Women across Hong Kong will be relieved to hear that their bursting needs are finally being met. Starting this week, new ladies latrines will be cropping up all over the city to help cut long queues of cross-legged ladies.
Under the amendment, building reformations will be required to ensure that there are at least 1.6 female toilets for every male toilet in public spaces, the SCMP reports. (We’re excited to see what 0.6 of a toilet looks like and exactly how much expert squatting is required).
The Secretary for Development Paul Chan announced the news on his blog on Saturday, adding that it was “not uncommon” to see queues of women outside of female bathrooms. This guy clearly doesn’t miss a trick.
The lack of potty parity has niggled Hong Kong for years, despite the city boasting an unusually female-heavy population. Records from 2012 indicate that there were 876 men for every 1,000 women in the city. No shit the ladies need a few more latrines…
Shopping malls, cinemas and spaces of public entertainment will all soon be flush with new loos. Chan indicated that the number of female toilets will increase by 75 percent, 160 percent and 185 percent in each of these places respectively.
Chan has even gone so far as to predict a time frame for the average toilet trip. He now anticipates that women could only have to queue for 90 seconds for the bathroom. Have your stop watches at the ready, ladies…
Gentlemen, it’s good news for you too. Chan pointed out that men will no longer need to spend aeons hovering outside women’s bathrooms wondering if girlfriends or wives have been abducted by other toilet users. Females will now have a better shot at keeping up with the peeing pace of their other halves… although women do tend to wash their hands.
Not everyone’s totally riveted by the restroom renovations, however. Chung Yeun-yi, who has been advocating for women’s rights for 20 years, thinks the move is mostly positive, but insists that more bogs would be a bonus.
“It’s better than nothing. But, I think the ratio of male and female toilets should be one to three,” she said.
Words: Georgia Feldmanis
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
