The Changing Room Restroom Are changing rooms of large chain retail stores becoming a place for a political statement? In a reading by David Sedaris entitled Adventures at Poo Corner he discusses the topic of public defecation in the retail setting. Sedaris gives many possible explanations as to why this is, as well as providing a tremendous amount of examples. To determine that Sedaris truly isn’t making up these stories, some examples that are close to home—Sioux Falls, SD—will also be examined, along with further explanations as to why people choose to defecate in peculiar places. David Sedaris first heard of this strange phenomenon from his boyfriend Hugh Hamrick. Hamrick worked at the local Gap in high school and mentioned people defecating …show more content…
Sedaris learns that this lady worked at Target and proceeded to ask her if “a lot of people defecate in your store?” to which she replied “How did you know.” (Sedaris) Sedaris learns that people would go to her Target and crouch down in the round clothing racks and proceed to defecate. Sedaris also learns that in Pier One some people will just lean against the wall, lower their pants and defecate right there on the floor. A stock boy from Kroger told Sedaris that it happened all the time; typically a 4 year old would ask to go to the bathroom, their mother would point to a dark corner, and then pretend like nothing happened. Sedaris also mentions a librarian who had made a large cardboard castle that she had built and painted by hand to place in the children’s section of the library. After two days of the castle being up, “what did she find lying just inside the drawbridge? A turd, that's what.” (Sedaris) The library defecation was left by a teenager who confessed after defecating in the elevator also. Sedaris comments on a Vegas security guard that would have to kick people out after they defecated in their pants because of not wanting to leave their slot machine. There was a lady who defecated inside the center of a toilet paper role, a college student that defecated in the dorm washing machine, a customer defecating in a urinal, and also someone who defecated in an ashtray at a …show more content…
In high school I worked at Jimmy Johns and have had to clean up after customers that have defecated on the floor next to the toilet. At the Men’s Wearhouse in Sioux Falls where my fiancée works, people have rented suits and returned them after defecating inside the suit. At the Kmart that my stepdad worked at for twenty years, elderly customers have not been able to make it to the bathroom on time and leave a streak down the aisles to the restroom. At the Starmark in Sioux Falls where my father was employed for many years, employees defecated in the corner of the factory bathroom. My father also worked on many construction sites around Sioux Falls where other workers would urinate in a bottle, place the bottle in the wall, and build around it. My father also worked on an apartment complex renovation where the tenants of the building defecated on the newly-carpeted hallways and proceeded to smear it on the freshly-painted walls. These stories provide some insight on the public defecation phenomenon in that it is not localized to one specific area or just large populated
“I longed for a home where history was respected-and four years later I finally found one” (255). The character portrayed in “This Old House” a short essay by David Sedaris: is misunderstood as a young man trying to grow up in order to find his way through life, but longing to express him, and wants a place of his own so he can be creative and unique. There is a way he is able to expresses his individuality and shows his sense of style through the history’s romantic times, he respects it, he feels like his parents don’t understand that. Everyone has a choice to be different in their own way, either by acting out or showing off their sense of style which presents their self-character throughout life.
will see a unisex toilet in public. Also, it is seen as normal for men
Amidst the school kids and the naked bum, there is a toilet. The free-standing, self-cleaning, public restroom installed by JCDecaux Company only costs a quarter. If you can stomach the sight of the remnants of human excrement and the pungent odor of fecal matter mixed with urine, stale cigarettes, and vomit, this toilet can prove to be extremely convenient. For those who drank too much Starbucks on their way to work or those with a crying four year-old, a public restroom amongst all the “customer only” signs seems like a reasonable solution. With a twenty minute limit, there is adequate time to relieve your bowels, seek shelter from the rain, shoot up ...
The toilet terrors can suck you up and make you smell them. Ewww! They'll never let you out! They are so gross, they are like the world's worst place ever. They smell awful.They don't have sinks. You wouldn't know who used it before you.
Before the 19th Century, sewage disposal was virtually unknown until the first American cities were built around the 1700’s. Human waste was originally disposed of in the woods, but some wealthy Virginians built large houses and used chamber pots to "do their business" indoors, and the contents would be thrown into the back yard. Later, as towns developed, waste was tossed into the streets to decompose or be washed away in the rainstorms (Virginia Places, 2010). Privies or outhouses were also built in back yards and were commonly used to dispose of waste. Toilets, also known as “water closets,” were put into homes in the mid 19th Century in the United States. The water closet had indoor plumbing where piping was run through the roof, and a gravity ...
While at first glance David Sedaris’s short story “Standing By” is nothing more than a story of the frustration of dealing with delayed flights and airports, when it in fact discusses a much more deeper topic of human nature and behavior. In 2009, Sedaris experienced a flight delay due to thunderstorms and was directed to wait in a customer service line. While waiting in line, he observes the people around him and how they were all disgruntled to be in this situation. However, one person stood out, given that he was wearing a large label on the back of his shirt. The person was a young teenage father with his baby and family, whose shirt largely proclaimed “Freaky Mothafocka” on the back. Sedaris noticed that the people around him, including himself, were all quick to judge the teenager, making assumptions and insulting him. He comes to the conclusion that the airport bring out the worse in people, and provides a space for them to be hateful for no other reason than being their true selves.
Have you ever had a bad or horrible experience in the restroom? Have you ever felt uncomfortable and just ignored it? Well, if you have, you are not alone. Deartra D. Madkins-Boone’s “Strange Encounters of the Restroom Kinds" talks about a girl named Cheryl, who keeps hearing noises from her stomach, and feels quite uncomfortable. Despite hearing all the noises her stomach keeps making, she keeps ignoring all this just to go get some tacos. As her day continues, later on, she is forced to go to the restroom. She describes her awkward and embarrassing experience of what happened while she was using the restroom. In “Strange Encounters of the Restroom Kinds", Deartra Boone shows the main character Cheryl struggling through her day and the issues
Tash. "Trans and Gender Non-conforming People, Bathrooms, and Attacks on Our Community." Basic Rights Oregon RSS. N.p., 28 Mar. 2013. Web. 21 May 2014.
Our society has institutionalized particular behaviors such as fixing our appearance, crying, belching, defecation, and flatulence deviant to perform in a public setting. Therefore, we rely on what Cahill terms as “performance regions” to relieve ourselves of these deviant behaviors. Public restrooms are performance regions that afford individuals the privacy (negative interpersonal rituals) to release bodily waste, cry, and discuss situations
I suddenly became acutely aware of my own fat bulges and folds. I imagined every eye in the room on me, shaking their heads in pity, revulsion and even morbid curiosity. I pulled my shirt surreptitiously away from the bulges of my belly and my hips, trying to separate the appearance from the reality. I shifted in my chair, and felt my cheeks burn hot and my stomach churn... And yet I was ashamed. I was aware of the disgust my body inspired, its complete unacceptability and invisibility in the sexual domain, apart from as a figure of ridicule. I felt hot tears sting my eyes, and I knew I had to get out. I squeezed my wide hips between the rows of chairs, and fled the room. (238)
I walked into the front of the store to see a crowd of people searching for a good grocery cart. One that wouldn’t wobble every second that you pushed it. I took a look at many of the faces as they were beginning or ending their shopping experience. The people walking in looking for a cart seemed unsure or not pleased to be there in the first place. While the people leaving looked happy and eager to get home. I took this as a clear sign that this was not the most enjoyable place to ...
In the poem “The Lady’s Dressing Room,” written by Jonathan Swift, one may say he portrays himself to be a chauvinist by ridiculing women and their cryptic habits. However, others may say he wants to help women from the ideals placed upon them by society and prove to be an early feminist. This poem written in the 18th century represented women to be fake and sleazy at first. Then during the 20th century, the feminist movement used it as an attack against women, depicting the poem’s meaning as not valuing their rights and freedoms. The truth far hidden from these points of views became uncovered recently. This essay will explain both sides of the views and using critical thinking will uncover the real message the author intended to portray.
Professional sanitation is a necessity that should overrule our first amendment rights to the freedom of religion. According to the article, “Religious Freedom vs. Sanitation Rules” by Sean D. Hamil, published by The New York Times, in June 13th, 2009, it states how the Amish community is trying to rebel the sewage restrictions in Pennsylvania. The Amish are fighting to keep their current sewage system because they do not want to use more advanced technologically since they believe it conflicts with their religion. A governed way to dispose of human waste is needed and more important than our freedom of religion. According, to the previous article, it states that, “The elders had determined that use of a precast tank was too modern, they want
Not only did Target change their bathrooms to become gender neutral so did other well known businesses, “Barnes & Noble and Hudson 's Bay Company, also have policies explicitly allowing transgender people to use a bathroom that does not correspond to their birth certificate gender” (Abrams). Businesses have not been the only ones to change their policies with gender-neutral bathrooms, schools are starting to do the same, “Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, has designated two bathrooms as gender-neutral”
... more into consideration the next time they throw their water bottle into a garbage can or down a sewage drain.