Unsightly open-air urinals had to go, say protesters in Paris
A NEW open-air urinal has been removed from the historic centre of Paris after it was vandalised by feminists who branded it sexist and discriminatory.
Local authorities have confessed that the row over the highly conspicuous “uritrottoirs” – a play on the words urine and pavement – has turned them into a laughing stock.
But their removal will leave the problem of where to go when caught short unresolved, they believe.
Several of the letterbox-red ecofriendly urinals had been strategically placed in public spots as an experiment to counter Paris’s “wild peeing” problem. The stench of urine is all-pervasive in some areas of the capital.
But without stalls or cover, they were criticised as they encouraged men to unzip and expose themselves while providing no such facility for women. One was placed near a school.
Protesters targeted two on the Île Saint-louis and near the Gare de Lyon, blocking them with concrete and sanitary towels. The ultra-chic Île Saint Saint-louis one has since been removed.
“We were a laughing stock all summer,” Anne Lebreton, the deputy mayor of Paris’s 4th arrondissement from President Emmanuel Macron’s LREM party, told locals at a meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s totally unsuitable here, next to a school and where children come to sit on a bench to eat their afternoon snack,” the headmaster told Le Parisien.
Ariel Weil, the Socialist mayor, said the urinal “meets an identified need by residents due to the nocturnal attractiveness” of the Seine riverbank. He suggested “moving the installation a few metres with the neighbourhood council’s approval”.
Colette Guez, former president of the neighbourhood council, said residents had tried “in vain” to get a covered public lavatory installed on the Île Saint-louis but their requests were consistently turned down on the grounds it was a listed area. “And now we find this contraption.”
She called for “proper lavatories for men and women on the lower banks where more and more strollers come in the evening”.
Feminists were appalled at the urinals, saying it sent the message that men could freely expose themselves in public – just as the #Metoo anti-harassment movement had gathered pace.
Gwendoline Coipeault, of the feminist organisation Femmes Solidaires, said: “These urinals are designed to comfort men and reinforce the idea that women aren’t welcome in the public space. It is discrimination and reinforces the stereotypical, sexist idea that men can’t control themselves in any way, including their bladders.”
She added: “I don’t know a single woman who regularly goes to Paris who hasn’t witnessed a man urinating in public.”