We had these here as well and i have no idea. The only thing i ever heard that made sense was it was easier to take stool samples. That makes some sense, but why would every household need them?
I've blasted this all over Reddit back in the day and now I'll blast it here: HOW OFTEN ARE THE DUTCH COLLECTING THEIR STOOLS THAT THEY NEED THIS KIND OF TOILET IN EVERY HOUSEHOLD? THEY USE IT EVERY DAY AND NOT JUST AT A DOCTOR'S OFFICE OR A HOSPITAL WHERE YOU WOULD THINK THAT STOOL SAMPLES WOULD BE COLLECTED OFTEN.
To this day no one has ever given me a reasonable believable explanation that makes sense. I'd be happy to hear that "all the greedy corporate toilet makers didn't want to change their design to save money and now we're all stuck with this dumb toilet blah blah blah" or "we Dutch folk have a special device to sit on that you don't see in this picture that makes the design of this toilet sensible" or even "we simply love looking at a big stinky pile of s*** every time we take a dump you wouldn't understand we're Dutch"
I stayed in hotels and motels in the Netherlands and they all had the stupid toilet and it stanks so bad and they don't believe in ventilated bathroom so you just have to open a window and smell it and your wife and kids have to smell it too. it's so dumb. I ended up flushing every single turd one by one just to survive.
Apparently this design was popular in Germany a hundred years or so ago. Its key advantage was allowing the user to examine their stools for signs of digestive health problems.
Story time: I once briefly lived in a place that had an old toilet bowl like this. You can still find them in older houses. One day I took a massive shit and then found out that the flush wasn't strong enough to get it down from there. And there wasn't a brush. Yikes. Just wanted to share that with you guys.
I have some experience with these. The only problem is that as the vertically standing excrement begins to collapse forwards, there is a chace for it to keep contact and drag its top portion across, from your anus towards the front. You can avoid this with a maneuver, pulling yourself up and slightly forward, right after the singular vertical log begins losing contact with the excretion area.
Still better than a light sensor in a communal bathroom... outside of the stalls. That's how it is at my workplace. If I spend a bit too long pooping, and nobody else comes in to poop at the same time, I end up in the dark. Then when I have to wipe, I have to either risk opening the stall door and wave into the room, with my dirty ass hanging out, hoping nobody happens to enter the bathroom at that time, or wait patiently for someone to come in and reactivate the light. Makes me wonder how blind people check their wiping: do they go on flavor or smell?
Oh, is that not a thing some places? I think the majority are outside here in the UK, generally electricals are not allowed inside the bathroom (although I'm not sure this actually covers light switches as I'm sure some of them are in there...)
Lol I'm in the states, but one of my friends houses had this "feature" growing up. I definitely turned the light off on him a few times. To top it off, this bathroom had no windows so it got fucking dark in there. It wouldn't even work today, everyone has phones w them now n would just use that after you turned it off. Kids these days...
I hated them, they made me anxious. But much worse were the low stall walls. Why america, why? When I take a shit I want a wall that actually serves the purpose of not having people see me taking a shit.
On another note, the Dutch style toilets were very common in Germany up until the 90s. Rare nowadays. I think they are actually superior. You see it, if you have a problem with your shit and even the largest shit doesn't splash water all over your intimate parts. On the other hand, you have to protect your balls from the large shit, when it goes "timber".
I’ve always known that our stall walls in the US were shit, but then I visited Sweden and saw how truly horrible we were.
Over there, there are no men’s rooms or women’s rooms. There are just several doors each to a private bathroom and so it doesn’t matter who uses which one.
I’m sure our “single room with flimsy stall dividers” design is the cheapest, plus it’s not as convenient for all the drug addicts and homeless people our society creates, so it will never change.
Those are actually French toilets. They were designed like this so you can check for blood and other abnormalities. British toilets were designed so the poop would fall in the water, reducing the stench. The British design proved more popular, yet the French design is better with less splashing and for checking. It's important to check, to find out if there's something wrong with your intestines like cancer (black blood) or a tapeworm. The British didn't find this important, just like washing hands after pooping.
It’s important to check, to find out if there’s something wrong with your intestines like cancer (black blood) or a tapeworm.
Hungarian here, many in this country prefer the "betegvécé" (French), yet cannot say anything about what they should check for. It's just virtue signaling, no matter how much people have been abusing that term.
I think for most people it's kinda a shit n forget situation. As soon as I have dropped the load I want to disown it and forget it faster than you can say "shit". You know just like pa did it.
Another good bit (not in the video) is that Zizek thinks that's why Germans can endure great pain and sacrifices for an ideal…if you are strong enough to observe your shit for health reasons, there's nothing you can't do!
French toilets are BIS. Large, deep bowls with great pressure and a second commode for the greatest modern invention, the bidet. The French don't fuck around with their shit.
You have to do the ‘ol’ push ‘n flush and hope you got the timing down.
Turns out your shit sitting exposed on a dry shelf smells exponentially worse than when it drops into water. Anyone still using these toilets in the 21st century is a psychopath.
I’m a bit shocked with reactions I read. You’ve probably never heard of figure shitting. I tried to figure shit some letters of the alphabet. I’m great at the letter P and R.
I know the meme is that people use it to look at their poop, but honestly the main advantage is the 0% chance of water splashing up.
I will take this design over the "standard" ones any day.
I once stopped in urgent need of a toilet at the dirtiest little gas station in the middle of nowhere, where the one guy on duty directed me out back to a foul, stunningly filthy toilet. After doing my business I arose and, turning to face the toilet, flushed. It was an old flush mechanism where the water just kind of fell in from all sides, causing a kind of trapped tsunami to eject a single drop of fresh poop water 7 feet up in the air and down straight into my mouth.
If my many decades of life have taught me anything, it's to close my mouth when flushing or scrubbing the toilet.
Flanders here. Those shelved ones are not common but also not omg this is strange. But in kindergarden they are ( where i saw) mostly the norm. Handy to check stuff. ( Is it solid, no worms,... )