For the gender-nonconforming individual public toilets can be a place of violence, conflict, and danger. This project asks how the public washroom can be made into a less violent, more accessible space. This work explores the problem of sex-segregated toilets through the lens of the Third Space, theorized by Bhabha. Drawing on Third Space theory and the work of Cavanagh, O’Donoghue, and Butler, I put forward that public washrooms must be viewed as localities for the performance of the Third Space—a theoretical space where difference is performed and otherness negotiated. These performances and negotiations take place even within the boundaries of sex-segregated washrooms; however, sex segregation is a hindrance to this process and stifles agency that could lead to the resolution of gender conflict.
