Ladies and gentlemen… Maybe clean up after yourself after you use the toilet?
It seems yesterday’s article on men leaving the toilet seat up caused quite a stir with Metro readers.
The writer is obviously speaking from experience, yet so is one reader who says that women tend to leave the ladies loo in a worse state than the men’s.
Yet, Men typically have an extra option than women when it comes to using the toilet (at least in public places) the option to pee at a urinal, as one reader says, why not reserve the toilet cubicle for sitting only? Maybe there will be less mess?
I think we can all agree that having to lower or lift someone else’s seat after they’ve used it is unfair and unhygienic – regardless of gender.
But, let us know your thoughts in the comments below
The toilet seat debate
■ What an extraordinary article by Emmie Harrison-West (Metro, Wed), railing at how discourteous and sexist men are for not putting the toilet seat down after they’ve finished.
She argues that this forces women to have to touch the dirty seat. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to her that it works both ways.
Because women don’t put the seat up after they’ve finished, men have to touch the seat to lift it back up.
I’m not surprised the man using the train cubicle reacted as huffily as he did when she asked him to put the seat down. How would she like it if the man coming in after her haughtily demanded she put the seat back up for him?
Oh, and you don’t need to waste lots of toilet paper handling the seat, as you’ll wash your hands afterwards, won’t you?
Angus, Norwich
■ It’s not sexist to leave a toilet seat up, but it is unhygienic.
Sarah Vickers, via metro.co.uk
Women might be worse…
■ Had to have a laugh when I read this article. Being a loo cleaner, I find it’s women who are dirtier than men. The way they leave a loo when done is beyond disgusting. They have no idea what a handle is, judging by the amount of times I see a non-flushed loo. And why leave your used loo roll on the floor? Ladies, it’s time to clean up your act, too.
Raonaid, North London
Is it really such a big deal to lower a toilet seat?
■ Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. Physics decrees that it requires less energy to put the seat down rather than to raise it.
Am I to assume that the next person to use the loo is always female? If not, the seat has to be raised again. I always lower the seat and then lower the lid.
J Barber, by email
■ May I ask Emmie if she puts the seat up for her husband when she’s finished? Or is it only women that shouldn’t have to touch it? Sounds a bit sexist!
Tom Red, East London
■ The naivety of the writer is truly stunning. She acknowledges that many men have difficulty aiming and that people sometimes rush into the toilet and use it without checking the seat location.
By leaving the seat down, it’s virtually guaranteed that it will be covered in wee by a rushing, careless or selfish man or boy in a very short time.
I can assure the writer that I would rather take a tissue and lower a dry seat than take wads of tissues and try to dry a wet one, which would require lifting and lowering to get it fully dry.
In the home it may be a good idea but in a shared public toilet I will continue to leave it up out of consideration for my fellow men and women.
Fred, via metro.co.uk
■ I see many valid points here but there’s a contradictory statement. Emmie asks men whether ‘sitting down will make you look and feel too much like a woman?’ and in the next sentence states ‘Believe me, if I could pee standing up, I would.’
I agree, I’m frustrated when I need the cubicle and find men using it because they don’t want to use urinals for some reason. I then walk in and realise they didn’t lift the seat up and made a mess all over the seat, so I have to clean it and put toilet paper on it.
Men, it’s time to use the urinal or sit down peeing. You wouldn’t make a mess in your own home. Please think of others.
M, via metro.co.uk
■ This article is a clear and evident problem of the self-centred beings of today. Emmie is thinking only of herself because what if it’s a man who uses the toilet after a man has been?
The fact that she has to try to constantly justify her reasoning is evidence that the page is worth more as toilet paper.
Alan L, via metro.co.uk
■ If you’re the only one to use the seat, then you’re the only one to touch it out of necessity. If you’re concerned about the hygiene of touching it, then the same applies to the person who stood up using the toilet before you – what about their hygiene?
If your main concern is that you don’t look where you’re going when in a rush, then that’s more something for you to work on.
Callum, via metro.co.uk
■ This ludicrous suggestion that it’s sexist not to do something because a woman tells you to is in itself sexist. Equality means that both sexes can lift and lower the seat at will.
As for me, I lower the seat and the lid because I’m considering the smell.
John, via metro.co.uk
■ This works both ways. I’m offended when people leave the toilet seat down. Why have I got to touch the seat that’s been sat on by a dirty bum?
If it’s hygiene that people are worried about, then they should wash their hands afterwards, as we are taught from a young age. Also, it takes half a second to put the seat down, so why is this such an issue?
Have people moaning about this got nothing better to do?
Francis, via metro.co.uk
Not casual misogyny, general misanthropy?
■ Not everything a male does that mildly inconveniences a woman is misogyny.
HappyMisery, via metro.co.uk
■ If they can’t even clean up after themselves having peed all over the seat, I’d say it’s more general misanthropy.
Graham, via Twitter
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MORE : Men, put the toilet seat down after yourself – leaving it up is just sexist