German Men Not Forced To Sit Down When Peeing
Authorities in Dusseldort have refused to criminalise men who stand up when going for a pee, this week rejecting a claim by a landlord seeking compensation for his toilet’s marble floor being ruined by men splashing.
Though Judge Stefan Hank agreed that the floor had been damaged and warned that standing men ‘must expect occasional rows with housemates, especially women’, he decreed they should nevertheless remain free of criminal sanction.
“Despite growing domestication of men in this matter, urinating while standing up is still common practice,” he decreed. (BBC)
The judge’s ruling struck a blow for men who sit- called ‘Sitzpinkler’, the BBC noted, a derogatory term they said implied ‘it is not masculine behaviour.’
The Guardian also mocked the term in a editorial in 2010 which mockingly asked whether ‘British men should learn from their counterparts’.
“Apparently, lots of German men nowadays routinely sit down to pee,’ the paper scoffed.
“From quite early on, so it is claimed, German sons are taught that being a Sitzpinkler – translate it yourself – is the done thing and that being a Stehpinkler is simply antisocial.”
Scientists in Utah conducted a study on the urination ‘splashback’ problem in 2013 and concluded that ‘aiming directly at the toilet water’ or even better dropping ‘a few pieces of tissue into a toilet bowl to soften the blow’ is the best way to minimise spray.
“It seems that sitting down is the best sure-fire way to avoid unwanted splashing in a traditional toilet,” study chief Prof Tadd Truscott told the BBC.
Jonty Skrufff: https://twitter.com/djjontyskrufff
