Outright Sexism in The Ladies (廁所的性別政治)

When my 10 year old cousin, Monica, first visited Korea, she once asked me why there's boy's urinal in the ladies' room ( we're in a department store).

The answer's rather simple I assumed, "Well, mothers care for son's needs."

"Then why not the fathers? They are both male."

"Well...coz there're many housewives in Korea and usually it's the mothers who take their kids to department stores to kill time... while fathers are at work. Yup." 

I later felt myself a bit irresponsible to have given such poor reasoning, as I wouldn't be able to answer if she further asked "What about on holidays when the whole family come here together?" So I asked KC if there's boy's urinal in The Gents, and he said he's never seen one.

So there's no more excuse for it - it's probably never considered the father's responsibility to take his son to toilet. It's an outright sexism(!).

我的10歲小表妹Monica來韓國時，曾問我為什麼男童便池會出現在女廁。答案應該很簡單我想，"因為媽媽會帶兒子上廁所啊!"

"那為什麼不是爸爸帶? 而且他們都是男的耶!"

我愣了一下，"因為...韓國家庭主婦多，帶孩子去百貨公司逛的一般都是媽媽! 爸爸要上班!"

後來想想，這樣好像有點不對，假日時全家一起逛百貨公司的很多，爸爸也不是沒有機會帶兒子上廁所的。所以我問許先生男廁有沒有男童便池，他說他從沒見過。

看來，帶兒子上廁所，從來都不被認為是韓國父親的責任。赤裸裸的性別差異呀。

( Picture from The Ladies' @ Mokdong Hyundai Department Store. 圖片來自木洞現代百貨，我拍的)