5/11/2023 0 Comments Naomi alderman's the power![]() ![]() In a scruffy room in Reims I stand gazing at the doors of four cubicles, one locked and labelled with a female silhouette, the rest unmarked and empty, wondering how long I’ll have to wait, before sternly reminding myself that this is a unisex room and a toilet is a toilet. I remember this scene when travelling through France in summer 2018, where the architecture of restaurant toilets becomes a source of piquant fascination. What difference does it make who uses it?” My daughter and aunt go to the toilet at the same time, and as they return to the table, my daughter asks: “Why did you use the men’s toilet?” My aunt, who lives in a suburb of Athens, isn’t on social media, and knows nothing of the argument surrounding gender-neutral toilets, frowns and replies: “It’s a toilet. Each has one of those ersatz Victorian sign plates on its door, depicting, to the left, a besuited man with cane and top hat, and on the right, a woman encased in full skirt with bustle. The restaurant where I’m having lunch with extended family has dusty green paintwork, tourist-trap tables in a long row outside, and at the back, up a short flight of stairs, on either side of a small landing, two toilets. The time is Easter 2017, the place Nafplio in the Peloponnese, a patterned silk scarf of a seaside town, the kind of place a cruise might pause for a shopping expedition. ![]() Trips to the toilet are the stuff of neither postcards home nor poetry but none the less that’s where I’m going to start. ![]()
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