Seat Up, Seat Down Revisited

VooDoo Child writes the following:

“There have been studies done which show that the most efficient thing to do is simply to leave the seat in whatever position it was when you finished up.” (from Bathroom Etiquette at Home)

The above statement is actually true proper etiquette for today’s time. It is not the man’s responsibility to make sure the seat is down for a woman… any more than it is the responsibility of a woman to put the seat back up when she finishes. It is 2009 and nobody gets a free pass just because of gender.

Hmmm. Regardless of the year (this email was received while it was still 2009), I hardly consider leaving the seat down a free pass for women. Women already have a hard enough time going to the bathroom what with the whole “can’t pee standing up without some effort or third party appliances” thing, and if leaving the seat down makes it easier for them, while I think that’s the right thing to do. Etiquette is all about being aware of others.

But you are correct – it’s not the man’s responsibility to put the seat down, it’s simply good etiquette to put the seat down. People always confuse etiquette, laws, rules and responsibility.

VooDoo Child continues:

SIDE NOTE: The same holds true for birth control. It is not the man’s responsibility – because he cannot get pregnant. (Of course, if he fails to protect himself, he could end up with 18 years of child support payments, not to mention an STD – but I digress). A woman should hold complete responsibility for birth control. Please consider the following: If it happened that a man’s testicles grew to the size of watermelons, plus he experienced several months of daily nausea, and then was saddled with a lifelong commitment to another human being (or had to make the difficult decision to kill it) – just because he didn’t consider birth control before having sex, I ASSURE you that 99.9 percent of men would take every precaution to keep that from happening, and would NEVER expect a woman to protect him from that.

Whoa. Sex and pregnancy have NOTHING to do with etiquette. Both women and men need to do whatever they can to avoid unwanted pregnancies and STDs. It’s ridiculous to compare toilet seat position and sex/pregnancy.

Still more from VooDoo Child:

Now, I’m certain you will not correct your page, because that etiquette rule was simply your opinion as a woman. However, if there were a non-gendered judging party who was completely impartial and unbiased…. I feel certain they would agree with me whole-heartedly.

As for your site in general though, I like it. Keep up the good work. 🙂

Curious – this is the first time I’ve been mistaken for being a woman. I assure you I am a man, and my thoughts on toilet seat etiquette are anything but selfish. Oh, and thanks!