Would you feel comfortable taking a wee in a mouth shaped toilet?
People aren’t happy about these sexist toilets at a youth hostel in Paris. Belushi’s hostel have come under for fire for having toilets in the shape of a woman’s mouth for the men to, er, do whatever they please into. A Facebook user posted a picture of the creations with a scathing message on their site asking them why on earth they’ve decided to install such bizarre, and offensive, toilets.
“Hi, just wondering if there’s a reason your urinals are shaped like a woman’s mouth, or if it’s just because your establishment is fully committed to make women feel unwelcome and unsafe, right down to your interior design choices?” Wrote the user. “Do you think it’s a good idea to be give your (drunk) male customers this impression of women in general, and specifically of your (young, often traveling alone and vulnerable) women guests? Just some questions I have for you!”
She wasn’t alone, with hundreds of supporters agreeing with her post, and messages of support flooding in to back up the fact that there is absolutely no reason for these offensive urinals to have been installed, especially as they were apparently only fitted in the men's.
However, hostel staff were less than understanding, instead excusing the designs as mimicking the iconic Rolling Stones album cover. They then concluded their response with a poor, and misplaced, attempt at sarcastic humour suggesting that the original complainer should know where the women’s toilets were instead: “Just for future reference, the ladies’ room is further down the hall.”
It wasn’t of course long however before the trolls started lurking from the woodwork, bombarding the feed with unpleasant remarks about the men and women complaining.
“Tbh you’re the dumbest fucking disaster of a feminist, you’re not even worth my time. Go complain about a women’s issue that actually matters,” wrote one user Paul, posting a link to a ‘Sexual Jihad’ information page.
Whilst others commented saying the women complaining were “desperate to feel offended all of the time”, “taking it too seriously,” and need to “get a life.” Some were adamant that the lips were in reference to Mick Jagger’s mouth however it has since been discovered that the manufacturer’s of the urinals make no reference to the Rolling Stones in their marketing, and have named the toilets ‘Kisses.’
However female users soon reminded the trolls that you were able to fight more than one social injustice at a time, however big or small it was, and that these toilets merely contributed to a wider societal problem of degrading women.
One commenter, Joe, also pointed out that it was interesting that all the hate was coming from one particular gender.
Well one thing’s for sure, we sure wouldn’t find the male equivalent of these in the ladies’ very amusing...