Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Rest Room Signs

While the most common sex-specific designations of rest rooms are "Men" and "Women," and less often "Ladies" and "Gentlemen," sometimes other forms of specification may take place. Now this is complicated with the occasional persons who would specify another description, but that is something beyond the scope of my musings for now. Besides, by bringing up the topic of necessary rooms or 'bathrooms' or other attempts at euphemisms, I already skirting on the dangerous side of good manners.

However, some people elect to designate the sexes by the non-parallel binary: "Men" and "Ladies"; but that is risky. It supposes that the ladies would be comfortable in a setting where gentlemen are not present. Also, the nit-picker might argue that four restrooms should logically be required: "Ladies/Gentlemen/Men/Women."

And then there are the attempts to be cute when designating rest rooms:

1) "Kings" and "Queens."
2) "Pointers" and "Setters."
3) "Caballeros" and "Señoras"
4) "Boars" and "Sows"
5) "Sisters" and "Brothers" [With pictures of nuns and monks, respectively.]
6) "Cowboys" and "Cowgirls"
7) "Roosters" and "Hens."
8) "Rough Riders" and "Mounts" -- Which I find to be utterly disgusting.

And then there was the clueless barbecue joint that had restrooms for "Heifers" and "Steers."  Somebody must have given them a bum steer when it came to those signs, unless the clientele consisted of women and eunuchs!

It's safer to include foreign language words with pictures:



Or even to use only a small figure on the door to forestall embarrassing situations:



10 comments:

Hell Hound said...

I find the little figures work best; but how about the woman facing forward?

Mike said...

In the past I have had to stop and do some quick guessing on which restroom was which because of some not so obvious restroom indicators.

Linda Kay said...

I'm afraid I might be really offended with Boars and Sows! We saw Herr and Damen in Germany, and they almost always had an accompanying coin slot or attendant to pick up your Euro.

Meredith said...

I don't know - I find the rough Riders one to be funny. Bores and Sows, not so much.

TexWisGirl said...

i hate when places try to be clever with their restroom signage.

Bilbo said...

There's a place in San Francisco at Fisherman's Wharf where the restrooms were labeled "Buoys" and "Gulls." Oy.

John A Hill said...

"Rough riders" & "Mounts"
I've seen the bumper sticker "Save horse. Ride a cowboy!"
So...
Which is which?

allenwoodhaven said...

I knew a guy in school who used to say, "Excuse me. I have to go use the euphemism."

Cloudia said...

Living in Waikiki I now recognize the Japanese character for the female retreat. And of course we see:
Kane (Kah-nay = man)
Wahine (wah-He-nay = Woman)

More fun here!



ALOHA from Honolulu,
ComfortSpiral
=^..^=

Dixie@dcrelief said...

What the heck. I like the ones that have a picto of the whole family... usually a a large male, a large female, two little males, and a small female.