities particularly in terms of public places. However, Bondi (1992) contends that people are not simply passive victims of their environment. Here I wish to contend that genderist processes are not simply accepted. The women to whom I spoke addressed the policing they experienced, often on a daily basis, in different ways eluding and confronting genderism and in some cases appropriating male privileges (Devor, 1987; see also Bell et al. 1994): KB: how do you feel about that? Angela: I just think its funny now. It was great at one time though, cos when I was little we went to a theme park with my Mum and Dad there was a massive queue for the ladies, like out of the door and god knows how long. [Mum/ Dad said] `Angela just go in the men's' and I did I went straight in and into the toilet no questions asked I'm like `hey.' (Jenny and Angela, focus group) Angela, recognising that there is always a longer queue for the women's toilets than for the men's, employed the perceptions of her body to use the men's toilets (see Greed, 2003). Similar to Devor's (1987) study, the positive aspects of being mistaken for men relied upon the individuals not contesting the male assumptions and `passing' as men. In this way assumptions of normative genders remain uncontested yet the women are able to avoid negative experiences. Some of the participants evade genderism by not using public toilets. Stevi drove for over two hours on the motorway needing to use the bathroom but refusing to go through the ordeal of service stations. Similarly, Emma8 discusses avoiding toilet spaces as one of the diverse strategies she uses to deal with the `bathroom problem': Emma: I can generally comfortably go to the loo in the two straight pubs9 that I go to, but other than that I nd myself adapting in order to avoid or survive the problem. I have been to parties in sports clubs where the hassle of going to the loo and dealing with the abuse is too much and I'll spend the evening pissing in the car park. Sometimes I'll remove my top so that my breasts will be more obvious in my t-shirt. (Emma, personal e-mail; see also Bidwell, 2003). Emma speaks of `surviving' the toilet problem. She moved between using social spaces where she knows she can go to the toilet comfortably to spaces where her gender identity was overtly (and rudely) challenged. Rather than `dealing with the abuse' she uses alternative toilet facilities (the car park). Despite the availability of toilets the relations that form these spaces

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem

341

may be too much `hassle' particularly in social arenas, such as parties. Consequently, while access to toilets is important, (Kitchin & Law, 2001; Greed & Daniels, 2002; Greed, 2003) cultural constraints may prevent the use of these sites (see Aitchison, 2000). Women who are mistaken for men are not simply passive victims of genderism. It may be a dreaded experience but the necessity of circulating in public space means that women who encounter this form of prejudice can use confrontational strategies challenging those who `misread' them. One of Emma's `favourite' experiences of the bathroom problem was: Emma: getting into the women's loo, going into the cubicle only to hear from a gang of girls doing their make-up `Show us your dick'. When I came out and said I couldn't because I wasn't wearing it just then, they apologised by saying `Oh we're sorry we thought you were a bloke cos you walked with such condence.' So I need to be meek and pale and then I might be able to pee in comfort! (Emma, personal e-mail; see also Bidwell, 2003) Those who challenge Emma refer to her condence as the trait which marked her as outside the category `woman'. This could be due to the perception that while someone can change to be `meek and pale', one's embodiment as man or woman is xed, permanent and unstable. Women who challenge normative assumptions of `woman' and are read as men can look to their bodies in order to (re)place themselves within the category `woman' and thus be intelligible. Bodily parts are seen as `proof' of one's position as a man or a woman. Emma's lack of a `dick' marked her as female. Space can thus be seen as multi-faceted, diverse, potentially contradictory and formed through the interactions of different spatial formations. Here the physical site of the toilet is (re)produced as female through Emma `proving' herself to be female (or at least not male, at this particular time) at the site of her body. The way women address the constant abuse they face can be related to where bathrooms are located: Janet: In (name of gay club) I have been told by other women to get out of the toilets. And you know they were kind of new people in (name of gay club) and they both looked really straight so I instantly went `aah you fucking straight girls get out of this fucking club. This is my club' you know [KB: yeah]. She was like, `get out of the toilets' and I was like, `oh you fucking straight girl'. She was like, `I'm not straight.' I went, `yeah you're fucking straight look at you'. She was getting really pissed off cos I wasn't accepting that she was a lesbian. And I was like `aah you fucking straight girl'. I think I might just start using the men's toilets in places I think. Lorraine: Janet: lot. Yeah.

But then I'd have to see willies and that might disturb me quite a Yeah (laughter).

Lorraine:

Janet: Stand around the urinals like that (makes a gagging noise). (Janet and Lorraine, focus group)

342

K. Browne

Where there are only two sexed possibilities in using public conveniences and one is constantly read as male, using men's facilities may appear to be a logical solution. However, Janet exists between the categories of male and female in that while she may be read as a man she lives as an embodied woman. The physicality of body spaces, and the repulsion in the face of the possibilities of seeing men's bodies due to the design of male toilets (particularly the presence and use of urinals) (re)places Janet within female toilets. Munt (2001), on the other hand, uses the individualised site of disabled toilets to survey her `butch' body in the fulllength mirrors, free of the scrutiny of other women. She argues that these sites exist between male and female and are strangely `ungendered' (2001, p. 102) and, following the argument of this article, ungendering. However, Munt (2001, p. 103) feels that her body is looked upon as undeserving of occupying this space and thus she exists on the boundary between `not ``worthily'' disabled, but certainly aficted'. The paradoxical position of disabled toilets as both free from scrutiny and uncomfortable in terms of entering and exiting, illustrates that women are not passive in their negotiations of gender binaries but neither are they beyond or outside gender regimes. Negotiating genderism is contextually based; in the space of gay clubs Janet (above) feels she can challenge the readings of her body. Whereas Emma talks of using the car park rather than toilets in `straight' bars, Janet clearly feels that gay clubs should be tolerant of gender diversity, which here she links to sexuality (`straight girls' are feminine). Throughout this discussion the toilets discussed have been heterosexualised spaces such as service stations, nightclubs and pubs. Here as a non-heterosexual Janet is in `her space' in the women's toilets of gay clubs and `straight' women are out of place. Janet moves between the spatialities of her body, the sites of toilets and broader readings of space as `gay' or `straight' to illustrate the diverse negotiations of multiple spatialities. When one does not neatly `t' the dichotomy of man/woman, the nexus of bodies, sites and locations is revealed as unstable and requiring reiteration. Thus, the moments of disjuncture, the policing within dichotomous gender categories and the negotiation of discriminatory processes are not only spatialised, they (re)produce, at a variety of scales, sexed sites and spaces. They therefore provide insight into how sexed bodies and spaces are maintained by sexed regimes of power. (Re)Writing Spaces and Bodies: the possibilities of genderism This article sought to bring together recent geographical and gender theories that have theorised the uidity of spaces and illusion of dichotomous sexes (Butler, 1990, 1993; Gregson & Rose, 1999; Rose, 1999). While Munt (1998, 2001) and Halberstam (1998) recognised the importance of the site of the bathroom as a space where gender transgressions are often (violently) policed, this article used performative geographies to extend the spatiality of this argument. In particular it was contended that bodies, sexed sites (toilets) and the location of these sites (nightclubs, service stations), are mutually (re)constituted through sexed regimes of power. The power relations that stabilise the dichotomy of man/woman were termed genderism to name the processes of reinforcing gender norms and the pain associated with existing between woman/man. Genderism can be dened as the discriminatory encounters individuals experience when they are read as the opposite sex than the one they identify with or they are `read' as out of

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem

343

place in sites that are single sexed. This explanation recognises, and relies on, the mutual constitution of bodies and spaces within sexed categories. The article has focused on women who are mistaken for men and has placed spatialised narratives of `accidental' and painful gender transgressions alongside the more deliberate accounts of `playing' with gender (Queen & Schmeil, 1997; Halberstam, 1998). In this way the article brought together a feminist understanding of sexed power relations with spatialised conceptualisations of uid queer gender identities. By understanding sexed dichotomies as ctions (Butler, 1990), it is possible to examine how sexed spaces come to exist through the continual maintenance and enforcement of gendered norms. When individuals are challenged in women's toilets these often embarrassing and potentially abusive confrontations, along with the taken for granted presence of `normal' women's bodies, makes these spaces female. Genderist processes then (re)constitute the sites of toilets within cultural conceptions of sex as a xed dichotomy of man and woman. Simultaneously, as toilets take on the markers of femininity these markers feminise or de-femininise bodies. Through marking the `abnormal' the `normal' is reinstated and (re)produces bodies within the category `woman'. Thus relations of power, while performative, are not arbitrary or without form (Nast & Pile, 1998, p. 409). Instead, the article conrms that the form of power relations based on dichotomous sexes writes (sexes) bodies and spaces. These power relations are also written by bodies. Women are not passive victims of the built environment and the policing of sexed spaces. A number of diverse strategies can be used to contest the discrimination faced in female toilets. These include avoiding particular toilets and/or replacing oneself within the category `woman' (for example, by emphasising the absence of a penis). These processes not only reveal the performative formation of `women', they also illustrate that this can be conscious and reexive. Here it has been illustrated that for some, `becoming' a woman, so often taken for granted, can be an agonising struggle to `t' within particular dichotomies that (re)create everyday spaces and body sites. Butler (1990, 1993) recognises that gender transgressions are regularly punished and the power relations which write bodies and spaces can be painful for those who do not conform. This article has shown that policing moments of gender transgression (re)constitutes not only sexed bodies, but also sexed sites within dichotomous norms. There are many more stories of genderism which have yet to be told. Having introduced the term genderism, it could be used to articulate other (often unnamed) discriminations that are based on not conforming to the rigid categorisation of man/woman, male/female.

Acknowledgements I would like to thank all the women who were involved in this research and particularly the nine women who shared their experiences of `genderism'. Thanks go to Cara Aitchison for all her advice, encouragement and support. I wish to thank Andrew Church, Darren Smith, Emma Bidwell, Rob Kitchin and the anonymous referees for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

344

K. Browne

Notes
1. 2. A switch card is similar to a credit card. Here Janet is referring to when she is not allowed to use this card because it says `Miss', and because she is being read as a man the implication is that this is not her card. Toilets are akin to bathrooms, washrooms. Here the term toilet and bathroom will be used interchangeably to refer to toilet cubicles as well as the communal areas of sinks (wash basins), hand-drying facilities and queues that may not remain with the designated toilet area. Participants use the term `loo' to refer to toilet spaces and particularly toilet cubicles. Bouncers are the security people who work in nightclubs and bars; ordinarily their role is to prevent undesirable individuals and behaviours in the places they work. Their emotive stories are centralised despite their deviation from the original purpose of the doctoral research, which was to investigate non-heterosexual women's foodscapes. For nine participants in this study their experiences of genderism are central to their everyday lives and more signicant to them than their food practices. This article reects these priorities. Terms such as `genderist' are derivatives of genderism, similar to the relationship between sexism and sexist. The separation of heterosexism/homophobia and genderism also allows for the possibility of `straight' women experiencing discrimination on the basis of their gender in spite of their sexuality. This, however, is not the focus of the article. The spaces discussed here reect the geographical specicity of the sample which was solely taken from three towns and two cities in the South of England. I believe, however, that these women's experiences will resonate beyond these geographical boundaries. Motorway service stations that are referred to here are those located about every twenty to thirty miles on motorways throughout the United Kingdom. They usually consist of a shop, a restaurant, on occasion a fast-food outlet (such as Burger King or McDonald's) and toilets that are clearly demarcated into male, female and disabled. People use motorway service stations usually on long car or coach journeys for breaks, food or to use the restrooms. Emma, who lives in Ireland, responded to a paper I presented in the Women's Studies Network Conference in Belfast 2003. Her quotes are from e-mail correspondence and also from a paper she presented in the Lesbian Lives Conference in Dublin 2003 (Bidwell, 2003). They are used with permission. `A pub' is a colloquial abbreviation of `public house', where alcohol is sold and consumed on site. These can also be termed bars.

3. 4.

5. 6. 7.

8.

9.

References
Ainley, Rosa (1995) What Is She Like? Lesbian identities from the 1950's to the 1990's (London, Cassell). Aitchison, Cara (2000) Women in leisure services: managing the social-cultural nexus of gender equity, Managing Leisure, 5, pp. 181191. Allen, John (2003) Lost Geographies of Power (Oxford, Blackwell). Armadiume, I (1987) Male daughters, female husbands: gender and sex in an African society (London, Zed Books). Bell, David, Binnie, Jon, Cream, Julia, & Valentine, Gill (1994) All Hyped up and no place to go, Gender, Place and Culture, 1, pp. 3147. Bidwell, Emma (2003) Anything Danny La Rue can do I can do better, Lesbian Lives Conference, University College Dublin, 1416 February. Bondi, Liz (1992) Gender symbols and urban landscapes, Progress in Human Geography, 16, pp. 157170. Bornstein, Kate (1995) Gender Outlaw: on men, women and the rest of us (New York, Routledge). Boyd, Nan Alamilla (1999) The materiality of gender: looking for lesbian bodies in transgender history, Journal of Lesbian Studies, 3, pp. 7381. Brown, Micheal (2000) Closet Space: geographies of metaphors from the body to the globe (London, Routledge). Browne, Kath (2003) Negotiations and eldworking: friendship and feminist research, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographers, 2(2), pp. 132146.

Genderism and the Bathroom Problem

345

Browne, Kath (2005) Snowball sampling: using social networks to research nonheterosexual women, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, forthcoming. Butler, Judith (1990) Gender Trouble (London, Routledge). Butler, Judith (1992) Contingent foundations: feminism and the question of `Postmodernism', in: Judith Butler & Joan Scott (Eds) Feminists Theorize the Political, pp. 321 (London, Routledge). Butler, Judith (1993) Bodies that Matter (London, Routledge). Butler, Judith (1997) The Psychic Life of Power: theories in subjection (Stanford, Stanford University Press). Cooper, Annabel; Law, Robin; Malthus, Jane & Wood, Pamela (2000) Rooms of their own: public toilets and gendered citizens in a New Zealand city, 18601940, Gender, Place and Culture, 7, pp. 417433. Cream, Julia (1995) Re-solving riddles: the sexed body, in: Gill Valentine & David Bell (Eds) Mapping desire: geographies of sexualities pp. 3140 (London, Routledge). Cresswell, Tim (1996) In Place/Out of Place: geography, ideology and transgression (London, University of Minnesota Press). Cresswell, Tim (1997) Weeds, plagues and bodily secretions: a geographical interpretation of metaphors of displacement, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 87, pp. 330345. Devor, Holly (1987) Gender blending females: women and sometimes men, American Behavorial Scientist, 31, pp. 1240. Devor, Holly (1996) How many sexes? How many genders? When two are not enough UVic Provost's Lecture Address [available at: http://web.uvic.ca/~hdevor/ HowMany/HowMany.html]. Date accessed: 30 January 2002. Douglas, Mary (1970) Purity and Danger (Penguin, Loughborough). Feinberg, Leslie (1993) Stone Butch Blues (Ithaca NY, Firebrand). Goffman, Erving (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (London, Penguin). Greed, Clara (2003) Inclusive Urban Design: public toilets (Woburn, Architectural Press). Greed, Clara & Daniels, Isobel (2002) User and provider perspectives on public toilet provision. Occasional Paper 13, Faculty of the Built Environment, University of the West of England, Bristol. Gregson, Nicky & Rose, Gillian (2000) Taking Butler elsewhere: performativities, spatialities and subjectivities, Environment and Planning DSociety and Space, 18, pp. 433452. Halberstam, Judith (1998) Female Masculinity (London, Duke University Press). Hird, Myra (2000) Gender's nature: intersexuality, transsexualism and the `sex'/gender binary, Feminist Theory, 1, pp. 347364. Hubbard, Phil, Kitchin, Rob, Bartley, Brendan & Fuller, Duncan (2002) Thinking Geographically: space, theory and contemporary human geography (London, Continuum). Imrie, Rob (1996) Disability and the City: international perspectives (London, Paul Chapman). Kitchin, Rob & Law, Robin (2001) The socio-spatial construction of inaccessible public toilets, Urban Studies, 38, pp. 287298. Leap, William (1999) Public Sex/ Gay Space (New York, Columbia University Press). Lee, Tracey (2001) Trans(re)lations: lesbian and female to male transsexual accounts of identity, Women's Studies International Forum, 24, pp. 347357. Longhurst, Robyn (1995) The body and geography, Gender, Place and Culture, 2, pp. 97 105. Longhurst, Robyn (1997) Disembodied geographies, Progress in Human Geography, 27, pp. 486501. Longhurst, Robyn (2001) Bodies: exploring uid boundaries (London, Routledge). Mackie, Vera (2001) The trans-sexual citizen: queering sameness and difference, Australian Feminist Studies, 16, pp. 185192. Massey, Doreen (1994) Space, Place and Gender (Cambridge, Polity Press). Monk, Janice (1999) Gender in the landscape: expression of power and meaning, in Kay Anderson & Fay Gale (Eds) Cultural Geographies, pp. 153173 (London, Longman). Morgan, Tracy (1993) Butch-femme and the politics of identity, in: Arlene Stein (Ed) Sisters, Sexperts and Queers: beyond the lesbian nation, pp. 3546 (Middlesex, Plume).

346

K. Browne

Moss, Pamela & Dyck, Isabel (1999) Body, corporeal space, and legitimating chronic illness: women diagnosed with ME, Antipode, 34, pp. 372397. Munt, Sally R. (1998) Butch and Femme (London, Cassell). Munt, Sally R. (2001) The butch body, in: Ruth Holliday & John Hassard (Eds) Contested Bodies, pp. 95106 (London, Routledge). Namaste, Ki (1996) Genderbashing: sexuality, gender, and the regulation of public spaces, Environment and Planning D, 14, pp. 221240. Nast, Heidi & Pile, Steve (1998) EverydayPlacesBodies, in: Heidi Nast & Steve Pile (Eds) Places Through the Body (London, Routledge). Nelson, Lise (1999) Bodies (and spaces) do matter: the limits of performativity, Gender, Place, Culture, 6, pp. 331353. Queen, Carol & Schimel, Lawrence (Eds.) (1997) Pomosexuals: challenging assumptions about gender and sexuality (San Francisco, Cleis Press). Rose, Gillian (1999) Performing space, in: Doreen Massey, John Allen & Philip Sarre (Eds) Human Geography Today, pp. 257259 (Cambridge, Polity Press). Rose, Mitch (2002) Seductions of resistance: power, politics and a performative style of systems, Environment and Planning D, 20, pp. 383400. Sibley, David (1995) Geographies of Exclusion (London, Routledge). Skeggs, Beverley (1999) Matter out of place: visibility and sexualities in leisure spaces, Leisure Studies, 18, pp. 213232. Valentine, Gill (1993) Negotiating and managing multiple sexual identities: lesbian time management strategies, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 18, pp. 237 248 Valentine, Gill (1999) A corporeal geography of consumption, Environment and Planning DSociety and Space, 17, pp. 329351.