One of the most pressing debates in feminist circles is apparently over whether the toilet seat should be left up or down after use.
You think I’m joking.
Not according to Jonathan Wells from the Telegraph who states: “It seems trivial, but the toilet seat debate strikes at the very heart of gender equality.”
Many males, including me, had it drummed into them from an early age that men and boys should put the seat down after using the toilet. But in our day and age, is this just like the old fashioned practice of holding doors open for women? Surely asking that men place the toilet seat down after use is an outdated chauvinistic gesture, while veiled in kindness is really an act of oppression? You might think so, but apparently not.
According to the UK Bathroom Blog (yes, it really exists) the majority of domestic arguments are bathroom related, and that close to half of these disagreements stem from men leaving the seat up.
Who would’ve thought that whether men leave the toilet seat up was such a contentious gender issue in our contemporary, inclusive and egalitarian culture? It seems that there are still scores of women who have not been sufficiently emancipated from patronising and oppressive cultural practices.
Even more frightening, I am aware that some other places have resorted to tyrannical methods in order to resolve the toilet seat debate. A left wing party in Sweden made news in 2012 when it proposed that all male employees of Stomland Country Council be required to sit while taking a pee. So much for gender equality!
Jonathan Wells in his article sums up this toilet seat debate quite aptly. When it comes to gender equality, for those who demand that men put the seat down after use, “is this not trying to have your urinal cake and eat it?”