Public toilets concern universal needs where local praxes, acts and regulations differ from one place to another due to differences in how societies approach accessibility and equality issues as regards gender and disability, for example. In a way, public toiletscapes thus reflect and construct societal approaches to human diversity (Wiseman, 2019). In this paper, we present a Linguistic Landscape study with focus on public toiletscapes in a selection of Nordic capitals (Helsinki, Mariehamn, Oslo, Stockholm, Tórshavn) and in the Estonian capital Tallinn.

Gender-neutral public toilets have been a particularly topical issue in many countries. Gender-neutral toilets have been discussed since the 1980s, initially as a means of promoting the rights of women (Banks, 1991), but later on mostly addressing an increasing awareness of non-binary person’s rights (Levi & Redman, 2010). In the Nordic countries, this increasing awareness of gender equality has led to innovation in public toiletscapes and according to the data we have collected in the capitals of Sweden and Finland in 2023, gender-neutral toilets are nowadays an ordinary part of the toiletscapes of these cities.

The balance between binary and non-binary toilet signs might differ considerably between places. Further, the traces of contestation against both binary signs (e.g. drawing a moustache on ladies signs) and non-binary signs (e.g. erasing unisex signs) included in our data give some insights into how gender issues in toiletscapes are perceived. In this study, we depart from a large corpus of photographed toilet signs from different cities in Northern Europe to explore general tendencies and local characteristics in the gender dimension of these public toiletscapes.

References

Banks, T.L. 1991. Toilets as a Feminist Issue: A True Story. Berkeley Women’s Law Journal 2:263–289.

Levi, J. & D. Redman. 2010. The Cross-Dressing Case for Bathroom Equality. Seattle University Law Review 34:133–171.