Question that only the ladies can answer:
Is there peer pressure among women - in situations where a lot of women are waiting their turn for the restroom - to pressure women to not take up time and delay others who also need to use the same restroom?
Do women who do take a long time in the restroom, get judged or criticized?
When there’s a long line for the bathroom, I think it’s just basic human empathy that makes a person hurry so that no one has to wait longer than necessary.
I remember exactly zero times in a lifetime of waiting in long ladies room lines when anyone was criticized.
It takes as long as it takes. No one is dawdling in there because it’s a pleasant place to hang out. If there’s a line, yeah, most people are going to get themselves out as quickly as they can, but there’s only so much you can do.
Men understand the mechanics of it, right?
Same. If someone seems to be taking a long time you figure she is changing a tampon or checking her blood sugar or something equally essential.
I don’t remember this ever coming up. From what I can tell, women try to get in and out as quickly as possible, and politely ignore each other in there for the most part. I would offer to help someone if a state of distress caught my attention, otherwise I am in my own little world in there.
Damn ad cut my post off halfway through.
No, I’ve never seen any outward signs of pressuring others to hurry up. Other than mothers talking to their small children.
The only time I have ever even seen anyone get annoyed by someone taking a long time in a restroom is when it’s a single stall, and there is a long line and the person has been in there quite a while.
Why did this question even come up? Why do you think this is a thing women do?
No sort of pressure WHATSOEVER could cause a woman to use the restroom more quickly! (In my experience.)
Furthermore, I think the bulk of the time women spend in the bathroom is in front of the mirror, not on the toilet!
There are attempts to catch the eye to glare at anyone caught dribbling on the seat. Just due to the logistics of walking in and out, it’s really hard to nail them, though.
I do rememebr one time at a diner, when a lady tried to pressure me before I went in. I was done eating, and next in line for the one-spot potty. The lady behind me started this really over-dramatized dancing act when she realized she was going to have to wait. It’s hard to explain, but the impression was truly that she just didn’t want to wait, not that she was really in need.
Anyway, I had my purse, and paper and everything all bundled up in my arm, and I wasn’t playing, because I truly had to go. Finally she just starts, almost at the top of lungs (people in the diner turned around and stared!)
“You aren’t going in there to READ the PAPER are you? I really hope you’re not going in there to READ the PAPER, because I really have to go!!!” In the strongest New Jersey - not even Jersey, more like Brighton Beach - accent.
It was absolutely horrific. If she’d just asked me quietly I would probably have given her the benefit of the doubt and let her go ahead, but no way was I going to encourage that behavior.
And while I didn’t need all that long in there, I confess to taking a moment or two before opening the door. Because, Whoa!
Shouldn’t that be “Pee-er pressure”?
I did, once, in a very long line in a Daytona Beach club bathroom, hear girls cheering each other on with “pee quick like a bunny!”
(It was one of those lines full of drunk girls where you make six new best drunk friends and you’re all super supportive of each other and really appreciate each other’s outfits.)
I did once sort of complain about people taking too long in the bathroom, but the bathroom in question was a Porta Potty, and the people who seemed to be taking friggin’ forever were men. It was at Ribfest and there were long lines for each of the Porta Potties. (There were long lines to get beer, too, which helps explain the length of the potty lines.)
At any rate, I made a general comment about apparently having inadvertently selected the Enlarged Prostate Line. IIRC I got a couple of dirty looks.
The only pressure I’ve ever heard placed on women to take less time in the restroom is by men*, who seem to think it’s a general rule of the universe that women take for-ev-er just because. Me_Billy kindly provided an example of this mindset.
*Not all men, mind you.
:rolleyes: Your personal experience is not universal.
I doubt he’s ever been in a woman’s bathroom. Men seem to spend a lot of time thinking about what women do in bathrooms, don’t they? We pee, wash, and get out. I can’t say I’ve ever spent more than 10 seconds wondering what men do in men’s bathrooms.
Exactly. You stand in line (if there is one), go pee, wash your hands, leave. Maybe in a club, airport, or out in a fancy restaurant you take a quick look in the mirror and do a touch up if needed. It’s certainly not a place to hang out or anything.
That hasn’t happened in my experience before. If I’m in there for anything that takes longer than peeing, I will take exactly as long as it takes to finish that process, be it changing my pad or pooping.
TruCelt, I would have taken a few extra minutes in there to read the paper, just because of that woman’s attitude. 
I think women are generally sympathetic and try to be as quick as possible if there is a queue, because there are never enough cubicles in women’s loos.
Heh, I’d have come out and offered some recommendations, “man, the letters to the editor have really gotten weak these days; honestly the whole opinion page isn’t what it used to be. There’s a good Dear Abby though.”