I meant to post on this a couple of weeks ago but forgot until now when I just posted the video. This is the sign that we have in our bathroom (a really bad picture of it too...I took it with my cell phone!) My mom got it for us to hang up in there as a joke because I'm always complaining about how dirty the bathroom gets around here (not that people are peeing everywhere thank goodness). Anyways, it has made me think of our class a lot because of the reactions that it gets. When the guys use our bathroom, they usually come out looking disgruntled and now having had the sign up in there for quite sometime, we know the typical reaction. So, we usually inquire about their feelings about the sign which are usually quite unfavorable. In very rare instances, (meaning I think 2 or 3 times now out of the many many men who have used our bathroom), we hear very loud laughter when they enter the bathroom and they come out and tell us about our great sign. This has left us wondering about some of our male friends on multiple occasions. None of the women come out of the bathroom offended, only the men. But recently (meaning a couple of weeks ago when I meant to post this), one of our male friends informed us that it was because our sign was not attacking the female body, only the female habits in the bathroom. Not only was the sign attacking the male habits in the bathroom, it was attacking their bodies as well and a part of the body that is not acceptable to joke about. I inquired why it is not acceptable to joke about a man's when they can (and do) joke about my body parts. This does not seem like much of a fair trade to me. Anyways, it just made me think about our class on bodies and I find it kind of funny so I just thought that I would share! (it's kind of fun to insult the boys sometimes :)
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I'm curious -- did your friend have an answer to the parts-mocking disparity?
ReplyDeleteHe did not at that moment. He just kind of looked at me, actually. But I read your comment on Saturday morning and asked him yesterday when we got back to campus and he said "Well, for girls, it's not as big of a deal. You all joke about that stuff all of the time." I think basically he thinks that it's far more personal for the guys and it's more of an open subject for the girls. And I think, personally, at least with my friends, we are far more prone to complain about having too much/not enough in the chest area and make jokes about our own body in mixed company than the boys. But I don't know. It just made me think about some of the things that we've covered in class about the disparity between how men and women see the body and respect other peoples' bodies. While I don't think it's fair that our bodies are more of an open subject, I think that sometimes we add to that ourselves too.
ReplyDeleteI do not think its a fair trade. Just because we girls joke about something does not necessarily give men the right to. I hear guys poke fun of their friends body part all the time.
ReplyDeleteHow did society get to the point to assume that women are more openly to talk about our bodies and with guys its a touchy area...that seems backwards to me.
My grandmother had a sign similar to that posted over her toilet when I was growing up. It said "If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie!" My aunt, however, had a giant yellow smiley face with "SHIT" written under it in her guest bathroom when I was very young. I remember my mother toweling me off after my bath and I was sounding out the letters. I said, quite proud of myself, "Mommy, I can spell shit! s h i t!" And I never saw that smiley face again. I guess my aunt removed it since we were getting old enough to know how to read.
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