abstract This article investigates how lesbian students experience microaggressions in bathrooms at a South African university. We conveniently and purposively used in-depth interviews with 17 lesbian students largely from one of the faculties. Our findings show that notions of microaggression in university bathrooms were not always subtle but pervaded with strong intentions of cissexism and heteronormative messages that had serious implications for the wellbeing of same-sex sexual identity students. Although the university’s intent to introduce gender-neutral bathrooms was to address concerns of safety and forceful sexing of the body through the architecture of the traditional gender-binaried bathrooms, lack of engagement with the diverse student populations created confusion and anxiety. In light of the severity of hate crimes towards lesbians in South Africa, participants were of the view that the newly queered bathrooms made them more vulnerable to violence and ostracism. Implications are that the protection and inclusion of people with same-sex sexual identities in university bathroom spaces remain compromised. Tokenistic attempts at gender transformation in institutions of higher learning are indicative of the need for more focused and thought-through approaches with various stakeholders to consider the voices and needs of those directly affected.

中文翻译：

---

“我只在下午回家时才放松自己”

摘要 本文调查女同性恋学生如何在南非大学的浴室中体验微攻击。我们方便而有目的地对 17 名女同性恋学生进行了深入访谈，这些女同性恋学生主要来自其中一个学院。我们的研究结果表明，大学浴室中的微攻击概念并不总是微妙的，但充满了强烈的顺性别主义和异性恋信息的意图，这些信息对同性性身份学生的福祉产生了严重影响。尽管该大学引入性别中立浴室的意图是通过传统的性别二元浴室的结构来解决对安全和身体强制性别的担忧，但缺乏与不同学生群体的接触造成了混乱和焦虑。鉴于南非针对女同性恋的仇恨犯罪的严重性，参与者认为，新近改建的同性恋浴室使她们更容易受到暴力和排斥。这意味着大学洗手间空间对同性性身份者的保护和包容仍然受到损害。高等教育机构中性别转型的象征性尝试表明需要与各种利益相关者采取更集中和深思熟虑的方法，以考虑直接受影响者的声音和需求。