According to the World Toilet Organization—yes, there is actually a World Toilet Organization—2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, like a working toilet. Much more than just an inconvenience, poor sanitation and crappy toilets (sorry) are hugely detrimental to the health of people living under those conditions, leading to the deaths of around 1.8 million people, mostly children, each year. The World Toilet Organization is asking people around the world to squat in a public place for one minute at noon, out of respect for those who have to squat every day; while squatting is actually the healthiest “bathroom stance,” it is a symbol of the problems faced by people in developing nations lacking sanitary infrastructure.
World Toilet Day is also about advocating for cleaner and more accessible toilets in countries blessed with better potty infrastructure, safer water for all, more public restrooms—and really, who can argue with that?—and women’s rights. Women’s rights, you ask? Next time you’re at a concert or a sporting event and you’re waiting in line for the restroom, ask yourself, is it fair that the line for the women’s is invariably longer?
In any case, there’s a very good chance you’ll visit a toilet today—and when you do, that might be the ideal time to give thanks for its existence and to think about the folks who don’t have one.
See Also: Toilet Paper History: How America Convinced the World to Wipe
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I guess it’s appropriate that Ireland getting flushed from the World Cup by a crappy call happens next to World Toilet Day. Oh, wow…terrible puns…sorry.
posted by Kevin S. on 11-19-2009 at 11:47 am
I’ve never really studied it, but aren’t the women’s lines longer because it takes you longer and not necessarily because there are fewer toilets?
posted by Ian on 11-19-2009 at 12:17 pm
I can’t feel sorry for women because of long restroom lines. If many adopted the “get in, get out†approach as opposed to the “get in, talk with a friend, use the restroom, put makeup on, and then take a while to punish those who made them have to wait by making the people behind them wait†approach I think the lines would move faster. I also know that not all women are like this but to those who take offence just think of all those times when were in the position a having to wait and had the same thought.
posted by Alex on 11-19-2009 at 12:47 pm
“while squatting is actually the healthiest “bathroom stance, ”
What exactly did the author mean be that? Is it healthier because it works your glutes? Is it cleaner? I’m just curious….
posted by Jeremy on 11-19-2009 at 1:38 pm
I think the healthiest stance thing has to do with the angle your small intestine ends up at or something, there’s less pressure on your internal organs if you’re squatting…
And re: women and lines – while it’s true that women take longer in the bathroom while they put makeup on etc., that doesn’t make the line for the stalls longer, there’s just more people milling about in the space.
posted by Jo on 11-19-2009 at 1:49 pm
I would think that the geography of most public bathrooms would preclude the “get in, talk with a friend, put on make up” problem, because all of those things are accomplished outside of a stall. Women’s rooms lines are longer because yes, due to the way nature made us, it takes us longer to use the restroom. The larger architectural problem is that most venues seem to have the same number of toilets for both men and women. More toilets for women would help solve the problem.
posted by Linda on 11-19-2009 at 1:55 pm
“If many adopted the “get in, get out†approach as opposed to the “get in, talk with a friend, use the restroom, put makeup on, and then take a while to punish those who made them have to wait by making the people behind them wait†approach I think the lines would move faster.”
Wow. Someone’s spent a little too much time imagining what goes on in the women’s bathroom.
posted by Rachel on 11-19-2009 at 9:42 pm
The reason that stance is the healthiest is because when u squat, it creates a natural pressure due to the leverage. This means less “straining†to be blunt. Cheer!
posted by Sean on 11-19-2009 at 10:16 pm
Ok, I sympathize with females – the process is more complex and you only get one toilet per user – the men’s line is quicker because (at stadiums at least) the \trough\ is used. Men just fit in at the trough where we can, zip, flip, go, shake, flip, zip and… well… go.
I think the trough is starting to wane from popularity due to privacy issues. But, in a stadium redesign if individual urinals were removed and troughs installed, the space saved could be used to expand the female restroom.
When I lived in Alaska I had a friend introduce me to a nice proverb, \To be a man means to have the world and your urinal.\ Then he peed over the small cliff looking out over Alaska and said, \Mine.\
Who says we are so different from the animals from which we came?
ReCap: Vasquez hymnal… sounds dirty, like \Last night we did the Vaquez hymnal and it was awesome!\
posted by roi_ratt on 11-20-2009 at 8:26 am