New Holland Park school

No! It doesn't. It's the same as life jackets or rubbers in America!

Preservative is the French for condom.

I wouldn't go into a men's toilet at a place like a motorway service station or any large public place, but I often use the designated "men's" toilet in small places where there is only one for each gender and the women's one is busy but the men's isn't.

I think the school thing is an interesting experiment and I shall be interested to hear more about it in future. It's well known that girls have a civilising influence on boys, and maybe if their are boys around girls' school bitchiness will be lessened as well. I can understand the thinking behind this experiment and think it's worth a try.

Whoops! ...if there are....

I am not sure Bags.
I'm with VQ who described the embarrassment of 'going' within earshot of others and I think in my teenage years I would have been mortified at having boys around the loos, trying to conceal sanitary towels and so on!
Isn't it better to tackle bullying in a more basic way, trying to get at the root of the problem?

Thank you lol

Oh I'm not sure either, jane and vamp, just interested. And yes, of course bullying must be tackled in every possible way.

On a personal level, I'm not sure I would have found dealing with sanitary towels more embarassing with boys around. I had three brothers and coped fine at home. I learned to be discreet. I actually wonder if most boys wouldn't be too embarassed themselves to say anything if they noticed. The teenage boys I know now are very down to earth about such things and would, I think, just look the other way.

The other people hearing one 'go' thing applies whether there is anyone within earshot, doesn't it? Not sure the gender of the ear, so to speak, is relevant. I once read a very interesting account of overcoming that embarassment too. Since reading it, about twenty years ago, I've just thought "to hell with embarassment about normal bodily functions!" Works a treat. I recommend it.

So, if I'm doing a loud pee, I just think of the Marilyn Monroe story (pees like a horse) and smile.

I think I may have posted this story on Gransnet before, but anyway… Marilyn Monroe had a horror of being overheard in the loo. Before they were married Arthur Miller took her to meet his mother. Inevitably, she had to go to the bathroom, so she turned on all the taps to disguise the sound of peeing. The next day he asked his mum what she thought of his fiancée, to which she replied, "She's a lovely girl, but she pisses likes a horse."

Bags and absent
I shall now google 'how to overcome embarrassment about bodily functions'
It is a real problem when I am away from home

Not everybody is embarrassed by 'bodily functions' - I used to work at the Lucozade factory and one woman would come in every morning and have a very loud bowel movement in the Ladies - much grunting and groaning. She would then emerge from the cubicle smiling and say 'Better out than in'.
Most of us learned to exit when she came in, as we were embarrassed, even though she wasn't.
I think the present generation of young people are much more relaxed about such things, and I know my grandson was happy to go to the local shop for Tampax if his mother or sisters needed them. I even stopped being embarrassed when watching TV with my gc and those laughable adverts came on, where it is suggested you can wear tight, white trousers and roller skate during a period. (But I have heard that some young girls were puzzled as to why the blood was blue!)

Isn't everybody's blood blue, then?

Only when it is inside your body! Have you ever had a cut that bled blue?

Have you all watched the funny Bodyform "riposte" that went viral last week?
If you have ever donated blood you will have seen the colour it is in the bag, in the absence of oxygen. That is the colour it is in veins. Dark purplish red. Arterial blood will be bright red - same colour it is when exposed to oxygen in the air.