Thinking about peeing

[beetiger]

I got Rhys a potty, since he's been really interesting in flushing the toilet whn I use it. I took off his diaper and put him on it; he promptly hopped off, stuck his head in it, and peed on the floor. Not sure what to make of that.

I've been thinking a lot about gender-neutral bathrooms these days. I was at a performance of the Vagina Monologues last weekend, and the bathroom situation was just silly -- lines down the hallway for the women's room, and no one in the men's room. I couldn't get any of the women to hop overto the other side, though I suggested it to several. Part of it is the cultural taboo, I think, but part of it is just...the urinals.

Urinals are weird. We don't have them in bathrooms at home. Women's rooms don't have them, and generally they don't have extra stalls to compensate. I would think that standing with your genitals exposed in a public area would be really odd. So, why?

I have to know.

[Poll #448516]

Comments

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

As someone who used to use the men's room, and now uses the women's room, I got to answer every question! Yay!

Mostly, the purpose of urinals is convenience. People with penises don't have to sit down to pee, and you can stick a lot more urinals side-by-side than you can toilets. This is a big part of why the women's line is so often longer than the men's: a man can wait for an empty urinal and just unzip, pee, then stuff it away and be off, while a woman has to arrange her lower body clothing to expose her whole ass and sit down and go. Plus there's dealing with the dubious hygene of whoever previously used it - seat covers, hovering, etc.

I figure that a sensible ungendered bathroom would have urinals, so that those who are able to stand and pee can do it. In the interest of simple efficiency.

My own bathroom habits are such that I only shit in a public bathroom if I have to. It's a long process, the place is stinky and impersonal and full of other people's ick, and the toilet paper's usually no fun clean yourself off with. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people save their poop for home, especially if they grew up having the option of the quick convenience of a urinal for peeing.

When I get around to genital surgery, one of the things I'm pretty sure I'll miss is the ability to go pee with little ceremony.

[kensan-oni.livejournal.com]

There is the solution... at one time, someone had invented female urinals, so ladies with the big hoop skirts could use the restroom without having to struggle. It didn't go over very well, but I forget the reason why. I know the Straight Dope covered it at one time, though.