An academic study that really, REALLY begs a response...

[Preacherman]

I double-dare all APS aficionados to submit responses to this Request For Papers...

From http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=145705 :

Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets
Call for Papers Date:   2006-01-15
Date Submitted:    2005-05-06
Announcement ID:    145705
Call for Papers

Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets

Editors:
Olga Gershenson (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Barbara Penner (University College-London)

"You know what they say about men who hang around women's lavatories. They're asking to have their illusions shattered."

- Georgina to Albert, The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover

We invite contributions for the edited collection Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets.

Public toilets are amenities with a functional, even a civic, purpose. Yet they also act as the unconscious of public spaces. They can be a haven: a place to regain composure, to check ones face, or to have a private chat. But they are also sexually-charged and transgressive spaces that shelter illicit sexual practices and act as a cultural repository for taboos and fantasies.

This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division. Indeed, public toilets are among the very few openly segregated spaces in contemporary Western culture, and the physical differences between gentlemen and ladies remains central to (and is further naturalized by) their design. As such, they provide a fertile ground for critical work interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design.

We welcome papers which explore the cultural meanings, histories, and ideologies of the public toilet as a gendered space. Any subject is appropriate: toilet design and signage, toilet humour and euphemisms, personal narratives and legal cases, as well as art sited in public toilets. We invite submissions in the format of traditional academic papers of no more than 7000 words (including footnotes).

We also welcome the submissions of design and art projects that expose the gendered nature of the 'functional' toilet spaces and objects.

You know, I reckon if P95, Sm, myself, and a few others really put our heads together, we could come up with a conference paper that would truly blow 'em out of their seats...  

[Azrael256]

I'll bet you could even get a government grant to study this.  My idea, and you're not doing this part without my help, is to spend all the money on beer.  If we drink a whole lot, then we'll need to make more frequent head calls, so we can study this sort of thing in great detail.

Maybe we could call it "Sitters vs. Standers: A study in marksmanship."

[Stand_watie]

Not a paper but an observation...at isolated rest areas look under the stall dividers before beginning your business for more than one pair of feet in any one stall, especially if you have your kids with you.

[Guest]

Editors:
Olga Gershenson (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Barbara Penner (University College-London)

This is just too tempting...


Just a "peek" into what I may indeed write...

Dear Editors,

One's personal attitudes of Public restrooms are most often shaped by gender, cultural, societal , economic and demograhic areas.

I am a male, I can personally attest to the fact that males can "talk tough" and espouse certain attitudes.  I have seen these 'macho' attitudes "miss the mark" and leave visable the evidence of false bravado.

Example:

I attended a ZZTop concert, two couples, one of the ladies, Kevin ( born in Spain) in a wheelchair , really needed to go to the bathroom.  So I carried her down the steps to her wheelchair, to the restrooms we went.  Linda  ( her roommate) Kevin and I took one look at the l-o-n-g line - typcial of the ladies restooms...

Wheel a lady into a Men's restroom, her roomate  in tow...

"Zip" , "Zip" , "Ouch", "Damn" , "Zip" , " Them are GIRLS!!!"..."Zip"....

I mean not even the Beer  helped the guys to be more bullet- proof - against two ladies , one in a wheelchair...

" Well fellas - act like you ain't seem a woman before - ya'll just talk or what?"  - Kevin

Well the next time the beer caught up with us...we noticed a lot more gals in the men's restroom, and more guys outside with legs crossed. Hard to act macho with crossed legs...

Regards,

Steve

[P95Carry]

You know, I reckon if P95, Sm, myself, and a few others really put our heads together, we could come up with a conference paper that would truly blow 'em out of their seats..

Bwhahaha - Peter - what I might write would probably in the end, not pass the censor!

[Guest]

Chris,

Aw c'mon, this could be FUN!!

"...keep getting richer, but can't get our picture on the cover of Rolling Stone..."

Okay - maybe not Rolling Stone...

[P95Carry]

''Rolling Stone'' Steve - naw - ''Newsweek'' is now the fashionable place to be seen - then you can guarantee - all hell will break loose!

[Guest]

"Grin as you emerge from the smoke - makes folks wonder just what the hell you are up to" - Dave Robicheux

Chris,
Hell has been known  to break out because of my presence...or having just left...or...or...

Reader's Digest still do stuff like " This is Joe's Ear"?

We could do "This here is a  Gentleman's Study -  Ladies Powder Room".  

Boy do I have some ideas ...betcha Preacher does too...

[P95Carry]

Haha - OK, here's the plan - we all meet at Little Rock - and over a few cold ones, ''hatch the plan''.

''Gentleman's study'' ......... hey after a few beers it won't be gentlemen!

[Stand_watie]

Editors:
Olga Gershenson (University of Massachusetts-Amherst)
Barbara Penner (University College-London)

This is just too tempting...


Just a "peek" into what I may indeed write...

Dear Editors,

One's personal attitudes of Public restrooms are most often shaped by gender, cultural, societal , economic and demograhic areas.

I am a male, I can personally attest to the fact that males can "talk tough" and espouse certain attitudes.  I have seen these 'macho' attitudes "miss the mark" and leave visable the evidence of false bravado.

Example:

I attended a ZZTop concert, two couples, one of the ladies, Kevin ( born in Spain) in a wheelchair , really needed to go to the bathroom.  So I carried her down the steps to her wheelchair, to the restrooms we went.  Linda  ( her roommate) Kevin and I took one look at the l-o-n-g line - typcial of the ladies restooms...

Wheel a lady into a Men's restroom, her roomate  in tow...

"Zip" , "Zip" , "Ouch", "Damn" , "Zip" , " Them are GIRLS!!!"..."Zip"....

I mean not even the Beer  helped the guys to be more bullet- proof - against two ladies , one in a wheelchair...

" Well fellas - act like you ain't seem a woman before - ya'll just talk or what?"  - Kevin

Well the next time the beer caught up with us...we noticed a lot more gals in the men's restroom, and more guys outside with legs crossed. Hard to act macho with crossed legs...

Regards,

Steve

I'm not sure what is unmacho about not wanting to urinate in front of unrelated members of the opposite sex - that is a basic more' of modesty that many Americans have ingrained from childhood.

[grampster]

I thought "censors" had incense in them, so passing the "censor" would be a form of making the toy-toy smell better?

I also wonder if something else besides the censor would, in the end, get passed?!

One also wonders about the efficacy of passing the toilet paper "over" the stall, or "under" it.  Does it vary by gender?