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Thursday, 14 January 2016

Pissing in Public

It's no wonder so many French men are prepared to stop the car when the need overtakes them and pee into a bush on the side of the road. They are habituated through years of being obliged to use open public urinals such as this one in Vendoeuvres. 

It is very common in France for women who wish to use a cubicle to have to walk past a man using the urinal. I know a restaurant in Ville aux Dames where if you are in the cubicle you have to be careful when you exit via the outwards opening door that you don't face plant the man who's entered the toilets after you into the urinal he's using.

Why is it that peeing in public is generally accepted as normal, but breast feeding in public is widely considered inappropriate and unnecessary behaviour in France? Feel free to discuss at length in the comments section below, but basically the answer has more to do with politics than prudery.
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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Orange Peel Fungus Aleuria aurantia. This common fungus of woodland paths really does look like a piece of orange peel on the ground.
A photo has been added to the entry for the quite common toxic mushroom Panther Cap Amanita pantherina.

8 comments:

Sheila said...

Never ceases to annoy me that men's plumbing makes it so easy for them to take a
whizz. The French in particular seem to cater to them. I remember the pissoirs
of Paris. No worry about running into a man at a urinal if you were a woman because you couldn't use them at all. And how about pit toilets? Just the other
day I was reading a blog by someone in a small village in southern France whose
church still has one!
Perhaps if men did the breast feeding, it would be regarded as quite acceptable.














John said...

I’m not really sure whether there is growing convergence in a number of areas across Europe as regards things like dress, social attitudes, etc. I’m also not sure what potential there is for more recent levels of immigration within and from outside Europe to change things – for good or ill.

The link re breast feeding in public yielded some interesting figures. Given how unobtrusively it seems to be carried out I cannot begin to think why anyone should be anti. Should I be puzzled that men seem so much more in favour of breast-feeding in public than women?

Susan said...

By 'pit toilet' do you mean a seat over a pit that is not connected to a sewage system or septic tank? Or do you mean a squat toilet (Fr. à la turque)? There are plenty of à la turque toilets all over France still, but I can't imagine there are very many genuine pit toilets left.

With regard to the breast feeding the fact that men don't do it is kind of the point as far as many French women are concerned. It is regarded a 'kind of slavery' in certain circles, and bottle is seen as better because men can share the responsibility, as well as experience the bonding that comes with feeding the baby.

Susan said...

Re breast feeding see the second part of my reply to Sheila above.

Pearl said...

that is odd. here neither is sanctioned, although breast feeding in public is pulling into the lead.

Susan said...

Since there is no negative public health issue with breast feeding I should hope that people are more accepting of it than pissing in the street.

MargaretP said...

Last year a man in a Rockhampton cafe asked a young mum to stop breastfeeding, when she continued he asked the owner to speak to her.....they told her she was welcome to continue and asked him to leave and and also told him not to come back.
This was all over social media and now many businesses have signs in their windows saying "Breastfeeding welcome here "

Susan said...

Hooray for the Rockhampton café owner!

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