Ladies and Gents

by Gershenson, Olga; Penner, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9781592139392
• ISBN10: 1592139396
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-07-28
• Publisher: Temple Univ Pr

Summary

Public toilets provide a unique opportunity for interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology are formed in public spaces and inscribed through design across cultures. This collection of original essays from international scholars is the first to explore the cultural meanings, histories, and ideologies of public toilets as gendered spaces.Ladies and Gentsconsists of two sets of essays. The first, "Potty Politics: Toilets, Gender and Identity," establishes the importance of accessible, secure public toilets to the creation of inclusive cities, work, and learning environments. The second set of essays, "Toilet Art: Design and Cultural Representations," discusses public toilets as spaces of representation and representational spaces, with reference to architectural design, humor, film, theater, art, and popular culture. Compelling visual materials and original artwork are included throughout, depicting subjects as varied as female urinals, art installations sited in public restrooms, and the toilet in contemporary art. Taken together, these seventeen essays demonstrate that public toilets are often sites where gendered bodies compete for resources and recognition-and the stakes are high.

Author Biography

Olga Gershenson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of Gesher: Russian Theatre in Israel—A Study of Cultural Colonization.

Barbara Penner is a Lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, author of Newlyweds on Tour: Honeymooning in Nineteenth-Century America and co-editor of Gender Space Architecture.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction: The Private Life of Public Conveniences	p. 1
Potty Politics: Toilets, Gender, and identity
The Role of the Public Toilet in Civic Life	p. 35
Potty Privileging in Perspective: Gender and Family Issues in Toilet Design	p. 48
Geographies of Danger: School Toilets in Sub-Saharan Africa	p. 62
Gender, Respectability, and Public Convenience in Melbourne, Australia, 1859-1902	p. 75
Bodily Privacy, Toilets, and Sex Discrimination: The Problem of "Manhood" in a Women's Prison	p. 90
Colonial Visions of "Third World" Toilets: A Nineteenth-Century Discourse That Haunts Contemporary Tourism	p. 105
Avoidance: On Some Euphemisms for the "Smallest Room"	p. 126
Toilet Art: Design and Cultural Representations
Were Our Customs Really Beautiful? Designing Refugee Camp Toilets	p. 135
(Re)Designing the "Unmentionable": Female Toilets in the Twentieth Century	p. 141
Marcel Duchamp's Legacy: Aesthetics, Gender, and National Identity in the Toilet	p. 151
Toilet Training: Sarah Lucas's Toilets and the Transmogrification of the Body	p. 167
Stalls between Walls: Segregated Sexed Spaces	p. 182
"Our Little Secrets": A Pakistani Artist Explores the Shame and Pride of Her Community's Bathroom Practices	p. 189
In the Men's Room: Death and Derision in Cinematic Toilets	p. 195
"White Tiles. Trickling Water. A Man!" Literary Representations of Cottaging in London	p. 208
The Jew on the Loo: The Toilet in Jewish Popular Culture, Memory, and Imagination	p. 218
Afterword	p. 227
Contributors	p. 231
Index	p. 235
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.