Where's the Skirt?

I think anyone who sees this image knows that the straight figured symbol indicates male and the skirt wearing one indicates female. It's accepted as universal. Even though, in my recent experience, most women don't wear dresses or skirts most of the time. It's more acceptable and common for them to do so, but the symbol represents an idea more than a reality.

I was just thinking about this the other night at a movie theater. I've been there countless times before, but hadn't really thought about how they mark their bathrooms until it hit me that the skirt was missing. While there are still things to quibble about in the way this also universalizes things about male and female gender roles and expectations, I think it is a big improvement in its focus on general biological characteristics instead of socially constructed ones like clothes.




For a much more extensive consideration of this issue, you might start here.