Jane from Dear Author offers me a plethora of links should I wish to start peeing standing up, which, dude, would make my next visit to the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo 2000% more awesome:
Whizzy 4 You!
The Travel Mate
Female Freedom
And if you don’t want accessories, here’s a lesson on how to pee standing up.
Considering that’s a very funny video but it doesn’t detail the reasons you would want to pee standing up, I’d call that pure viral marketing. There’s no direct marketing at all.
Just thinking about a previous conversation.
Re: the written instructions…
“Untangle your inner labia.”
Dude.
Thank you for posting these gems, because the hubby and I are taking a pretty lengthy road trip through some pretty woodsy, uninhabited areas, and I wasn’t too happy about the idea of having to squat on the side of the road. You know, since you wanted to know that about me.
I think this also would come in handy when in Spain, because sometimes you walk into the bathroom there, flip open a stall door, and there’s a neat little hole, complete with foot placement indicators.
The reasons: I am assured that a great many ladies find it quite difficult to squat steadily for long enough to pee in the open air, or when using a footprint/squat loo of the type mentioned by Erin: these are standard in parts of southern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and also, I believe, in China and Japan.
This is the reason why the devices to enable standing-up peeing are now so popular – there are many brands available here, too. Squatting to pee also requires some practice over and above the need to balance in that position for a couple of minutes. The angle of the hips will alter the direction of the stream of urine, and both steady squatting and precise angle-control are required to ensure that you do not pee on your feet, or even (shock, horror!) on your trousers and knickers.
Just ask an archaeologist: we are all accomplished squatters and alfresco pee-ers.
The “hole in the floor” type urinals are also common in Southeast Asia and parts of Eastern Europe. Supposedly it’s for hygienic reasons (no skin contact to the urinal, hence no chance to catch something). But I still dislike those things (and I can pee standing up) and will prevent using them unless I absolutely have to.
The Travel Mate completely looks like those children’s medicine dosage spoons. That could be nice and awkward – sorry honey, that’s not the kid’s medicine spoon, that’s what I use to pee standing up.
Actually the likelihood of catching something from a toilet seat is pretty low, pretty much just a myth.
Unless the seat is so contaminated that no soul would ever SIT on it, people aren’t likely to catch something from a toilet seat.
Bacteria and viruses need a little more ‘welcoming’ environment-the toilet seat just isn’t conducive to life for disease causing organisms.
You’re actually more likely to catch something from touching the door handle on your way out because whoever went before didn’t bother to wash her hands after wiping…. *G* Sorry, probably TMI there.
Inner nurse peeking thru.
I’m not at all interested in learning out to pee from a standing position.
Whether a loo is ‘hygienic’ or not really depends only on how well it is cleaned, rather than what configuration it has! The footprint loos are fine: as Shiloh said, far more dangers lurk around door-handles, and not just lavatory-door handles, either.
I know from fairly extensive discussions of this subject over the years that the chief problem with squat/footprint loos for many Brits and Americans is that they genuinely find it quite hard to sustain a squatting position for any length of time. Even if you are male, or a female standing-up pee-er, it is still necessary to squat to use a floor-level facility for defaecation. I remember being able to overtake a whole queue of my compatriots at a brand-new and very clean Ladies in Dalaman airport (Turkey) many years ago, because there was one end cubicle with the door open that everyone was glancing into and then retreating from, back into the queue: I asked if it was out of order, and was told, ‘oh, no, but it’s one of those, well, you know, the ones where you have to crouch down…’. If they had managed to avoid squat loos after a couple of weeks in Turkey, they can’t have moved far from their tourist hotels!
I understand that in some Asian countries, where western-style sit-up loos are now being installed in some places, such as airports, for the sake of tourists, they have signs for the locals telling them not to clamber up and put their feet on the seat so that they can squat in the usual manner…
Squatting is okay for pooing but not for peeing. At least not for me, because I have a slight plumbing anomaly that makes stand-up peeing easy, but results in not properly hitting the hole with squat loos.
Frequent squatting is bad for the bladder. Never mind that it’s people who squat that are more often than not responsible for the gross toilets.
FYI, the video is missing now.
You really, really surprise me.
Even today, far more people worldwide use the squatting posture for elimination than the sitting-up one, which is relatively modern and chiefly Western. Furthermore, people in many cultures, both past and present, habitually squat rather than sit when simply resting or conversing. Squatting would seem to be a very natural human posture.
I fully intend to buy the She-Wee for myself and both my daughters for when we go to Japan. I will not tinkle on my shoes. No woman young or old should tinkle on their shoes.
I want to thank you for this post. After reading it I purchased the Travel Mates for myself and daughters. The instructions were clear and concise, and within 5 minutes I was peeing in the locked and upright position.
I’m ready for my next camping trip to the remotest regions.
http://p-standingup.com/index.php
A person I know at work has started this small business of her own. I think it’s hilarious, although I have yet to try these babies. I had no idea there was such a large range of manufacturers…