# In The Ladies' Room. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 14, 2003, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545 "2003-09-14T11:47:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/21 "2003-09-14T21:41:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Horseflesh \* > \*\*Mrs. Flesh and I work at the same company and I know that there’s a couch in the women’s restroom. Wife tells me that it’s not uncommon to hear someone throwing up from morning sickness. The couch is a good place to lay down and calm your stomach but still close enough to the Porcelain God if you gotta throw up again. \*\* Yep, you nailed that one - the sofas are there for pregnant women. ---
**Author:** ![International\_Playboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/48db29/32.png) [@International\_Playboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/International_Playboy)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/22 "2003-09-14T22:41:05Z")
I’ve heard rumors of a couch in the ladies’ room at work for several years now. Used to be that someone would comment that “so-and-so” had to go lie down for a few minutes in the rest room. At first, in this day of “equality,” I thought that was giving women unfair favor over men. But thinking it over, I decided that I would never use such a thing in the men’s room. I mean, our restroom is so foul most of the time. We have a person or persons who forget or refuse to flush the toilets after a big load. I’ve also seen both the toilets and urinals stuffed with with paper towels and for a while, candy bar wrappers in the toilets! And this is a government buliding full of so called “engineers.” I wish we had a separate sink area, a kitchenette or something, to rinse coffee cups and eating utensils. And I will never brush my teeth in there like I’ve seen some people do. (I once saw a guy lather up and shave his head in there!) No the atmosphere in our men’s room is so unpleasant, I can barely stand sometimes, to go in there for normal business. I certainly don’t want to hang around there more than necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/23 "2003-09-15T20:29:56Z")
Interesting. I’ve taken to brushing my teeth most vigorously after meals, and after my morning iced coffee. While I find the use of a sink in a rest room as a source for mouth-water to be totally disgusting, I have no problem standing before the sink and brushing, and expectorating my oral effluvia into said porcelain resevoir. I just take in a cup of filtered water with me, to rinse with. Having shared just a smidge more than was likely necessary, I’m inclined to agree with **International Playboy** here. Most men’s rooms are unspeakably foul. Then again, the **Wifestrocity** and **The Fem-Bot** both confirm the fact that the overwhelming majority of ladies’ rooms are equally horrific. Never seen a sofa in a men’s room. Never seen a stuffed chair. The ONLY chairs I have ever seen are in hoity-toity men’s rooms in hoity-toity hotels and the odd _Salon Privée_ that I’ve been in. That chair is used by a fellow whose job in life is to insist on handing me a paper towel to dry my hands off. I also am offered over seventy-three different cologne’s , talc’s, deodorants and skin bracers. If I chose to wipe my hands on the back of my pants out of sheer defiance, I’m obliged to Tip the man for the priveledge. Apparently there are rules concerning water on hands in men’s rooms, and I missed that memo. It’s incredible. Okay, this leads me to the follow-up question. Is this business of hygeine by blackmail and coercion unique to men’s rooms, or do the ladies also find a demonical matron ensconced by the sinks in the ladies’ loo ? Cartooniverse, who does NOT in any way shape or form wish to be known as " **Cartooniverse, the guy that hangs out on the men’s room couch** , but I have to admit that **Why A Duck** made me snort at the idea. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/24 "2003-09-15T20:35:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by herman\_and\_bill \* > \*\* Hey Cartooniverse, next time you are there early switch the signs. \*\* Done. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/25 "2003-09-15T20:39:22Z")
The _best_ ladies’ rooms were at Lord & Tayor’s in Bala Cynwyd, and Rumplemayer’s in New York. They looked like French whorehouses: sofas, mirrors, gilded Louis XVI chairs and tables scattered about. One felt just like Zsa Zsa Gabor in those ladies’ rooms . . . ---
**Author:** ![AbbySthrnAccent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@AbbySthrnAccent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AbbySthrnAccent)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/26 "2003-09-15T20:47:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cartooniverse \* > Okay, this leads me to the follow-up question. Is this business of hygeine by blackmail and coercion unique to men’s rooms, or do the ladies also find a demonical matron ensconced by the sinks in the ladies’ loo ? They are in the ladies room in fancier hotels and establishments as well. ---
**Author:** ![MPangloss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@MPangloss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPangloss)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/27 "2003-09-15T20:55:02Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Why A Duck \* \*\*Let’s say there was a couch in the men’s room, would you use it? absolutely…there would be fridge right next to it and a tv mounted on the wall. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/28 "2003-09-15T20:57:08Z")
Honestly, I think the men’s room needs a fainting couch worse than the ladies room does. Just today this great big tall guy came in and blew an NBA fart right at me. Sonuvabitch was a trailblazer from his land o’ port and the foul thing nearly knocked me over. I was sitting down when he let fly but still it would have been nice to have a couch I could have slumped onto. ---
**Author:** ![MetalDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@MetalDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetalDog)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/29 "2003-09-15T21:52:21Z")
Where I work we have a toilet on each floor. Not big floors, but we have a toilet for each. There are only two women working there, me and the receptionist/secratary/all that boring paperwork stuff no-one else can be arsed with woman. We’re both on the ground floor, so that’s our bog. Now, I know all the toilets are identical and I know they get cleaned out thoroughly every night by our two wonderful cleaners. However - the ladies always smells more or less okay and has a clean and spangly look about it, despite my collection of comics and tech catalogues in one of the cubicles. One night, while changing a fan on the server, I couldn’t be bothered to walk down. I was the only one there, so I went into the first floor bog. Oh. My. God. How do you _do_ it, guys? We’ve only been in the building a few months! The smell of shit is ingrained into the very substance of the room. An overall atmosphere of pervading evil - it was a _presence_ watching my every move with overbearing malignancy. If I worked with a bunch of fat slobs who only ever ate meat dripping with grease I could understand it, but you maniacs get more exercise than I do and the fridge is full of healthy eating! That and both cubicles were full of porn and car mags, but I can’t really cast stones on that account. I think men are like foxes. They stake their territory by having unbeliveably persistant poo smell. Don’t even get me started on my male flatmate’s concept of what consititutes a clean bathroom. ---
**Author:** ![herman\_and\_bill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f1d935/32.png) [@herman\_and\_bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herman_and_bill)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/30 "2003-09-15T22:13:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cartooniverse \* > \*\*Done. > > 😃 \*\* Did you try the sofa out? ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/31 "2003-09-15T22:16:32Z")
I dunno - if I were ill, the last place I’d like to be is on a sofa listening to other women whizzing and pooping a few feet away. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/32 "2003-09-15T22:47:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MetalDog \* > **\secratary/all that boring paperwork stuff no-one else can be arsed with woman. \** This is my job description. I think I’ll put this on my résumé. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Kakofonous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9a140/32.png) [@Kakofonous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakofonous)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/33 "2003-09-15T23:13:07Z")
In my workplace, the guys definitely have the number / luxuries advantage - but _man_ those things are nasty. There isn’t a women’s bathroom on my floor - but there’s a large men’s room near me. There are showers in there that I was recently terrified to find out that people actually use. The main door is always propped open and some of the most unpleasant sounds come out of there. The closest women’s room is actually in another building - but that one tends to get skanky during the school year. All of the women tend to use the women’s bathroom that’s a floor down and on the otherside of the building. I wouldn’t want to eat off the floor or anything, but we (and our wonderful evening custodial staff) manage to keep the bathroom quite tidy. ---
**Author:** ![ArtyDooDoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@ArtyDooDoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArtyDooDoo)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2003, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/34 "2003-09-15T23:37:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bittersweet \* > \*\*_snickers too_ > > What would cause someone to poo on a couch in the men’s room? And to not even clean it up? Ew. I mean, just… **ew**. > > Perhaps that was their way of protesting the whole essence of couchiness. \*\* Another experience he had with poo on a couch is when he worked for a company called Robins Parking. He had to go and collect the coins from the parking meters. One of these places was a large parking lot behind a building. A group of homeless people were living back there and had an old couch sitting with their assorted items. They had been using the couch as a toilet and had been pooing on it for the whole week between the last time he was there and this time. He and some of his coworkers had to haul it out of there. Apparently there was really really a lot of poo on it. ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/35 "2003-09-16T03:54:32Z")
Women RULE, don’t you get it yet? Sheesh… You have to ask why we get couches, carpeting, soft lighting, wallpaper… we’re WOMEN! “I am woman, hear me roar!”-- some chick ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/36 "2003-09-16T05:41:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MetalDog \* > **How do you _do_ it, guys? We’ve only been in the building a few months! The smell of shit is ingrained into the very substance of the room. An overall atmosphere of pervading evil - it was a _presence_ watching my every move with overbearing malignancy.** Please note the post directly above yours. And who posted it. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/37 "2003-09-16T06:10:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ArtyDooDoo \* > \*\*They had been using the couch as a toilet and had been pooing on it for the whole week between the last time he was there and this time. He and some of his coworkers had to haul it out of there. > > Apparently there was really really a lot of poo on it. \*\* Perhaps it was a statement; a protest á la **lieu**. Or maybe it was performance art, a piece for me and you Nevertheless, it was creative shit – it was some **ArtyDooDoo**. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/38 "2003-09-16T06:55:15Z")
Wow, that’s straight out of Dilbert. Two women are talking about watching a movie on the big screen TV in the bathroom and one of the women calls the blue couch. Then Wally walks up to Dilbert and says “Look, the men’s room has soap!” ---
**Author:** ![Sapphire\_Bullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Sapphire\_Bullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapphire_Bullet)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/39 "2003-09-16T07:08:06Z")
One of the ladies’ rooms on campus has sort of a waiting area next to the bathrooms. Sort of like a foyer to the stalls? There were several times I went in and saw girls laying on the couch studying. Basically IN the bathroom. Mere FEET away from toilets. It isn’t as if there weren’t other quiet areas in which to study. Weird. Weird weird weird. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2003, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545/40 "2003-09-16T11:34:56Z")
The comment about the closest ladies room reminds me of my undergraduate days. A lot of my classes were in the Alumni Hall of Engineering(AHE) which was directly across the street from the Science building. AHE was 5 stories high, but built on the side of a hill so that the third floor was the one where the front door was. The 3rd floor had the only ladies I ever located, on the rare occasions it was closed for cleaning when I wished to use it, I’d head across the street to the familiar bathroom in the science building. When the 3rd floor AHE ladies room was closed, there was a sign near it describing the location of a bathroom in the basement, but I was never sure that it was more than a coat closet at a greater distance away. AHE had been built before the college decided to permit women as students and so they had converted a men’s room to the women’s room on the 3rd floor. The other thing which amused me was when there was an open house and lots of visitors were expected. Signs would direct men to the 2nd floor for a restroom, but I bet half of them used the 4th floor restroom without realizing it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-ladies-room/201545.md?page=3)