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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!wjh12!foxvax1!brunix!rayssd!msi
From: msi@rayssd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: More on toilet seats
Message-ID: <480@rayssd.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 25-Jun-84 14:10:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: rayssd.480
Posted: Mon Jun 25 14:10:44 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Jun-84 03:30:08 EDT
Distribution: net.misc,net.flame
Organization: Raytheon Co., Portsmouth RI
Lines: 43

Regarding the discussion on toilet seat positions:

It is clearly most logical and almost as clearly most fair for
the seats to have DOWN as the general (default?) position. The
reason: women must have the seat down always, whereas men have
occasion to use it both ways. Thus, if the seat is left up, if the
next user is female, the seat must be moved, and if male the seat
may be moved. If the seat is down and the next user is female,
the seat need not be moved, and if male the seat may be moved.

Perhaps a labor possibilities chart shows this best:

Last seat position   |Next User Female |Next User Male #1 |Next User Male #2
---------------------|-----------------|-------------------|----------------
       up            |   move          |   stay            |   move
     down            |   stay          |   move            |   stay
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To minimize labor, we want the row with the least moves. That is "down."
For this chart to inaccurately reflect reality, the following equation must
be true:
(number of usages in the Male #1 column) > (Female usages + Male #2 usages).

This may hold in households where men outnumber women by 3 to 1, but otherwise
my experience is that women use the potty much more than men do.

The only argument that I can see is an equity one - that men must lift
the seat more often than women. But why should this be unfair? After all, men
are the ones who cause the complications in the first place by needing both
positions. And after all, it is more aesthetically pleasing to have the seat
(and cover usually) down. Also remember Dick Dunn's "cat" argument here.

Why am I bothering with this silly discussion? Because I come from a household
with 2 females and 1 male, and I'm sick of male visitors leaving our toilet
seat up when they visit. Our 1 male accepts the seat-down rule without question
or even thought.


----
                                     Melissa Silvestre
           ...{allegra,linus,decvax!brunix}!rayssd!msi

          "Trying to find logic in an arbitrary world"