Reflection Blog Posts
graduate and undergraduate students
Discriminating against the unhoused by limiting public bathroom access
Discriminating against the unhoused by limiting public bathroom access Throughout the 19thand 20thcentury in the United States, access to public bathrooms was limited. However, as time went on and sanitation progressed, restroom availability improved for the majority of society....
Stand Tall
Stand TallIn The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir discusses the messages that potty training sends young girls. She writes, “To urinate, she is required to crouch, uncover herself, and therefore hide: a shameful and inconvenient procedure” (Beauvoir, 301-4). Seated and exposed, with pants around...
On pondering female urinals
Figure 1. Placards of a boy and a girl peeing I never really challenged the sitting posture endemic to the western world’s standard mode of urinating for women. I accepted it as a comfortable way to relieve myself, having been taught this long-standing (or should I say long-sitting) tradition...
Public Toilets + Gender Discrimination
Public Toilets + Gender Discrimination mnt Offensive restroom signs that make a joke of and dehumanize trans and non-binary individuals.Public toilets have a rich and disturbing history of being used as a means of social control, upholding social norms that otherize and signal who belongs and who...
Stylistic Approach To Bathroom Interiors Through Architects
Stylistic Approach To Bathroom Interiors Through Architects Not only looking at modern plumbing, but considering the bathroom as a central way to modernize architecture, current day architects invested a lot of time in the bathroom. For architects, the vision does not merely regard entering the...
Progress of Toilet Sewage Systems
Progress of Toilet Sewage SytemsLeilani Kane Reflection on Phase One Research This research information was interesting in learning about the different sewage systems in not only the past but other cultures. The systems that they have and use influence the type of toilet that they use and...
Not Just Men or Women
Not Just Men or WomenElena KatoGender-neutral toilet signs with multiple icons to signify the variety of people who may use the toilet.Public places should be a safe space; for some, it is their only safe space. Public bathrooms should be even more safer as it is a biological human process that...
20th Century’s Sexualized, Ego-Boosting Male Restrooms
Within the last couple centuries, male restrooms have taken a new turn. Jude Mariutto draws research from Lachmann, Bernier-Cast, and Rubel discussing this 20th century addition to male restrooms, called Carnivalesque Restrooms. This modern design of male restrooms is an obvious example of the...
Sustainable Toilets of the Future
Sustainable Toilets for the FutureBrandon Volpicelli "Green Toilet" https://www.coloradoboulevard.net/sustainable-toilets/IntroductionThis highly studied entity that follows with human existence is the necessity to defecate. As we know from lectures, it dates back to Egyptians excreting in...
The Fourth Toilet Revolution
I was both shocked and amazed by the means and consciousness of mankind's treatment of sanitation systems from the Roman city of Pompeii up to the time of the Industrial Revolution.In 500 B.C., the first drainage system was built in the city of Rome. These pipes were built of carefully worked...
To squat or not? Global perspectives on the toilets
To squat or not? This is such an interesting concept as the squatting techniques not only has effects on the digestive system but also has cultural implications. The throne toilet is a very western and European concept as it was first seen in Roman and English toilets. The problems with waste...
Equality in Public Restroom
Public restrooms are meant to be used by the general public. However, at times they may be exclusive to certain groups of the public, whether intentionally or not. After reading classmate’s essays on “Open-air Urinals in Paris” and “How Society’s View on Gender Has Influenced Segregation and...
On Toilet Positions
The various positions to relieve oneself that are popular around the world each have their benefits and theories as to why they are widely used. These positions can be based on sex, health benefits, and even religion. While researching the Paris open-air urinals known as “uritrottoirs”, I realized...
Equality | Women and the Restroom
The relationship that women share with the restroom is perhaps a deeper and more personal one than that of men. This notion is especially true when talking about menstruating women, and the unique needs that they have while using the restroom; but equally true for any woman who understands the...
Sustainability in Bathrooms
We have discussed the evolution of the bathroom and the history behind its major shifts. I’m curious about the direction the bathroom is headed in the future and if there are any sustainable fixes that can benefit our environment. The amount of waste that comes from a bathroom is enormous. Water,...