Ah, what the hell... this whole bathroom thing

[Cruzan]

I have no idea now nor any recent personal experience, but back in college it seemed almost unavoidable. Whether it was the restrooms for three different libraries where I regularly studied or any number of buildings where I had classes, more than half the time while I sat in a stall I felt being 'checked out' by someone trying to look through from the other side of the closed door. This I got used to and mostly brushed off. But beyond that were a bunch of times where after I sat down in a stall an adjacent one would become occupied, and while I don't remember this specific foot tapping thing, a foot would often seem to wander under the stall divider along with sometimes a hand. On at least one occasion some guy stood up (possibly on top of the toilet) and briefly peered down at me over the divider. And it was common in one restroom with two rows of facing stalls, that as I exited from one row, a guy still sitting on a toilet in a stall opposite would 'mistakenly' swing his door open. Oh, and of course these steel stall dividers somehow often managed to get two inch diameter holes torn threw them which were then plugged with toilet paper. In each case I simply ignored these apparent initial overtures and nothing more happened.

Never bothered to get the 'culture' of all this and never really saw it since, but it seemed all over the place back then, and just thought I'd share for those not familiar.

[bluerum]

1. Ha ha. I remember one evening, working a dinner shift in the school cafeteria,

taking a bathroom break and smoking a cigarette in a stall.

One of our gung ho security dudes KICKS the door open and scares the,,,, stuffing out of me.

He must have thought I was smoking or doing something even less savory than what I was doing.

I never did get and apology or an explanation from the cretin. He just slunk away, dragging his knuckles on the ground.

[Cruzan]

4. I never heard of such a thing

Police maybe, but building security? What the fuck did he think he was doing, anyway? After finishing I would've got in his face and found out. Or better yet, talked to building management and got his butt transferred out, or maybe even fired. I would not shrug off something like that.

[On the Road]

2. Thank You for Sharing. Seriously.

This whole foot-tapping thing has been a revelation to me. I never know that worked.

I used to get hit on by gay men, but never in a bathroom. At least not in a way that I recognized.

[Bluebear]

5. 'I used to get hit on by gay men, but never in a bathroom.'

There you have it. Well-adjusted Democratic males don't need that sort of scene.

[BuyingThyme]

11. If they flush twice, it's a marriage proposal.

[Lex]

3. Women's restrooms aren't like that at all.

Maybe it's just a man thing?

I mean, if it were something associated with 'teh gay' then wouldn't the same be true in women's restrooms (where, presumably, lesbians also use the bathroom)?

[sandnsea]

6. Well, women aren't "quick"

I assume lesbian women function the same as heteros, allowing that some may be better than others. Still, I don't think a "quickie" in the ladies room would be quite the same thing.

[misanthrope]

7. Regardless of what many want to believe...

...there are differences in the male and female sex drives. No excuse of any sort, just a fact.

I've heard transgendered folks (female-to-male) remark on how they never fully understood the effects of increased testosterone until they experienced it for themselves and were overwhelmed by it.

[Raine]

8. No they aren't and

that makes me glad that I'm a woman and can get right down to the business of relieving myself without conflicts. The worst thing in women's restrooms is not enough toilet paper plus having to fight your way to the mirror. :D

[Lone_Star_Dem]

9. You've hit on something I've been wondering about

I've never ran into this sort of thing in the ladies room either and I've begun to wonder if there is a female equivalent.

Perhaps it's because by nature we're more social in restrooms. Imagine how confusing it would be to come up with a system that would work in a ladies restroom. Many women would think nothing of asking a lady in the other stall if she could pass some tissue because her stall is out. Heck, I've even had strangers in the other stall before tell me they like my shoes.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

12. Men And Women Are Wired Differently And Can , Well You Know, Much Sooner

-:)

[Ratty]

15. I've always thought the gay bathroom thing

Was more to do with MEN and less to do with being gay. If it were practical for straight men to come into a ladys room and successfully solicit sex from women there I can tell you you ladies would have to start squatting outside in the bushes cause there wouldn't be any room left in womens bathrooms to do your business.

[Ratty]

14. In a John Waters movie...

Damn, can't remember the name, what kind of queer am I? But anyway, a woman suddenly discovers she's in a lesbian bar and freaks out. Lesbians everywhere! She runs into the bathroom and sits down in a stall. Whew. She's safe. She begins to relax a little. Then she notices two large holes right in the wall of the stall. Then two big bare boobs poke through and and start shaking at her. She screams. And I laugh like I've never laughed at a movie before. Probably the best scene in any Waters movie.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

10. Hmmm

When I was a thirteen years old boy this old bald guy stood next to me as I was urinating in a public restrrom and asked "if I would like to feel the juices."

And once I was at a department store restroom and I saw two guys leaving a stall and one guy was wiping his mouth...

[qb]

13. I had never heard of this foot-tapping thing before now.

I have always avoided standing near fire alarms because I have this irrational fear that I will reach up and pull it. Now with this foot-tapping thing I have to wonder... What if I'm in a stall and my foot just starts a-tap-tapping?

[Ratty]

16. That's hilarious

I don't do the whole bathroom thing--I think it's disgusting but it seems just about all of my friends did when I went to college, so who am I to judge? But I heard allll about it. I think they felt they needed a confessor to say shame on you because they were so naughty. Yes, I heard about the tapping code, I heard what the best bathroom configurations were (L-shaped with plenty of distance from the entrance to the stalls) and which bathrooms on campus were considered ideal. With such bathrooms there's plenty of time for men to scurry back to their own stalls like cockroaches caught in the light (their words, not mine) when somebody came in. I heard stories about seeing the same macho straight guys in the bathrooms who were only gay for a few minutes before running back to their sorority girl friends. Really great stories about following somebody out, tailing them secretly through campus, on streets and around corners, into a dormitory, up the stairs where they were waiting in front of their dorm room doors ready for more intimate action. Almost made it seem fun.

One Sunday afternoon on campus I was really bored and really horny. Hmmm, I thought. Maybe I should give it a try. So I actually went to one of the bathrooms my friends talked about. I was soooo nervous but wouldn't you know it, nobody was there. I waited inside for 10 minutes and nobody came in. I finally left and I was pretty glad nothing happened. I know I wouldn't have enjoyed it and, frankly it would have been a bit traumatic for me I think.