Sexist bathtub

The sexist bathtub

March 8th – International Women’s Day – always makes me reflect on our feminine condition. Patriarchal principles - domination of male over female – are so embedded in our culture that even top feminists do not detect all their symptoms. Residential architecture, which is my professional domain, is not free from what remains of that masculine culture. Here is an example:
It’s known that women like to soak in warm bathtubs. This is as much an exercise as well as being both hygienic and sensual. The dead cells of our epidermis fall out easier when previously softened. To float away from gravity in a comfortable position relaxes the whole body and calms the nerves. The sensation of warmth and pressure on the skin give a pleasant sensation, similar to those caresses we so often miss. It is like a prenatal memory of paradise.
Despite all these advantages of taking a bath, most men prefer the shower. There is nothing accidental about this choice, which is of biological nature. Testicles are placed outside of the body so as to avoid the inside temperature, too high for production of sperm. The system is protected by an innate feeling of comfort. Prolonged permanence in tepid water, as warm as inside body temperature, or even more, may create some discomfort, the reason for which they are not usually aware of. So a shower is perceived as more appropriate for men, it is more dynamic and the best solution for anybody in a hurry.
The old vernacular houses were equipped with heavy deep and round iron bathtubs on legs. An ideal place to take relax in. Traditionally, the home was the female domain. A little kingdom of circular time : days, weeks and years repeating themselves peacefully. Home builders took into account the needs of women and children who spent most of their time there.
Modern times changed all this. During the first postwar years, the Western world underwent a cruel shortage of housing for the new families of returning soldiers who were producing the nascent baby-boom. Suddenly architects, who at this time were almost all men, started to become interested in popular housing. Their credo: ‘’the housing machine’’. Housing must be hygienic and efficient in this busy world. Whatever was left in the balance: intimacy, peace, a feeling of security, tradition… all forgotten! In these circumstances, the bathtub will be principally used for showering. From this time on, the standard bathtub installed in any middle-class housing unit is rectangular, wide and shallow. It is made from thin steel that is not capable of keeping the water warm. The back of that bathtub is so vertical that it hurts the neck when one lays in it. The maximum water level is 8” – if you are not thin as a reed it leaves half of your body in the air. Aside from this, it is not shaped like the human body, which wastes a lot of warm water without any gain. I ask myself how, for more than 50 years now, have hundreds of millions of women in North America bathed in these comfortless boxes without asking for something more appropriate.
It is necessary to mention that since a few years already, there are other models better adapted for relaxation on the market : acrylic bathtubs, with a softer touch than metal ones, with higher water levels, in cosy forms and eventually with some water or air jets that help repose. Unfortunately, these are fragile and expensive, so they find their way only to owner-occupied homes. For now, they are still absent in rental housing, which is to say, they are absent from most people’s homes.