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Cross Your Legs, Ladies
NPR reports on a new call for "potty
parity," this time from men.
Designers of a new arena in St. Louis thought they were doing a good thing by putting more toilets in the women's restrooms. But as architecture professor Kathryn Anthony explains, their modest effort is only one small step in a direction that will require broad legislation.
Some cities and counties already have laws requiring extra ladies toilets--sometimes as many as quadruple the number of available for men.
And then there's this:
[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign architecture professor and board member of the American Restroom Association Kathryn] Anthony says the issue of restroom access is so important that the free market can't be trusted.
Indeed.
Personally, I've always favored the personal responsibility approach: I'll march right in and use a single stall men's room if it's empty and there's a lock on the door.
Listen to the whole show here.Â
|5.15.08 @ 2:12PM|#
If women didn't hold so many hot lesbian orgies in their restrooms, this wouldn't be a problem.
Mike Laursen|5.15.08 @ 2:21PM|#
If women didn't hold so many hot lesbian orgies in their
restrooms, this wouldn't be a problem.
Somehow your comment renders superfluous any possible further
commenting on this thread. Sort of like Godwin's law, but invoking
lesbians rather than Nazis.
Micha Ghertner|5.15.08 @ 2:26PM|#
I hereby invoke hot lesbian Nazis. What say you now, Mike Laursen?
t3knomanser|5.15.08 @ 2:28PM|#
What's the deal with sex segregated restrooms anyway? Just make
'em all stalls, and then there's no issue.
Plus, this lets everyone enjoy the hot, lesbian, nazi orgies.
Neu Mejican|5.15.08 @ 2:40PM|#
A toilet related Reason post a day...
H&R is actually going to the shitter, just as many have
suggested.
|5.15.08 @ 2:46PM|#
In Spring of 1939 Fraulein Eva Braun was on a motortour of Cracow. On the afternoon of June 3, 1939, Fraulein Braun and her companions stopped to dine at a roadside inn. After consuming a bowl of goulash and a beer, she felt a desperate need to use the facilities. Her attempt to gain access to the powder room were unsuccesful, as the room in question was occupied, simultaneously by a buxom Polish blonde, a dark eyed nimble Jewess, and a leather-wearing whip-carrying member of the Young Polish Communist Women's League. Although the activities of these three young ladies were not visually confirmed, the lustful cries emanating from within suggested that the trio was engaged in vigorous and enthusiastic activities of an unwholesome nature. Denied in her attempts to gain access, F. Braun hurried to leave the hotel to find alternative accomodations. Unfortunately her bowels chose that moment to betray her, exposing F. Braun to public humiliation. Horrified that an Aryan women should be mortified in this way, her good friend Adolf Hitler had no choice but to declare war on Poland. Clearly Ms. Anthony's legislation is necessary for the good of all person kind.
|5.15.08 @ 2:49PM|#
If women didn't hold so many hot lesbian orgies in their
restrooms, this wouldn't be a problem.
As a part time janitor, I find the creature comfort levels of the
women's rest rooms are much more enhanced than in the men's room.
Women's rooms have couches and other places to sit. Women are much
more in tune with making a visit to the rest room an experience
rather than a function, so they have that going for them.
/I imagine women stripping down to their bras and panties and
having tickle fights in there.
Urkobold@trade;|5.15.08 @ 2:51PM|#
VANYA, MY GOOD FELLOW, THE URKOBOLD WILL NEVER THINK OF WORLD WAR II THE SAME.
|5.15.08 @ 2:52PM|#
As a former janitor, I found that the conventional wisdom that men's restrooms are filthier than women's is exactly backward. I can't believe the stuff that they try to flush.
thoreau|5.15.08 @ 2:55PM|#
H&R is actually going to the shitter, just as many have
suggested.
Drink!
(But not too much, or else we'll all have to use the limited
bathroom space at the same time.)
Abdul|5.15.08 @ 2:59PM|#
Kathryn] Anthony says the issue of restroom access is so
important that the free market can't be trusted
I bet there's no issue unimportant enough that Kathryn Anthony
would leave it to the free market.
Rimfax|5.15.08 @ 3:05PM|#
That commie bitch wants to ruin my racket that relies on long lines of women waiting to use bathrooms for free! She'll ruin me! No more three-martini lunches! No more evil-mustache wax!
New World Dan|5.15.08 @ 3:05PM|#
I'll march right in and use a single stall men's room if
it's empty and there's a lock on the door.
Ha. My mom will march right in and use any available restroom.
Personally, I think the time has come for full out co-ed
restrooms.
|5.15.08 @ 3:16PM|#
There was a time I used to, whenever feasible, hang out at
McSorley's Old Ale House, in NYC. If you know the place, good; if
you don't, too bad for you. At the time, there was a single door at
the back, marked "toilet." To your left was a row of those old
fashioned urinals which went from the floor to about shoulder
height; to your right were stalls. This was a relic of the good old
days, when women were forbidden.
Catch as catch can.
D.A. Ridgely|5.15.08 @ 3:19PM|#
[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign architecture
professor and board member of the American Restroom Association
Kathryn] Anthony says the issue of restroom access is so important
that the free market can't be trusted.
This may be the best case ever of someone claiming that their
special interest "is so important that the free market can't be
trusted" being full of sh*t.
|5.15.08 @ 3:21PM|#
You know, someone must have surely done an analysis of this
issue. Given that disparate queue lengths for bathrooms have been
the norm my entire life, it seems that somewhere along the line the
decision was made to inconvenience women more than men -- maybe
under the assumption that the man made the decision for the couple
(and hence inconveniencing the woman was not a problem)? Or is it
just that most architects are men?
Anon
|5.15.08 @ 3:23PM|#
(Oops. Forgot this was reason.)
Or could it be a perverse effect of laws mandating equal numbers of
fixtures, as mentioned in the link?
Anon
D.A. Ridgely|5.15.08 @ 3:24PM|#
BTW, in the toilet usage sign above, where's the X marked block with a silhouette of Larry Craig tapping his foot?
|5.15.08 @ 3:43PM|#
Take mirrors out of women's bathrooms and the delays will be miraculously eliminated.
|5.15.08 @ 3:45PM|#
I'll march right in and use a single stall men's room if
it's empty and there's a lock on the door.
That's quite alright honey. Just remember to lift the seat before
you leave ;)
Ska|5.15.08 @ 3:46PM|#
Ah, McSorley's. Where drinking less than 4 beers an hour gets you kicked out for wasting precious table space.
Other Matt|5.15.08 @ 3:47PM|#
BTW, in the toilet usage sign above, where's the X marked
block with a silhouette of Larry Craig tapping his foot?
Agreed, though the leg lifting dog style is freaking hilarious.
The Wine Commonsewer|5.15.08 @ 3:56PM|#
Women get more stalls than men?
They used to get couches, too.
|5.15.08 @ 4:04PM|#
That's funny, I'm moving to E. 7th Street next month, I'll have to check out McSorley's, I think I walked by it, looked like a pretty sweet place.
M|5.15.08 @ 4:28PM|#
" I'll march right in and use a single stall men's room if it's
empty and there's a lock on the door."
A recipe for rape.
Jack|5.15.08 @ 4:35PM|#
"suggested that the trio was engaged in vigorous and
enthusiastic activities of an unwholesome nature."
For some reason, when I read this, my mind automatically replaced
"unwholesome" with "awesome".
|5.15.08 @ 4:43PM|#
Assume there was some area in which mandatory spending 3-4x for men was being proposed. Does anybody here not think that anybody making such a proposal would get viciously slapped down as being a sexist pig? I have no doubt Ms Anthony would concur.
|5.15.08 @ 4:49PM|#
TWC-
They used to get couches, too.
But, we now get the fold-down "changing tables" and those
photo-electric sensors that flush for you, so it's cool.
Zeb|5.15.08 @ 5:02PM|#
Unisex toilet facilities seem to be the logical solution to me. We all have to come to terms at some point with the fact that women do in fact shit.
|5.15.08 @ 5:20PM|#
Given that disparate queue lengths for bathrooms have been
the norm my entire life, it seems that somewhere along the line the
decision was made to inconvenience women more than men
Well, since this sentence is so invitingly passive, let me fill the
void:
Just whose fault is it that women take about 8 times as long to use
the bathroom as men? Seeing as they go about 3 times as often, it
can't be because it takes them that long to drain their enormous
bladders. If women don't want to wait in line, maybe they should
expedite their use of the facilities.
/misogyny off/
|5.15.08 @ 5:27PM|#
Personally, with the correct use of privacy screens at standing urinals, i think our society would be a better place if men and woman pissed and shat in the same room together.
M|5.15.08 @ 6:13PM|#
To the new M @ 4:28- There's already an M at H&R. Would you
mind changing your handle please? Thanks.
M
Russ 2000|5.15.08 @ 6:52PM|#
Personally, I think the time has come for full out co-ed
restrooms.
I can;t remember which national retailer I was in where the
restroom were marked "Men", "Women", and "Family".
Clemsonuee|5.15.08 @ 7:52PM|#
We had toiletgate at the office I work at.
At the time we had about 50 men and 8 women working at the office
(we're an engineering firm). There were 2 women's stalls and 7 men
stalls + urinals. Apparently the women often had to wait because
they went to the bathroom in pairs and therefore if one pair was
engaged in bathroom activities the other pair had to wait.
Therefore we took one of the men's rooms and made it a woman's
room. This left us with toilet parity. 4 per. Needless to say this
seemed a bit unfair to us guys. Still even with a butt to hole
ratio of over 10 to 1 I only recall maybe 1 or 2 times that the
men's room had a line.
This did lead to a funny story where right as the change occured
and before a women's sign was put up a French customer of ours came
to visit the office and since he'd been there before he headed into
what he assumed was the men's room. He went to the urinal and
looked in it and saw a plant that one of the women had put there in
order to make it not a urinal I guess. He sees the plant and
figures that it must be a plant designed to be put in a urinal so
he does his business. When we found out later what happened it
seemed like a funny story to the guys, but not so funny to the
women.
NoStar|5.15.08 @ 8:15PM|#
I prefer to stand, but it is possible for me to sit and urinate.
However, it is more likely that the stream will arc up to the
ceiling rather than down to the bowl, especially in the
morning.
Being a gentleman, I am always willing to play by house rules.
jtuf|5.15.08 @ 10:21PM|#
The article attributed the long women's line to menstration, pregnancy, and lactation. I had not thought of those factors. I always attributed the long lines to impractical dress designs. Legislation is overkill here, but I can think of some improvements for companies that want to tackel the inequality. I once worked in an office floor with 5 unisex bath rooms containing one toilet each. This can work fine for a small building. In larger buildings, economies of scale point towards more creative solutions. A larger unisex bathroom could start with a washing area with sinks and the hallway doors. A partioned space on one end would be for lactation, while a partioned space on the other end would have changing tables. The wall opposite the sinks and hallway doors would have a row of water closets. Unlike stalls, water closets offer enough privacy to make unisex designs feasible.
Ron Paul Newsletter|5.15.08 @ 10:42PM|#
Black men are fleet-footed, so they can get in and out faster.
Sean Healy|5.16.08 @ 6:51AM|#
I went to Vassar, which had unisex toilets. It seemed to work fine. I also studied abroad in Germany, where student housing was based around communal-type living and men were expected to sit down to pee. Naturally, I refused. Even Vassar never got that bad.
Jen|5.16.08 @ 1:28PM|#
Women have simply seemed to accept that, if there are equal numbers of stalls in mens and womens restrooms, and equal numbers of restrooms, they will be in line for anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour at an event. But most businesses have either equal stalls, or fewer stalls in the women's room. I can see where someone would want to legislate because, seriously, are you going to boycott every business in your city because they don't have extra bathrooms? At the same time, if we had a more open culture where talking about your body wasn't pretty much taboo, maybe designers would think of things like this when designing a building and it wouldn't be an issue.
|5.16.08 @ 2:45PM|#
Personally, I've always favored the personal responsibility
approach: I'll march right in and use a single stall men's room if
it's empty and there's a lock on the door.
Wow, that's bravery. Those usually have issues with, umm, "poor
aim."
economist|5.16.08 @ 4:57PM|#
I, of course, do not see what the fuss is about. When I have to piss, I just find a corner where no one is looking, unzip my fly, and let it go.
Anna Ford|5.24.08 @ 2:41AM|#
Hi good day
I was so confuse why ladies do a cross legs although a men do
this...This is a psychology to the human???Even me i do this
everyday when I'm
sit down in a chair.esp.to have a urinate and move past go to
toilet while cross legs..
___________________
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