Toilets

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Gharris_35
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Toilets

Post by Gharris_35 »

I was thinking the other day at what point did we start having male and female toilets? Yet at in our homes/hotel rooms, they are shared. Apart from the obvious reasons to accommodate religious reasons. Is there any moral or philosophical reason why?

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Kinyonga
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Re: Toilets

Post by Kinyonga »

What does religion have to do with separate toilets for men and women?
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Gharris_35
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Re: Toilets

Post by Gharris_35 »

I was thinking of those religious sects where men and women who are not married are encouraged to remain apart or chaperoned.
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Re: Toilets

Post by Lone Wolf »

It has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with mass use of toilets. In homes and hotel rooms there are only immediate occupants who use the toilets so they can be used by one person at a time. In public you will usually find multiple facility toilets so that more than one person at a time can be accommodated and that is where the separation of the sexes comes into play.
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Re: Toilets

Post by -1- »

The reason for male/female toilets go back to Hessen, Germany, in WWI. Combat soldiers were exempt from duty temporarily to finish their business, so to speak. But there were women in the war zone, and they took a considerably long time in the washroom, and the soldiers had to wait their turn. This was developing into a threat on national security, and in an incredibly super-human war effort, the gov built a whole series of separate male/female washrooms along the Maginot-line and in other trench-warfare zones.

The British, French and Russian armies soon followed suit. It is a truth that in war, an invention by you will be quickly copied by the enemy.

It's also true, as the example shows, that truly inventive technological changes are always generated quickly in wartime, never in peace time.
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Sy Borg
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Re: Toilets

Post by Sy Borg »

-1- wrote:It's also true, as the example shows, that truly inventive technological changes are always generated quickly in wartime, never in peace time.
The drive to thrive simply isn't as compelling (or uncomfortable) as the drive to survive.
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Re: Toilets

Post by -1- »

Greta wrote:
-1- wrote:It's also true, as the example shows, that truly inventive technological changes are always generated quickly in wartime, never in peace time.
The drive to thrive simply isn't as compelling (or uncomfortable) as the drive to survive.
The drive to survive...

They were experimenting for a while to induce survival panic in athletes who run, swim, etc, because they figured they could half their best times. The experiments did not work out.

Drive to reproduce...

Many, many, many completely undocumented cases exist where the coach promises to the fastest runner that if he gets an unreasonably good time, he can have the coach's wife for a night.

Once in a while the athlete gets the job done, and the coach becomes reluctant to allow him access to his wife.

I don't know what normally happens after that.
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LuckyR
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Re: Toilets

Post by LuckyR »

Outhouses preceded toilets (and WWI) by quite a longshot. Historically there were always unisex outhouses, the male ones with a sun symbol and female ones with a moon symbol. As one might predict the female ones were typically in a better state of cleanliness and thus everyone wanted to use them, hence why outhouses typically are depicted with the crescent moon symbol.
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Re: Toilets

Post by -1- »

What happens when two separate, sexually active outhouses of different sexes physically unite?

Outhouse love. It's a beautiful thing.

(-:
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LuckyR
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Re: Toilets

Post by LuckyR »

-1- wrote:What happens when two separate, sexually active outhouses of different sexes physically unite?

Outhouse love. It's a beautiful thing.

(-:
I believe that is covered in one of the other threads, though it depends if the male outhouse feels that they are trapped in the foundation of a female outhouse...
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Sy Borg
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Re: Toilets

Post by Sy Borg »

-1- wrote:
Greta wrote: (Nested quote removed.)

The drive to thrive simply isn't as compelling (or uncomfortable) as the drive to survive.
The drive to survive...

They were experimenting for a while to induce survival panic in athletes who run, swim, etc, because they figured they could half their best times. The experiments did not work out.

Drive to reproduce...

Many, many, many completely undocumented cases exist where the coach promises to the fastest runner that if he gets an unreasonably good time, he can have the coach's wife for a night.

Once in a while the athlete gets the job done, and the coach becomes reluctant to allow him access to his wife.

I don't know what normally happens after that.
If I was the coach's wife, once I found out about the offer then he and I would soon have separate toilets in separate houses and I would seek counselling to find out how I could have misread his character so badly :)

For the record, I think most people today figure that segregated toilets are simply safer and more hygienic for women, with any differing history relatively unimportant to them.
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George1949
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Re: Toilets

Post by George1949 »

Very strange topic for a philosophical site.

The main reason we have male and female restrooms is modesty. And, women need more privacy, especially when they are menstruating and must remove more to go to the bathroom. However, unisex bathrooms are very common in some countries, e.g., China.

I have never seen separate outhouses for the men and women. And, it is pure nonsense that the sun symbol was for women and moon for men. Are you kidding?

I am flabbergasted that anyone would think that this has something to do with religious reasons. And, morality has nothing to do with bathrooms, unisex or not.

My grandfather had a 3 seater (3 holes in piece of wood) outhouse on his farm in 1967. His outhouse had no symbols on the door. He only had cold running water in his house and no toilets. He had a wash basin. You heated water on the stove and used the wash basin for your bathing in the kitchen. The kitchen was off limits to the men when the women were bathing. And, toilet paper was a luxury; you used old newspapers to wipe with if you ran out of toilet paper.

For the record, an outhouse is a toilet.

He kept a pot to urinate in in the house for the women and kids at night.

The men never used the outhouse just to urinate except during a bowel movement. Men urinated outside discretely, i.e., out of site, e.g., behind a tree or the barn.

And, the idea that separate toilets are safer is pure childish nonsense.
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LuckyR
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Re: Toilets

Post by LuckyR »

George1949 wrote:Very strange topic for a philosophical site.

The main reason we have male and female restrooms is modesty. And, women need more privacy, especially when they are menstruating and must remove more to go to the bathroom. However, unisex bathrooms are very common in some countries, e.g., China.

I have never seen separate outhouses for the men and women. And, it is pure nonsense that the sun symbol was for women and moon for men. Are you kidding?

I am flabbergasted that anyone would think that this has something to do with religious reasons. And, morality has nothing to do with bathrooms, unisex or not.

My grandfather had a 3 seater (3 holes in piece of wood) outhouse on his farm in 1967. His outhouse had no symbols on the door. He only had cold running water in his house and no toilets. He had a wash basin. You heated water on the stove and used the wash basin for your bathing in the kitchen. The kitchen was off limits to the men when the women were bathing. And, toilet paper was a luxury; you used old newspapers to wipe with if you ran out of toilet paper.

For the record, an outhouse is a toilet.

He kept a pot to urinate in in the house for the women and kids at night.

The men never used the outhouse just to urinate except during a bowel movement. Men urinated outside discretely, i.e., out of site, e.g., behind a tree or the barn.

And, the idea that separate toilets are safer is pure childish nonsense.


The mere mention of an outhouse can be enough to turn a stomach. Cottagers who have or continue to use them know it’s hard to shake that unforgettable stench. But while most cottagers shudder at the thought of them, others find them fascinating—so much so that outhouses are studied, restored, raced, and even stolen.

John Loose has learned a lot about outdoor toilets since launching the Outhouse Tour of America in 1997, an online collection of hundreds of random facts, photos, and stories about outhouses from around the world. He’s been interviewed for a Wall Street Journal cover feature, and even invited to England by descendants of British toilet entrepreneur
Thomas Crapper.

Never heard of the Outhouse Tour of America? Here are 10 more things you didn’t think you’d ever know about outhouses.


1. There’s meaning behind the moons and stars: Moon and star cut-outs are commonly found on outhouse doors, allegedly dating back to colonial times when literacy levels were low. “They serve two purposes,” explains Loose. “Basically, they’re for lighting but the other purpose was to tell the difference between the male and the female outhouses.” A crescent moon symbolized a female and a star a male. However, he says that if families had a single outhouse, it most likely had a moon on it.
"As usual... it depends."
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