Queer artist and engineer Robb Godshaw has developed new bathroom signage to help make public restrooms more inclusive for transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming individuals.
The Degenderator kinetic figure takes the traditional male and female restroom icons and combines them to make one, animated gender-inclusive symbol. A pendulum mechanism perpetually moves the figure between a person in pants to a person in a dress.
The Degenderator is made from the same type of impact-resistant ABS plastic found in Lego bricks, stands at 8 inches tall, is about an inch thick and runs for more than two years on a single AA battery.
Godshaw launched The Degenderator kinetic figure, which is accompanied with The Degenderator inclusive restroom sign, on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter. The campaign is more than half way to its goal of $6,200 with a little over $4,000 pledged.
Godshaw, who is an adjunct professor of product design at San Francisco State University, says he has been working for years on a way to create The Degenderator so that it would operate with a simple, silent, fast mechanism.
“I finally found it in the form of those waving cat figures that run for years on a battery,” Godshaw says on his Kickstarter page. “A few years, 25 designs, and a trip to China later and I am ready to get these things made.”
Godshaw says he has a company ready to manufacture The Degenderator but the factory requires a minimum order of 5,000.
“You can create 5,000 platelets for trans and gender non-conforming people to feel safer. You can help create 5,000 spaces that put gender segregation in the past. And you can build 5,000 opportunities for children to see a less gendered world,” Godshaw said.
The Kickstarter campaign has 28 days left to meet its goal. For more information or to support The Degenderator, visit Kickstarter.com/Projects/RobbGodshaw/Degenderator.
