Fixed showers - a feminist issue

[trytopullyoursocksup]

Another poster said on the swimming thread -
"but women are condemned to get thrush unless they can get home in ten min to wash the pool yuck out of their vulva."

I know showering in a cozzie makes it worse but seriously I cannot believe this is the first time I have seen / heard another woman mention this.

I hate fixed overhead showers.

In many cultures it is normal to have a bidet or other means of delivering running water near the toilet.

In our culture (british) I am old enough to remember when baths were standard and showers were "modern". now showers are standard and when they are fixed overhead only (in a hotel or in a house) and there is no bath (you can actually wash under the tap in a bath if the taps are on the long side, you can squat with your knees apart and get a decent wash) - I never feel clean.

I am prone to thrush, UTIs and various forms of dermatitis when I am run down and being scrupulously clean at all times really helps with this.

Who decided that overhead showers are enough and how can we be unembarrassed enough to do something about it?

[myveryownelectrickitten]

@Trekkingaway

How do you get water from an overhead shower head to clean your perineum without basically turning upside down??!?!

I don't know how otherd do it, but I soap with my hands, allow the water running down my front and back to rinse most of it, then cup a hand "underneath" to catch water to rinse the last of it.

There, does that help? 😆

I’m not sure how you imagine everyone’s the same as you but somehow hasn’t managed to work out how to clean their bum? Or doesn’t like touching their genitals like another poster said?

For what it’s worth, I have very short arms and a mobility disorder affecting my spine, but there are plenty of women on the thread who you’re dismissing.

And FFS you don’t put the shower head up your bits.

I can only think that many people on this thread are really not very clean at all really, and don’t really wash or rinse their bums or the rest of themselves very well, tbh.

[Clymene]

Some of us don't get endless UTIs.

[ZeroFuchsGiven]

@myveryownelectrickitten

Are you daft? You don’t put it up your vulva 🤷‍♀️

I think you are the daft one actually after reading your other posts, who on earth would want to use a showerhead on their face and hair knowing someone else could have used it for whatever reason on their genitals. seriously you are talking about having to 'stand on your head' to get clean from an overhead then go on about faecal incontinence and god knows what else.

So whatever poo crumbs, residue from your vag or anything else will be going on that showerhead.

If water running from the overhead isnt enough to clean between our legs why would water from a removable shower head be enough to clean the muck from it?

[myveryownelectrickitten]

@Clymene

Some of us don't get endless UTIs.

I don’t either, but some women do. Not sure I’d be so crass as to pop on a thread where someone was taking about it and dismiss their experience by saying that it’s a non-issue, like loads of posters have done on this thread. I’m lucky not to have lots of conditions, but I wouldn’t dream of rubbishing other people’s experiences of them. (Or are the posters on here just the type who also pop on to threads about children’s disabilities to claim they’re non-issues as their kids are fine and ADHD is just snowflakery; or opine about how racism doesn’t exist because they don’t see it? Maybe they are.)

I tend to find that understanding that some people have issues and needs that I don’t, and that doesn’t mean that I should dismiss them out of hand, is a good way of proceeding with most things!

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

I can only think that many people on this thread are really not very clean at all really, and don’t really wash or rinse their bums or the rest of themselves very well, tbh.

Ooo look Mummy, all the other kids are dirty poo-bums 🙄

Look, this is a personal preference thing, not a hygiene/feminist/ableist/ageist thing, despite attempts to dress it up as one.

Anyone who believes she can't get clean enough with an overhead shower has the option of using a jug or flannel to help. As PPs have outlined, there are sound practical reasons for public showers being overhead ones: not just hygiene but also robustness. A shower that is broken is no good to anyone.

[saraclara]

I can only think that many people on this thread are really not very clean at all really, and don’t really wash or rinse their bums or the rest of themselves very well, tbh.

@myveryownelectrickitten you can't be serious surely?
You really think that I and others can't stand under an overhead shower and get ourselves thoroughly clean (including our genitals and bums) using the flow of water, some soap and our hands? I honestly don't understand how you could come to that conclusion. Water is water, whether it's delivered by a shower spray or our hands.

There is absolutely no logic or science to your assertion.

[TomeTome]

@trytopullyoursocksup it sounds like what you need is a shataf (Amazon will sell you one but you can just use an old water bottle)

[myveryownelectrickitten]

@saraclara

I can only think that many people on this thread are really not very clean at all really, and don’t really wash or rinse their bums or the rest of themselves very well, tbh.

@myveryownelectrickitten you can't be serious surely?
You really think that I and others can't stand under an overhead shower and get ourselves thoroughly clean (including our genitals and bums) using the flow of water, some soap and our hands? I honestly don't understand how you could come to that conclusion. Water is water, whether it's delivered by a shower spray or our hands.

There is absolutely no logic or science to your assertion.

No, of course I wasn’t serious. Most of the thread has been people hopping on to denigrate the OP for not being able to clean herself properly, and dismissing anyone else who might have difficulties doing so; but also clearly don’t like the same judgmental style of comment back at themselves.

[VoodooQualities]

Seems I am lucky not ever to have had trouble washing my fanny. Honestly the things women are talking about on this thread have never even occurred to me. A real eye opener.

[Codlingmoths]

@myveryownelectrickitten

I don’t either, but some women do. Not sure I’d be so crass as to pop on a thread where someone was taking about it and dismiss their experience by saying that it’s a non-issue, like loads of posters have done on this thread. I’m lucky not to have lots of conditions, but I wouldn’t dream of rubbishing other people’s experiences of them. (Or are the posters on here just the type who also pop on to threads about children’s disabilities to claim they’re non-issues as their kids are fine and ADHD is just snowflakery; or opine about how racism doesn’t exist because they don’t see it? Maybe they are.)

I tend to find that understanding that some people have issues and needs that I don’t, and that doesn’t mean that I should dismiss them out of hand, is a good way of proceeding with most things!

Of course everyone has different issues, but I can’t be the only one who does have all the issues various posters have said make this type of washing essential so they can’t live with an overheads shower, and I have always lived with an overhead shower and still maintained good personal hygiene. So it is a valid point worth making that these posters telling people they aren’t allowing for people with these conditions are certainly not speaking for everyone who is uti prone or had a bad tear during birth and has associated scarring etc.

[trytopullyoursocksup]

Obviously everyone is different. What I think is really interesting about some of the responses on this thread is the vehemence with which some have rushed to dismiss the original point. I wonder what psychological purpose it serves? Even if they actually did believe they know everything about how everyone else washes (the really funny one was the poster who said authoritatively that bidets are primarily for washing the bottom - as if the poster has a camera into all the bathrooms in France where menstruating women sadly decide not to angle the water jet a few degrees differently on certain days of the month, because "that's not its primary use, dommage") - even if they KNEW I was wrong, or a sample of one, what do they get from insisting so violently that THERE IS NO ISSUE? Clearly they are wrong, but where does the dopamine rush come from that makes it worth frothing like that there is nothing to be said, this does not exist?

[trytopullyoursocksup]

ha ha ha it has just occurred to me that perhaps the people who are so sure that IT IS NOT AN ISSUE are the same unholy barbarians who insist that it's FINE to wash the dishes in detergent and not rinse them [ducks and runs for cover]

[PortiasBiscuit]

You can channel the water down between your bum cheeks and use your hand to splash it over your vulva.
Not everything is a “ feminist issue” ffs.

[blebbleb]

I wouldn't be comfortable using a communal detachable shower head. Imagine the backwash and bacteria from other people. I'll just use a fixed head even though apparently that's not enough to get you clean!

[Harebrain]

@trytopullyoursocksup

ha ha ha it has just occurred to me that perhaps the people who are so sure that IT IS NOT AN ISSUE are the same unholy barbarians who insist that it's FINE to wash the dishes in detergent and not rinse them [ducks and runs for cover]

Yep! You’ve rumbled me! 😂

[Melroses]

This thread has reminded me of the hospital bathroom with the detachable shower head that ran all rusty to start with 😬

[myveryownelectrickitten]

@Melroses

This thread has reminded me of the hospital bathroom with the detachable shower head that ran all rusty to start with 😬

In hospital bathrooms you’re meant to run the water in any shower for 5-10 minutes before you step in (to reduce the risk of legionella!) Yuck.

[Grammarnut]

Use hands and soap? Mind, a shower you can move around has other interesting uses. Which is probably why public ones are fixed.