The battle of the toilet seat: Student links household hazard with equality

The strides that have been made over the last few decades for women’s equality have been enormous. That being said, one of the more important remaining issues that have yet to be resolved between men and women is the prolonged toilet seat battle; to leave it up or down is the question.

Not only is this a universal debate, but it highlights the problems with the steps that have been made toward complete equality. It is true that it is an unpleasant feeling when, at the routine 4 a.m. potty break, one sleepily goes to place their derriere on the porcelain throne and then falls into the startlingly cold waters below because of a certain loved one’s forgetfulness to drop the seat.

However unpleasant that experience may be, it could have been prevented by simply looking at where you are going to plant your bum. This is a life lesson for all women out there, if we get into the habit of not checking for ourselves, we may wreck ourselves, or at least wreck our good jeans.

The act of putting the toilet seat down is an act of a gentleman. It is not something that is required of him and as an act of courtesy, it should not be expected. If anything, women ought to leave the seat up every once in a while to surprise and do something kind for their partner. He probably doesn’t like having to remember to put the seat up as much as you don’t like having to put it down.

The bathroom doesn’t have to be the start of battles, it can be a place where conflict can be resolved. If you can solve a problem in a bathroom, you can work through anything, anywhere.

One of the problems that I have noticed with the direction in which women’s rights, or feminism, is going is that it expects men to do more work in some areas instead of being held to the equal standards. For example, in the bathroom, men must lift the seat and then lower the seat when they are finished. Women on the other hand, only have to lift the lid and close it again if they so choose to close the lid.

If men were to not have to lower the seat every time and women had to put the seat down then it would be an equal amount of work. Men would lift the seat and women would close the seat. This simple and easy solution could be the first step in moving forward.

True equality between men and women is plausible, it may just have to start with a discussion in the bathroom.