'Potty parity' is revisited as House gets its first female speaker

[CatWoman]

The closest restroom to the U.S. House of Representatives chamber for female members is off the Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women's Reading Room located in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. Male representatives merely have to walk a few steps off the chamber floor to find a restroom.



I remember when I enlisted into the Army back in the late 70's, and was surprised at the lack of female restrooms at certain facilities.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/16292400.htm

[longship]

1. I can't wait to hear the Wingnut screeching about this!!

:kick:

[CatWoman]

2. ROFL!!

:rofl:

they are already pissed off about her "victory celebration"

http://wizbangblog.com/2006/12/23/all-hail-queen-nancy.php

[dorktv]

3. They should have potties in the chambers off to the sides...

someone can give up an office for that...and it should be unisexed.

[Jack Rabbit]

26. We can convert Tom DeLay's old office to a couple of johns

It would be used for about the same thing.

[NYC Liberal]

4. Why do the Repukes need a restroom?

They already piss on the Constitution.

[Vanje]

5. Surely there are more urgent issues...

...then restrooms.
Heck.Use the mens room. Big deal!

[dorktv]

6. Are you male? I would not want to use the men's restroom even if

in Congress!

[Vanje]

14. no

I am not a male. Never have been.
Why should you care?

[dorktv]

30. your attitude of "well make the women use the men's room" struck me

as being something an uncaring male would say. Why should women have to use the men's room?

[Vanje]

37. How do you work it out at your house?

If a boy or man needs to pee at your house do you make him go outside?
or do you keep separate lavatories?

At my house, a single small bathroom is used by both males and females. Somehow we all survive.

(Oh the Humanity!)

[dorktv]

42. We have separate bathrooms.

[Name removed]

43. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Clark2008]

32. Yeah - they always stink!

Why is that, btw? It's not as though female emissions don't stink, too. Are we just cleaner afterwards?

[dorktv]

33. We do not miss.

[Vanje]

47. We do not miss...until we exceed middle age

Sometime after age 40, things loosen up. Us old gals sometimes miss.
Didnt you know?

[CatWoman]

7. why should women have to be reduced to using the men's room

pray tell?

You don't think it's a big deal that the Speaker of the House doesn't even have a rest room?

Would you be this dismissive if the shoe was on the other foot?

[TahitiNut]

9. Why not just put a chamber pot under each seat?

After all, it is the "House chamber." :silly:

[wakeme2008]

16. You mainframe programmers are such cads

:hi:

[TahitiNut]

19. Only because we've been locked in the 'puter room with only a chamber pot.

:evilgrin:

That's actually not far from the truth. When I was in the Army, working on a highly classified system, I was locked in the 'puter room for over 20 hours once and had to get the MP to escort me to the latrine and back when I had to go. I remember many 36-hour 'emergency' sessions working on critical maintenance - virtually camped in the 'puter room with a table, coding pad, and keypunch machine (019).

[wakeme2008]

34. LOL, Army E-5 me had to escort fresh out of boot camp Navy to john..

On my "highly classified system", when Pete's brother Paul showed up without the basic clearance you got out of boot camp, all we could do was put him in an office across from me and he would call across the hall when he had to go. My office had a Navy E-7, a Marine E-9 and me, guess who got escort duty.. :rofl:

I tried to introduce the Jovial heads to something call Cobol, but they would have nothing to do with it....

[originalpckelly]

21. There's already enough crap in that chamber.

:-)

[Vanje]

13. If congressional women stared marching through the mens room in numbers,,

They (we!) would get a congressional womans restroom post haste.

[dorktv]

31. 1. Men's rooms are generally disgusting 2. Women should not have to

even have to do that. It should have been done forever ago.

[Raine]

28. Why should a woman

have to use the men's room where there is most likely piss all over the floor.

EDIT: Clarity

[TahitiNut]

8. Congress should lead the way in 'unisex' restrooms.

:evilgrin: After all, the stalls are more than adequate for privacy ... and pissoirs worked for centuries.

[CatWoman]

10. someone's been watching too much "Ally McBeal"

:hi:

Merry Christmas :)

[TahitiNut]

11. (Hugs!) Nawww.... there are unisex johns in Paris, still - on the left bank.

I've been to many sporting events where many of the saner women, rather than wait in some bizarre, long line, just used the 'mens' room where the stalls were open and every bit as functional as on the other side. If the situation were reversed, I'd have no problem using a stall in the 'womens' room - and I'm not at all immodest. (I used to be paranoid - now I'm just noid.)

:silly:


:loveya:

[Manifestor_of_Light]

12. And considering the windbags in Congress

It would be merely appropriate that chamberpots are also known in the South as.....


THUNDERMUGS!!!! :evilgrin:


That might be the most intelligent sound they make all day!

[undeterred]

15. If I were a female Congressperson I would walk in on the men

smiling and say, "Sorry, I couldn't hold it all the way to the ladies room". Nice little dick you got there.

[deadmessengers]

17. Can someone explain this to me?

Why on earth would a "Women's Restroom Equity Bill" mandate that there be twice as many women's toilets as men's? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me, although I might be missing something.

[CatWoman]

18. you ever compare the length of line(s), in public forums,

of men restrooms compared to women's?

[depakid]

20. There'a also the issue of "frequency" to consider

:evilgrin:

[CatWoman]

23. that's true, too

i swear, the older I get the more often I have to go.

I probably will be needed to be fit for Depends soon....

:)

[TahitiNut]

24. Well, let me tell you about being the proud owner of a prostate.

(no... as I think about it, I think I'll pass.) :evilgrin:

[depakid]

35. LOL. This especially becomes "an issue of contention" on long road trips.

What? Again? You've got to be kidding me....

Alright, alright.

Obviously, the issue is less contentious and more

:wtf: to do when you're flying small aircraft with an SO and "frequency events" occur. Or maybe worse- what if she's the pilot!

There are ways around this of course, provided that you're both creative and plan ahead- and there are also several products on the market (Ah, free enterprise at work).

With respect to public service- (especially the military) it seems to me pretty clear that one size doesn't fit all:

To pee, or not to pee … Female aviators face a dilemma

"...Many of our flights were six hours long, with some reaching nine hours.

Besides our mission tasking, we had to "work around" basic bodily processes. Soiling oneself wasn't a worry for the males in our squadron, because they could urinate by using the Prowler relief tubes.

The females, however, had to worry about everything, which begins a debate over the proper way to prepare for long missions. It is not possible in the EA-6B for female aircrew to leave their seats and squat. Any such action would have to be done on top of the ejection seat, which is not safe.

Another option, slightly more practical, is using the strap-on Lady J device. This device acts as a funnel, guiding a woman's urine to the relief tube. This seems like a simple answer, but, maybe it's not. The Lady J device requires easy access to areas inaccessible when you're sitting in a seat or wearing a standard flight suit. There is an extended-fly flight suit out there that enables access, but acquiring one may be difficult.

The piddle pack, a time-honored relief device in many other platforms, is also a possibility. But, the same issue for women arises: They need some type of funnel to get urine to flow into the bag, or they have a messy situation. The piddle-pack option also requires an extended zipper for use in aircraft. In the past, females have stripped out of their gear, including flight suits, to use the piddle pack--moons over Afghanistan!"

.... http://www.safetycenter.navy.mil/media/approach/issues/mar03/ToPeeOrNot.htm

All I have to say after all of this is- Go Pelosi Go!

[annabanana]

41. eek! To much information, , , , , ,, , , n/t

[originalpckelly]

22. I know, most of the facilities in modern structures...

are in the same 2:1 ratio.

[Missy Vixen]

25. I don't care to use the men's room

but I'd do it if I had to.

It's time to make room for women -- our place is in the House, and the Senate.

Julie

[CatWoman]

29. lol

Julie, I used to own a tee-shirt with that printed on it :hi:

[Captain Hilts]

27. At the Library of Congress the women's restrooms are really FAAR away from the reading room...

on evenings and weekends it's really creepy. The men's room is MUCH closer.

I've complained to no avail.

[knitter4democracy]

36. This is a huge equality issue.

Are the close restrooms handicapped accessible, too? It would be bad to make someone in a wheelchair have to go really far, too.

I hate going to the theatre or something in an older building and then having to find the hidden women's restroom with its huge, long line. I've been in lines in which the women decide to take over the men's room, too, or otherwise we won't all be back by the end of intermission or the seventh inning stretch.

Nancy should be able to duck out quickly and get back in time. What if we have a pregnant mama in there soon? I taught when I was preggers for the first time, and my classroom was as far as you could get from the teacher's bathroom--there were times I was late to class with trying to rush down to the bathroom.

[CatWoman]

38. you bring up some very good points, Knitter

:hi:

[knitter4democracy]

39. It's a sore subject with me.

:hi:

Seriously, though, you'd think we would have equality in this area by now. *sigh*

[dorktv]

44. One of the newly elected is 36 years old...and about to get married.

She could be a pregnant mama soon! *hopes so*

[knitter4democracy]

46. See--we need a close bathroom!

Help all the women, especially any preggers mamas on staff or duly elected.

[TahitiNut]

40. There's actually a fairly straightforward solution that solves another problem, too.

Convert all the space dedicated to large 'conference' restrooms (including lounge and other amenities) into individual rooms (closets) with toilet and sink. Each and every one of them becomes 'unisex' - for one-person-at-a-time use. That way, the segregated 'social' opportunites disappear as well. It'd be like permanent porta-potties. Screw the segregation. Screw the locker room crap. There's really no overwhelming reason people need 'moral support' of a group to defecate or pee.

[chimpymustgo]

45. You've come a long way baby...read on in the article:

-snip-

For example, Schroeder famously won a spot on the coveted House Armed Services Committee upon her election, only to face the humiliation, along with California Democrat Ron Dellums, an African-American, of being told they'd have to share a chair.

The committee's chairman, F. Edward Hebert, D-La., explained that, to his thinking, women and blacks were worth half of one "regular" member. Hebert lost his chairmanship two years later in a revolt by younger Democrats.

-snip-

So now we're just arguing over bathrooms - not actual seats at the table. Lord have mercy.