In the present day most people in almost every country will refuse to go to the toilet, as in do a poo, next to another stranger.
Why was it that the Romans, Turkish and other cultures had communal toilets where men (and separately women) did their business sat next to each other.
How and when did we become squeamish about this?
Most people? I’d rather not, but I will by no means “refuse”.
And in France they have open air urinals.
Side rant- I am seeing more and more mens bathrooms with a toilet and a urinal, but no wall between them. The Op makes a point in that many people are uncomfortable in these cases, so whoever is building these makes it so only one guy can use the bathroom at a time. Very stupid. BART bathrooms were all like this, IIRC.
It used to be that there was little or no privacy in life for anyone, whether slave or serf or even royalty. You did everything around other people, so why would bodily elimination be an exception?
I think it was with the rise of privacy (which is more recent than folks might suppose) that folks started peeing and pooping out of sight of others. It’s not that folks wouldn’t stand a bit away from others, or wouldn’t take advantage of a private spot to poop, it’s just that there weren’t many occasions to do ANYTHING in private. People used to live in one-room huts that included their domestic animals, and even in a big city like Ancient Rome you had the poorer folks jammed in together in one room apartments and the wealthy had their servants/slaves always around to fetch, carry, poor a drink, bring/take away food, set a fire, whatever. Before there was indoor plumbing in bad weather people peed and pooped into chamber pots in the room they were in (which might be only room of the house) and emptied them outside later. So bodily privacy is sort of a recent development in history. People weren’t squeamish before because even if they were there wasn’t much choice about it, you just didn’t have much or even any privacy.
Five Guys does this. One small open space, one toilet, one urinal. You open the main door and have clear view of someone sitting on the toilet, and then get to urinate a foot away in plain sight. Ugh. What is the etiquette? Make conversation? But a lock on the door- poor etiquette to lock the door when crapping if the urinal is available?
I don’t blame Five Guys for that, I blame the guy on the toilet who got there, saw the deal, and then didn’t lock the door behind him.
After you posted I edited to add that question, sorry- that is the etiquette I assume, or rude to a person needing to urinate?
Lock the door. Please
It seems pretty obvious to me that the intent of that setup is to give the single user the option of the toilet or the urinal. Possibly to reduce mess as many men who feel it is imperative they stand to pee suck at aiming, so give them a urinal.
I’ve always assumed that in a bathroom in a restaurant or store that had a single toilet and urinal with no cubicle around the toilet, the etiquette was to lock the door regardless of which you were going to use. An exception might be in a dive bar, where the toilet is going to be used mostly for urination as well.
Personally with this set up when urinating only I don’t lock, under the assumption that someone else could come in to use the toilet to urinate, and we would be back to back so no difference really there than urinals against both walls.
I thought someone might yell at me for locking when the other is free?
Can anyone confirm if the ladies equivalent to this is two toilets facing each other, no divider?
If the door has a lock, it’s meant for one person at a time.
Err… lady here, or at least human female. I have never, ever, ever seen that arrangement in a woman’s toilet. There are always dividers of some sort between the seats.
Women apparently require/demand/get more privacy than men, at least in the US.
Right.
No, then no one else can use the urinal or wash their hands. Poor design, for which Five Guys can certainly be blamed.
Now sure, mostly we’d lock the door if doing a BM, but still, it’s a bad design.
But with a simple wall, not even a door, just a thin partition, two men can go at the same time.
It’s a bad design.
Not always- my job has three toilets, three urinals and a lock.
Right, dont lock when just urinating or washing hands.
We’ve gone off on a tangent, haven’t we?
Does anyone (besides Broomstick) have an answer to the General Questions the OP asked?
Moderating
Yes, let’s get back to the questions in the OP, rather than etiquette at Five Guys men’s rooms.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator