View Single Post
  #10  
Old 03-06-2011, 11:04 PM
flanker7's Avatar
flanker7 flanker7 is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,861
Thanks: 4,592
Thanked 41,751 Times in 1,668 Posts
Default

Exactly, susansusan. "Dorm" is the generic term for "residence hall' in American English. Man, this thread is confusing. Just so we're all on the same page here:

The typical "dorm" consists of individual rooms shared by two students (and sometimes 3 or 4). These are literally just rooms with desks and beds. The showers and toilet facilities are communal, and usually separated by gender. A "coed dorm" usually just means that men and women live in in the same building, on the same floor, in adjacent rooms, etc. Traditionally roommates are the same gender, but two men might live next door to two women, etc. In past years men and women always were in completely separate buildings, so the term "coed dorm" more or less arose out of a now-obsolete system. Nowadays all dorms are coed, except at military or religious schools.

As I said above, even if dorms are coed, there are usually two separate bathrooms for men and women. Somewhere along the line the concept of "coed bathrooms" started. This usually isn't a particularly sexy or revolutionary concept. Usually it just means men and women use the same facilities, but in completely separate stalls. So a woman might be showering next to you, but with a few inches of cinder block or tile in between.

In rare instances, usually at liberal schools, the concept of "coed bathroom" has evolved to mean that men and women literally use the same communal showers (a la Starship Troopers), which is the concept that has drawn so much interest in this thread.

As was noted above, some dorms have gone completely coed, which means that men and women might share the same room as roommates. But again, this isn't terribly radical. I don't think this would be something imposed by the school (meaning they randomly select a female roommate to live with you), but rather that they ALLOW opposite sex roommates to live together, meaning if you developed a friendship with a member of the opposite sex and wanted to live together officially as roommates, then university housing would allow it.

Now hopefully we get some pics/vids etc documenting those communal coed showers...
Reply With Quote
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to flanker7 For This Useful Post: