Our Thrones Are No Longer Sacred

I will preemptively apologize for what may seem to be my perpetual infatuation with childish bathroom humor. This is, however, more of a cultural update that is indicative of more serious issues.

I am shocked and dismayed that I am forced to bring you these updates on bathroom etiquette and design. I have just read in The Sun that at London's Brixton Prison, as part of an "on-going refurbishment," toilets are being reoriented to face away from Mecca at the cost of thousands in taxpayer pounds (that's twos of thousands of dollars after the exchange). A full quarter of the prison's population is Muslim and apparently it is a longstanding feature of Sharia not to face the holy city while on the can. Maybe I'm just speaking for myself here, but in the past I have been known to sit a little sideways in order to play solitaire while on the toilet; can they not do the same to honor their strongly held religious convictions? As one of the prison guards at Brixton pointed out, if they hadn't committed crimes, they would be free to poop facing any direction they please.

As an afterthought and transition, don't males face opposite directions depending which business they are handling? That makes it tough to face away from Mecca unless.....you sit when you pee. Read this excerpt from John Leo's piece at townhall.com.

NOW SIT, INGVAR
Young women in Sweden, Germany and Australia have a new cause: They want men to sit down while urinating. This demand comes partly from concerns about hygiene -- avoiding the splash factor -- but, as Jasper Gerard reports in the English magazine The Spectator, "more crucially because a man standing up to urinate is deemed to be triumphing in his masculinity, and by extension, degrading women." One argument is that if women can't do it, then men shouldn't either. Another is that standing upright while relieving oneself is "a nasty macho gesture," suggestive of male violence.
A feminist group at Stockholm University is campaigning to ban all urinals from campus, and one Swedish elementary school has already removed them. In Australia, an Internet survey shows that 17 percent of those polled think men ought to sit, while 70 percent believe they should be allowed to stand. Some Swedish women are pressuring their men to take a stand, so to speak. Yola, a 25-year-old Swedish trainee psychiatrist, says she dumps boyfriends who insist on standing. "What else can I do?," said her new boyfriend, Ingvar, who sits.

I highlighted the parts that baffle me in this one. Stand-peeing is "suggestive of male violence?" I thought it is just more fun because aiming at floaties has many similarities to playing video games (see The Coaches post about the Nintendo Wii). My wife made a great observation about Ingvar and others like him. If he can be cowed by his girlfriend into sitting to pee, he probably already sits to pee. Of course, this simply proves the feminist's point that standing is an inherently macho act; one with which my wife has no problem.