A New Feminist "Issue"

**PokemonMasterTrainer** · 25th-June-2012

Toilets! WTF?

Urination isn’t one of the first words that leaps to mind when people think of civil rights, but activists in Mumbai have launched a new campaign called the “Right to Pee” to redress gross inequities in the allocation of public restrooms. In New Delhi, for example, according to the New York Times, there are more than 1,500 public restrooms for men and only 132 for women.

The burden of bad sanitation affects almost all poor people but it falls disproportionately on females: in urban areas, there is a fee for most public washrooms, but men can use urinals for free and they frequently relieve themselves in public when facilities are lacking. In rural areas, where most people have to defecate openly, women are often subject to harassment or assault when they relieve themselves. To avoid the need to urinate, they often withhold hydration, a practice resulting in high rates of urinary-tract infections, heatstroke and other health problems. And coping with menstruation in the absence of privacy, water or sanitary products can be a nightmare.

That is kinda stupid, but it's better than no bathrooms. Hasn't everything become a feminist issue these days? Wait for the eye rolls to come in when they try and explain how this qualifies as a "feminist issue".

What's the next feminist "issue"? Getting stuck at the McDonald's drive thru?

Erika Christakis: Is Bad Sanitation a Feminist Issue? | TIME Ideas | TIME.com

**Marx** · 25th-June-2012

To be fair, if one sex has 1,500 and the other only has 132 - I'd say they have a perfectly legitimate argument... However, we have seen that in western cultures, they fight for more toilets for women than men and have no issues with women using men's toilets. So clearly they are demonstrating that which is so typical of feminist values; hypocrisy.

**Yan Yan** · 25th-June-2012

It was a good article about the problems of public sanitation in poor countries.

The bundle of lies and hypocrisy that constitutes feminism has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

I guess they just used the 'F' word to attract the attention of western female readers....

**KellyMac** · 25th-June-2012

Quote from Yan Yan

It was a good article about the problems of public sanitation in poor countries.

The bundle of lies and hypocrisy that constitutes feminism has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

I guess they just used the 'F' word to attract the attention of western female readers....

I think you're right. Would western women even notice if that word wasn't used?

**Yan Yan** · 25th-June-2012

OMG! You're still alive and kicking. It's good to know you're still 'lurking', even though you don't post so much. Welcome home!

**Zuberi** · 25th-June-2012

Quote from KellyMac

I think you're right. Would western women even notice if that word wasn't used?

So, you're still sniffing around here.

No surprise....

"blocked"

**KellyMac** · 25th-June-2012

Thank you guys.

But oh noes! Zuberi blocked me!

**haute macabre** · 25th-June-2012

Feminists always want to remain the victim, no matter what the issue.

**FloatyBoaty** · 25th-June-2012

Random:

My boss did a project for an interpersonal communications class on a scientific research paper about the most ergonomic form for a toilet seat. Seriously.

**PokemonMasterTrainer** · 26th-June-2012

Quote from FloatyBoaty

Random:

My boss did a project for an interpersonal communications class on a scientific research paper about the most ergonomic form for a toilet seat. Seriously.

You could just easily buy a sheet and some cotton and fashion a cushion out of it.

**felixblue** · 27th-June-2012

If there are 1500 gents bogs and only 132 womens shithouses, perhaps it could be something to do with a fact such as there are 20 times more males in the city doing the business that requires PUBLIC bogs?

Or maybe the capitalists that employ men dont provide PRIVATE gents bogs and expect their staff to use the public facilities?

I find it hard to imagine that ladies are denied lavatorial facilities..

I am sure that there is an explanation for these statistics that explains the anomaly well.. My experience of statistics is that there is almost always an underlying reason for such apparently gross inequality.. But this won't be mentioned by those who want to make a big deal out of something..