School toilets: queer, disabled bodies and gendered lessons of embodiment

Abstract

In this paper we argue that school toilets function as one civilising site [Elias, 1978. The Civilising Process. Oxford: Blackwell] in which children learn that disabled and queer bodies are out of place. This paper is the first to offer queer and crip perspectives on school toilets. The small body of existing school toilet literature generally works from a normative position which implicitly perpetuates dominant and oppressive ideals. We draw on data from Around the Toilet, a collaborative research project with queer, trans and disabled people (aroundthetoilet.wordpress.com) to critically interrogate this work. In doing this we consider 'toilet training' as a form of 'civilisation', that teaches lessons around identity, embodiment and ab/normal ways of being in the world. Furthermore, we show that 'toilet training' continues into adulthood, albeit in ways that are less easily identifiable than in the early years. We therefore call for a more critical, inclusive, and transformative approach to school toilet research. ARTICLE HISTORY

Around the Toilet: a research project report about what makes a safe and accessible toilet space

“…The understanding and expectations of how toilets were used were often gendered and focussed on particular behaviour i e s a d o e s toilets. People using the urinals spoke of the importance of not making eye contact or looki g at ea h othe s genitals whilst using the urinals (Slater et al, 2016). For some women, being quiet, not leaving a smell or mark, and obscuring whether you were defecating or menstruating was particularly important.…”

“…The final aim was to work with children and young people in school and youth work settings (Slater, Jones, & Procter, 2016. Our work with children, young people and practitioners has not been included in this document.…”

Troubling school toilets: resisting discourses of ‘development’ through a critical disability studies and critical psychology lens

“…Inglis (2002) highlights how colonial projects position colonised peoples are 'faecally inferior' by labelling them as 'wholly faecally filthy in character' and 'more faecally uncontrolled and excrementally libidinous than their apparent superiors ' (p. 208). In another paper, we have considered this in relation to understandings of 'civilising the uncivilised' (Slater et al, 2016). Although this paper concentrates on a specifically Western context, it is a context that rests upon continuing colonial projects within which 'development' is implicated.…”

“…Although this paper concentrates on a specifically Western context, it is a context that rests upon continuing colonial projects within which 'development' is implicated. Furthermore, whilst the politics of gender are relevant to the discussions in this paper, and we believe developmental norms can play a potentially violent role in the lives of trans children in particular (as we argue in Slater et al, 2016), our emphasis in this instance will be on disability. We turn now to put critical psychology and CDS to work on literature and policy surrounding the school toilet.…”

“…Femininity has historically been equated with certain psychiatric labels (such as hysteria), which themselves intersect with race, class and global positioning (Davis, 2008;Mills, 2014). 'Civilisation' and 'education' have justified colonisation (Burman & Stacey, 2010;Mingus, 2011), sometimes with explicit references to toilet use (Elias, 1978;Inglis, 2002;Slater, Jones, & Procter, 2016).…”