I rushed into the male’s restroom as a girl

I always make sure I check the sign before getting inside the restroom because I had some experience in my childhood that ignored the sign but just chose the intuitive side, and it turned out the wrong one. I accumulated more experience in my “Awkward Moments in the Life” list.

But what happened this time?

I was in a hotel in downtown at Austin.

When I was in front of the restroom, I looked up, here is a sign. The male is on the left side while the female is on the right side. Then I went into the one on the right, and here is it.

I almost added another record into the awkward moment list. I returned back, found that this is the situation.

It took me a while to get the picture, I was afraid people think I am wired taking photos in front of a restroom

So, what is wrong?

While seeing the sign with a female icon on the right side and a male icon on the left side, we intuitively would imagine that the room on the right side is female’s and the left side is the opposite. But I was “surprised”.

How to fix it?

Then I realized that one possibility might be the sign outside is not for notifying which side is for which gender, it might just for helping people pass by know here is the restroom, and then they need to check to figure it out. However, Imaging you come here, and you have to look into at least one side to check if it is the correct one for you, what if a person just come out and you have eye contact, would it be awkward for you? At least it is awkward for me.

The ideal way would be making sure the sign outside match the actual location, reprinting one would not take too much effort. Or having two signs outside on the wall instead of on the door inside would at least avoid the situation that you have to look inside to check.