Flush Flush Flush

So for the past few days in class, we've been talking about... toilets! Although it seems as though it doesn't have anything to do with sociology, it has a great influence and reflection upon cultures and their norms. We talked about how cultures do not have a "norm" for a culture is just there. There cannot be anything normal about a culture. There isn't a circumstance that presents itself in a way where we can judge another culture and say whether it is normal or not. For example, the Japanese toilets, they have the toilet itself in a separate room from the shower and the tub because to them they feel having all three in the same room is disgusting. We think that this is abnormal but to them, our bathroom set-up is abnormal. Whose normal is the true normal? That's the idea, there is no normal. Cultures and ideas just exist naturally. There is no right and wrong in a culture.

I learned this idea the hard way when I went on my pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia three years ago. The traditional Saudi Arabian toilet, or the hole in the ground, was something very new to me. I wasn't used to such a form. I felt that that style was not normal at all. I would always look for a western style toilet every time I had to use the washroom. Because I refused to believe that the Saudi Arabian toilet was a "normal" toilet, I made my vacation less enjoyable. I didn't have cultural awareness and I thought there was this normal style of living, like my own style of living. I was wrong.

Saarah M.