• Kalash
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    9110 months ago

    Because of “big toilet paper”. They even tried to assassinate a spokesperson for japanes toilets.

    • XiELEd
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      1910 months ago

      Holy shit? Do you have a source for that because damn. It’s something I would expect though.

    • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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      110 months ago

      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.

  • @Mothra@mander.xyz
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    6911 months ago

    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.

    • @Rescuer6394@feddit.nl
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      3810 months ago

      in Italy, there is literally a law obligating houses to have a bidet. the separated from the toilet kind.

        • @Rescuer6394@feddit.nl
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          710 months ago

          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.

          • @machinaeZER0@lemm.ee
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            110 months ago

            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!

            • @Rescuer6394@feddit.nl
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              210 months ago

              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

              • BarqsHasBite
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                110 months ago

                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.

      • @Oyster_Lust@lemmy.world
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        310 months ago

        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.

    • PrettyFlyForAFatGuy
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      10 months ago

      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

      • @nitefox@lemmy.worldOP
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        310 months ago

        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

      • @Donebrach@lemmy.world
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        110 months ago

        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?

      • @TIN@feddit.uk
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        110 months ago

        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.

    • @rah@feddit.uk
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      310 months ago

      England seems to traditionally have the toilet separate from the house and for some reason the bidet trend never caught on

      Uh… wut?

        • @Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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          110 months ago

          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.

        • @rah@feddit.uk
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          110 months ago

          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.

      • @Mothra@mander.xyz
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        210 months ago

        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.

    • DonJefe
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      110 months ago

      Spain checking in here. Bidets are definitely popular in Spain. I suspect that’s how they made their way to south America.

    • @happyhippo@feddit.it
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      110 months ago

      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.

    • DonJefe
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      610 months ago

      They might have sunk the city, but their butts were sparkling clean

  • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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    4310 months ago

    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.

    • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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      2010 months ago

      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.

      • @EssentialCoffee@midwest.social
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        610 months ago

        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.
      • @sheogorath@lemmy.world
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        410 months ago

        Weird, in my current country bidet is in widespread usage and I haven’t known anyone getting a UTI from bidet usage.

      • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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        210 months ago

        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.

        • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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          210 months ago

          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.

    • AdaA
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      610 months ago

      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.

    • @Magister@lemmy.world
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      310 months ago

      Cold water, yeah in winter in Canada your cold water is something like 1°C (33°F), not a pleasant thing

        • BarqsHasBite
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          110 months ago

          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.

      • @Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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        110 months ago

        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)

  • @AttackBunny@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    There are a large number of Americans that think:

    1. Anything touching them there makes them gay - still not sure how your hand and TP is any different
    2. It will hurt - yeah… IDK
    3. It’s gross, or it doesn’t get you clean - uh…wiping some paper on it does? how???
  • @Wahots@pawb.social
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    3810 months ago

    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.

      • @AA5B@lemmy.world
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        210 months ago

        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

      • @Wahots@pawb.social
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        110 months ago

        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.

      • CephaloPOTUS
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        110 months ago

        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.

  • 𝕯𝖎𝖕𝖘𝖍𝖎𝖙
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    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”

    • @CouncilOfFriends@slrpnk.net
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      710 months ago

      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.

        • @Poopmeister@lemm.ee
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          410 months ago

          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€/$

    • @WhipTheLlama@lemmy.world
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      510 months ago

      Japanese style toilet seats

      That’s what most people in the USA mean when they say bidet. They’re bidet toilet seats or washlets.

  • AdaA
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    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 :)

        • silly goose meekah
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          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?

          • @Epic2112@lemmy.world
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            410 months ago

            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.

            • silly goose meekah
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              10 months ago

              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

          • @ech0@lemmy.world
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            310 months ago

            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

            • silly goose meekah
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              310 months ago

              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.

          • @Swarfega@lemm.ee
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            110 months ago

            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.

      • AdaA
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        210 months ago

        I mean, maybe in other circumstances, but I was not ready! :)

    • CephaloPOTUS
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      610 months ago

      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.

      • AdaA
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        110 months ago

        Those ones aren’t even close to the same. They’re not worth the effort in my experience

  • @brockpriv@sh.itjust.works
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    2010 months ago

    I paid for a 250$ bidet toilet seat and i don’t even use it. How is it supposed to work? My stool are soft sometimes, and even with the bidet pressure to the max, it doesn’t fully clean it. I’m left with dripping wet ass covered with shit. Then i need to use toilet paper that’s literally melting from all that water on my ass. As a result i use 3x more toilet paper and my hands gets dirty. Very unpleasant.

    Am i using it wrong?

    • @Galex1223@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      I believe you are, yes. I once stumbled upon this thread on Reddit , it kinda explains it well ! The *o*o*o Is pretty accurate. I’ve been using my bidet for around 2 years now and never once have I been in your situation. Now, I feel sad and dirty when I’m far from my bidet.

      • @Zikeji@programming.dev
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        410 months ago

        Now, I feel sad and dirty when I’m far from my bidet.

        So much this. I’ve held my bowels when I had the opportunity to go just so I could shit at home with my bidet lol.

        I haven’t yet committed to a towel so I still waste toilet paper (though less), but it’s also nice knowing if I ran out I could just let my ass air dry (speaking from experience).

    • @acutfjg@feddit.nl
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      1110 months ago

      It does sound like you’re using it wrong. I’ve been using a $70 bidet attachment for 8+ years and it was the best decision I’ve made for personal hygiene.

      Use toilet

      Use bidet, making sure to adjust your position so the stream hits your o and the area immediately around it. Whatever poo may touch while going.

      Use toilet paper to dry.

      If you’re spraying parts of your bum where poop doesn’t even reach then you need to adjust the spray. I’ve used so much less toilet paper this way.

        • @LambentMote@lemmy.nz
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          1910 months ago

          It’s a single wipe on clean skin. Much less paper used. No abraison. No mess. If you got shit on your arm would you be satisfied just wiping if off with paper?

          • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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            210 months ago

            No but I can do the same thing with a shower head and use soap and then a towell.

            sounds like maybe bidets are for people who either have roommates or family living with them.

            • @LambentMote@lemmy.nz
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              10 months ago

              You seem determined to take issue with the concept of a bidet. That’s OK no one is forcing you to use one. The toilet seat attachment ones are super cheap and convenient. You don’t have to get up and go anywhere. You just turn a knob when you’re done pooping and you get cleaner than you can with paper. Feels good to be clean.

              Like back to the arm poop analogy, if you for some reason were getting shit on your arm every single day, sometimes multiple times, then having to go do the shower soap towell thing becomes a hassle. Maybe it makes sense to have a special hose next to where you keep getting shit on you to make clean up easier.

              • @cubedsteaks@lemmy.today
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                110 months ago

                That’s OK no one is forcing you to use one

                Yet a lot of the comments here are like “LOL HOW COME MORE PEOPLE DONT USE THESE R THEY DUMB MY ASSHOLE IS SO FRESH”

                I’ll be honest. I never get poop on any part of my body ever. Maybe like once on my hand while I was sick cause I was so sick that I missed but that’s not a common occurrence and probably hasn’t happened since I was a teenager. I’m in my late 30’s now. So that time is FAR far behind me. lmao. I don’t have a perfect memory but I would definitely remember getting poop on my fucking arm.

                But maybe if I had a child or something someday - and I had poop getting on my arm cause of the kid making it a hassle to change a diaper… well I’d probably use a baby wipe. Duh.

        • @Wahots@pawb.social
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          410 months ago

          You gotta get the ones with the blow dryers! My asshole is sparkling, and the toilet paper collects dust.

    • @tooclose104@lemmy.ca
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      1110 months ago

      You have to make sure you’re adjusting yourself so the stream kisses your * and definitely do the 00*0

    • @renlok@lemmy.ml
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      810 months ago

      You don’t need to use so much water, and move yourself around to make sure your aim is right. It’s not a jet wash for your poop chute, it just makes wiping more efficient.

      Mine cost like $50 and is probably one of my favourite ever purchases.

    • Franzia
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      110 months ago

      I appreciate the honesty lol