http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/festivalvulture/2007/06/24/spotted_at_glastonbury_the_she.html
Why have ideas like these never caught on?
There’s a female urinal installed in the men’s bathroom at my office. Methinks someone didn’t quite get the point.
But I can see why they never caught on, at least not that design. It uses as much water and takes up as much space as a regular toilet, and I imagine it takes about the same amount of time to use, too. And of course, it’s less versatile. So there’s really no point.
Because they are a solution to a problem that doesn’t generally exist. Most women are perfectly happy to sit if given access to a clean toilet pot. In a public facility that might not be the cleanest, women and men have options, ranging from wiping the seat down with a wet paper towel or antibacterial wipe (many women carry these in their bags) or, as one female friend described it, “hovering” over the seat if necessary.
Plus, I have no idea how that thing is supposed to work, but it doesn’t necessarily suggest it would be a snap to use. I have to think, for instance, that a woman could not just stand upright with her legs on either side and let loose – the urethra is not really clearly exposed in a normal standing position, and I kind of think if she started urinating from a standing position, it’d be spraying in different directions or running down her leg. Sitting (or squatting) sort of naturally separates and exposes the, uh, general area. So to use at least that first thing, you’d probably have to do the equivalent of straddling and squatting pretty far, as in some Asian squat toilets. Is that really a solution most Western women are going to regard as a step forward?
This comes up again and again either for political reasons or because someone wants attention and knows that even adults have an exaggerated interest in matters scatalogical. It’s not really, for the most part and from most women I’ve met, a crying unmet need. The existing technology has been working pretty well for hundreds, or thousands, of years.
I seriously doubt women found these all that convenient or sanitary.
If the woman is going commando in a skirt or dress, I can see the practicality. However, in pants, I definitely believe the traditional alternatives make much more sense. Speaking as an outsider, of course.
That’s pretty much the issue. These devices are not convenient or sanitary in a normal business restroom. That paper pee pointer might be handy when camping, but not on a regular basis.
Back when I was menstruating, too, if Aunt Flo was visiting, I’d use my potty time to check on and change my sanitary supplies, and I have never mastered the art of changing a tampon while standing up.
A device should make a task easier, not harder.
Good! I did master this, but I stopped after having one of the most mortifying experiences of my adult life.
TMI, guys don’t read it, really.
[spoiler]Do you remember the thread a couple of months ago about not knowing stuff about the opposite sex, and we discovered that some guys thought tampons were like stoppers? Well…
My first job after college involved driving all over the county for things, and one day I finally got a couple of minutes to attend to things while at a library. I didn’t have to pee, and as always my supervisor was in a rush, so I decided not to bother with sitting to pull out my tampon, which I’d done before with no ill effects. This was a bad idea because it had been a longish while since I’d last gotten to use the bathroom. It definitely was acting as a stopper just then, and then it wasn’t. Fortunately I was wearing dark brown slacks so the blood that ran down my leg wasn’t too visible, but I ended up with blood in my socks. In my socks! [/spoiler] Yeah. So sit to change tampons, Gals.
As for female urinals, no thanks. If the intent is to solve the problem of women who hover over the toilet and pee all over, this will not work. As if those precious snowflakes would pee in a urinal where everyone could see them!
At least the top one looks a lot better than the old-style female urinals they used to have, which were just huge, low, elongated toilet bowls (what was the point of those exactly? They weren’t to save space, obviously.) I might try one in an emergency but as I’m pretty short I’m guessing I wouldn’t enjoy it much.
geez… I’ve always done it standing up… hmm…
So wouldn’t this urinal be easier for those who choose to hover pee?
I never get the hover people. There’s never been any case of anyone getting an illness from a toilet seat. And yeah, it’s gross, but it’s a toilet. Just deal.
If I ever find out that someone I know is a hoverer, I seriously will reconsider friendship. Hovering is one of the most thoughtless and self-absorbed things you can do in a restroom. Let’s see, you don’t want to get any pee on you, so you hover, which is what causes any pee to get on the damn seat in the first place! Just sit your goddamned ass down, pee, and be done with it!
Eeek, elfkin477. I always changed my tampons squatting, though. My balance is sometimes a little iffy, so I had to be careful.
I don’t mind the hoverers so much–if I don’t know they’ve been there. There’s always a hoverer, though, who not only can’t have her butt touch a toilet seat, but can’t be bothered wiping her pee off the seat afterward. Grrr.
Like TV Time mentioned, I think that clothing would be a major consideration. Yes, with a short skirt and no underwear, the top urinal could be negotiated. But how many women actually dress like that? Imagine a woman in a jumpsuit. She’d have to more or less get fully naked to use the thing.
Isn’t it awfully nice to have a penis?
Hear, hear. There was a whole Tyra segment that I saw on youtube where she said, “Did you know that if you hover, your underwear is still touching the nasty floor/toilet? So you should hover and also pull your underwear away!” You have the ear of so many women and you’re encouraging this delusion?! Tyra WOULD hover. That totally doesn’t shock me.