I don’t have personal experience but over the years there have been many postings by folks who clean(ed) public restrooms as part of their job. There’s pretty much universal agreement that the ladies room is far more fouled (and foul) than the men’s. Which I would wager also affects how they smell before cleaning.
For sure the lack of women’s perfumes and other scents in the men’s room might loom large in the nose of someone attuned to such things. Whatever men’s rooms do smell like, the perfume department at Macy’s ain’t it.
It’s been about thirty years since I visited Germany, but yes, I do remember those odd toilets. My wife and I go to Japan on a regular basis, where a significant percentage of public toilets are squat toilets; regrettably, these are much fresher in my memory.
I liked the squat toilets when i visited Japan. I found squatting felt very natural, and i liked that i didn’t have to touch anything. With one exception, they were all very clean and flushed effectively.
At Ren Fest last year, there were 50 women lined up to use the ladies room and 10 women lined up to use the men’s stalls. It didn’t seem to bother any of the men using urinals right next to the queue. And it was nice to see 100% of men wash their hands when they were in view of women.
Maybe not; but a lot of men use scented products these days, even if they don’t call them perfumes. To my nose, most of the scented stuff marketed to women and most of the scented stuff marketed to men all stink; and there’s overlap in the way that they stink. However, to my nose, in most public restrooms that stink is overwhelmed by the stink of the cleaning products; which for any given establishment are generally the same for all restrooms.
I don’t squat as easily as I used to; or get up from a squat as easily as I used to, either. Do they give you grab bars?
However, I’m no taller than I used to be; and the recent tendency for everything you sit on in the USA to be higher than it used to be, toilets included, does not work well for me.
I’m a recent convert to men’s stinky stuff myself. I agree both M & F products mostly just stink; I just accept that I’m in the minority and the people who like those smells react better when I’ve got them.
But at least to my easily assaulted nose, there’s very little in common between the gestalt of men’s products and the gestalt of women’s. Besides the general biting undertone of the alcohol carrier that is.
I did once, that I remember. I was desperately trying not to wet my pants, searching for the Men’s room in an unfamiliar building, and came around a corner and saw “MEN” on the door. Later when exiting I realized that I was reading the end of “WOMEN”, with “WO” blocked by the recess of the door as viewed from close to the corner.
It put me into a panic. Scandal!! Prison!!
There was a restroom at one of my employer’s locations that always gave me a little panic, even though I knew it was going to. It had mild pink decor, had no urinals, and had a pad & tampon dispenser (though no little boxes in the stalls). I always assumed it had been re-designated for some reason, though oddly there was no corresponding women’s room nearby.
Though I’ve never discussed this, I suspect that the typical reaction is different for men walking into a women’s room (panic at accidentally transgressing a dire taboo by invading forbidden space) than for a woman walking into a men’s room (disgust?). I’m curious to know other poster’s reactions and whether they differ by gender?
All this is based on my historical training assuming a tidy gender binary. However I’ve also spent significant time in trans crowds and spaces, and worked on trans issues including restroom access. for some reason I tend to automatically think of mistakenly walking into the wrong restroom, and all the bathroom bill issues, as completely unrelated phenomena. It has been really nice, though, being at big trans events (such as Wellness Conferences) where all the restrooms were made gender neutral and everybody got along fine sharing a simple utilitarian room.
As a male, my instant reaction is fear of arrest. That somebody will assume the worst, raise a fuss, and now I’m arrested and pilloried in the press for being a perv.
Hmm. Thank you for enlightening me. This didn’t occur to me though it should have. Reminds me of that pseudo-quote from Margaret Atwood that men are afraid women will laugh at them and women are afraid men will kill them.
(“pseudo-quote” because what she actually said is longer and harder to turn into a neat quote, but it is the same essence or idea)
I’m female. I’m not disgusted by men’s rooms. And a public men’s room isn’t all that private. In most cases I’d feel embarrassed, mostly at the thought that I might have embarrassed the men. In a location that was making me nervous otherwise, there’d probably be some fear; though in a location that was making me nervous otherwise I think I’d be less likely to walk into the wrong room in the first place, whether by accident or on purpose, because I’d be on higher alert levels to start with.
I agree. “Comfort height” toilets have gotten pretty damn uncomfortable. Maybe they are okay for tall men. They don’t work for this 5’6" woman. My old “comfort height” toilet was fine, and I bought a new one without carefully looking at the specs. It’s not fine.
Ditto. The men’s rooms I accidentally walked into were large and full of people. And they were as clean as any other large hotel restroom. I didn’t feel fear or disgust. I just felt embarrassment.
Curious – do those that feel embarrassment feel the embarrassment you’d feel trying to pull a door that says “PUSH”, or the embarrassment breaking a taboo makes us feel?
I think probably a little of the first; mixed with the sort of social embarrassment that comes with feeling ‘I don’t belong here’. I’m not sure if that has to do with taboos or with some level of social anxiety. And there’s some of ‘I hope I didn’t embarrass anybody in here’.
But as I’m not shy at all about being in a supposedly men’s restroom if there’s a good reason and either there aren’t any men, the men obviously don’t care, or at least the imminent presence of women has been announced so that any man who does care can go hide in a stall if they want, I don’t think there’s a lot of social taboo reaction involved.