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Today’s debates about transgender inclusion and public restrooms may seem unmistakably contemporary, but they have a surprisingly long and storied history in the United States—one that concerns more than mere “potty politics.” Alexander K. Davis takes readers behind the scenes of two hundred years’ worth of conflicts over the existence, separation, and equity of gendered public restrooms, documenting at each step how bathrooms have been entangled with bigger cultural matters: the importance of the public good, the reach of institutional inclusion, the nature of gender difference, and, above all, the myriad privileges of social status. Chronicling the debut of nineteenth-century “comfort stations,” twentieth-century mandates requiring equal-but-separate men’s and women’s rooms, and twenty-first-century uproar over laws like North Carolina’s “bathroom bill,” Davis reveals how public restrooms are far from marginal or unimportant social spaces. Instead, they are—and always have been—consequential sites in which ideology, institutions, and inequality collide.

Sex role --- Restrooms --- Public toilets --- Social aspects --- Sociology of the family. Sociology of sexuality --- Social policy and particular groups --- United States --- Comfort stations, Public --- Conveniences, Public (Public toilets) --- Johns (Toilet facilities) --- Lavatories (Toilet facilities) --- Loos (Toilet facilities) --- Public comfort stations --- Public conveniences (Public toilets) --- Toilet facilities --- Public buildings --- Toilets --- Rest rooms --- Washrooms --- Rooms --- bathroom bill. --- bathrooms. --- civil rights. --- comfort stations. --- discrimination. --- gender and sexuality. --- gender difference. --- gender norms. --- gender studies. --- gender. --- gendered restrooms. --- history. --- human rights. --- hygiene. --- inclusion. --- lgbt studies. --- mens restroom. --- modern gender. --- nonfiction. --- north carolina. --- politics. --- privacy. --- public health. --- public restrooms. --- race. --- restrooms. --- social issues. --- social science. --- social spaces. --- social status. --- trans rights. --- transgender. --- womens restroom. --- womens studies. --- Gender identity --- Transgender people --- Sex role - United States --- Restrooms - Social aspects - United States --- Public toilets - Social aspects - United States --- United States of America