Things we'd be talking about if the forum wasn't deadFollow

The "gunk in you(r) front" did not get there because of the visit to the restroom though. A public restroom exists to provide a location for people to urinate and defecate in a manner which removes the unsanitary results from broad public exposure (else we'd just do our business in the street like god intended or something). Providing toilet paper to wipe one's behind, and soap/water to clean one's hands is part of that.

A woman menstruates whether she's using a restroom at the moment or not. A closer analogy (although not remotely perfect) would be to something like perspiration. We don't provide deodorant/anti-perspirant in public restrooms either, despite the lack of such things certainly causing a negative reaction from others.



I think "many" is a bit of a stretch. You'd be hard pressed to find very many restrooms absent toilet paper and some means to clean up (sink with hand soap) in most western nations. Might be a bit less common in less developed parts of the world (I've used squat toilets where you cleaned up with a hose basically). Dunno. I don't see arguing that all bathrooms don't have one thing as a reason why having them means we should have other things. It's a nicety, but less of a necessity IMO.



Different points on the scale of "bathroom related" though.



I don't think it's fair to paint this as some kind of battle of the sexes thing though. Women use toilet paper and soap as part of their restroom use as well as men (and more often in terms of the paper in fact). It's not like we provide one set of things needed by men and then cruelly deny an alternative set needed by women. It's one set for both men and women. The question is about how practical it is to provide an additional nicety. And, as I've already pointed out, I'm fine with vending machines in most/all public restrooms, and think that more private ones (employee restrooms in an office building for example) can provide them if the business decides to do so as a service to its employees.

I just find that the relative difficulty in terms of providing your own versus cost/loss if it's provided for you is problematic with regard to tampons. Let's face it. It's not terribly convenient for most people to walk around with a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap in their purse/pocket. And those items can be dispensed in the restroom in a manner which makes it inefficient for them to be taken advantage of. I suppose you could pull a big wad of tp out of the stall and keep it for later use, but how many people are going to do this? Similarly, what exactly are you going to do with excess soap? Walk around with an extra dollop in your hand all day so you can use it later? Since these items are generally only going to be used while physically in a restroom, most people have no need to take them, thus theft issues are low.

Since tampons are used all the time during menstruation, and not just while in the bathroom, providing them "free" in a public restroom would likely result in a lot of women just taking free tampons and using them instead of purchasing their own. And taking a couple spares "just in case". You'll grab a free tampon and put it in your purse for later use in a way you'd never pull off extra tp from the roll and do the same, right? So one item is going to result in far more theft and abuse than the other, and will likely result in a heck of a lot more expense than you might think if you go into it assuming that women are only going to take one if they actually find themselves in need and are out.


Honestly? I can't believe we're actually discussing this. But what the heck, right?

You didn't need to swap the c for m; (You're the Mao now, dog.)

Edited, Mar 9th 2017 12:14pm by Timelordwho

Yes, it did.



The need to pee, yes? The need to clean up after peeing? No. That only happens after you pee. Which, if you're doing this in a public restroom, means you need to clean up after using the restroom. It's an integral component to using the restroom.



Except that the tampon is in use the entire time, not just while she's changing it. It has value, and is doing its job, the entire time, not just for the brief period of time, in the restroom, after urinating or defecating. They are not comparable actions. If menstruation was something that just happened for a minute or so, a few times a day, you'd manage it the same way you manage urination and defecation and the same toilet paper would be used for clean up afterwards. But it just doesn't work like that.



Eh. I'd say the ways that they are not the same are relevant here though.



I've rarely seen extra rolls sitting around (for the exact theft issue). What I do see all the times are dispenser with locks on them, to prevent anyone from removing a whole roll, but requiring them to pull out just what they need. Precisely because a full roll is something someone might grab and take home for their own use, while a handful of toilet paper isn't very handy to carry around relative to its value over time.



Except that each single tampon has a value to itself, and is in a convenient shape size to walk off with. Sufficient toilet paper to be of much value, just isn't very handy to take, unless you can take a whole roll. One tampon? You'll take it. A Second one? Sure. How about three or four or five? The smallest size you can dispense is always going to have to be a full tampon. That makes it a very attractive thing to steal. And I'm not sure how you'd design a dispenser to just hand out one and only one to any given person. A timer maybe?



You actually take extra tp from a public restroom and use it for blowing your nose? Um... Ok. Usually that stuff is pretty terrible for that use, but if that's what you do, then good on you. Again though, that's a pretty small amount relative to a whole roll. And most people aren't going to do this. I can pretty much guarantee you that if public restroom commonly handed out tampons free like they do toilet paper, the dispensers would be empty all the time from people just grabbing them so they don't have to buy them themselves.

It would be wonderful if it was the case that people would only take such things when they find themselves in the rare situation of needing one but having forgotten to put an extra in their purse or whatever. And maybe I'm just jaded in terms of human nature. But I honestly do think that this is the kind of thing that would be so abused that it would rarely help those actually in need, and just be taken advantage of by others. The rare occasion when the honest person needs one? Wont be any because of all the dishonest people grabbing them. I suppose if you stocked them super regularly you might be able to alleviate this, but how much cost are we talking about here, and what happens to the tampon industry as a result?


Edited, Mar 9th 2017 4:42pm by gbaji

Huh? You mean people stealing rolls of toilet paper, or dispensers with locks on them? Because pretty much every public restroom has some form of locking mechanism that holds the rolls in place in the dispenser and also prevents anyone from obtaining toilet paper via any method other than unspooling it from the roll. Um... And that's done to reduce theft.

If you're talking about people stealing toilet paper, I'm reasonably certain that everything else being the same, if people can steal a full roll, they're more likely to do that than trying to unroll a ton of paper out of a dispenser and then making off with it. Comedy show skit aside, of course.

You are the me of earlier this week. **** this winter.

Also kids being kids.

That's odd. I'm not finding anything about Chong being dead. Are you sure?

I was fooled, it was a hoax! Bad monkey!

I think he's actually died, he's just been too stoned to notice

Why'd it take them three months to report on that? Or rather, why'd they bother after three months?

Apparently people shoot people in other countries too. I know, I was surprised. Maybe it's fake news or what not given the source, but here's a link nonetheless.

A car and a knife as weapons it says now.

These European types need to visit so they can learn how to do a proper shooting.

Edited, Mar 22nd 2017 9:19am by someproteinguy

He clearly used New Zealand to get that done.

The lengths you go to when you don't have good internet access...