As a male, I have visited a number of men’s rooms in my life and I have noticed some unusual (to me) behavior on the part of other visitors. While most men flush after urinating, some flush before they urinate, and others flush while they are urinating.
Since I am a post-urination flusher, this system makes the most sense to me – I purge the waste from my body, then dispose of the waste by flushing. I can (almost) make a case for the pre-urination flushing: perhaps the previous visitor failed to flush or the sound of running water helps a bashful bladder. But, then why not flush again when one is finished? Pride (Look at what I made!)?
The midstream flusher is the most puzzling to me. What is gained by this behavior?
For obvious reasons, I don’t feel I can approach a strange man in a men’s room to ask why they flushed when they did.
Is this strictly a man thing, or do women flush before they urinate or during?
I used to be a mid-flusher. The thing is, that way you make a game out of it. If you finish urinating before the flush is over, you’ve “won”. I quit doing it, though, because I ended up losing at least half the time.
I might add a couple other “games” that are played on the toilet. First, there is Battleship, which involves directing one’s stream of urine at a floating-in-the-john cigarette until it is ripped asunder. My father used to discard his Lucky Strikes in that venue, and I would delight in destroying them with a golden salvo of hot pee. They were unfiltered, however, which made it difficult – there being no natural weak point to exploit.
Another “game” – in which I myself do not indulge – is the Pubic Hair Garnish. The object of this sport is nothing more than to pull out your loose pubic hairs and strew them about on the rim of the urinal. I kid you not. In the men’s restroom where I work, this used to take place pretty regularly. I at first supposed that it was an accident, but then I figured, there’s just no way that any more than a couple strands could fall merely upon loosing one’s fly. I have since seen this in other public restrooms, and I must admit that I’ve tried it once, just to see how much I could harvest (quite a lot, actually). I was wondering if anyone else had observed this behavior, and whether it’s been documented and named by social science?
I would wag the pre-flusher (aka selfish) is cleaning the urinal before he uses it (caring for himself more then others as he doesn’t flush for the next person) mid-flusher (aka preemtive flusher) is in a rush and wants to get the flush out of the way and get out of there ASAP.
Have you guys read Cecil’s archive column on toilet plumes? I assume there are urinal plumes too.
Note to self: Get as far away from urinal before flushing.
Urinating while the toilet is flushing could possibly solve two issues:
WAG 1. Splashback - with your urine be pulled down the drain by the flushing water, it would be less likely to splash back on you. Some modern urinals detect a patron’s arrival and release a little water automatically for this purpose (that’s a guess - I think it might help to keep the urinals clean as well)
WAG 2. Noise supression - Nobody likes to hear pissing noises, and the flush covers it up. Here in asia it’s a big deal (for women, especially) and in Korea they’ve installed electronic flushing-sound devices to conserve water.
If a fellow walks away from a bowl of his own urine without flushing, the acid will cause the minerals in the water to “fall out” of the water and form a ridge of stinky pee-rock on the porcelain.
I don’t know why I’m compelled to share, but #2 was why I became a mid-flusher. It was back in college with coed bathrooms. Grew out of it eventually, but sometimes I still do it (at home) without realizing it.
In terms of sanitation, pre-flushing is pretty icky unless you’re sure not to use whichever hand you just used to touch the handle. Check out Cecil’s column for more.
PC
