BBC article - Dutch Sexism Outcry After Woman Fined For Peeing in Public

[Rumandraisin1]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41318198

35 urinals versus 3 toilets for women!

I don't have a great deal of sympathy. She had been for a night out in the Leidseplein area. There are loads of bars, restaurants and cafés there - presumably she had been in one which she could have used. There are several McDonald's in that area which are open late - I've always thought in an emergency the price of a coffee and a donut was fair for using McDonald's loos.

The on street urinals are nasty but cheap and easy to provide and men are comfortable with the idea of using them. There is no obligation to provide public toilets- and it is probably unlikely women would use them anyway unless they were staffed. I'm not sure which cities she is referring to which have better provision of public toilets - I can't think of any.
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Seriously, lass? Ok for women to be expected to buy an unwanted drink (a waste of both time and money) in order to have a pee but men don't?

"I don't have a great deal of sympathy."
I think you've missed the point Lass -- the issue isn't whether or not those on a night out should or should not pee before leaving a bar, or whether or not public facilities should be provided. The point is that given that public facilities have been provided, why there are vastly more for men than women............

I'm sure you know this Lass, and are just taking the wotsit.

And same occurs in the city I am currently in, where at times of great public celebration, temporary urinals provided for the chaps, but nothing for the ladies. Equal provision should mean equal provision, not '....and the ladies can piss in the gutter or not at all!' Which is weird given that in my experience, some men seem to prefer en plein air pissing to anything else......................

In all honesty I'd prefer the mens urinals weren't on the street either, and they had to go into Macdonalds to pee - that would both be fair, and get rid of the stinking places.

Perhaps then the police can crack down on them and stop that outstandingly unpleasant right that men seem to believe they have to pee up a wall.

In all honesty I'd prefer the mens urinals weren't on the street either, and they had to go into Macdonalds to pee - that would both be fair, and get rid of the stinking places

Yes me too.i really can't see how you can defend a grown up women pee'ing in the street.

I don't know if police still do but public urination and soliciting were both prosecuted as fixed penalty notices under a Civic Goverment Act in the city I did my traineeship.The notices coyly referred to the statutory reference rather than the actual misdemeanours. Both were money spinners

As to the different level of provision it is perfectly obvious that it far cheaper to provide male urinals which are far more likely to be used by men. I wouldn't use a public loo late at night in Leidseplein, I would have no qualms about going to the McDonald's in nearby Damrak- as to "paying" McDonald's to use their loo - why not- many public loos charge?

I'm sure you know this Lass, and are just taking the wotsit

No I'm not. I think it is a ridiculous thing to get get up about.

Public toilets enable women & disabled people to leave the house.

I take your point re disabled but all women? Come off it. And there was no suggestion she was disabled. There was no need to pee in the street.

"There was no need to pee in the street."
Again, the issue is that she, unlike the chaps, did not have the choice of using a public facility. It's the inequality that is the issue, not what she decided to do as a result of that inequality.................

It's an important topic - I don't think we have that problem in the UK but we frequently see lengthy queues for women in public buildings and at events. Planners appear to be doing a good job in planning for men, not so great for women. And a women doesn't have to be visibly disabled to become isolated and housebound by lack of public toilets. Many middle aged and elderly women suffer from bladder muscle instability for which there are limited treatments. If this woman had been in her 60's, would it be so easy to defend the lack of facilities for women?

Theres a shortage of public toilets in my town. I have friends who have to plan their trips around the toilets.
Whats the problem with providing more of them?

I think it comes down to money - Camden was due to save 250,000 by closing a few public toilets. www.hortweek.com/dame-joan-bakewell-keep-public-toilets-open-elderly/landscape/article/1380769 Joan Bakewell no less spearheaded the opposition citing the effects on elderly people in 2008

I'm so glad someone else posted this or I'd have to start a thread about urinals a-gain

Seriously, this is just like what I said about the London urinals - really, they couldn't just have the space for 2 urinals and just make it a regular toilet?

anyone know if the Amsterdam urinals are open like the London ones?

The way men are catered for and women are not and the way so many feel free to piss up walls, trees, lamposts (I even saw a man pissing over the rails in the London underground - clearly doesn't understand electricity) leads me to conclude they have really weak and feeble bladders.

Maybe free incontinence pads? "Tena Gentlemen" perhaps? (Other brands are available......).