Why are women so squeamish about outhouses, and men aren't?

[Rabrrrrrr]

I've noticed this over the years - women don't like the idea of ourhouses, and won't go on a vacation or a trip that might require using one. They're also squeamish about the bathrooms they'll use even in public places, like restaurants, gas stations, shopping centers, etc.

Why?

Why do women care so much, and will be willing to refuse to use one and just hold it, while men don't really care? And I'm only talking about the clean ones. Obviously, a disgusting filthy bathroom is awful to use. But in terms of otherwise clean ones, women seem far more squeamish.

And before anyone says the old "Yeah, but women have to sit!" canard, I remind that men also need sit at times, so that argument is irrelavant.

I can't think of physical or real reason for this. I can only assume it's just cultural bullshit, that women are raised to think that outhouses are "gross" or "shouldn't be used". Clearly, in many other countries, it's not an issue at all. And even in much of America, this is a fairly recent phenomena - I have relatives who were still using outhouses at home. America hasn't had "toilets" in the modern sense for very long, with many also using chamber pots and other old-style commodes even into the 20th century. Imagine if all those frontier women refused to go anywhere that wasn't a whitewashed uberbleached flush toilet bathroom.

I just simply can't believe that there is any real reason for the squeamishness. I think it's totally a cultural artifact.

What say thee?

[MissB]

1. Outhouses?

I've used a few. What bugs me about them is they aren't sitting inside a house, theoretically free from rodents and other creepy crawlies. Can't flush in an outhouse. Plus, it's dark down that hole.

And there is nothing to scrub.

[Zomby Woof]

2. Did you see today's "Zits" comic strip?

It was PRECISELY about this topic. Their website won't let me reproduce today's strip here, but it was about what you just posted.

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. That's what made me think of the question!

I read it just before posting.

:7

[Zomby Woof]

10. Whew

I thought maybe you were spying on me again, with your 'Super Top Secret Dick Cheney SpyGlass and Bugging Kit'. :scared:

[liontamer]

3. under most conditions most women have no real objections to outhouses

but the next time you have to change a tampon, or rinse out a keeper or sponge in an outhouse you'll appreciate the need for cleanliness/running water


Seriously why the fuck did you feel the need write a rant that generalizes about an entire sex and insults them?

[Jamastiene]

23. Read my reply.

If you don't like rants that generalize an entire sex, you'll really hate my reply. I only said it because... at least with most men, it's true.

[Nicole]

4. Outhouses have spiders and such

I prefer a toilet where I can see what's lurking near the seat.

[mainegreen]

6. I'm always afraid my glasses are going to fly off into them.

That makes me a bit squeamish about it as a guy I guess. Or maybe nervous.

[Ariana Celeste]

24. I always worry about that.

I mean, the smell, the possible disease, the bountiful germs, the spiders. That all bothers me! But my first thought is, "Better hold onto my glasses." What could be worse than that?! You can't just stick your hand in there or something.

[idgiehkt]

7. this is another one of those threads

that makes me feel like this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=5486326&mesg_id=5486326

because I'm not like that. I also don't have a fortune in makeup in my bag either. I don't know if I even have any prissy traits. I must be a freak, lol.

[One_Life_To_Give]

8. Men are not worried about the Perv down below

trying to catch a view.


Honest I read where this guy got busted down inside the Womens outhouse.`

[idgiehkt]

14. I saw on one show where a python came up through the hole

and grabbed a lady and tried to pull her down. This was in south america somewhere I think. It was a huge python, about 20 feet long. She struggled with it for a long time, but luckily she was pretty chubby, so he couldn't pull her down through the hole.

I'm still not skeered, though.

[pitohui]

41. really they got pythons in south america? (not telling, i'm asking)

i'm not skeered either, i'd probably be grabbing for my camera to photo the poor python

that would be way cooler than the piss pitiful black widows i've photo'd in outhouses!

[idgiehkt]

45. as far as I know

but truthfully I don't remember.

brown recluses are what we have to worry about here. I think this woman fought that python for a good twenty minutes or so. I can't imagine, lol.

[AirmensMom]

9. I say ...

public restrooms, be they outhouses or toilets, tend to be extremely filthy. And I wouldn't be surprised to find that ladies' rooms are dirtier than men's rooms. But that doesn't address your question. Sorry.

I'd personally rather go in the woods than use an outhouse, but every one I've been in has been pretty stinky ... and it's been a public one. I would guess that the ones your relatives use are cleaner than the public ones.

And, even though men have to sit down sometimes, women have to sit down ALL the time.

[Katina]

11. they are gross,

there is no getting around that fact and I've used many of them. You can't compare a public outhouse to an outhouse for personal use. The personal one gets cleaned. When's the last time you saw a public one cleaned, aside from the truck that empties the "pit" They smell, they are dirty and there is no sink to wash up after. Yeah, I'll use one, but only in an absolute emergency.

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. We're afraid we might stick to something disgusting.

:scared: I do not like the idea of bacteria and other nastiness that outhouses can contain. :puke: I am not a germophobe, but I am very clean and have that in mind all the time. The first thing I do when I get home from being out in public (grocery store, Target, etc.) is wash my hands.

BTW, I haven't been sick in nearly two years, even with the flu as bad as it was this past season. That counts for something. :)

[Debi]

13. Men don't have to sit to 'do their business'

:hurts:

well, most of their business!

[deucemagnet]

15. I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

We men-folk are simple folk. We don't need mirrors, furniture, fancy soaps or even plumbing in our privies. Such things are unnecessary and only tend to confuse the men-folk.

[Sugar Smack]

16. Do you have ANY idea what monsters are lurking beneath that hole?!?

OBVIOUSLY, you don't! Tentacled, fanged, slimy things. Twelve-armed beasts. Republicans. PYTHONS. Gigantic air-breathing octopi. QVC Salesmen. Good heavens, boy! Where have you been? I'll take my chances with fire ants behind a tree.

:o

[Jamastiene]

28. Me too. n/t

[Sugar Smack]

31. Fire ants and questionable-looking dead leaves.

:thumbsup:

[Jamastiene]

32. Much better than

the certain infection from a badass public toilet seat. :thumbsup:

[evlbstrd]

17. The world is our urinal.

[Jamastiene]

18. Ever heard of STD's?

If you had to sit on a germy toilet to do your thing, maybe you'd think twice too. But then again, men would still happily live in caves if it weren't for women wanting/demanding a better place to live... So, I guess you'd happily sit on public toilets and never think twice. I have two words for you, internal plumbing. And I am not talking about the toilet. Infections are much harder for women to get rid of. That's the difference.

And as far as the cave comment...You know it is true. Go ahead and admit it.

[Rabrrrrrr]

19. I think you're right, but I think it's still cultural, not intrinisc

to our nature.

Certainly the men I know, including myself, are very happy to be outside and apart from the heat of summer or the cold of winter, would be happy to just live outside and/or in a cave, in a much more natural way. This is probably an intrinsic human impulse, but I'm sure also partly clouded by culture.

But the desire for the squeaky clean flush-toilet bathroom I think is mostly a cultural, learned thing; not a natural thing. And in many ways, I think it's also more of a specifically American/Canadian/British cultural thing.

Not that there is any value judgments being thrown by me either way; only an interest in whether these are natural tendencies, or partly or purely cultural constructs which we are lying about by saying they are natural.

[Jamastiene]

25. When I go fishing, I have to squat in the woods.

My stepdad actually thought enough of me to point out a good spot with no poison ivy while it was still light out. That was really thoughtful of him. I will squat in the woods, but public toilet are used by sooooo many women. I know enough about women to know that some of them are carriers of who knows what disease. It's true. You can get diseases off of public toilets. Plus, the Ellen Degeneres standup routine about women peeing on the seats isn't exaggerated. Many times the toilet seats are wet. I still don't know how women do that.

I also saw a documentary years ago about a woman who sat down on a toilet in a hotel room, if I am not mistaken. Anyhow, the cleaning staff had cleaned with some pretty strong cleaner and didn't wipe the residue off the seat. She suffered 3rd degree burns to her buttocks and the backs of her thighs. It took her years of treatment for burns to heal that and get her skin back right again.

I just don't trust a toilet I didn't clean myself. I usually lay some TP over the areas I may touch and make sure no wetness bleeds through. Maybe many women just like cleanliness more than many men do. I don't know. :shrug:

[Rabrrrrrr]

34. One thing I always do in multi-sex public bathrooms is leave the seat up

especially if a woman is standing in line behind me, because I want her to know that the seat was wet when I came in, more than likely from the woman ahead of me, and that didn't do it.

I've always wondered about that, too, but I have assumed it's because some women won't sit down on a public toilet and so they just squat and end up peeing all over the seat. Which also makes me wonder why, if they're going to do squat, they don't at least flip the seat up out of courtesy.

I hated cleaning the women's bathrooms when I was a janitor. Consistently much grosser than the men's rooms.

[Jamastiene]

35. That is odd, isn't it?

Most women ARE squeamish about public restrooms, but most women's restrooms ARE dirtier. Maybe you are right. They don't want to sit on it, so they squat and miss the mark which makes it even dirtier.

[cali]

20. I'm a woman and I don't mind outhouses. In fact

I lived in a house with only an outhouse for 2 years. I did have a pump for the kitchen sink, though.

[Fleshdancer]

21. smells bad

I'll use on if there's no other option but why in the world should I embrace an outhouse??

[LostinVA]

22. Can we say "Disgusting Literal Cesspools of Disease and Filth"?

I knew we could!

E-coli, typhoid, cholera......

[Callalily]

26. Hey . . .

not all women are squeamish about outhouses. Here's a typical style outhouse I used on a camping trip to Belize.



And a true outdoors outhouse

[alarimer]

27. I don't have (much) of a problem with outhouses

I do have a strange objection to using public restrooms if anyone else is in there. I will leave and wait until they leave or something.

I will camp at campground where they have nothing more than outhouses but I refuse to go "primitive" camping where you are expected to, umm, pack it out, if you know what I mean. That's just gross.

[NashVegas]

29. Women Don't Like Spiders & Snakes

Both of which have been known to hang out in outhouses.

[Rabrrrrrr]

36. But ain't that what it takes to love them?

[Lisa]

30. reminds me of the time when I actually had to move an outhouse

It was traumatic enough that it makes cleaning a regular bathroom seem positively enjoyable!

[sarge43]

33. I've never encountered that one. n/t

[Lars39]

37. I would rather use an outhouse than a porta-potty.

With a true outhouse, there isn't a urinal close to your face when you sit down. In a good outhouse, the contents are much farther down than in a porta-potty, thus reducing the smell to a great degree.
The air in a porta-potty is usually stifling unless it's cool outside.
One set of grandparents didn't get an indoor bathroom until I was 16.

[Kali]

38. Just like "it depends" on the indoor toilet ( I have seen some gross ones

It depends on the outhouse. Had some friends that were living pretty primitively while they built their house - they had THE most wonderful outhouse - and the view! Overlooking the San Pedro river valley. Sweet.

And when you gotta go even that tiny cramped little rough lumber job in that village in Mexico beats the HELL out of wetting your pants! (or worse)

[pitohui]

39. i'm not sure but

i will admit if it's a camping trip w. outhouse or a camping trip w. tree i would rather shit by the tree

my sense of smell is poor but even i can smell an outhouse, i'm afraid!

i don't think it's a cultural artifact because i was not aware the some men could not pee in front of other guys while camping until i was, like 20, there are no women to my knowledge who can't pee in front of other girls -- i have the impression that piss shyness is a male disease (don't hit me too hard if you can prove otherwise)

i'll just explain the outhouse phenom away by saying a tree and a shovel is more natural and pleasant to this chick than a smelly stinky outhouse!

[IsIt1984Yet]

40. Men don't have to put their naughty bits or RISK getting them on the

seat... under which is a LARGE pile of gross... sometimes piled UP to the seat.

THINK about it.

:puke:

[pitohui]

43. you don't really sit down either, do you?

i know i am not the only woman who doesn't "sit" on strange toilet seats and who instead uses my thigh muscles to squat because asian/african toilets don't even bother to have seats and no one thinks anything of it

[IsIt1984Yet]

44. I said RISK. Yes... I've slipped on PEE on the floor while squatting.

[NMDemDist2]

42. i'd take "behind the tree" before an outhouse anyday

mostly cuz of the STINK!

when I ran white water rafting some of those portapottys got pretty rank by the end of the season

a good clean outhouse is much better but a shovel and a tree work just as well

:shrug:

[Phoenix135]

46. That is all they have in Iraq

[LibertyLover]

47. For me it's the smell

Every summer for the past 11 years or so we have gone to a small camping event called "Pennsic". Just you and 10,000 of your closest friends, drinking, wearing medieval garb, drinking, wailing on each other with swords, drinking, shooting at targets, drinking, going to classes on cool topics like Magic and Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (plug - that's the class I'm teaching Monday afternoon), drinking, making stuff, and oh, did I mention the drinking? Anyway, the facilities are porta-potties. They get cleaned and emptied several times a day, but if you go in one after some drunken lout has "used" it - the smell is gross, not to mention the, um, remains. I'm sensitive to odors and they can be bad. Now it's even worse, because of the kidlet. The first couple times we went, she was in diapers or pull-ups and all I had to do was change them and dispose of them at the dumpster. Now, she is toilet trained and that means taking her to the porta-john. She is way too young to go in by herself, so that means mommy has to go in with her and that means being in the smell longer than I can hold my nose because the kidlet is dawdling about going. Oh yum.

[politicat]

48. I don't mind actual outhouses and pit toilets.

I don't mind squat toilets.

And I've learned a LOT of female toilet behavior - the most squeamish ones are the ones that make the biggest mess. They hover and spray all over. They fail to flush because they're too worried about getting out of the nasty restroom. And yet, they wouldn't be half as nasty if they weren't so squeamish. Duh.

Bums are bums. They're actually cleaner than hands or mouths, and my girly bits don't touch the toilet seat; my FLANKS do. If I'm really worried, I carry alcohol wipes with me everywhere (I use them for my glasses and my electronics screens) so I wipe down the seat with one of those. You can get big boxes of them at Costco, individually packed.

My mom taught me when I was little to "Flush the Toilet." If I go into a stall with an unflushed toilet, I don't back out and pretend I didn't see it; I flush the damn thing and get on with my business.

Outhouses are kind of the same thing - a properly maintained one is not smelly and pretty dang safe. There's very little chance of coming into contact with bodily fluids in a properly maintained outhouse.

Portajohns... those, I hate. I'd rather use an outhouse than a portajohn. Those things are evil and nasty.

And for when things are really filthy, or there's no place to dig, or there are no choices... there's always the travelmate.

[NMMNG]

49. Could it be

1. The stench
2. The filth
3. The complete inability to wash afterward

?

x(

[LaurenG]

50. Rabrrrrr be careful!

Black Widow. :hurts:

The black widow spider (Latrodectus spp.) is a spider notorious for its neurotoxic venom. It is a large widow spider found throughout the world and commonly associated with urban habitats or agricultural areas.

...improvements in plumbing have greatly reduced the incidence of bites and fatalities in areas where outdoor privies have been replaced by flush toilets. "Nearly half the black widow bites reported in the medical literature of the first 4 decades of century were inflicted on the male genitalia by spiders lurking underneath the seats of outdoor toilets."

:wow: :wow:


For more information on toxicity, etc., see Poisonous spiders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow