Boy Space and Girl Space

For as long as I can remember there have been designated spaces for boys and girls. Such places include public restrooms or the locker rooms of high school. Although society has a set of rules for children as people grow up society accepts more intersection between the sexes. In the past society still held to a conservative standard of ‘dating’ in terms of acceptability. The social rules for girl space and boy space have become more liberal over time.

In current society there are designated boy bathrooms and girl bathrooms. While some can argue it is sexist because it separates people based on gender we can look at other factors. Efficiency plays a large part in public restrooms being separated. There are stalls and urinals for men but only stalls for woman. This is because a urinal being placed in a woman’s restroom would be useless. If it were sexist then no co-ed restrooms would exist although many do. Locker rooms are another story.

When we think of the locker rooms from high school we see that there is a separation for girls and boys. They are mostly identical unlike bathrooms where we can blame efficiency on the separation. It is safe to assume that the reason is sexist for this separation. Of course, the main reason for this separation is to keep the level of shenanigans from happening although we can’t avoid the homosexual ones due to same-sex locker rooms.

Though when people begin to grow up they make their own decisions on separation. It wasn’t acceptable for a boy and a girl to ever be alone as stated. Today it isn’t really accepted when you’re a minor, but as you grow up you get to make your own decisions. Just last week I spent the night with my friend Megan and we slept in the same room. There is no need for a separation between friends due to the time of night or not having someone else around as a buffer to sexual shenanigans because the taboo of pre-marital sex seems to have diminished.

In the early nineteenth century the social norm was to never let men and women alone together. As can be seen in the nineteenth century novel, Emma, by Jane Austin, Harriett was never alone with Mr. Martin or Mr. Elton her courters. It was unacceptable to be alone with someone of the opposite gender until marriage because of the social taboo of pre-marital sex and such scandals. In current society where there is a limited taboo of pre-marital sex ‘courting’ or dating is usually always done alone and away from groups.

Now we can answer that the reason for men and woman to be separated is mostly the protection from sexual shenanigans. As the times change and the taboo of sex diminishes it seems to allow men and woman more opportunities to have spaces of intersection. As we can see with the development of one-on-one dating or staying the night at a friend’s of the opposite gender. The only true question is what is causing the change in the opinion of sex from taboo to acceptable.


Austen, Jane. Emma London: Penguin, 1996. Print