this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

In the US at least, the women's restrooms used to say "colored"

The reason we still have gendered bathrooms is because we didn't change building codes for bathrooms and water fountains after segregation.

[–] GaMEChld@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Huh, that makes sense.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bathrooms are a scam invented by Big Shit to sell more pooping

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I mean..you are more right than you think.

Bathroom fixture manufacturers created a massive marketing/propaganda campaign around the idea of Hygiene, and the idea that its better for your health and safety, simply because they wanted to sell more fixtures..and the way to do that was to get more houses built with indoor plumbing facilities, because in the era before this.. a solid chunk of the population still used outhouses, and bathed in portable tubs they filled with water heated up one pot at a time on a stove once every few weeks.. if that. and because filling the tub was so much work, the whole family washed in it, without changing the water.. usually the husband first, then the mother, then the kids in order of age got to bath in the bouillabaisse of mom and dads filth.

You'd be gobsmacked how many things like that are the result of marketing.

Milk being essential for bone health? Another marketing gimmick, from the dairy industry.

Diamonds are essential for proposals/weddings? Another marketing gimmick, from the diamond cartels.

and more.

[–] PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I knew about diamonds and I believe about milk.

But you can pry indoor plumbing and hot water heaters from my cold dead hands. Sometimes the marketing works because it's a good idea lol

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 1 points 3 minutes ago

Wasnt arguing that you should get rid of them :p

Just pointing out the fact that you only care about them, ultimately, because of a very successful advertising campaign to sell more fixtures.

[–] turtlesareneat@discuss.online 3 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Deodorant was first marketed to immigrants and that's how it took hold. People mildly-to-seriously stank for all of human history and it just was, perfumes have always been a market too. But then someone was like "but what if we made these folks feel even more ostracized to sell them a solution"

And this began the "your body is fucking disgusting" cycle that now encourages us to literally coat ourselves head-to-toe in (eczema to cancer causing) chemical deodorants. Great.

[–] name_NULL111653@pawb.social 1 points 12 hours ago

Okay but like, the human body does in fact suck in many ways, one of those being that we're naturally filthy as fuck.

It's worth noting that the above is, of course, an opinion. I find human stench repulsive. Many do. Some don't. But regardless, I don't think less of a person or culture for not using or having access to the typical hot water + exfoliating + soap + deodorant + scent + moisturizer method that western culture holds so dear. I couldn't do without it. And yes I'm slightly grossed out as a natural reaction when people don't use it. But I don't think "that uncultured savage pig doesn't bathe* in that situation, that would just be horrible. Unfortunately many do think that way, and I agree that that kind of hostile, accusatory thinking is likely partially due to western marketing.

I personally am a transhumanist in philosophy. I think that if we can make a way to make the human body some radiant vessel that would have been worshipped as a goddess across most of human history, that such an endeavor is worth while. But many look down on others when such standards become normalized. That is the key difference: another main tenant of transhuman philosophy is the idea of bodily autonomy. You inhabit the vessel you want, whether bathed or not.

And I agree that marketing has, in fact, been instrumental in pushing that "your body is fucking disgusting" idea onto others so heavily. Capitalism capitalizes best on making people feel lower or less important without a product.

[–] silasmariner@programming.dev 2 points 20 hours ago

Deodorant and I have never really spent much time together - perhaps because I live in a mild climate and don't do much sports - but god damn do I love a hot shower.

[–] Charlxmagne@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

They're slowly getting more and more evil, don't be fooled sheeple!

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Before the 1960s people just shat in the woods.

[–] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Public restrooms were campaigned for by suffragettes because women were unable to leave their homes for any period without them. Men would just wee against a fence.

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

That's the Victorian era for you. But for many earlier centuries women went out all the time to take care of various errands, so they must have had some form of acceptable public peeing, even if it's not written down for us to study. Maybe they just gathered up their skirts and squatted behind a designated bush. Definitely sounds like the kind of thing Queen Victoria would have suppressed.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Does the pope shit in the woods?

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Closest one to Vatican is like 10 min drive or 40-ish min walk. It's most likely forbidden to shit there plus it's also unlikely that he makes the trip every time he needs to go. They might have a secret forest hidden underneath the Vatican, however. We may never know.

[–] 6nk06@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dan Brown knows the secret but he doesn't want to say it. Dan Brown, it was in front of us the whole time.

[–] nyctre@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Lmao. That was good, ty

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago
[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

What am I, a theologian?

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Selling is a scam invented by Big Sales so they can sell more sales

[–] pewpew@feddit.it 66 points 1 day ago (10 children)

You wouldn't download a bathroom

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Of course not, you download to a bathroom.

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[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is why i don't understand why bathroom companies aren't creating more genders in order to create more bathrooms.

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 8 points 1 day ago

They could boost their sales to numbers not seen since the days of racial segregation

[–] Zkuld@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

But they have to be careful because otherwise people might realize it's cheaper and easier to just label bathrooms with "sitting" and "sitting+standing".

[–] anachrohack@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Like how racism was invented by big Water Fountain?

[–] perviouslyiner@lemmy.world 1 points 20 hours ago

Wait till you hear why the Pentagon has twice aa many bathrooms as they need...

[–] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In coordination with big bathroom!

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[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

When I was in college, it was funny how the engineering building only had one restroom per floor - they were all mens until like the 70’s, cuz wommin can’t be engineers of course.

[–] Lembot_0002@lemm.ee 24 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Nah, genders were invented by men to avoid giving birth!

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Fucking patriarchy strikes again

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

I must be doing it wrong. I gave birth to some kidney stones years ago.

Do not reccomend.

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[–] Carrot@lemmy.today 6 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I'm all for all-gender bathrooms, but there MUST be at least two public bathrooms at any given spot. I can't tell you how uncomfortable it is to take a first date to a museum, both need to use the bathroom, and walk into the single, silent, all-gender bathroom, and try to pretend you can't hear each other doing your business. I assume gay folks have been struggling with this since the beginning, but y'all should have said something

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

Fuck this idea. It would screw up everything. I judge my dates on the fortitude of flatulence. Stop trying to make the bathroom woke.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think we should get over hangups like this. Oh well you heard each other piss. Big pissing deal. If one or both of you were shitting that's just bad date planning. Shit and get off before you go on a date.

[–] Carrot@lemmy.today 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

I agree that societally we should get over it, but it doesn't change the fact that it's an awkward activity on a first date

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[–] Fleur_@aussie.zone 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They needed to induce bathroom demand after the end of segregation

[–] aeshna_cyanea@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

integrating this into my belief system

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

It's sort of the other way. Buildings in the southern US before the 1960s, besides having gendered bathrooms, also had separate bathrooms for white and black people. So 4 kinds of bathrooms. The Pentagon today is apparently a bathroom user's paradise, because it was built in the 1940s with enough bathroom capacity for all its users even having the 4 kinds of bathrooms. Then after desegregation, its bathrooms got consolidated into just 2 kinds (by gender). So it now has 2x more bathroom capacity per person than newer office buildings have.

Jeez. I always thought IBS would prevent a pentagon job, maybe the Pentagon was just designed for IBS in a way.

[–] klay@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

are you sure its 2 times the capacity per person now? Because that makes no sense. Without additional info, there should be the same amount of people using the same capacity of bathrooms now.

Just the number of bathrooms usable per person has changed, so you are more likely to have a bathroom nearby. But you don't have more room or more toilets per sé.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

No, not after all the govt workers got laid off for no reason.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I had to look this up. It seems gendered bathrooms are very old.

I cannot vouch for this site, but it introduces interesting history. https://historyqa.com/gendered-bathrooms-history/

(The version of history needs to be confirmed and scholarly sources I found have broken URLs.)

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