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BBC:
A few years ago, Nathalie Des Isnards was attending a music festival with her husband David, and planning to watch her favourite group.
Before the show, they headed to the toilets. "I spent 30 minutes in the queue waiting to pee," she recalls. Much to her frustration, she missed the first part of the concert.
Meanwhile David took just "two minutes", and saw the whole show.
"I was upset. I told myself, 'We're in the 21st century, something should be done about that.'"
She set about creating a women's urinal. The simple seatless basin she devised is housed in a cubicle with roof and door, designed for faster use but also privacy. "I was not a designer. I was a user first," says the 46-year-old.
A different but important engineering challenge.
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Are Female Urinals the Answer to Queues at the Loos?
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New crypt. See /usr/news/crypt.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Friday March 13 2020, @09:30AM (13 children)
Same seems to apply to city girls when drunk, replacing tree with vehicle. Also, physically, girls can actually use existing "male" urinals (seen it done), but typically the shape isn't ideal or comfortable (from speaking to girls who have done it).
Clothing, as you say, may have a lot to do with it - traditionally western men's clothing seems to be designed for fast easy access to the genitals, while women's clothing seems to be designed to prevent that. I strongly suspect that men who dress in women's clothes lose most, if not all, of the time advantage.
I'll throw in another thought though - the queue is caused by the length of time spent in the bathroom, which is not the same as the length of time spent peeing. Having been to various events/gigs with subculture crowds that didn't give a flying f*** about "normal" in terms of dress/sexuality/gender-identity/whatever, the typically observed result was equally long queues for both sets of facilities (with a mix of male/female/wouldn't-like-to-call-it in each). At at least one memorable event when I finally got the the front of the queue hobbling with legs crossed and deeply regretting every pint... I found the urinals and cubicles largely empty, the queue was actually for the mirrors.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @12:25PM (12 children)
Solution: remove the mirrors from the crapper and put them in another area.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday March 13 2020, @02:14PM (10 children)
Heck - mirrors take approximately zero space, maximize efficiency and put them along the queue!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @02:32PM (9 children)
Nah, many chicks for some reason prefer us men folk not to see the making of the sausage. Personally, I prefer the sausage not be made at all because I see makeup as an offline version of instagram filters (which is to say, lying) but that's neither here nor there.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday March 13 2020, @02:44PM (8 children)
Still works - women's bathrooms are usually down a dedicated hall from the men's - just put a door in the hall. Heck, could even put some shallow sinks and counters there too.
Do you feel the same way about suits, ties, and brushing your hair? Much of modern society is about image management, and women tend to be judged far more harshly on their image.
It's a pretty spectacular make-up job that actually lies - usually it just distracts and enhances. Look carefully and you can get a pretty fair sense of the reality. I mean yeah, I've seen some pretty remarkable transformations - but if someone's face is caked in that much makeup you've got to figure that's it's probably not because they're trying to tone down their natural beauty.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @05:10PM (7 children)
Nah, clothing is primarily functional rather than cosmetic; it's also legally required. If we allowed public nudity that'd be another story. And brushed hair is still your actual hair. I object to the falsehood not the vanity.
The only reason women are judged so strictly on their image though is that they buy into it as well. If they started giving no more of a shit than guys, there'd be like one generation of complaint then it would be the norm. And, frankly, women are each other's harshest critics. Guys aren't nearly as concerned. If it looks like she's brushed and washed her hair recently, owns a pair of boobs that are kinda similar in size and more or less boob-shaped, and doesn't have an ass wider than our shoulders, we're probably already interested even if she's wearing sweats and has no makeup on.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @06:57PM (2 children)
I'll take the one with ass! You silly white boys can fight over boney Betty.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @10:51PM (1 child)
Oh, sorry, I was assuming you had a man's shoulders. Hips as wide as my shoulders is a whole hell of a lot of ass.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 16 2020, @03:09PM
Different strokes for different folks.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 13 2020, @08:12PM (2 children)
> If they started giving no more of a shit than guys,
Then the fashion industry would collapse...and take a good chunk of the economy with it (speaking pre-virus days, who knows what the economy will look like soon).
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday March 13 2020, @10:53PM
We lived through the collapse of the manufacturing industry, so I'm pretty sure we'd weather it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 14 2020, @02:37AM
I don't think the economy is *that* dependent on retail clothing stores.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday March 14 2020, @03:18AM
>ah, clothing is primarily functional rather than cosmetic
Ah yes... that's why the tattered cloth sacks of yore are still such common garments...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by choose another one on Friday March 13 2020, @03:53PM
Mirrors are usually above the washbasins which you need to (damn well should) access after using the crapper, so you end up with effectively two queues - one to wash, one to fix makeup, converging on the same set of basins. Now, sometimes you do need water and mirror at the same time, so you should still have mirrors over the basins, but yeah, put some makeup-mirror stations elsewhere, with no need for water, and you'd fix a lot of the problem. Also, (venturing onto dodgy ground) some cubicles without need of plumbing of any sort where girls can just go for a "girly chat" might help...