Public bathrooms and homophobia: why are men afraid to pee together?
Am I the only person who finds Slate gay editor J Bryan Lowder consistently annoying?
I think it's rubbish to suggest that the majority of (male) paruresis is due to homophobia. I very much doubt it has anything to do with the perceived sexuality of the unwanted observer for any sufferer. It's just a self feeding loop of "performance" embarrassment, I reckon. (Years ago here, I noted my own - relatively mild - case being instituted by ridicule by a couple of older students in primary school.)
I'll also repeat my point that I think it is pretty easily relieved for many men by inexpensive bathroom design for simple privacy screens between the individual urinals that are now standard in public toilets. I still puzzle why architects, or whoever it is comes up bathroom designs for new buildings, do not recognize the benefit of that simple feature.
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