How do you spell I Cup?

So, as our bathroom antics continue keep on keepin’ on, I can’t help but feel that going to a public washroom is making a statement in some way. It’s not very often that when you’re out you’ll just leave your friends behind and go tend to your water closet business; instead, we declare it. I can’t say I’ve done the same thing at home. If I did it would be too much information. Strangely, it’s acceptable when we’re out. If you brought our ancestors from way back (and I’m thinking way, waaaayyy back, think Incino Man) into our bathroom what would he or she grunt? Do you think they’d be creeped out that we’re perfectly ok with releasing our bodily excretions in such close proximity to another fellow homo-sapien sapien in such a confined space? Also, back in day, did we (when in a social setting) declare we had to attend to our business? Hmm... I wonder.



I’ve found some pretty great lavatory related things aside from pics:

“Loo” derived from gardyloo or ‘garde de l’eau!’ which means watch out for the water, which was used before chucking out your chamber pot.

The “Glory Hole” was named after the opening of a kiln and is believed to have originated in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.


Finally if you make it to Cape Town for the Fifa World Cup this year I should let you know about Buddah Bar. An upscale bar/lounge where the bathroom stall dividers are about waist high, so who says those pesky stall dividers need to get in the way of your very important conversation whilst you pee. Apparently, they decided to go for this after seeing many a higher end lounge in London with such clever adaptations of a bathroom stall to deter their patrons from snorting cocaine off the seat. Clever but not very private.
..?

really?

I knew that public bathrooms had their own culture but...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHgRCOVlewQ

Public and Private!?!?

This weekend I had planned on getting some “serious” homework done. However, I found myself watching Mad Men episodes online. This show is so cleverly made, and provides such an interesting portrayal of life in the 1960s. What I found while watching the show was the use of public restrooms to express private feelings by women. In a society where women’s place at work was not only marginalized, but their whole essence was a constant target for chauvinistic attacks. Women would run into the ladies room as an escape from the world of men. Not much has changed today. Women continue to express their personal pain and embarrassment in public restrooms. You will almost always find women positively collegial with one another in a public washroom context, they go in there in pacts, they comfort one another and they re-assure each other that “he is not worth it.” Public washrooms are not only used for its main function. It provides so much more, it’s the one place where individuals can remove themselves from undesired situations, and it’s a place where people can leave their mark on the walls. More importantly, it’s transformed into in its world, separated from the “real world.” Women back in the sixties portrayed in Mad Men, would rush into the ladies room to cry, to release their anger and emotions. They would then wipe their eyes, touch up their make up, look at themselves in the mirror to make sure that there is no evidence of what had just happened, and re-enter the real world again. In recent years, it is not unusual to find out that public restrooms are often a place for sexual encounters, which is conventionally known as a very intimate moment that should only be done in your home behind closed doors. However, I think that recently the washroom as a public AND private space has been regularized. Instead of seeing people’s markings on the walls, you’ll see ads, signs for what to do and what not to do, sensor operated faucets and self flushing toilets. You don’t even have to touch anything Women will often cry in stalls instead of by the sink and mirror to seek refuge from other women. Some washrooms don’t even have doors, you simply walk in. You don’t even have to touch anything. Washrooms have been re-designed as a place where you just go in and get out as fast as you can. Although sensor motion faucets, paper towel dispenser and a self flushing toilet does seem like the “future,” it can also be considered as a detachment from “feeling anything” in restrooms. Public restrooms were before filled with emotions and comradeships between women, and now through “sensor-ships”, we have been transformed to not touch or feel anything. The bathroom as an escape to the “real” world is slowly dissipating and becoming more like an extension of that world.

Mildred’s Temple Kitchen: Looking for some extra protein in your diet?

**

First, the article:

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/restaurants/article/759714--restaurant-promotes-sex-in-its-bathrooms

Ok, bathroom culture, you’ve hit a new peak. Once again, you have spiked my interest and caught me off guard. Just when I thought I was starting to understand the culture of the bathroom, it turns out there is a whole dimension that I was unprepared for: sex.

I stumbled across this article about a restaurant in Liberty Village that was published around Valentine’s day. Supposedly, Mildred’s Temple Kitchen welcomes its patrons to – you guessed it – have sex in its bathrooms. And people eat here, for real.

The question I had to ask myself was “why has the bathroom become a site for this kind of expression?”

Thinking about it, I guess it’s really no wonder that two of the most intimate facets of being human (sex and “waste” disposal) have converged in the bathroom. There is a certain pleasure that accompanies both acts: the pleasure of expulsion (think: pee, poop, gaseous ejection, blowing your nose, sneezing, crying intensely). There is an element of relief and satisfaction and, dare I say, pleasure to all of these things. And I don’t believe I have to explain to you the pleasure of sex, my fine readers.

So – are sex and going to the bathroom one in the same? When did doing your business and doing the deed become synonymous? A quote from the article describes Mildred’s food safety manager’s opinion on the matter:

“‘As far as bodily fluids, it's pretty much similar to the other human functions
going on in there,’ says Jim Chan, manager of the food safety program.”

This is pretty much true. So why do we have such a hang-up on sex and not the other stuff that goes on in bathrooms? We don’t seem to think about the fecal matter that is plopped into the toilets (and probably sometimes on the floor), that is inevitably plunged through the pipes that run next to the water supply, that filters out into our lakes and streams, that returns to us in the form of water for boiling the pasta that you are ordering at Mildred’s........sorry, it got away from me there. In any case, this new (to me) form of bathroom culture shows how private space can be manipulated to encourage new behaviours and expressions. Bathroom culture, like all culture, is susceptible to change. It is determined by the will of those who occupy the space. Therefore, by nature of their private/public dichotomy, bathrooms demand that we be active participators in the culture communicated there.

Over reading week I took a trip to a town just outside of Nuremberg, Germany.

The first few days were totally devoid of visual stimuli in bathroom stalls- apparently paying €0.30 to use the washroom ensures a graffiti-free experience. After visiting malls, some bars, and a few train station washrooms, I was a little disappointed and began to think that this town was completely lacking in latrinalia.

Then I was directed toward the public library.

The women's washroom was slightly disappointing- the odd "Heidi loves Niels" scattered around the stalls. But the men's washroom revealed a goldmine of racial slurs, anti-Nazi propaganda, a few advertisements and predominantly, personal ads.
However, these personal ads were not the usual "Call Tom for oral xxx-xxxx-xxxx," most likely written by a drunken/malicious friend. These were serious, specific and detailed advertisements of a persons assets, or requests for a certain sexual favour. I was also told that these were not just meaningless jokes and scribbles, but that this certain washroom had actually become a meeting place in the gay community of this town.

I wasn't sure what to make of this. Is it unfortunate that the male gay community was reduced to meeting in public washrooms on the outskirts of town? Or was this an example of a reclamation of a space?

I pondered this question while taking some more photos inside one of the stalls. Absentmindedly forgetting to lock the door,a caretaker swung it open only to see me with a camera pointed at the back of the stall door, now his face. I tried to explain what I was doing, but the only answer I got was "NO GIRLS ALLOWED" from a very disgruntled, red-faced man. As I scurried out, this angry man followed me to make sure I didn't try to sneak back in.

Though this space may have been reclaimed by the town's gay community, it remained wholly gender dichotomous.

Intercosmic... Toilet?

Good day Water Closet goers!

So upon looking out for any form of public bathroom (often drunken) violation I’ve stumbled on a few favourites. You know it:

Penis Pictures -- nothing says class...

(INSERT NAME HERE) for a good time call 416- xxx- xxxx

(INSERT NAME HERE) is a .... (insert obsenity here)

I love ... OR ... and ... forever

These are just the horrid generic ones that always seem to start a response. These responses are what we all secretly enjoy. I know I get kicks when I read a “stop writing shit on the wall” - Oh the irony! - or a very simple “Fuck You!” (personal favourite)

Who says we don’t care about our fellow latrine users?! We leave each other tid bits of all sort of things. Tiny insights into each others lives.

Recently at a bar I went to the bog. While my regular thought process had been slightly drowned in beer, I sat and read: "I'm writing on this bathroom wall so that you know that you aren't alone. We all feel the need to leave our mark in some infinite way because it means we've existed in a space and time. We're all interconnected."
As I giggled slightly, it made me think that it's completely true. Graffiti is as old as humans. In Pompeii, I wonder what the public bathrooms have to 'say' to us? Probably the same that we see now.

A Spiritual Experience on the Toilet

I have to go back to the Java House.

When I was younger, a family friend once read me a poem. She said, "now that I have read you this poem, evidence of it is going to reveal itself everywhere."

Fast forward to about a year ago and I am going down that tricky little staircase in the back of the Java House. I get into the stall, close the door... and there it is. The poem.

yeah.

So I finished up, but not before spending some time reading the rest of the awesome graffiti in that stall. I went back up to my table and sat down. I knew how what I was planning on saying to my friends was going to sound...but I said it anyways.

I said, "Guys... I just had a fucking spiritual experience on the toilet."

le end.

Watch out for that...rapist? The bathroom as a site for Neighbourhood Watch

I came across this graffito:

and was immediately stricken by it. Who is Tom Fischer? Where can I find (or NOT find) him? There must be a thousand Tom Fischers in Toronto. But only one of them belongs to the phone numbers listed there. Quick, memorize those numbers and if you ever meet a Tom with a twinkle in his eye, and he gives you his number and it happens to be one of only two numbers that exists on the whole planet, RUN...

That, or clock him. Then run.

This was my thought process. Wouldn't it be yours? The point is that this message was scribbled on the wall of a bathroom because a) someone really hates Tom Fischer, or b) someone decided to share their pain and anguish in hopes of protecting another person from having to experience it too. The anonymity of bathroom graffiti allows for this kind of community action. It gives people the freedom to share their experiences without becoming vulnerable - and possibly being victimized - once again.

The bathroom can serve as a site for warning fellow community members about known dangers. Simultaneously, the site becomes one where communities are built and strengthened. Despite the horror I felt at reading this message, I also felt a sense of security, as if someone was watching out for me. This is an important quality in a community. And in a city as large and anonymous as Toronto, a community is often hard to find. Yet communities are vital to a society's health and well-being. Feeling like you can trust the stranger who put up that warning makes you feel a little warmer towards all strangers - just not Tom Fischer. It makes you feel as if people, for the most part, are good. Providing you can avoid the Tom Fischers out there, the world is not such a scary place. And the culture of communication in the bathroom helps to weave this ever-important community fabric.

I don't know about you, but I won't be forgetting that name anytime soon. Talk about an effective Neighbourhood Watch program.

Average Joes vs. Powerful Corporations

I'm sure everyone has at one point used public washrooms and noticed people's writing in the stalls. They're usually expressions of love, hatred or general opinions that people want to put out there for everyone to see while remaining unidentified. Some would argue that graffiti in washrooms makes them look unsanitary and unappealing. I personally have never felt that people’s scribbles in washroom stalls made the washroom look unhygienic. I mean, it is a public washroom, so with or without scribbles, it won’t change the level of sanitary conditions. What is interesting is that only in bathroom stalls can you find a space where you will find endless opinions, and at times people communicating with one another, with no sense of who they’re talking to. There exists graffiti outside the bathroom, however it is usually created by a group or a known individual, and they’re usually not anonymous. Bathroom graffiti really do represent a form of freedom of speech. However, in recent times, I’m sure someone who holds a really important job at a really important company used a public restroom, and found himself reading people’s writings and staying much longer to find out why “sally really loves john.”
More commonly these days, instead of finding people’s thoughts and opinions in bathroom stalls, we find an ad pushing us to consume more than we already do. Actually, research shows that most public restroom users (76%) remember the ads in bathroom stalls better than ads shown on television. The advantages to corporations are that there are few distractions in bathroom stalls, ads are usually unexpected, and this is a cheaper way to reach out to consumers compared to billboards, TV commercials, bus ads, etc. Business owners also benefit, in that they receive some money from advertisers from a space that does not interrupt their operations and would otherwise remain an empty space. So everyone wins, except us. The notion of privacy and freedom of expression is slowly seized by large corporations so they can continue to construct us as passive beings. The positive thing is that we are not passive beings. We’re angry, happy, and sad. We agree and we disagree. We will not be silenced by ads telling us to go to another country or to lose weight. Let’s all take out our sharpies and let them for once listen to us!

Bathroom Culture

Hello fellow bathroom buddies!

This is our first post on leavemepee, and we thought that we would explain to you what this whole project is about. We are executing a creative intervention into the world of...well, the toilet! Here is the concept behind the whole thing:


The bathroom – a space that is supposed to be used for the most private of functions – has become an arena for advertisement, conversation, and cultural expression. Accordingly, there are three main goals of our intervention project: the first is to expose the extent to which a capitalist, money-driven society has penetrated our everyday lives. Everywhere we go, we are bombarded with advertisements telling us what to buy, how to look, and who to be. The bathroom is no exception. When we close the door to the world and expect the privacy to go about our business, the face of capitalism is looking back at us in the form of a Nike ad, or one promoting Plan B.
We began to wonder: has the Man finally succeeded at taking away our privacy? The answer, we concluded, is up to us. The second goal of our project, then, aims to reclaim space that has been corporatized. We believe that bathroom graffiti and its counterparts are proclamations of shared ownership. Therefore, their value cannot be diminished by anti-vandalism laws that serve to protect corporate interests and a system in which money equals power. The voices on bathroom stalls represent a frustrated majority intent on reclaiming the privacy, and simultaneously the sociality, of bathrooms.
This brings us to our third goal. We would like to showcase the social and communicative nature of what we like to call “Bathroom Culture.” We believe that the voices present in bathrooms are just as valuable as the advertisements that are forced onto us
If you have ever had a conversation with a complete stranger in a bathroom, you are a creator of bathroom culture; if you’ve ever scribbled your heart’s desire on the walls of a grungy basement loo, you are a creator of bathroom culture; if you’ve ever taken refuge in the sanctuary of the bathroom, YOU are a creator of bathroom culture .
Here we ask you to celebrate the underground culture that occurs behind closed doors. Reclaim your space, engage in bathroom dialogue, and be a potty-mouth!"

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE PRIVATELY POLITICAL WORLD OF BATHROOMS?