The Social Dimensions of Pissing in Law School
Why do people all of a sudden forget how to piss into a toilet when they come to law school?
It's a serious question. I am speaking mainly about the women's restrooms, since those are the ones I generally use. I am sure these grown women are perfectly capable of squatting and aiming their piss directly into the toilet, and then flushing it. But the sanitation problem seems to spiral out of control the more people you have in a space, and the less that people know each other.
I think the reason for the nasty state of affairs is two-fold. First, you trust people less when there's a lot of them, and you don't want to sit on the toilet even if it looks clear because you never know whose germs might be on it. Secondly, you feel less accountable to your fellow woman that's going in next because a) you don't necessarily know or like her, and b) you could say it wasn't you.
I wonder what the threshold is, as far as number, and level of anonymity, to trigger these phenomena. For example, I believe that if you made two strangers share a bathroom in a hotel room for some conference, chances are they would sit on the toilet and flush it and be considerate of each other. I would say that even if you put a larger number of strangers together in a household-type environment, they would probably feel some inexplicable level of trust toward each others' ass germs and sit it out on the same toilet. Perhaps it's the public-ness of the stall set-up that inherently makes people wary. Yes, maybe you just feel more comfortable if you've SEEN the other people that are using the same space, even though that really means nothing. So, the factors contributing to filth are: 1) number of people; 2) level of acquaintance; and 3) architecture.
Back to the pondering on two strangers respecting and trusting each others' pissing space: why can't we always just live like that? Isn't it silly that just because you learn someone's name or have a brief conversation, you then feel a little more trusting or indebted toward them? Imagine if every woman went and sat on the toilet, just like she would at home, then did her thing, then flushed it -- with her hand, not her shoe? And then the next woman did the same, and so on. Why must distrust of the people and the process seep in somewhere? Can we envision a urinary utopia, and give Walden Pond a new meaning?
It's a serious question. I am speaking mainly about the women's restrooms, since those are the ones I generally use. I am sure these grown women are perfectly capable of squatting and aiming their piss directly into the toilet, and then flushing it. But the sanitation problem seems to spiral out of control the more people you have in a space, and the less that people know each other.
I think the reason for the nasty state of affairs is two-fold. First, you trust people less when there's a lot of them, and you don't want to sit on the toilet even if it looks clear because you never know whose germs might be on it. Secondly, you feel less accountable to your fellow woman that's going in next because a) you don't necessarily know or like her, and b) you could say it wasn't you.
I wonder what the threshold is, as far as number, and level of anonymity, to trigger these phenomena. For example, I believe that if you made two strangers share a bathroom in a hotel room for some conference, chances are they would sit on the toilet and flush it and be considerate of each other. I would say that even if you put a larger number of strangers together in a household-type environment, they would probably feel some inexplicable level of trust toward each others' ass germs and sit it out on the same toilet. Perhaps it's the public-ness of the stall set-up that inherently makes people wary. Yes, maybe you just feel more comfortable if you've SEEN the other people that are using the same space, even though that really means nothing. So, the factors contributing to filth are: 1) number of people; 2) level of acquaintance; and 3) architecture.
Back to the pondering on two strangers respecting and trusting each others' pissing space: why can't we always just live like that? Isn't it silly that just because you learn someone's name or have a brief conversation, you then feel a little more trusting or indebted toward them? Imagine if every woman went and sat on the toilet, just like she would at home, then did her thing, then flushed it -- with her hand, not her shoe? And then the next woman did the same, and so on. Why must distrust of the people and the process seep in somewhere? Can we envision a urinary utopia, and give Walden Pond a new meaning?
posted by Leena @ 11:22 PM
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