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editPublic toilets
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The modern gender symbols used for public toilets, 🚹︎ for male and 🚺︎ and female, are pictograms created for the British Rail system in the mid-1960s.[1] Before that, local usage had been more variable. For example, schoolhouse outhouses in the 19th-century United States had ventilation holes in their doors that were shaped like a starburst Sun ✴ or like a crescent Moon ☾, respectively, to indicate whether the toilet was for use by boys or girls.[2] The British Rail pictograms – often color-coded blue and red[citation needed] – are now the norm for marking public toilets in much of the world, with the female symbol distinguished by a triangular skirt or dress, and in early years (and sometimes still) the male symbol stylized like a tuxedo.[3]
These symbols are abstracted to varying degrees in different countries – for example, the circle-and-triangle variants 
(female) and 
(male) commonly found on portable toilets, to the extreme of a triangle △ (representing a skirt or dress) for female and an inverted triangle ▽ (representing a broad-shouldered tuxedo) for male in Lithuania.[3]
In elementary schools, the pictograms may be of children rather than of adults, with the girl distinguished by her hair. In themed locations, such as bars and tourist attractions, a thematic image or figurine of a man and woman or boy and girl may be used.[citation needed]
In Poland, an inverted triangle ▽ is used for male while a circle ○ is used for female.[3]
In mainland China, silhouettes of heads in profile may be used as gender pictograms,[citation needed] generally alongside the Chinese characters for male (男) and female (女).[4]
Some contemporary designs for restroom signage in public spaces are shifting away from symbols that demonstrate gender as binary as a way to be more inclusive.[5][6]
-
Standard American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) symbols -
Non-AIGA women's symbol on a legally mandated circular background in US -
Non-AIGA men's symbol on a legally mandated triangular background in US -
Gender-neutral sign in US, composed of legally mandated circle and triangle -
Idiosyncratic unisex restroom in US (see LGBT symbols) -
Public toilet in China, with female silhouette to the left and male to the right -
Idiosyncratic symbols in Japan -
Humorous symbols in Austria -
Semi-triangular tuxedo and dress shapes in Hungary -
Triangle-plus-circle symbols in Austria -
Circle (female) and inverted triangle (male) in Poland -
Sign in Romania, with men's and women's shoes representing gender -
Male, female and hijra public toilets in India -
Signs in the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid; the male is depicted with a large upper body and the female with wide hips -
Gender-inclusive multi-user restroom sign at Hamline University
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References
edit- ^ Glancey, Jonathan (11 September 2014). "The genius behind stick figure toilet signs". BBC.
Classics of design: One of the best early examples of intuitive global signs for public lavatories was that created for British Rail in the mid-1960s. As part of a major modernisation programme, the state railway was given a new and all-embracing corporate identity by DRU [Design Research Unit], a design studio founded by Marcus Brumwell and Misha Black in 1943. Working with Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir, who designed a distinctive Rail Alphabet typeface based on Helvetica, DRU devised a clean-cut and convincingly modern aesthetic that was applied to all locomotives, trains, stations, published material and, yes, signs for lavatories.
(includes picture of the ideogram, which is copyright). - ^ Eric Sloane (1972, 2007) The Little Red Schoolhouse: A Sketchbook of Early American Education. Doubleday & Co.; Dover Books.
- ^ a b c Glancey, Jonathan (11 September 2014). "The genius behind the stick figure toilet signs". BBC Future.
In Poland, meanwhile, you can come across lavatories indicating 'gents' with a triangle and 'ladies' with a circle, while in Lithuania men are represented by an inverted pyramid and women by a pyramid standing the right way up. [...] One of the best early examples of intuitive global signs for public lavatories was that created for British Rail in the mid-1960s. [...] In the 1970s, the British example was developed on a more comprehensive basis in the United States. In 1974, the US Department of Transportation commissioned the American Institute of Graphic Arts to create a set of pictograms to be used throughout public transport networks whether road, rail, air or sea.
- ^ Summers, Josh (2020-11-19). "Chinese Toilet | What to Expect (including Squat Toilets)". Travel China Cheaper. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
- ^ Schwartz, M. (2018). Inclusive Restroom Design. Library Journal, 143(8), 28–31.
- ^ Dobson, Terry; Dobson (Winter 2017). "Tip of the Icon: Examining Socially Symbolic Indexical Signage". Dialectic. I (1). doi:10.3998/dialectic.14932326.0001.106. ISSN 2572-7001.
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