to think there is something wrong with Americans?

[TheBloodManCometh]

In Colorado, here for 5 weeks.

Why the HELL is there a half inch gap on either side of the door in all public toilets?? You can see everything going on!!!
This has been the case everywhere I've been in America?
AIBU to be both baffled and embarrassed

lighthearted btw. I don't really think there's something wrong with the Americans

I thought the German shit-on-a-shelf toilets came from Holland and were designed so that one could inspect their turds.

I do now Toby!

I never noticed a gap at the side of doors, just above and below like a saloon door. I figured it was so kids didn't get locked in.

Ugh, toby. I forgot about the German 'poo-shelves' (it has to do with their pork consumption).

Oh, that. Yes I'd heard about that.

What's with the bowlful of water ?

It always amazes me the things Brits can find to complain about. At least in the US the toilets actually flush the first time you try.

And the gaps between toilets are vv useful if you find yourself out of loo roll or your child has locked herself in.

I think there's something seriously wrong with Brits. Do you honestly think people try to peer into toilet cubicles? I mean.... ewwwww. Trust me, it never happens.

Okay you asked... Some of you seem to know...

Meat in Germany isn't or at least wasn't hung (before European law thingy bobs) before it was sold. In the UK it is and it gets rid of certain nasties. Anyways... After number 2s if it falls straight into water you won't know whether nasties have got into your system so in Germany it lands on this shelf whatsit above the water level and out pop the nasties worms to have a look and you know if you've got worms or not?

I hate this. As well as the gap, the doors and walls of the cubicle end about two feet from the floor so you can see everyone's feet and legs too.

won't mention guns, though thankfully the Americans I know despair of their weapon-toting citizens

I think there's something seriously wrong with Brits. Do you honestly think people try to peer into toilet cubicles? I mean.... ewwwww. Trust me, it never happens.

We are very private when it comes to toilet habits. Most of us can't even use a public toilet for fear that someone might hear the tinkle or worse an escaped fart!

Oh ladies. You really need to go to Japan and try their toilets. I'll have a look and see if I can find the picture I took of the controls.

Most people wouldn't look but it wouldn't be hard to do so accidentally.

Why bother having a door? Maybe those beaded curtains will do?

Ah yes, American toilets are indeed very disconcerting. I've had to use them a lot. Utterly weird in the workplace especially. However, they don't find it odd at all. Which given how prudish they are about everything else, is quite strange.

I used one in a German service station once where after flushing the seat lifted and got spun around and cleaned... It was very fancy.

Okay I'm talking too much about toilets now.

We went to the Kennedy space centre a few weeks ago,and after using the toilets there, we all wondered why they could send people into space, but they can't build a cubicle with a door that fits.

I've lived in Canada since I was 12 but I sort of vaguely remember those public toilets that you had to put a penny in the door to access..."ENGAGED"...is that still a thing? I can recall being in one in Trafalgar Square with DM...the stall was like an impenetrable fortress of privacy and reeked of that odd antiseptic, redolent of the 1960's and popular with primary school janitors.

Ok. Here are the best controls I saw. This one had a special fanjo wash button. I liked that button.

We always jokingly called the Dutch and German things "inspection shelves". I never knew it was truly what they were there for!.

How did you use it pip? Just press all the buttons and hope something happened?

I dislike American toilets too. I especially hate that so many of them automatically flush themselves - I cannot concentrate on weeing whilst stressing that the loo might flush while I'm still sitting on it.
Even worse was a self-flushing cubicle I used in France. Whilst sitting on the loo I read a sign that said the entire cubicle disinfected itself every 15 mins which panicked me as I didn't know how long it was since it had last done so AND the loo roll was all soggy. Surely if this malfunctioned the cubicle could fill up and drown the person inside???

The buttons on the top are small flush and big flush.
The button on the left is stop, then two different ways to wash your arse, then fanjo wash, then warm air to dry it all. I think the dial adjusted the temperature.
Luckily if you forgot to flush it did it for you when you got up anyway.

but they can't build a cubicle with a door that fit

We can, we just choose not to.

Is it true that the cubicles in schools don't have doors at all? I'm sure I heard that on a TV show at some point

The bizarre thing in Japan is that public toilets are either some kind of madness like that or squat toilets. Two extremes.