Toiletology
June 01, 2005
Olga Gershenson of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Barbara Penner of University College-London are organizing an anthology of critical essays to be called Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets:This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division. Indeed, public toilets are among the very few openly segregated spaces in contemporary Western culture, and the physical differences between ‘gentlemen’ and ‘ladies’ remains central to (and is further naturalized by) their design. As such, they provide a fertile ground for critical work interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design.I would make fun of this project had I not committed myself to toiletology in the past.
This is Toiletology in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: The Public Square (tm) | Next: On Democracy and Forms | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
Trackback Pings:
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.newpantagruel.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/203