Mouth-Shaped Urinals: Offensive?

[Pangloss]

I wonder sometimes how these stories make it up the chain to appear on Google News, but hey, their algorithm has sure produced some juicy material for SFN Politics over the years.

 

At any rate, this story is about a bar in (if I read this right) Hamilton, Ontaria, Canada. The bar has the amusing name "The Honest Lawyer", and inside the men's bathroom were some mouth-shaped urinals, with big, red, glossy lips. The urinals were there for about three years, according to the owner, but for about the last year an activist group called the "Woman Abuse Working Group" began protesting the urinals, saying that they were linked to violence against women, that it's "no joke to pee into a woman's mouth", and that they were "misogynist".

 

The bar finally removed them under this pressure, and two of the sources I linked below (#3 and 4) say that the removals were "forced" by the protests.

 

What do you think? Validly offensive, or a case of political correctness?

 

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario/mouth-shaped-urinal-removed-from-hamilton-mens-room/article1586733/

http://news.nationalpost.com/2010/06/01/controversial-mouth-shaped-urinals-taken-down-from-hamilton-restaurant/

http://politicallyillustrated.com/index.php?/page/world/1323/

http://blogs.app.com/saywhat/2010/06/01/mouth-shaped-urinals-removed-from-eatery/

[Mr Skeptic]

Well, clearly some people find them offensive. Then again, that can be said about pretty much anything. Of course, simply being offensive is not enough reason to remove them -- the real question would be, are they really linked to violence against women? And to what extent?

 

Given the name of the bar, it would seem to be a case of innocent humor.

[Phi for All]

They look more like cartoon red lips to me, rather than lipstick red lips. I don't see anything overtly feminine about them at all. That just makes them a bit gross and humorous rather than misogynistic, imo.

 

Frankly, standing at one of them, I would fantasize about it being the mouth of a telemarketer or a senator rather than a woman. This is PC all the way.

[Pangloss]

Actually I don't know if that picture is really accurate. I found different pictures in each of those articles, so I was really unclear which one was of the actual place (if any of them were). Sorry about that.

 

I did a google on mouth-shaped urinals and apparently they're all the rage in sports bars these days (odd, I've never seen one myself, and I've spent a fair amount of time in sports bars). They all kinda look about the same, though (logically enough).

[swansont]

The assumption is that these are women's mouths.

 

It's unclear what political pressure was applied, but it's vaguely disappointing to me that politicians wouldn't say "Freedom of expression. There's nothing we can do." (though I'm not sure what the law is in Canada). But the protesters exercised their rights, too. Even though it's PC and they have the right, I also have the right to think that they are a humorless bunch with too much time on their hands. With all of the problems with violence against women, they choose this?

 

I do wonder what their evidence is to to the link with violence against women. People have done studies? There was a huge uptick in objectionable behavior when the bar installed the urinals?

[Moontanman]

How did the women find out, it was in mens room, right? I've seen some weird things in mens rooms over the years but this is quite close to taking the cake. i was in a mens room on the Outer Banks of NC once and it was wall papered in Playboy Centerfolds. I guess it takes all kinds of weirdness to make the world go round!

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

They should have responded that the women's group was discriminating against transvestites.

[pink_trike]

It seems to me to be a disrespectful gesture toward women. It could be argued that this gesture contributes to and reinforces a general pattern of disrespect toward women that could easily morph into violence against women if it is regarded as socially acceptable. I would think that a civilized society would want to inhibit such a disrespect for precisely this reason.