'Prissy potty puddles' on the Yale Law School list-serv

There are moments in life when one is confronted with the inconsideration of others and can be moved to despise one’s fellow man — e.g., when stepping in discarded bubble gum, or passing through an exhaled cloud of smoke while jogging.

One Yale Law School student had a moment like this in the ladies’ restroom, and she has blasted the student list-serv urging greater consideration in the future.

Here is an excerpt:

Dear Prissy Chicks of YLS,

WHY do you squat over the toilet seat and splatter it with pee instead of just sitting on it like everybody else — or at least cleaning up after yourself? I just went to the ladies room downstairs by the ATM and two of those friggin toilets were liberally spritzed, thanks to your selfish carelessness. Consider:

1. Yes, toilet seats at our school come into contact with the asses and thighs of many many people. But your ass and thighs are not alone in this world!!! Would it kill you to put your naked buttcheeks on the toilet seat, anyway? It’s not like you’re going to be eating off them! By squatting above the toilet seat and cattily spraying everywhere, you force sensible women to deal with your uric carnage. You either make that toilet unusable, or make the braver women wipe off your peepee…

You might not want to sit on the toilet seat, but *nobody* wants their bum and thighs to be dampened by your prissy potty puddles.

The hazard of being a female. There have been many replies to this, reproduced after the jump. We wanted to highlight this comment, scoring a point for Harvard in the YLS / HLS debate:

You’d think a school with the resources of YLS could tend to its most basic sanitation requirements. (Harvard provides free tampons in the women’s restrooms, and perhaps their toilets function, as well.)

Full angry e-mail — with detailed instructions on bathroom use, and myriad replies — after the jump.

We understand the student’s anger. Sitting on a wet toilet seat is truly disgusting.

Here is the whole glorious string of e-mails:

YLS LIST-SERV E-MAIL STRING

From: [Redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 2:50 PM

Subject: [TheWall] Prissy YLS Women

Dear Prissy Chicks of YLS,

WHY do you squat over the toilet seat and splatter it with pee instead of just

sitting on it like everybody else – or at least cleaning up after yourself? I

just went to the ladies room downstairs by the ATM and two of those friggin

toilets were liberally spritzed, thanks to your selfish carelessness. Consider:

1. Yes, toilet seats at our school come into contact with the asses and thighs

of many many people. But your ass and thighs are not alone in this world!!!

Would it kill you to put your naked buttcheeks on the toilet seat, anyway? It’s

not like you’re going to be eating off them! By squatting above the toilet seat

and cattily spraying everywhere, you force sensible women to deal with your

uric carnage. You either make that toilet unusable, or make the braver women

wipe off your peepee.

2. There are solutions to this problem that do not involve forcing others to

deal with your yellow droplets all over the toilet seat:

a)Sit on the toilet seat like a grownup.

b)If there are no toilet seat covers, construct a makeshift one out of toilet

paper. This should appeal to your excessively prissy nature without forcing you

to directly sit your prissy tushie on the toilet seat.

c)If none of the above work, make a huge wad of TP after you’ve splattered on

the toilet and wipe it off. Your hand will not come into contact with the

peesplatter, which, I might add, came out of you in the first place. Even if it

does, you can wash your hands right afterward.

3. And what is wrong with your bladder that it splurts and splishes everywhere

like that? You might want to get that looked at.

You might not want to sit on the toilet seat, but *nobody* wants their bum and

thighs to be dampened by your prissy potty puddles.

Really now,

[Redacted]

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:05 PM

To: [redacted]

🙂 You definitely have a way with words and your comments I am sure are well taken. I would say 99.9% of the female students (including myself) appreciate that you sent out this e-mail. I will point out, however, that the specific bathrooms you are speaking of do not require keytag access and so are the only ones accessible to non-YLS students, especially undergrads who have class in the auditorium. I recommend somehow getting your message across to them as well.

Respectfully yours,

[redacted] 🙂

—

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:24 PM

I, for one, did not appreciate your vulgar comments. I find them

incorrect, repulsive and completely inappropriate for The Wall. The

toilets downstairs– and increasingly in other public places– simply

don’t flush well. Once a person flushes (after having sat on the seat

like a civilized public restroom user) the force of the vacuum

splashes the toilet water onto the seat.

I’d also like to note that those who do hover tend to be pretty

accurate– and in the event of misses, most women are respectful

enough to wipe the seat clean before exiting.

I don’t consider myself an expert in toilets (though I’ve spent an

embarrassing amount of time observing and complaining about this

problem), but I think virtually any woman using public restrooms on a

regular basis should have noticed this.

I respectfully request your observe some decorum on this public forum

in the future.

Thank you,

[redacted]

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:31 PM

To: [redacted]

My empirical studies corroborate [redacted]’s (embarrassing) findings.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 9:44 AM

As much as I do not like to fall into the trap of the public – private

spheres, that is, as if certain issues must be kept in private, especially

when relating to women and god forbid, their bodies, I do think that the

original email was quite offensive. It is not offensive because it deals

with women’s bodies in the public sphere. It is offensive because it is

quite pornographic and invasive to my private sphere of both my body and

email account. As much as women’s bodies are not an embarrassing secret that

should be confined into the domains of “clinicalities”, these graphic and

pornographic expressions do nothing but mocking us as women.

[redacted]

_________________________________________

………………

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:38 PM

To: [redacted]

I can verify that the true culprit is spitting toilets, as I was recently spattered with drops rebounded at least two feet in the air from the toilet bowl during flushing. Even if it’s just water, that’s unpleasant.

Incidentally, YLS has a history of maintenance problems in the women’s restrooms. In contrast to the overly forceful flushers downstairs, one of the toilets in the upstairs bathroom is a feeble flusher, never quite managing to dispose of the toilet tissue. The pile-ups that result can’t be pleasant for whoever has to clean those things at the end of the day. I have also complained numerous times about the ridiculous 30 cent exact-change-only tampon dispensers that eat your money and leave you sanitary-productless (with all of them sometimes being jammed at once). The sign on the wall – “call this # if machine not working” – should be an indicator of the frequency/magnitude of the problem (as if women trying to use that machine are in a position to wait 24 hours and come back the next day).

You’d think a school with the resources of YLS could tend to its most basic sanitation requirements. (Harvard provides free tampons in the women’s restrooms, and perhaps their toilets function, as well.) I do think that this is a topic that can be discussed on The Wall, and I don’t necessarily find humor an inappropriate way to broach the subject.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:39 PM

To: [redacted]

Frankly, if the water from the toilet splashes onto the seat after you flush, the respectful thing to do is to wipe it off with toilet paper, not criticize others who raise relevant and important (if not the most pleasant) issues on the Wall that, for obvious reasons, have not and cannot easily be addressed otherwise.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:41 PM

this is idiocy

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:47 PM

To: [redacted]

I don’t know on what basis you make your comment and assume you weren’t responding to my post directly, but as you presumably are someone who primarily uses a urinal and has no need for feminine products, I’m not inclined to give much weight to your derogatory dismissal of this topic.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:53 PM

To: [redacted]

Agreed. Until you’ve suffered the indignity of standing in a bathroom stall when your procedure professor (love him though you do) has kept you thirty minutes past the end of class and you really “have to go,” and you’re standing their crossing your legs in a long line of women waiting to use the stalls, and you finally reach the promised land but it’s covered in urine/water/whatever-it-is-it’s-gross and have to suffer the indignity of acting like you’re the person before you’s mother and clean up after them, YOU DON’T FEEL MY PAIN. But I bet Bill Clinton would.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:53 PM

To: [redacted]

The wonderful thing about the wall is that if you are offended by its

content, you can choose to the delete the e-mail or unsubscribe.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 9:50 AM

To: [redacted]

Yes, it is called marginalization.

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:54 PM

To: [redacted]

amen. let’s be sure to explain statements like “this is idiocy.” sometimes, less is more. i do not believe this is not one of those times. or are you referring to the shocking fact that HLS gives out free tampons, and YLS does not?

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 3:58 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwTJXHNP0bg

—

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:02 PM

To: [redacted]

Or are you seeking to marginalize those with bathroom complaints who use pornographic words like “tushie”?

It’s a communal space. We delete emails about Thai food, we delete emails about working for Obama, we delete emails about translating into French and Spanish. As long as no one uses the wall for actually harmful purposes (discrimination, personal attacks, etc.) and the commentary conceivably concerns the YLS community or some portion thereof, click “delete.”

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 9:59 AM

To: [redacted]

I usually save the Working for Obama ones….

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:03 PM

Wow, the Wall has finally jumped the shark… As someone who has to worry about feminine products, I agree with Larry.

This email was vulgar and also pointless because (1) publicly chastising these women who are supposedly peeing on the toilets is unlikely to deter their behavior; and (2) Dean Mike, Dean Sharon & Co. are unlikely to repair the toilets or provide tampons in response to an email on the Wall that they probably don’t read. If you have a complaint about the overly forceful flushers or the lack of tampons, why not take it to someone who can address the problem?

Thank you,

[redacted]

……………..

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:10 PM

I wish we had such a thing as a “Wall” in Argentina’s universities to complain everytime we find a peed toilet! Keep the good work guys! Rational discussion, no matter how pornographic or vulgar (and I’m not quite sure this one is) never hurt anyone, but quite the contrary.

………………

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:16 PM

To: [redacted]

[The original poster] expressed a legitimate complaint while managing to make me laugh. I don’t know about you guys, but I can always use a little more laughter on a weekday afternoon.

……………….

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:22 PM

To: [redacted]

The real victims in all of this are our student reps. By now, their inboxes are flooded with complaints about this issue and they will inevitably end up creating a new list entitled “The Virtual Peeing Discussion.” Unfortunately, no one will know how to post to it for about two weeks.

_______________

From: [redacted]

Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:24 PM

To: [redacted]

I would like to thank the YLS community for always being more entertaining than television.