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In 1987, a man, a woman, and their daughter attended a Tchaikovsky concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The most notable thing about their outing, all these years later, is something that actually wasn't the least bit unusual: The two women waited in an interminably long line for the bathroom, while the man did not.
What separates their uncomfortable experience from those of innumerable others is that the man in their party was a California state senator. After witnessing just how long his family members had to wait, he introduced legislation to guarantee the state's women more toilets.
In the three decades since, dozens of cities and states have joined the cause of "potty parity," the somewhat trivializing nickname for the goal of giving men and women equal access to public toilets. These legislative efforts, along with changes to plumbing codes that altered the ratio of men's to women's toilets, have certainly helped imbalances in wait times, but they haven't come close to resolving them.
"It still remains a huge problem today, overall," says Kathryn Anthony, an architecture professor at the University of Illinois who has studied the issue for more than a decade. The issue persists for many reasons: the exigencies of real estate, the building codes that govern construction, and, of course, sexism.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/01/women-men-bathroom-lines-wait/580993/
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @08:48AM (3 children)
As a guy that has always sat down, even to pee, I still don't get it.
I wear jeans 99% of the time, so no easy-pull-down or unzip. Because of a foreskin problem from a young age (now resolved, but I'm still in the habit), I got into the habit of always sitting down and never being able to "get the last drop out". I still follow the same routine now. And I'm still *always* out before the women who enter at the same time. So it's nothing to do with urinals, zip-front trousers, or anything else. Even if every guy was like me, we'd still not form queues like the ladies.
I get that there's a whole other process that men don't have and can't go through. Fine. So there should be double the amount of time involved. But still - gents is never queuing, ladies is out the door and down the corridor.
You're - as a group - doing something more in there than is strictly necessary, especially if in a theatre etc. where everyone needs to be back in time so you need to hurry.
There's also a matter of bladder capacity and/or ability to hold, I suppose. But, if anything, women drink way more than I ever do (not just alcohol but water every two seconds).
Though biasing towards heavier female needs, I still think there's an awful lot of "optional" stuff happening to be that slow.
P.S. Wash your damn hands if you've touched ANYTHING. And it is technically possible for a guy to pee without touching anything (just not standing up, unless you want wet floors).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @10:54AM
Huh? I wear jeans all the time, they have a zip.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @01:26PM (1 child)
Screwed up circumcision? :-(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 04 2019, @03:35PM
Not the AC above, but my foreskin ripped at the point where it connects when I was 18 and my girlfriend was extremely tight and hated foreplay. Went in too fast, felt some pain but quickly forgot, when I finished saw blood and then realized what had happened. After that I've had to pull my foreskin very far back (further than it went before) or I would get a wide spray, and aiming became more difficult. On the plus side, I no longer have issues with retracting the foreskin like before (sometimes it would be difficult to get over the rim of the head).