LOL, I honestly have yet to see a comfortable husband in a dressing room so I suppose I should be feeling sorry for them rather than resenting their presence.

I appreciate everyone's responses. I've found all the different opinions to be really interesting. After thinking about this all afternoon I do feel I have a legitimate expectation of females-only in a public and segregated dressing area, but I don't foresee losing any sleep over the issue.

I do think the lady who wanted the man to leave the lingerie shopping floor was just a wee bit extreme. I mean, nobody is unclothed there. At least they shouldn't be, haha.

I've been lurking on this site for a while (love it!) but this thread prompted me to actually sign up and post.

I'm lucky to have a husband who loves to shop and is more than willing to shop with me. I value his opinion. When I shop, I frequently gather a pile of clothes to try on all at once and he will wait outside the change room area or, if he's allowed, will come right into the change room with me. This not only saves me the time of having to go out and get his opinion on items, but he can also go and get other sizes if necessary (since it's not uncommon to have no salespeople in the change room area, at least here in Canada).

I would think twice about shopping in a store that didn't allow men anywhere near the change room area.

It's a little weird to see a man in the ladies' room and really gross to go into the men's room, but my practical nature wins out over my neuroses. Well, it's also a little neurotic to wait for the ladies' room to come free when the men's is empty (if it's not disgusting, of course). A bathroom is a bathroom. I mean, I don't think pants are men's clothing either.

My freshman dorm had mixed bathrooms. Again a little weird, but not a big deal. Male or female, I think the primary source of discomfort was having to share a bathroom with a hundred other people period.

@rachylou: That's my problem with going into the men's restroom. It's not that it's the men's restroom. It's that it's so gross.

I wouldn't lose sleep over the thought of men being in the ladies' dressing room, but I would be bothered by it if the dressing room were the type that only had curtains or those half-doors (like bathroom stalls). If the dressing room had regular doors, I'd be fine with it.

What I don't understand is why a man would want to go into the ladies' dressing room in the first place. I know my DH would not. He doesn't go shopping with me, though he does take me shopping with him when he wants my opinion. I guess it's just that I don't ask him what he thinks, lol!

As for a man getting kicked out of the lingerie dept., I think that's ridiculous. It's a public area where no one is getting dressed/undressed. I would definitely not shop at a store like that.

It all depends on the person's comfort level. My fiancee excuses himself when I'm shopping underwear with my daughter, as to give her privacy, and will rather rot and die than staying next to us in a lingerie department. Also, he will not go into the fitting room with me for absolutely no reason whatsoever. He is an after the fact kind of dude...

Am I going to criticize someone who is on the opposite side of that? No.

Bathrooms are a different issue due to the vulnerability but I don't mind the single stall unisex bathroom. There is no area for crazies to hang around.

IK - You are hilarious.

What if the fitting room has a sign that says no men but the man wants to try on some women's clothes in the fitting room ?

I would think that he should use the men's fitting room, regardless of what he is trying on.

Doesn't bother me in the least. I'm all for unisex changing rooms. What does bug me, however, is when there is no mirror INSIDE the changing room. I don't necessarily want to go outside and use a communal mirror in front of other people (male OR female).

LOL this is a three-year-old thread. For some reason it totally cracks me up when old threads are bumped up like this.

Ha! Didn't even notice that!

It doesn't bother me. It's no different from unisex dressing rooms or trying things on in between the aisles (which I've done at times, over fitted clothes).

I think most of these poor guys are uncomfortable, and they don't really want to be there. they just want to go to lunch or whatever

I don't love it. I often accompany my son on shopping trips, and I maintain a generous distance between myself and the men's dressing rooms and ask him to step OUT to show me what he's wearing, if he wants me to see it, to avoid this issue for others.

In a unisex dressing room, you know what you're getting and you can choose whether to go inside or not if it makes you uncomfortable. In a women's dressing room, the expectation is women only (and yes, I'm including transgender women as part of that category) and you shouldn't suddenly discover something different when you're standing there in your underwear. Especially if you're in one of those rooms with no true door, only a curtain with a four-inch gap and you're pulling on a swimsuit.