I don’t get this at all. What are people (mostly women) thinking when they do this? When you sit on a toilet seat, at most, the backs of your mid-thigh area might touch the seat, though usually at least for me, the top of my lowered pants are between me and the cold seat. I mean, if your genitals (female) are touching the seat, um, you’re doing it wrong anyway.
And why the hell do they think it’s okay to leave the thing hanging off the toilet when they are done?
And then there is the whole stupid “hovering” thing whereby they spray piss all over the seat and leave it for the next person to either sit on or clean up…:mad:
I didn’t want to post this in the Pit as a rant, as I honestly really do want to know what the thought process is here.
I don’t use toilet seat covers (not because I’m against them, but because 99% of the public places I go #2 in don’t have them), but I do completely cover the toilet seat with a double-layer of toilet paper prior to sitting down to do my business. I fully realize that toilet seats are cleaner than sinks, but *my *rationale is, I simply don’t want my bare ass cheeks touching a surface where strangers’ bare ass cheeks have been. There’s also the issue of men’s toilet seats often having dried-up piss all over them and I REALLY don’t want to sit on someone else’s dried-up piss.
First, I am male and I don’t use them, but nonetheless, if you sit your ass down on a toilet seat you are rubbing asses with everybody else who sat down on that seat since the last time it was disinfected. Now, I don’t know whether there are any statistics about how often people become infected by sitting on a toilet seat, but there are those who figure it’s not worth a chance. People seem to think that the most likely transmittal on a toilet seat is crab lice, but our government says not.
Leaving the paper there is gross; you’re supposed to flush it down. And I’ve heard of this “hovering” thing, which sounds even worse to me when you get the Niagra Falls effect.
Far too often, it’s not entirely dried up. After having overlooked a few droplets of someone else’s cold piss on the seat a few times, using a seat cover suddenly doesn’t seem like such a silly idea.
I always think it’s funny how men are more or less a predictable slob or not no matter where they are, but women tend to go crazy and be total slobs when they’re outside the nest. At home: “put down the seat! Clean the rim! I don’t want to see even one pubbie!” Public restroom: I’ll bend over and pee all over the place! You don’t even want to know what else I might do!"
Worked in restaurants & bars, cleaned mens’ & womens’ restrooms. I KNOW what you both do in there.
I have used them in an office where it seemed to be the norm that everyone used them. It was a busy multi-stall restroom where the covers were in the main area. It just seemed like it was better form to do as the Romans did.
I have also used them in particularly skeevy restrooms, when I may also have used various prayers and incantations to deities.
I have declined to use them under the rationale that a thin piece of tissue is probably not serious protection against anything serious.
I have speculated that their use is more common in restrooms used by more socioeconomically or racially mixed groups. I have not done any empirical testing of this hypothesis, although it could be done if someone wants to fund it.
levdrakon, your observation may be due to women, encountering a public restroom not maintained to the standards of their own home, taking desperate measures not to touch anything.
You guys do know the technical name for those seat covers, don’t you?
“Texas Teeshirts”
I use them, but only to dry my hands instead of using those infernal designed by Satan air dryers. The T.T.'s work as well or better than paper towels for that.
The only crappers I sit on outside my house are at work and at the public library (for some reason I frequently get the urge at the library.) I figure if everyone else uses ass gaskets, why do I need to? The seat should stay clean. Kind of like those parents who don’t vaccinate their kids because everyone else does.
Plus, if you pay close attention, it’s easy to figure out when the toilets get cleaned. At work ours are cleaned round about 9 a.m., which is when my bowels tend to move anyway. So I can usually time it and get a freshly disinfected bowl. If you see little bubbles of bowl cleaner floating on the water, it’s definitely sparkling fresh.
Except for work and the library, I don’t crap in public toilets unless it’s a dire, dire emergency. And in such cases hygiene is the last thing on my fevered little mind.
You crap in the LIBRARY toilet and not in other toilets? Honey, I work in a library. You do NOT want to go in there. My male coworkers absolutely refuse to.
Likewise, I use them if I’ve had to wipe someone else’s piss off the seat. I’d rather not realize that I missed a spot or so and get that on my ass/thighs.
A place I used to work had had little disinfectant dispensers on the stall walls, and clearly printed instructions to squirt some on a wad of toilet paper and use it to wipe off the seat before sitting down, if you were so inclined. It dried instantly and you could put your ass down on a sparkling clean and germ-free surface. Man, I loved those things; I wish every bathroom had them, much more efficient and easy to deal with than those stupid paper ass-gaskets.
I wonder the same thing. It’s uncomfortable. I just take some tp and wipe off the seat first, even if it looks clean and dry - I don’t need some dude’s piss on my ass.
Nah, not in my experience. Guys are like, “well I gotta pee, so I’ll pee, just like do everywhere else.” Women are like, “I don’t have to clean this? Splat! Splatter! Splash! Woo, hoo, don’t have to clean it! Splat some more!”
Sorry, don’t mean to sound sexist, but women go crazy when they don’t have to clean. Don’t even get me started on women and dirty diapers they don’t have to dispose of.