Because of “big toilet paper”. They even tried to assassinate a spokesperson for japanes toilets.
Holy shit? Do you have a source for that because damn. It’s something I would expect though.
It’s was joke. That’s the plot of a south park episode.
Honestly I wouldn’t even be surprised if Procter and Gamble did that shit lol
Kimberly-Clark about to send their death squads out for people who prefer a bidet over TP
It’s a joke from South Park
I wish I could find it again but this was years ago now that I saw a news story about the rise of women getting UTI’s from bidet usage in Japan specifically.
Today you have the bidets you can install on your toilet, but traditionally they were a thing on its own, that required about as much space as a toilet and all the extra pipework associated with it.
In some European/ Mediterranean countries (I suspect France may have started the trend) this caught on well, and bidets were a must have in most houses that had toilets as part of their main architectural structure. Most people in South America had bidets this way, it’s rare to see a house without at least one bidet, and this comes from the culture inherited from colonial times .
Now, things are different in othe parts of the world. England seems to traditionally have the toilet separate from the house and for some reason the bidet trend never caught on. This is in turn reflected both in USA and Australia. I don’t know about bidet popularity across all of Europe, but this is definitely a cultural thing and I suspect distance and language may have kept UK without bidets until relatively recently. And as you know, old habits die hard, so… Yeah in Australia I use the shower.
in Italy, there is literally a law obligating houses to have a bidet. the separated from the toilet kind.
Just another reason to like Italy even more.
the separated from the toilet kind.
I don’t understand how those work at all…seems like that would be a recipe for poop tracks from the toilet.
well… it is time to explain to an internet stranger how we clean our bum.
- you shit on the toilet
- you wipe with tp one or two times
- get up, sit on the bidet
- water, soap on the hand, and you scrub your ass with your hand, no this is not gay
- go again with water and soap until you feel your ass is clean
- dry with a small towel
the towel is generally personal, and we change it every couple of days.
That may have been sarcastic, but I appreciated the info. It beats having to take a shower.
What part of cleaning your ass could be misconstrued as gay? Feels like an unnecessary aside, haha. Thanks for the step by step though, that makes sense!
i legit have no idea, but on every tread talking about bitets, there is always someone that discards it because is gay to touch your own ass
Legit question: Do you wash your hands again after that?
oh, yes, felt like it was obvious… i’m not touching anything without washing my hands after that.
Well I mean I do that in the shower, and I don’t wash my hands again after the shower, so I have no idea what the mentality is.
That would never fly in the US. They complain about water usage so much that they regulate shower heads so that they barely drip water, and toilets so that they don’t have enough water to flush solid waste. The bidet would just blow the regulators’ heads with all the water usage.
Which would be short sightedness on their part, since bidets actually save water in the long run by reducing TP usage
I fixed then. My bidet has indefinite heated water. I can sit on it for an hour cleaning my ass. It is glorious.
The bidet would just blow the regulators’ heads
Only if they sit on it backwards for the drying portion.
this isn’t a thing at all.
brit here.
can confirm. i sit on the side of the bath and wash my arse with the shower. The only house i have seen in the UK with a bidet was essentially a mansion
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“today is a good day to die!” flush
“Glory! To you and your ass!”
Right now I live abroad and we have just the tub, so yeah same remedy. It’s cursed and annoying though, so I hate it so much
Just get the toilet seat bidet. It’s probably like 40£
only outputs cold water, right?
Yeah, you get used to it quickly
Look up the Tushy 3.0 bidet. Costs less than 100USD, and connects to both hot and cold taps at the sink. No electricity for a heater and you get the warm bum treatment! I got one for each bathroom
they make attachments you can add to your terlet for such activities, although i’m guessing the UK uses some special kind of non-standard HrH style plumping fixture to supply water (like a square pipe or something?) so maybe they don’t exist there?
Also in the UK, the aftermarket toilet attachments are not in line with building codes because of the possibility of contamination of the water supply, so it’s quite complicated if you don’t have room for a separate bidet.
England seems to traditionally have the toilet separate from the house and for some reason the bidet trend never caught on
Uh… wut?
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I live in the UK and nothing you’ve said here is congruent with my experience. I don’t recall ever being in any building whatsoever that had no indoor toilet, including pubs.
there was
In the past. A long way in the past.
as we moved to the later half of the 20th century
The move to the later half of the 20th century was 70 years ago.
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This must specifically be like, row homes, right? Where it’s too tightly packed to fit a new room.
It’s not like houses here in sweden are brand spanking new and yet they all have toilets nowadays even if some of them are ancient.deleted by creator
This what I’ve been told- I’ve never been to England, my understanding is that back in the day this was the way especially for suburban and farmland, and that that’s why many old Australian houses still have the toilet separate. Obviously this doesn’t apply to dense or modern areas.
Lol. Out of ALL the European countries to pick as example, you chose the worst.
France definitely does not like bidets and French will even ask you why even bother having one, assuming they even know what it’s for.
Try again with Italy. Basically every household has one.
Interesting. Well, not losing sleep on that. Good on Italy and Spain though.
Spain checking in here. Bidets are definitely popular in Spain. I suspect that’s how they made their way to south America.
The utopian city of Atlantis sunk due to bidet overuse.
They might have sunk the city, but their butts were sparkling clean
No one understands what a bidet really is.
In the old days, they were a separate free-standing device. Not a lot of people have space or money to add one of these types of bidets to their bathrooms
Now they make them as toilet seat attachments that don’t require extra space and really aren’t that expensive.
But people don’t know. Older people will be like, “Oh a bidet? No I don’t want another toilet like device in my bathroom”
So that gets rid of all those people.
Next you have the people that know about the new style bidets that’s just a fancy toilet seat.
Their biggest deterrent is probably cold water. Spraying cold water on their butt doesn’t appeal to most people.
You can get bidets that heat the water, but you have to have power behind your toilet, which not everyone has.
Then you have older people that just can’t work them or don’t feel like they can. Like my grandfather, I installed one with all the bells and whistles for him. Yet hitting a button and doing all that was too complicated. He was 90+ and could barely use a cell phone for basic functions. But he’d rather wipe his butt like he knew than mess with the “complicated” bidet.
Eventually everyone is going to own a bidet, it really is the way to go.
We just aren’t there yet.
For me it’s because I have had to suffer from UTI’s before and I don’t want to risk some stream of water blowing bacteria into my vagina and then I gotta pee every five seconds and wait for a damn doctor visit because for some fucking reason UTI meds aren’t over the counter where I live.
I can buy the UTI “pain reliever” over the counter but it just temporarily fixes the pain, and the UTI of course continues. Pretty fucking pointless.
Well, for starters, you don’t pee from your vagina. You could get a yeast infection, yes, but that’s a different issue.
That said, if your bidet is angled so it’s hitting your vagina or, especially, your urethra, it’s likely not installed correctly or you’re sitting way far back on your toilet.*
- There are bidets you can get with the option to angle for washing period blood away, but they tell you in the instructions to wash your butt first so that you don’t get bacteria into your vagina, and you also don’t need to use that function either. I never found it super useful myself, so I’d recommend the cheaper version without that function these days.
Well, for starters, you don’t pee from your vagina.
why are you explaining that to me, a woman with a vagina.
I’m aware of that.
stream of water blowing bacteria into my vagina
Because that doesn’t cause issues with your urinary tract.
- A man with a longer urinary tract
holy fucking shit do you know anything about PH balance of the vagina.
Well he probably knows that vaginas can’t get UTIs
Weird, in my current country bidet is in widespread usage and I haven’t known anyone getting a UTI from bidet usage.
I’m more susceptible to UTI’s than other women (or people with vaginas)
You could just find one with low pressure. You don’t need a high power jet.
Simply soaking your crack with water and wiping is a big help.
I’ve never heard of your problem, though, so it’s an interesting point. I know some bidets even have intended settings to wash your front as a woman.
Yeah its just easier for me to get UTI’s so I have to be extra careful. I had a summer where I had 3 UTI’s back to back and it was a nightmare.
Most women get them from sex and there’s a lot of misinformation out there about women’s health.
Having used both types, including a water warming seat installed one, I can’t say enough good things about the free standing ones. The toilet seat ones though seem like a waste of time, even if they warm the water.
Cold water, yeah in winter in Canada your cold water is something like 1°C (33°F), not a pleasant thing
If the water in your pipes is that cold, you’re likely looking at a burst pipe issue anyway
Well you flush and that takes out the water in your pipes. Then you get cold ass water from the pipe outside in the ground.
Water doesn’t have to be 0°C (32°F) to freeze.
Depending on your elevation, it can change.
If the water in your pipes is even close to 1°C you have a serious problem.
You can also hook a bidet to your hot water line
The first bit of water will be wall temperature water and it will take a bit to fully warm up because you have to clear out the lines (some bidets will drain the first bit of water before squirting you)
There are a large number of Americans that think:
- Anything touching them there makes them gay - still not sure how your hand and TP is any different
- It will hurt - yeah… IDK
- It’s gross, or it doesn’t get you clean - uh…wiping some paper on it does? how???
I think the answer is just that most don’t know about them, having grown up in homes without them. They are quite nice though.
They may also be perceived as too expensive, if they only know of full toilet replacement kinds and not the seat replacements you can get for less than $100.
Cost me half that and I love it. It’s a life changer.
I got a $400 one, and it was the best $400 I’ve ever spent. It’s something I use every day, and damn does it improve my day just a little bit more.
Maybe, but I’d still go with having no idea such things exist. That was me, and the first type I knew about was the seat attachment/replacement
There are dozens of choices that work great for twenty some dollars online here in the US and don’t even replace the seat.
I think you me question is missing some key words. “Why isn’t the use of the bidet more widespread in the USA and other western countries?”
I am in Vietnam right now and nearly every bathroom has a bum gun to wash your bits. When I was in Japan nearly every bathroom had bits to wash you built into the toilet seat with digital controls. These are not just in homes and nice places, but also at 7-11, train stations, airports and even hole in the wall places. Wish USA/Canada had this as we all know how much it sucks when out and you have a forever wipe.
toilet paper mafia.
Because the tradition of wiping until it’s red is deeply rooted in american toilet culture.
It’s refered to as “better red than dead”
I was overseas and recovering from surgery. I’d never seen a bidet before arriving in Argentina a few days before, so I still wasn’t used to them.
In any case, I was sitting on this bidet at 3am or something, on painkillers, and almost falling asleep while I sit there. I’m leaning forward, and turn the bidet, and it turns out this bidet has a jet of water almost powerful to reach the roof. And because of the angle I was sitting at, I get this jet of high pressure water right on my clit. I’m pretty sure the noise I made woke most of the neighbours! It was not a fun experience
That being said, I’d still get one here in Australia if I could :)
A bidet can find the clit and I can’t? WTF
/s
/s
You lie
Why do people always act like it’s super difficult to find the clit?
Look at a medical textbook, put your face between her legs and you’ll see where it is. It really isn’t that hard.
I’m aware there are men who are so caught up with toxic masculinity that eating out a woman is not an option, and they probably actually are unable to find the clit. But do people really say “look at me, I’m a toxic person who isn’t able to pleasure their partner because of it” about themselves as a joke?
Not wanting to eat out their significant other isn’t necessarily correlated to toxic masculinity; I think you’re conflating two different things. It’s possible to be selfish completely unrelated to toxic masculinity. Not every instance of a male doing something wrong is attributable to toxic masculinity.
So people are saying “look at me, I’m selfish” as a joke?
You’re completely right that not every bad behaviour in a male is toxic masculinity. And a completely non-sexist person may just not want to do it out of pure selfishness. However there are plenty of jokes about the gayness of a man eating out a woman. I’m pretty sure these topics are closely related. The logic of those men usually looks like this:
Eating a woman out => submissive => weak => bad
I don’t think I’ve ever heard that.
there are plenty of jokes about the gayness of a man eating out a woman
Ummm.
Those two things are opposites
I know. And yet there are plenty of shitty people making jokes about it.
I LOVE eating out a woman. My woman is 8 months pregnant and I havent eaten pussy in most of that time and it’s killing me lol
I haven’t eaten anyone out in over a year, and I also miss it. It’s super fun seeing the other person being pleasured by my actions.
No idea tbh. It’s not hard to find. Sure it’s hidden under a good but it’s not exactly hard to see. Learning how to use it though seems to be more of a mystery. I mean shit, the majority of the time my wife struggles to know what she does and doesn’t like.
I would never.
I found that discovery to be a highly welcome one personally
I mean, maybe in other circumstances, but I was not ready! :)
You can definitely get one in Australia. They are like $30 on the internet delivered right to your house and attach to your toilet in under 5 min.
Those ones aren’t even close to the same. They’re not worth the effort in my experience
It’s a matter of planning and availability. In my country people don’t renovate their houses often and even rarely build them from scratch. Having a bidet requires planning and leaving space for it. Japanese style toilet seats are easier to install in smaller toilets, but they require electricity and/or hot water.
I’ve had no issues with the cheap $20-40 USD bidets from Amazon, while I’m sure the fanciness of a heated bidet would change my life I don’t see the need.
When you say bidet you are referring to a toilet seat with water or separate wash head next to toilet. When I say bidet am referring to what french call bidet, a separate toilet-like utensil next to toilet. Those things require planning and space since they require drainage, water source, etc.
I think it’s more common now to call a bidet insert a bidet. So just an inser that you fasten between the seat and bowl with an arm for turning on and off the spray. That connects to a T adapter at the inlet on the toilet. Works really good and costs 20-80€/$
Depends on which part of the world obviously.
Washlets don’t require hot water or electricity, though, they can pull right from the toilet water supply
Japanese style toilet seats
That’s what most people in the USA mean when they say bidet. They’re bidet toilet seats or washlets.
Ah, okay. When people say bidet, I am thinking separate utility.
I always understood bidet to mean a separate fixture, unless specifying the toilet/bidet combo
Americans voted for him though
Big TP conspiracy :)
American here. Thanks to woot regularly selling them, I have a bidet on each toilet in the house. I have a battery operated travel bidet, because now I’m hooked.
It has certainly led to… “Interesting” responses from house guests. There’s always TP in stock, so it’s not required. Butt I’m never going back if I can help it.
There’s always TP in stock, so it’s not required.
That’s always weird to read. For me bidets are for after, not instead of.
After TP? Why? TP is for drying and a double check.
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You would make a mess of the bidet otherwise.
Is this like the bidet version of standing-wipers thinking normal people will get their hand in the water?
The fact that any time there’s a poll and about half of people respond as being standing wipers always blows my mind. It’s just so… wrong.
It gets all smushed up in between your cheeks too if you stand and wipe
Not true for any of the six bidets I have owned. the wand sits very far back in the spray is in the opposite direction of where the wand is and the wand itself retracts into a cover while spitting water to clean itself.
And I have never even had a fancy one with power or heated water. All these just run off the pressure in the pipe.
Huh? I can assure you won’t, unless you have extremely muddy poos?
Last time I was in Japan there was actually shit on the spray nozzle at the hotel.
Come to Asia my friend, Bidet showers, no paper.
both my grandmothers used to preclean dishes with the same instrument before putting them in the dishwasher. It was attached to the kitchen sink of course. When I first saw one in a toilet in SEA I thought ‘what? But grandma how?’. She told me that dishwasher salesmen recommended them, and I always wondered how they made the jump from Butt to Wedgewood.
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You need to eat more fibre.
Whoa… Tell me more about this battery operated one. I just got back from vacation and I missed my bidet!
I bought a Toto HW300-W “Portable Travel Washlet” off Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008O1G4LQ) back in 2018 and it still runs like a champ. The text is all in Japanese, but easy enough to figure out (or Google Lens it if you really want to know).
* Edit: I should note that I paid about half of the current list price :-O
Thanks! Adding that to my wish list right now!
Yeah I’d also like a recommendation!
I have a travel one for camping. No battery though.
I once read a book where this particular bathroom appliance was very intimately connected with prostitutes throughout history and that association created a big push against having it in every house. It was an interesting read.
In my country in particular, it became mandatory in every newly built house starting around the 50s and later it became mandatory to have one bidet and one bathtub in every house.
This was pushed to enforce a notion of hygiene that was lacking, as the country was very poor at the time. Paradoxically, it was easier to have higher standards of hygiene in the country, where access to water was easier and the field labour demanded a minimal cleanliness to be at the table and socially than in the growing cities, where poor living conditions made very difficult for the poor to access running water.
