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[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 63 points 1 year ago

Today you have the bidets you can install on your toilet, but traditionally they were a thing on its own, that required about as much space as a toilet and all the extra pipework associated with it.

In some European/ Mediterranean countries (I suspect France may have started the trend) this caught on well, and bidets were a must have in most houses that had toilets as part of their main architectural structure. Most people in South America had bidets this way, it's rare to see a house without at least one bidet, and this comes from the culture inherited from colonial times .

Now, things are different in othe parts of the world. England seems to traditionally have the toilet separate from the house and for some reason the bidet trend never caught on. This is in turn reflected both in USA and Australia. I don't know about bidet popularity across all of Europe, but this is definitely a cultural thing and I suspect distance and language may have kept UK without bidets until relatively recently. And as you know, old habits die hard, so... Yeah in Australia I use the shower.

[-] Rescuer6394@feddit.nl 32 points 1 year ago

in Italy, there is literally a law obligating houses to have a bidet. the separated from the toilet kind.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 8 points 1 year ago

Just another reason to like Italy even more.

[-] chakan2@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

the separated from the toilet kind.

I don't understand how those work at all...seems like that would be a recipe for poop tracks from the toilet.

[-] Rescuer6394@feddit.nl 7 points 1 year ago

well... it is time to explain to an internet stranger how we clean our bum.

  • you shit on the toilet
  • you wipe with tp one or two times
  • get up, sit on the bidet
  • water, soap on the hand, and you scrub your ass with your hand, no this is not gay
  • go again with water and soap until you feel your ass is clean
  • dry with a small towel

the towel is generally personal, and we change it every couple of days.

[-] chakan2@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That may have been sarcastic, but I appreciated the info. It beats having to take a shower.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Legit question: Do you wash your hands again after that?

[-] Rescuer6394@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

oh, yes, felt like it was obvious... i'm not touching anything without washing my hands after that.

[-] someguy3@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

Well I mean I do that in the shower, and I don't wash my hands again after the shower, so I have no idea what the mentality is.

[-] machinaeZER0@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

What part of cleaning your ass could be misconstrued as gay? Feels like an unnecessary aside, haha. Thanks for the step by step though, that makes sense!

[-] Rescuer6394@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

i legit have no idea, but on every tread talking about bitets, there is always someone that discards it because is gay to touch your own ass

[-] PrettyFlyForAFatGuy@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

brit here.

can confirm. i sit on the side of the bath and wash my arse with the shower. The only house i have seen in the UK with a bidet was essentially a mansion

[-] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago

Fellow Brit, I just shave my arse crack to prevent Klingons.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 year ago

"today is a good day to die!" flush

[-] iltoroargento@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

"Glory! To you and your ass!"

[-] nitefox@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Right now I live abroad and we have just the tub, so yeah same remedy. It’s cursed and annoying though, so I hate it so much

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Just get the toilet seat bidet. It's probably like 40£

[-] TIN@feddit.uk 0 points 1 year ago

Also in the UK, the aftermarket toilet attachments are not in line with building codes because of the possibility of contamination of the water supply, so it's quite complicated if you don't have room for a separate bidet.

[-] rah@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

England seems to traditionally have the toilet separate from the house and for some reason the bidet trend never caught on

Uh... wut?

[-] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago

The UK has lots of old housing stock, built before the concept of indoor plumbing, so there was nowhere to put a toilet in lots of properties when they started to become a thing, hence you'd put it seperate from the house in an outhouse style set-up. We also lost less of the country to warfare during the two wars so didn't have to rebuild whole cities, so the conversion to move those toilets inside was still going on as we moved to the later half of the 20th century. My old man didn't have an indoor toilet in his childhood home until he was a teenager, he was born in the late 50s.

You still go to pubs these days that are old enough that the loos are disconnected from the main building as they've been there for so many years.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago

This must specifically be like, row homes, right? Where it's too tightly packed to fit a new room.
It's not like houses here in sweden are brand spanking new and yet they all have toilets nowadays even if some of them are ancient.

[-] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

My old man's was semi-detached, but yeah density is part of the issue here too.

[-] rah@feddit.uk 0 points 1 year ago

I live in the UK and nothing you've said here is congruent with my experience. I don't recall ever being in any building whatsoever that had no indoor toilet, including pubs.

there was

In the past. A long way in the past.

as we moved to the later half of the 20th century

The move to the later half of the 20th century was 70 years ago.

[-] NuPNuA@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Near where my sister lives on the edge of Bristol there are several pubs with outdoor toilet blocks. It's usually country pubs or ones old enough to be listed. You're not going to find many in cities these days.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

This what I've been told- I've never been to England, my understanding is that back in the day this was the way especially for suburban and farmland, and that that's why many old Australian houses still have the toilet separate. Obviously this doesn't apply to dense or modern areas.

[-] happyhippo@feddit.it 1 points 1 year ago

Lol. Out of ALL the European countries to pick as example, you chose the worst.

France definitely does not like bidets and French will even ask you why even bother having one, assuming they even know what it's for.

Try again with Italy. Basically every household has one.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Interesting. Well, not losing sleep on that. Good on Italy and Spain though.

[-] DonJefe@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Spain checking in here. Bidets are definitely popular in Spain. I suspect that's how they made their way to south America.

this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2023
403 points (96.3% liked)

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