Part of the inspiration for this post came from seeing an advert for a German house-share which said that men are welcome so long as they are tidy and are Sitzpinkler.
As I’ve mentioned before (link to Intl Diff post), German has compound nouns. One such word is Sitzpinkler – meaning “someone who pees sitting down”. How great is that, that they can say that in one word! Typical German efficiency.
There’s some sort of male ego thing about peeing standing up. We get to use our penises and we get to play a game of aiming our urine stream in the right place. Typical men, getting amused by something so silly. At primary school I have a vague memory of there being a game to see who could pee the highest at the urinal; I’ve also heard guys talking about how far away they can stand; and we
have the phrases “pissing in the wind” or “pissing contest” as metaphors coming out of this.
There’s obviously problems with this though: it is far from 100% that all of the urine ejected makes it into the toilet. Even with the best accuracy, there are splashes. When concentration wanders, so can the pee stream. And there can be drips downwards too. Male toilets (or mixed ones that men use) often have wet floors and smell, and that just isn’t on. If that’s you, you should feel responsible to wipe it up yourself – leaving your urine on the bathroom floor is not on.
These problems are mostly with actual toilets, but also present with urinals (though only the splashing and dripping, aiming tends to be easier). I reject the idea that masculinity includes standing up to pee. If there’s a toilet I can sit down at (clean seat and clean floor so I don’t mind putting my feet on it), that’s my preference. Urinals I’ll sometimes use for convenience and novelty, but sitting is still better.
This shouldn’t be an issue I have to comment on (‘issue’, well I guess it’s a relatively minor one, not like rape culture or famine or war). Men of the world, please get your act together. There should not be urine on the floor in toilets. Either clean it up or sit down.
And while we’re at it: to the estimated 50% of men who use the bathroom and don’t wash their hands afterwards, that’s definitely not on.