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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 03 2019, @11:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the unisex dept.

Submitted via IRC for Soycow

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/


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  • (Score: 2) by choose another one on Monday February 04 2019, @10:24AM (1 child)

    by choose another one (515) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 04 2019, @10:24AM (#796068)

    1) We can't just unzip and have a whizz. If there is anything I envy men for it's the ability to take a piss standing up.
    2) As an extension of 1), we have to clean more thoroughly. Men can just shake it a bit, or so I'm told. This is also why women use more TP on average, because we have to use it every time no matter what we did.

    Can't or won't ? The physical plumbing doesn't seem to be the problem. I've seen people with vaginas pissing in "mens" urinals, I've seen them go and piss in the bushes just like people with dicks, and I've seen them squat and piss in the street. Writing your name in the snow would seems to be the only thing that's really a lot harder with a vagina.

    The real issue is that _most_ people with vaginas, in the western world _don't_ do this _most_ of the time (the peeing in the street IME usually involves the person being very drunk), while _most_ people with dicks do. Some, a minority, can't - on either side there are medical conditions that may prevent - most _can_ but choose not to.

    Oh and that "just shake it a bit" don't work so well as you get older and the prostate starts playing up, just so you know we ain't pissed down our leg or forgotten to shake it...

    3) Sometimes we go in there just to take a few minutes to decompress.

    Since that seems to be the major part of the problem, maybe rather than more toilets we should be providing toilets + decompression room (chamber?) - be a f*** of a lot cheaper it fyou didn't have to equip them with all the plumbing.

    4) If it's Shark Week, this is where you go to change a pad or a tampon, if you trust those.
    5) Also, did you know Shark Week sometimes includes more water retention *and* more peeing? Or sometimes really bad gas?

    Yup. Did you also know that once the "fun" of menopause kicks in it may not be only a week and may be every three weeks or less? Some things you don't need first hand experience but learn from those close to you (no not _that_ close get away I'm having a hot flush).

    Did you know that drinking beer by the pint causes (a lot) more peeing? I can remember when it was scandalous for a girl to order a pint, and it's _still_ dangerous for a man to order a half (a significant fraction of the few times I've been physically threatened by strangers in my life, and I very rarely do it), so maybe that evens it up a bit...

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  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Monday February 04 2019, @11:32PM

    by acid andy (1683) on Monday February 04 2019, @11:32PM (#796351) Homepage Journal

    and it's _still_ dangerous for a man to order a half (a significant fraction of the few times I've been physically threatened by strangers in my life, and I very rarely do it)

    Ask them to put it in a pint glass. Then no-one will know. Except the bartender of course, so if they're the ones threatening you, you're out of luck.

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?