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I like to talk openly, and hear others talk openly, about the less polite bodily functions. I wouldn’t say I’m fond of toilet humour – I just like how they are the things that we all, every one of us, as human beings have in common.
Everyone poops and farts and have earwax and snot and maybe skin problems and scars and blemishes and sometimes get constipation and goop in their eyes in the morning… it’s just that, those are the things that makes us human. And it feels like in being “polite” about not talking about them openly, it’s easy to lose touch with these “imperfections” that all of us – regardless of “race”, ethnicity, class, gender, looks – we all share. I feel like we’ve lost touch with them in the same way that we have become ashamed of our bodies because we’ve got used to hiding it. At least being clothed has the purpose of keeping us warm.
I mean, take airbrushing – how on earth is it even accepted? Why haven’t we boycotted every single magazine or film or advertisement that uses it? We’re talking about standards that even our supposedly most beautiful models and actors cannot live up to. And we let ourselves be surrounded with it, so we can believe it to be the norm, that we are disgusting because of our flaws, that we have to hide these flaws as best we can.
I have this memory, of one of my favourite conversations with friends: I can’t remember what we were talking about, but I had raised a question about some bodily function that nobody ever talks about. And I wasn’t making toilet jokes – I was asking my friends how they dealt with it, the effects of it. We started talking about it openly, frankly. And I remember feeling more connected with them as human beings then, than I had for a long time. It’s the great equalizer – no matter who you are. How “successful” you are. How beautiful you look. You still have to deal with these things. And when you get old (if you’re lucky, it doesn’t come earlier), your bodily functions will start demanding more and more of your attention and time, as it gets harder and harder to hide them from “polite company” – to pretend we are something we aren’t.
Why not just bring some of it out in the open now?
