Foster’s Daily Democrat, the daily newspaper in Dover, has an interesting story (read it here) about something interesting in the brand-new Dover High School: It has no urinals in the boys’ restrooms, and no shared showers – they’re all individual, separated by curtains. Both changes are made because of students’ concerns.
“It is slowly trending that way due to privacy issues,” he said of new school construction not including urinals, though he noted it’s not widespread. “It is dependent on the request of the school district.”
Many folks have noted an apparent trend in which younger males are less comfortable than males of my generation with nudity in locker rooms – e.g., this article. I don’t know if there’s any similar trend in female athletic spaces.
The story manages to bring in Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” the absurdist sculpture that consisted of a urinal stuck in a museum, but claims that it was the first public urinal. That’s a little odd, since urinals existed since at least the Civil War era; it seems to have misinterpreted the badly worded material in this website.
Return to the Concord Monitor
Dear David Brooks. The burden of your final paragraph is correct: the article on the website of the British Association of Urological Surgeons titled ‘A Brief History of the Male Urinal’ is a travesty. Readers seeking clarification might usefully begin with my own ‘The Urinal that Precipitated Modern Art’ published in this month’s (December) issue of Plumbing and Mechanical Magazine.
David – Interesting article – and trend in new school construction. I understand changing attitudes toward nudity vs older generations, as well as the greater need for privacy given gender-related issues. But did no one account for the excessive use of water that toilets (1.2 gals) will cause, vs. implementing high-efficiency (1 pint) or even waterless urinals? I wonder if environmental and conservation aspects were considered in the discussion or simply neglected. If so, it’s a big missed opportunity.
I totally agree with the environmental and conservation concerns. This “trend” is a result of extremely shallow thinking that goes against the promotion of time, space, and resource efficiency. Schools already flush away thousands of gallons of water on a daily basis from (legitimate) student bathroom use with an impending future water crisis in sight, and this will only exacerbate that problem. Granted, in the advent of smart phones, the concerns about privacy for male students should certainly be taken into account, but adequately constructed dividers between urinals could have sufficiently addressed this issue. Peeing is a totally natural function that everyone does on a regular basis. Seeing someone using a urinal or being seen from behind while using one is absolutely nothing that anyone should be ashamed of.
School is supposed to prepare you for the world. What will happen to these people when they actually encounter a urinal out there? Or (horrors!) a trough or just a wall?
Just observe the No Peeking protocol, and all will be well.
Ah, troughs! Brings back memories of the men’s rooms in Fenway Park, pre-upgrade. What a charming environment that was.