Why, WHY I keep subjecting myself to the National Post I'll never know, but here's some more on the "women are weird" front, brought to us ripe from the WTO.
Guidelines issued on the weekend by the National Environment Agency in Singapore, where the WTO is based, would mean women have at least equal facilities to men.
The code requires medium-sized restaurants, bars and nightclubs to have as many female cubicles as they have male cubicles and urinals.
Larger venues, and those such as theatres and cinemas where usage is confined to peak periods, would have to favour women's facilities by a ratio of 14 to 10.
Isn't that a fantastic thing for the WTO to concern itself with, after the loads of criticism leveled against their refusal to take women's domestic work - the sustaining feature of all societies - into any account of labour activity? FINALLY, the World Trade Organization is stepping up, recognizing their gratuitous ignorance of third world living conditions and -
What? It ISN'T the World Trade Organization? Then who...?
Wait a minute...did you say World Toilet Organization?
The misery women go through all over the world queuing for public washrooms would be eased under new principles proposed by the World Toilet Organization.
Oh. Right. I forgot. Women don't like those icky economic thingies with the thinking and the numbers and the sitting still, and it's not like we can lift those heavy briefcases anyway.
But thanks for the recognition that women wait longer in lineups to use the bathroom. That's pretty nice, right? I mean, it could be worse - you could be trying to rationalize social behaviour by offering a belittling "scientific" explanation or something.
''The human female tendency to go to the lavatory in pairs is a natural instinct that has evolved over millennia, and is merely reinforced by social practice,'' said Elisabeth-Maria Huba, a German social scientist with the WTO.
''This is something that can be observed all over the world. It's in the brain, it is not learned socially. Men have it quick and easy. For a lot of women the toilet is a place they are afraid of.
It's true - we're scared shitless, actually. It's the flush.
''When there are no toilets, or only disgusting toilets, women go together to protect each other.''
And didn't that work out spectacularly well for the refugees in the Superdome.
She cited a U.S. study in which girls would go in pairs, even though only one needed to use the lavatory, and the other, asked why she was also going, said: ''I don't know, but I didn't want to leave her alone.''
Like I said. Soooooo thoughtful.
I wouldn't believe it's true if there wasn't a link.
Maybe they'll give me a job... nope, not that desparate yet.
Posted by: Steph | November 21, 2005 at 20:33