Okanagan College students that use the women’s bathroom in the Centre for Learning building closed stall doors to find a surprise.
The GSWS 295 class, that studies Current Topics in Women’s Studies, installed poster boards into the doors of the bathrooms to conduct an anonymous survey amongst students.
The survey asked that students took a moment to flush “negative thoughts about body size, weight, fat shaming, discrimination and sexism,” and asked that they not flush “confidence, self love, strength, fearlessness, inner beauty and courage because you ARE beautiful.”
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Students used stickers to answer the poll.
Jodie Miner, a fourth-year business administration student said it was refreshing to see a unique anonymous survey at the college.
“I like the way that they worked in flushing to reinforce flushing out negative ideas that people have about their bodies,” said Miner.
“Students are under a lot of pressure and some students feel pushed even further to have a bikini body in time for summer.”
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The GSWS 295 students have been studying how the fear and hatred of fat bodies reinforces related systems of oppression like sexism, ableism, colonialism and homophobia, according to a statement posted in the bathroom.
“We invite you to take a moment and consider how this exhibit disrupts popular beliefs about beauty, health, idealized bodies and society,” reads the poster.
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Second-year marketing student, Paulina Rojas said she enjoyed how anonymous the survey was and that she was able to see other people’s honest answers who had used the stickers.
“I think that it’s a really unique way that you can survey people that really don’t want to talk about certain topics,” said Rojas.
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