The Guardian, where else?
The queue for women’s toilets is a feminist issue
Thus speaks Lezlie Lowe. To be fair, she has a point about provision as there aren’t enough public conveniences. However, her stupidity is summarised by this remark:
Because toilets are, inescapably, a feminist issue. There are fewer public toilets every year. In the UK, there were 5,159 council-run toilets in 2010. That had dropped to 4,486 by 2018. The decline continues annually. But even when toilets are there, they don’t work for women as well as they do for men.
This isn’t about applying lipstick – a ridiculous trope that suggests lineups for women’s loos are created by hordes who just want to primp and preen. There are simply more of us in there, more of the time. Women empty their bladders more frequently than men and take longer – an average start-to-finish time of 60 seconds for men, but 90 for women. Women also visit the toilet for more reasons, such as changing tampons, and we care more often for children or adults who need our assistance.
Clearly this stupid, stupid, stupid woman has never met, let alone spoken, to a man with an enlarged prostate. A man who may take several minutes to start urination, who suffers pain when passing a feeble dribble of urine and then, fifteen minutes later has to go back and go through the whole thing again – several times a day on a bad day. But, no, it’s a feminist issue. Fer fuck’s sake!
Moron!
As an engineer I consider the requirement, the resources and the constraints and come up with a solution.
Never, ever have I thought, as I white, heterosexual, non-Muslim, non-environmentalist, non-socialist man, here is what I propose to impose on you other b**tards regardless, and I have never met any other engineer that thought differently.
Engineering is sexist. Do keep up.
STET: wammen in Science Engineering and Toilets. So that’s what it means!
I don’t know if muslims are right about wammen but I’m starting to think that maybe schopenhauer and those other bewhiskered Victorian gentlemen were!
Don’t get me started on the new ‘values’ that we are supposed to ’embrace’, foist on us by an institution that we actually pay for.
Any day now we will be getting ‘equality of materials’, lead aircraft, sodium dams, paper bridges and if we believe they will work then they will!
Really I think that the problem is purely about mechanics. Because of our rather handy appendage, we can get by with somewhat simpler facilities than those that are required for the ladies. Having said that, I think that there is an issue here, that toilet facilities for women are often inadequate. So why not just say that, without all the identity politics?
Precisely. If she had simply presented that argument, I’d have no problem with it.
As an aside, my friend Mike suffered from an enlarged prostate and the associated problems for years. Earlier this year he had the new Aquabeam therapy and the results were transformative. He’s now back to pissing normally, which is a huge relief.
I’m looking at embolisation. Has had very good results so far.
I recently went to a Pink Floyd Tribute concert – it was quite good. However whilst the queue for the Gents during the interval was long, there was no queue for the Ladies. Lots of laughter from both sexes, especially since the auditorium was roughly half and half!
The answer for the queues at women’s toilets are simple. Men, in the main, walk in, find an unoccupied urinal, zip down, pee, shake, zip up, wash hands (well, some do), and walk out. Women have a different set of actions (which I have never viewed, honest) which starts with finding an empty cubicle. The fact that they always seem to go in pairs or threes suggest they have a natter while sitting down, which lengthens the time that cubicle is occupied, and the number of women waiting.
Being someone who regularly takes part in running and triathlon events, I am familiar with queues for portaloos. For those who are not familiar with these, they are basically a modern chemical toilet that looks a bit like a tardis. Usually they are unisex so that men and women are queueing in a totally equitable way. Some events have a seperate urinal tent, which basically involves a canvas screen and a ginormous bucket. The queues for the portaloos are massively reduced by these. This is just an observation.