Wednesday, 2/11/2009

Topic of the Day: Why do men use urinals?

So I was using the ladies room today and it dawned it me: why do men use urinals? Or the converse, why do women have little walls and doors every time they go to the bathroom?

Men just go to the bathroom, whip it out, socialize while they're doing it, and there's no shame. But women....we need the walls and the door. We even have spatial issues - we try to avoid going in the stalls next to other women. We try to space a stall in between because it just seems weird to be that close. But while in the midst of this existential stream (as well as a literal one), I realized that we women have these issues because we were raised to have them. If we had been taught to go up to a bunch of toilets in the middle of the room, drop our pants, sit down and piss in the open while socializing, we'd feel fine doing that too.

So when and where was it decided that men could do that and women could not?