Why are bidets uncommon in the US?

November 8, 2005 1:44 AM

Why are bidets so uncommon in the US? No, really, why?
posted by arakasi to society & culture (45 comments total)

Because Murikans have no dirty bits to wash. Or, at least, having a bidet is to admit one has such bits.

Also because they take up room.
posted by Goofyy at 2:06 AM on November 8, 2005

It's tough to underestimate the resistance to change, especially in American culture, and especially when it comes to adopting some European concepts.

We use toilets, inches, pounds, and insist on a secular government with a religious people.

Across the Atlantic, it's more common to see bidets, centimeters, kilograms, and an officially religious government with secular people.

We think they're backwards, they think we're backwards. It gives us something useless to bicker about to get rid of frustration without really fighting.
posted by Saydur at 2:25 AM on November 8, 2005

Just a guess, but North American culture is a direct descendant from English Puritanism.

Shocking that the Puritans didn't use bidets. Tell the truth, shocked that we're actually able to use commercial toilet paper without feeling guilty. (Okay, I do feel a little bit guilty, but, hey.)

Yeah, we are backwards in some respects. But that's why.
posted by converge at 3:12 AM on November 8, 2005

Well as a matter fact, it was common for everyone back in the old days even in the cities of America to use washpans to clean up with. Actual full body baths were a rare occasion typically reserved for Sundays or special occasions. I guess when indoor plumbing became a norm, bidets never caught on. Even in Europe bidets were not standard to begin with. It was more of a luxury item. We have one in our apartment but I can´t say I´ve used it, I usually shower instead.
posted by JJ86 at 3:26 AM on November 8, 2005

French here. Been a long while since I last saw a bidet, to tell you the truth. And never used one myself. Guess we're all ashamed of our private parts these days.

Also, yes, they do take up room.
posted by XiBe at 3:40 AM on November 8, 2005

Inertia. If you haven't used one (I haven't), you don't know what you're missing (I don't), and you don't think "I should get one of these in my house."
posted by Alt F4 at 3:51 AM on November 8, 2005

There was some extensive, if not necessarily conclusive, discussion of the subject here.
posted by Wolfdog at 3:53 AM on November 8, 2005

I think it would be good to remember that my grandmother, for one, grew up without indoor plumbing. You don't get bidets in an outhouse, you don't think of them when you get indoor plumbing.
posted by dagnyscott at 5:20 AM on November 8, 2005

we just got rid of ours. seems like plants look better in their own pots.

is there anywhere in teh world where bidets are not in decline?
posted by andrew cooke at 5:32 AM on November 8, 2005

Korea.

I had one in my last apt. that was just an attachment to the toilet seat itself. It was rad, and my ass was never cleaner. I miss it...
posted by Joseph Gurl at 5:38 AM on November 8, 2005

I have to admit, that though I would probably use one, I'd be embarrassed to have one. Plus it makes something extra to buy, install, keep clean, etc. A quick shower does serve the purpose.
posted by orange swan at 5:38 AM on November 8, 2005

Across the Atlantic, it's more common to see bidets, centimeters, kilograms, and an officially religious government with secular people.

Aside: Jo Walton has the best comment on this. "The purpose of the Church of England is to inoculate people with a dead religion so that they don't catch a live one."

Note that having the space for a bidet is expensive, and the vast majority of early Americans were poor, and even if you weren't, many amenities that you would have had in Europe just weren't available here. As time passed, and the US Upper Class rose, they took a different direction in furnishings -- see the huge walk in showers, for a bath example.
posted by eriko at 5:40 AM on November 8, 2005

Shocking that the Puritans didn't use bidets. Tell the truth, shocked that we're actually able to use commercial toilet paper without feeling guilty.

You can't develop guilt over something that did not exist in your time. The puritans, like the proverbial bear, most likely shat in the woods, my friend.
posted by spicynuts at 6:02 AM on November 8, 2005

Perhaps it's a function of never having lived with one for very long, but my exposure to bidets has not motivated me to have one. Okay, I can turn the hose on my crack and now I have a marginally cleaner, soaking wet crack. What am I supposed to dry it with? Certainly not toilet paper which will come apart and leave me with ass confetti. A hand towel? I'm cleaner but I didn't use soap, I don't think I want to streak my pretty towels. Cram my big, wet, white ass back into my pants?

I like the theoretical solution of a bidet but the half-dozen times I've used them I haven't found them worth it.
posted by phearlez at 6:03 AM on November 8, 2005

when indoor plumbing became a norm, bidets never caught on

Not only that -- indoor plumbing, when it arrived, advanced rapidly through all segments of the population. The late 19th century saw a sudden and startlingly fast explosion of the availability of plumbing in cities, towns, and even closely built rural areas. Concomitantly, there was a social movement on the rise that emphasized hygeine. The late 19th century was a time of reform, and health was a top concern. The cleaning up of slums, tenements, hospitals, schools, and prisons was a major focus of the Reform era. Personal cleanliness was taught in schools and social agencies very explicitly. And what it meant was bathing - full-body bathing, or showering.

Because water was abundant here - much more so than in European villages - people bathed more often by 1900. Usually a daily hand-wash with a weekly full immersion. So why no bidets? Because at the time they began to be seen in Europe, America was already a cleaner nation than many older European nations. In fact, Europeans mocked Americans for their obsession with cleanliness (and still do). There is less need to use a bidet if you wash or shower every day. It's not as though people were going to go as many days before fully cleaning their bodies. So to implement bidets would actually have been to compromise the new social standard of cleanliness, which emphasized a thorough washing daily. Once you've got plenty of water and a plumbing infrastructure, baths are the better choice.
posted by Miko at 6:11 AM on November 8, 2005

I remembered reading about this the other day in Dear Abby (don't knock Dear Abby, she rules). People were writing in to discuss how American's habit of bathing every day was unhealthy, and someone wrote the following:

DEAR ABBY: I lived in Italy for a year. When my Italian hosts realized I was showering every day, they thought I was crazy. The only thing you really need to wash every day are your private parts. That's why bidets are so common in Europe. -- ERIN IN HESPERIA, CALIF.

So, that is one explanation.
posted by ND¢ at 6:30 AM on November 8, 2005

FWIW, they were never popular in the UK either. It's a continental thing.

As Sid James once said, "Why don't you just stand on your head int he shower?"
posted by vbfg at 6:30 AM on November 8, 2005

phearlez: Okay, I can turn the hose on my crack and now I have a marginally cleaner, soaking wet crack. What am I supposed to dry it with?

When I stayed with a family in France, they had this cotton stuff next to the bidet - kind of the same stuff as cotton balls are made out of but a loooong piece, from which I suppose one was expected to tear off little bunches, and use for drying. However there was the mystery (entirely on my part) of where to put the sodden, filthy cotton when you were done. It remained a mystery because I never had the guts to ask. I did not use the bidet, either. So I could be wrong about the cotton.
posted by contessa at 6:48 AM on November 8, 2005

I just saw a bidet for the first time in my life (22 years) back in September, at a mansion in the Hamptons.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 6:49 AM on November 8, 2005 [1 favorite]

We have bidets at work. Well, technically they're not bidets, they're automatically-flushing toilets, but they flush while you're doing your dirty sinful business. It's somewhat alarming, especially the first time it happens.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:05 AM on November 8, 2005

Very common in Japan.

Well, the complicated electronic button pushing kind in the toilet with different settings for, um, rear washing and, um, front washing. Plus, different heat settings and strengths (be *very* careful with the high pressure). The modernized version of a bidet. Some even have dryers to blast air at your privates to reduce the drying problem.

The Japanese are of course obsessed with cleanliness as well -- baths every day AND bidets.

Rachael
posted by R343L at 7:06 AM on November 8, 2005

I've always associated bidets as being a ceramic incarnation of pretentious european hygiene methods. Boo.

I, nor anyone I know or ever known, have ever voiced a desire to own one.
posted by Atreides at 7:07 AM on November 8, 2005

Arabs use bidets, too! Or they have a spray-nozzle beside the turkish toilet.
posted by By The Grace of God at 7:30 AM on November 8, 2005

It's interesting that the collective stance is that they never caught on here for utilitarian reasons dating back to the dawn of indoor plumbing.

I always thought that they were popular and the nurm in the us, falling out of favor in the past, 30 to 40 years. In my experience, both sets of grandparents had bidets in their bathrooms. In addition to the bidet in my father's parent's house (on miami beach, built in the 40s) and the bidet in my mother's parent's condo (a high-rise condo on Miami Beach, built in the 70's), pictures of the house my mother grew up in (50's-era on Miami Beach), reveal that they, too, had bidets in their bathrooms. Additionally, the original bathrooms in the house where I grew up (Miami, built in the ea70's 70s) had bidets; nobody used them and my parents removed them when they re-did the bathrooms. Maybe their short lived popularity was jusMiamiiami thing?

I just assumed that they fell out of favor for a variety of reasons including: improved TP quality (seriously, it makes a difference), time issues (why spend time on an extra bathroom process when TP will do the trick) and an increase of new, higher-quality, trendy bathroom fixture-type things on the market (if they don't buy the bidet they'll have space in the budget for an awesome deep bathtub, cool new fixtures and high-tech bathroom lighting).
posted by necessitas at 7:33 AM on November 8, 2005

*just a Miami thing*
posted by necessitas at 7:35 AM on November 8, 2005

So bidet-users, um, how *does* one dry oneself after using the bidet?

....and also, all the bidets I've ever seen lack seats -- are you supposed to hover? Or just sit on the rim?
posted by aramaic at 7:59 AM on November 8, 2005

Friends of mine used to live in an apartment in Somerville, Mass., owned by a Portuguese landlord. The bathroom featured a bidet. The joke amongst us was that the irony was that 3 men lived in the apartment; however, from reading this post, I gather that men could also use a bidet. However, a girlfriend of mine once used that bidet, giving her the title of "only person to ever use that bidet."
posted by LilBucner at 8:07 AM on November 8, 2005

Oh man, I would relish a bidet. The only thing I feel guilty about is how unfair I'm being to my left hand, day after day.
posted by Hildago at 8:07 AM on November 8, 2005

Bidets are for sex (before and after, not as a substitute, although...), not for shitting. I want one so bad, but we rent.
posted by crabintheocean at 9:25 AM on November 8, 2005

I always thought that they were popular and the norm in the us

I don't think I've ever seen one here, and it's been a joke for decades that Americans who visit France have no idea what they are or how to use them.

Oddly enough, though, just now my wife and I were at the plumber's and his secretary said her brother's house had them. But it had been built by an immigrant from Italy and was weird in general. (But "wicked wicked cool.")
posted by languagehat at 9:29 AM on November 8, 2005

The method I was taught to use the bidet, is to sit on the rim and use a hand (with soap pre-applied) to clean off the, er, detritus, utilizing the water running from the faucet to aid in rinsing etc. No washcloth or sponge was involved at the washing stage. On the more modern bidet that my parents have in the UK (where they are not that common, but my folks are of Mediterranean origin) the faucet/nozzle/tap can be directed to the correct area. The more antiquated ones I've seen, like my grandparents had in Italy, had the water come out at the edges, under the rim, not unlike how a toilet works. Never really was sure why this was.

As far as the drying stage goes, each family member had a 'small' towel by the bidet. Too big and thick to be a washcloth, too small to be a hand towel. And before you say "ewww, disgusting", the idea would be that you are drying a *cleaned* area.

The reason to use a bidet over a shower is to avoid the whole shenanigan of getting one's whole body wet in the shower ad/or bath. The bidet is a 'more concentrated' version of the bath. A bath for you arse, as it were.

Oh, and the bidet can also be used for other body parts too, e.g., one's front bits, feet, whatever.

By the way, it has never really occurred to me until this question came up, but I don't think I have ever seen one anywhere in the US (including Miami) having traveled here far and wide, and now having lived here for a while.
posted by DannyUKNYC at 9:34 AM on November 8, 2005

Screw the bidet, I want one of these:Neorest.
posted by tetsuo at 9:35 AM on November 8, 2005

always thought that they were popular and the norm in the us

Not really ever truly popular. Because they were associated with France, there was a bit of a vogue for them in the era you're describing, the 30s-50s. They were thought to be upper-class simply because they were European. My college actually had them in our dorm, built 1947. (Nobody used 'em). But they were an import even in that era, the kind of thing that seemed exotically Continental and upper-crusty to people about the same time Spanish wrought iron and flaming kebabs did.
posted by Miko at 9:36 AM on November 8, 2005

My impression is, the only place they're common is France. And even there, I rarely saw 'em (perhaps because I'm a budget traveler). Sitting on their rim sounds damned uncomfortable; DannyUKNYC. And I've heard they're more often used to chill the wine bottles.

For cleaning of the private parts, ya gotta try the high-tech Japanese toilets -- you don't know pleasure until you've directed a pencil-thin jet of warm water into your anus.
posted by Rash at 9:41 AM on November 8, 2005

I lived in a house in Wilmington, Delaware with a bidet. The house was, I think, about 150 years old, but the bathroom fixtures were much newer. I suspect that the bidet may have been installed as a sign of wealth and culture more than anything else.
posted by amro at 9:43 AM on November 8, 2005

I was in Brazil recently and the hotel had what looked like a dish sprayer attached to a faucet next to the toilet. There were no markings or instructions (other than an F on the faucet which I guessed meant cold). There was also a drain in the floor on the other side of the toliet. I assumed it had a bidet-like function, but I didn't try it.
posted by tommasz at 10:03 AM on November 8, 2005

"is there anywhere in teh world where bidets are not in decline?":

Yes, our house. We just installed one in a new home in the US. /husband of French wife.

My mother also installed one in a renovation 15 years ago. /son of Francophile

We love it. My wife's father has one (house in France). And Rash, my mother always claimed they were more common in Spain than France. (She was an seasoned traveler in both countries.)
posted by Dick Paris at 10:24 AM on November 8, 2005

I've used 'em in Europe, and would consider getting one if I owned a house here. The most memorable one was in a French Formula 1 themed hotel in Paris, which had weird little communal pod bathrooms at the end of the hall, and bidets that were powered by massive turbines or tremendous geothermals or something. If you stepped on the pedal, you could hit the ceiling with the thin spray.
Never failed to elicit a little "Woo" when used.
posted by klangklangston at 10:44 AM on November 8, 2005

Bidets still seem grosser and less effective than pre-moistened flushable bum-wipes/baby-wipes. They'll get yer arse so clean the Pope and the Queen of England would fight over who got to give you a thorough rimming.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:46 AM on November 8, 2005

"is there anywhere in teh world where bidets are not in decline?":

I don't know if this counts, but Japan. Some of the toilets there are called washlets and have a bidet function that is ohh so nice. Not to mention the warm mist and pressure controls.
posted by matkline at 1:01 PM on November 8, 2005

is there anywhere in teh world where bidets are not in decline?

In the US, they're on the rise in luxury hotels and high-end home construction -- e.g. the UltraBidet.

Why did they catch on in Europe?

Colon Bowell explains why.
posted by dhartung at 7:13 PM on November 8, 2005

for more, see this (but don't look too closely at his nuts.)
posted by wzcx at 9:23 PM on November 8, 2005

My impression is, the only place they're common is France.

Er, no. They're rather common in other Mediterranean countries too. In Spain and Italy you rarely find a house or flat without it, old or new, expensive or cheap, unless it's got a bathroom that's real tiny. But if there's room for a shower or bath then there's definitely room for a bidet beside the toilet. Oh and using a bidet has no relation to how often you shower. It's two separate uses.

Wikipedia has it about right:

Bidets are common bathroom fixtures in some European countries (especially France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal), Latin America (especially Argentina found in approximately 90% of households), the Middle East and some parts of Asia (particularly in Japan). They may be installed both in private homes and hotels. In Japan, bidets are so common that they are often present in public toilet facilities.

posted by funambulist at 2:32 AM on November 9, 2005

As far as the drying stage goes, each family member had a 'small' towel by the bidet. Too big and thick to be a washcloth, too small to be a hand towel. And before you say "ewww, disgusting", the idea would be that you are drying a *cleaned* area.

I was led to believe that for the most part the bidet is not used as a full-cleansing soap-using device but as a post-wipe rinse kinda dealie. Is this not accurate? In countries where it's commonly used is it a full wash?

In which case, how the hell do you do that w/o getting your pants wet? Hmmph.
posted by phearlez at 8:30 AM on November 9, 2005

Er, first you wipe, then you wash, and no you don't get your pants wet anymore than when you're sitting on the toilet, with your pants pulled down, one hopes...

See the fifth picture in the link dhartung posted? That's *not* how you use a bidet. The guy's not sitting on it. His arse should be in full contact with the rim.

So can I move to LA and specialise as bidet instructor now?
posted by funambulist at 10:47 AM on November 9, 2005