gender inequality

to my disgust this morning i discovered that the water in the men's shower/toilet room in the latest hostel i am staying in does not work. so i decided to pop my head around and see if anyone was in the ladies. noone was. i had a shower. no problem. sorted.

after dressing back in the dorm, i decided that i needed to shave. so i went back in to use the sink. midway through shaving, a lady appeared and vociferously objected to my presence. in portuguese. as she stomped off to find the powers that be, i quickly finished shaving.

but i still can't work out what her problem was.

a few days ago, in a samba club in lapa, me and two other guys were having a pee at the urinal in the gents. a girl came in to see if the cubicle was free. presumably there was a long queue in the ladies toilet. the path she had to take to do this exposed us in a way that the objectionable lady this morning was never even close to. we didn't even blink. it happens all the time.

but it seems this way: if a guy goes into the ladies, just to use the sink, all hell breaks lose. even though anyone who is (ahem) doing their business is in a cubicle. if a girl goes into the gents, noone cares. what gives?