The Women's Room Experience

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I slid down off of my barstool and picked my way across the room. Luckily, the women’s restroom wasn’t too far because it was a crowded night at the bar. I opened the large wooden door and was surprised to see that even though there appeared to be another girl waiting, one of the two stalls empty.

Before I even had a chance to let my eyes adjust to the lighting change, the other girl said, in that just-a-little-too-loud drunken voice, “There’s no toilet paper in that one!” I hadn’t yet made any attempt to enter the stall and she was making sure I didn’t. She then took it upon her self to make sure that we acquired some of the precious paper as soon as humanly possible. She did this by leaning in towards the door of the other stall (which was occupied) and demanding, in the same slightly-too-loud voice, “Help us out and give us some toilet paper, will ya?”

There was no answer from the other side of the stall door so she continued to make her demands. The girl on the outside of the stall gave more warnings to others that stumbled into this semi-chaotic restroom.

Still no response from inside the stall. I was half tempted to launch into the Seinfeld “Spare a Square” tirade (in which Elaine gets into a fight with a woman in a neighboring stall who refuses to pass her some toilet paper), since it seemed fitting in such a situation. But I held off, doubting that either girl would understand the joke.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to ponder what to do for too much longer because, just then, the door to the occupied stall swung open and a strikingly tall, slim girl stepped out, still zipping her pants. “There, have as much as you like!” she said, as a form of greeting, in the same intoxicated voice. She was...

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...ng co-eds in the bathrooms of fraternity houses (technically not “ladies rooms,” they are usually populated with a female majority during large parties) and discussed everything from hairstyles to events on the nightly news with women while waiting in line use a bar bathroom. One would think that somewhere where such a “private” act takes place would not be considered so freeing. However, Good Housekeeping was right on the mark in its comment on the importance of the ladies room. The ladies room is a place where traditional social norms loose their importance and, as strange as it may seem, new honesty emerges.

Now, I don’t have first hand knowledge of the typical men’s room experience, but I have been told it is far from similar to its female counterpart. It’s too bad really, imagine what sort of peace agreements could be made if they were held in the loo.

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