Question: Gender climate in London
Anonymous asks…
I am studying abroad in London this fall, and I was wondering what the atmosphere is like for someone who is blatantly gender nonconforming. Are people generally accepting/ambivalent? What’s the public restroom situation like? Are there any places I should avoid going unless I’m passing either way really well?
Please post your response in the comments below.
» Ask Genderfork «
Category: questions 5 comments »
June 24th, 2012 at 8:31 am |
I am male bodied and I dress in an androgynous but mostly feminine way (colourful skinny trousers, girly t-shirts, long hair and nail polish). I’ve never had any problems.
I’ve only dressed in a more ‘womanly’ way a few times, but it also went very well (and I live in a notoriously bad part of London).
I don’t know about restrooms, I try to avoid them unless I’m at uni where some of them are unisex toilets :D
[Reply]
June 24th, 2012 at 10:16 am |
I’m trans and until recently lived in London. Generally people are fairly laid back about it, though you may get some comments. I’d take toilets on an individual place basis (what I personally do). There are some very understanding parts of London and some much more repressed parts, so it really depends where you’re going.
[Reply]
June 24th, 2012 at 10:19 pm |
I can only reaffirm what others have said, i’ve never had a problem in London, and i’m fairly andro in my appearance, but it does depend where you are. London is a big place, and so some parts are going to be less cool about stuff.
I’ve not had a problem with public restrooms, i tend to use places like art galleries, or coffee places, either because they’re easier to use, or because they often ( in the case of coffee places ) have non gendered toilets ( ie. just one! ). I think the big plus about London, form what i’ve seen, is that it’s so busy that half the time people don’t even notice anyone else :)
[Reply]
Jay replied:
June 25th, 2012 at 5:09 am
Yeah – when I was a teenager, my friend went around central London in a hand made LaLa the tellytubby costume for a day, and no-one said a thing.
I imagine acceptance/indifference will be the order of the day. Though my experience is of being an androgynous faab type person, so I can’t speak for other gender un-conforming people.
In terms of toilets, there are a smattering of single occupancy public toilets in the streets in central London, that aren’t gendered (though you have to pay).
[Reply]
June 25th, 2012 at 5:34 pm |
I’ve never had any problems in central/west London. That’s because most Londoners have seen it before or as mentioned above, their indifference.
[Reply]