New Holland Park school

Have you all watched the funny Bodyform "riposte" that went viral last week?
If you have ever donated blood you will have seen the colour it is in the bag, in the absence of oxygen. That is the colour it is in veins. Dark purplish red. Arterial blood will be bright red - same colour it is when exposed to oxygen in the air.

Only when it is inside your body! Have you ever had a cut that bled blue?

Isn't everybody's blood blue, then?

Not everybody is embarrassed by 'bodily functions' - I used to work at the Lucozade factory and one woman would come in every morning and have a very loud bowel movement in the Ladies - much grunting and groaning. She would then emerge from the cubicle smiling and say 'Better out than in'.
Most of us learned to exit when she came in, as we were embarrassed, even though she wasn't.
I think the present generation of young people are much more relaxed about such things, and I know my grandson was happy to go to the local shop for Tampax if his mother or sisters needed them. I even stopped being embarrassed when watching TV with my gc and those laughable adverts came on, where it is suggested you can wear tight, white trousers and roller skate during a period. (But I have heard that some young girls were puzzled as to why the blood was blue!)

Bags and absent
I shall now google 'how to overcome embarrassment about bodily functions'
It is a real problem when I am away from home

I think I may have posted this story on Gransnet before, but anyway… Marilyn Monroe had a horror of being overheard in the loo. Before they were married Arthur Miller took her to meet his mother. Inevitably, she had to go to the bathroom, so she turned on all the taps to disguise the sound of peeing. The next day he asked his mum what she thought of his fiancée, to which she replied, "She's a lovely girl, but she pisses likes a horse."

So, if I'm doing a loud pee, I just think of the Marilyn Monroe story (pees like a horse) and smile.

Oh I'm not sure either, jane and vamp, just interested. And yes, of course bullying must be tackled in every possible way.

On a personal level, I'm not sure I would have found dealing with sanitary towels more embarassing with boys around. I had three brothers and coped fine at home. I learned to be discreet. I actually wonder if most boys wouldn't be too embarassed themselves to say anything if they noticed. The teenage boys I know now are very down to earth about such things and would, I think, just look the other way.

The other people hearing one 'go' thing applies whether there is anyone within earshot, doesn't it? Not sure the gender of the ear, so to speak, is relevant. I once read a very interesting account of overcoming that embarassment too. Since reading it, about twenty years ago, I've just thought "to hell with embarassment about normal bodily functions!" Works a treat. I recommend it.

Thank you lol

I am not sure Bags.
I'm with VQ who described the embarrassment of 'going' within earshot of others and I think in my teenage years I would have been mortified at having boys around the loos, trying to conceal sanitary towels and so on!
Isn't it better to tackle bullying in a more basic way, trying to get at the root of the problem?

Whoops! ...if there are....

I wouldn't go into a men's toilet at a place like a motorway service station or any large public place, but I often use the designated "men's" toilet in small places where there is only one for each gender and the women's one is busy but the men's isn't.

I think the school thing is an interesting experiment and I shall be interested to hear more about it in future. It's well known that girls have a civilising influence on boys, and maybe if their are boys around girls' school bitchiness will be lessened as well. I can understand the thinking behind this experiment and think it's worth a try.

Preservative is the French for condom.

No! It doesn't. It's the same as life jackets or rubbers in America!

Jodi...could you translate 'il y a les preservatives dedans?' as google translation says she asked if the yoghurts had preservatives in and I'm sure it doesn't mean that by Greatnan's reaction lol.

Jodi She would not be the fist Brit to be caught out with that one!

Do you think unisex toilets in a school might give rise to other problems? And did anyone see the news story a few weeks ago about the number of schools with CCTV in the toilets?

When my daughter was au pairing in France, the mother of her charges was very fussy about the food served them. DD in small village shop ( probably catholic owner) picks up a four-pack of yoghurt and asks 'il y a les preservatives dedans?'
!!!!!

I have bought condoms for my grandson- I am sure the chemist did not care a hoot. Perhaps he thought I was a red-hot Mamma! I am way past being embarrassed by anything now.

Well - once when we were in France with DD2 and family, she needed some Tampax and felt embarrassed to go and try and describe them to the pharmacy in the village - so my SIL went. He duly returned with the necessaries - I asked him how he managed this and he said he mimed - I asked for no further elucidation!

Same SIL once presented me with a bag of condoms after I had given him (and several other teenagers) a lift to the FP clinic. "What are these?" I asked. "Well I knew you and OH were going on holiday and I thought they might come in handy!" I quite like that sort of openness and lack of embarrassment, but I guess others might not like it!

I didn't mind getting them for my daughters and gds once it was obvious they could not be for me! When I was a teenager and easily embarrassed, I used to end up in the chemists buying packets of pins if it was a man serving.

gosh we did have clean loos in my all girls high but we also had machine for s towels, what a nuiscance great nan

however when I went to Catholic college for secretarial course my dear late mum insisted on, you had to ask the school secretary if you were caught short and needed a s towel.

I too remember the secrecey and s towels wrapped in paper, in some ways I still felt embarassed when buying them in supermarkets, especially if lad on checkout.

How I was brought up I guess.

This sounds to me exactly like the prize-winning and much applauded school built in Earlsfield in south-west London in the 1960s, I think. In spite of all the awards, the building had to be altered because the vast glass panels concentrated the sun in the summer and the pupils just kept fainting.

Unfortunately, single toilets are not uncommon in some French cafes/bars, and the men seem to have the same difficulty in hitting the target as men all over the world! I don't wear make-up now, but when I did I found it uncomfortable to 'touch up' in front of men.
I wonder if these wonderful architects consulted any potential pupils before they drew up their grandiose plans.

I think some kids of that age might find a uni sex toilet intimidating, and possibly put off going to the toilet altogether which wouldn't be good for them. If it's a senior school then there would be an age range from 11 to 16, possibly to 18 if it has a sixth form, an 11 year old girl might not be too happy to find some strapping great boy outside the loo, or visa versa, small boy and a gaggle or older girls. Personally, I wouldn't welcome uni sex toilets at my age, and think the only occasion where we are all forced to use the same toilet is on a plane.