Today I Learned: Why Women Go To The Toilet Together
You’re at a restaurant on a double date and one woman excuses herself, the other chimes in and says she’ll go with her. You’re out clubbing with a group of friends and all of the females in the group suddenly disappear and re-emerge from the toilets 20 minutes later.
Whatever the situation, you’ve undoubtedly experienced the phenomenon of women going to the lady’s room together or in groups. And immediately after you’ve probably turned to your friend and asked: “Seriously, why do women always do that?”. You’re not alone. This is a question that has plagued many a male, but we’re here to try and shed some light on things!
So… What Gives?
Well, first of all, it’s a good idea to identify the fundamental differences in how both genders use the toilet / WC. As a man, I can safely say when we go to the toilet, we’re all about efficiency and being functional, we don’t want to be in there any longer than necessary. It’s not a nice place to be; there’s often pee on the floor, weird smells and more often than not, there’s a creepy guy with a wandering stare. We’re simple, we want to get in there and get out. Our process goes something like this: walk into the toilet, identify a urinal (using the urinal code of conduct), walk up to it and unzip, stare directly ahead, rezip, wash hands and then vamoose. We don’t want to chat, we don’t want company, we want nothing else than to get back to our life. We have more important things to do!
Women, on the other hand, have an entirely different approach. It’s like their second home when they’re out, and I can safely say I’ve never seen a woman go to the lady’s room by herself – at this point in time, I’m pretty sure it’s a myth. But why, you ask? Well, we’ve got a bit of insider info (actually, we just asked some women and they were happy to tell us; all these years of confusion and we should’ve just asked). So, without further adieu, I present to you, the top seven reasons why women go to the toilet together…
Top 7 Reasons Women go to the Toilet Together
1) Hair / make-up / lipstick: You probably guessed it already, but those huge mirrors on bathroom walls are often why they’re in there. Now, you’d think that they can see how they look on their own, right? But no, they have to get a second opinion on the matter. After they slap on more lipstick, mascara and refluff their hair, sometimes they seek a bit of reassurance and that’s where the wing-woman comes in. A simple nod of approval from their girly pal is all they need in order to get back out there with an extra little bit of confidence.
2) Safety / awkwardness: If they’re in places that aren’t familiar or even if they are, you never know who’s in there. Sometimes it’s just better and safer to go as a couple or in groups; it’s simply a precaution. Of course, some women are just awkward or have an anxiety of being alone, in which case having a friend by their side is reassuring, even if it is in the toilet.
3) Guy talk can be boring: They’ve been talking amongst the guys and girls all night and sometimes the male conversation can become a bit overpowering and boring. Especially if it’s about sport, cars or their latest shenanigans; not that many girls want to hear about it, unsurprisingly. So occasionally they may go to the lady’s room for a break from the ‘guy-chat’; this is an alternative to telling the guys they’re stupid. They get to vent in the toilet to their girl pals and avoids the drama of an inter-gender argument and let’s face it, the guys are never going to win that one.
4) Killing time / queue friend: Our sources tell us that the lines in women’s toilets can be extremely long and if you’ve got to wait for 10 minutes by yourself, you’re going to get pretty bored. Often, a woman will accompany their friend so they simply don’t have to face the wait alone; this way they kill time waiting in the queue and get some good gossip in the meantime.
5) Girly chats / bonding: This is similar to having a queue friend, but sometimes it can be about far more than just having someone to talk to. There’s a wide variety of topics that women deem only suitable to talk about other women with, whether this is about guys, relationships or personal stuff, it’s NSFM (not safe for males). This is the time when they get to talk about whatever they want without fear of guys listening in; or in some cases, other girls (there’s always a few snide remarks and backstabbing comments being flung around). We’re also told that girls often don’t like to leave their ‘friends’ in case they spill any of their secrets – we say, choose better friends.
6) Conversation etiquette: If everyone is present in a conversation when one person leaves, the conversation will usually carry on and this can lead to that person being left out. Therefore, if other women in the group go with her, the conversation will usually pause until all members of the group rejoin and continue. This is good conversation etiquette as it reduces the chance of any annoying instances where people have to retell parts of a conversation for the person who left to go to the restroom. And, if the conversation was between a group of girls, it can actually be continued in the lady’s room; they really are good at multitasking!
7) Incredibly complex outfits: There’s always one girl who needs a hand getting into her outfit for the night and often enough, the same applies for getting out of it. That’s why a simple one-minute bathroom break turns into a ten-minute fiasco that requires someone to help unzip her from the back. I’m sure the guys that are reading this have never been so happy to have jeans / trousers with a zip or button fly.
Those are the reasons that we’ve been given and whilst we don’t know if they’re 100% true, they do seem to make a lot of sense. Or maybe the women are just feeding us lies in order to hide some secret agenda that requires a group of them to attend the toilet – will we ever find out? Maybe. Don’t give up hope just yet…
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