Because of “big toilet paper”. They even tried to assassinate a spokesperson for japanes toilets.
Holy shit? Do you have a source for that because damn. It’s something I would expect though.
It’s was joke. That’s the plot of a south park episode.
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.
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.
in Italy, there is literally a law obligating houses to have a bidet. the separated from the toilet kind.
Just another reason to like Italy even more.
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.
Which would be short sightedness on their part, since bidets actually save water in the long run by reducing TP usage
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
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“today is a good day to die!” flush
“Glory! To you and your ass!”
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
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?
Just get the toilet seat bidet. It’s probably like 40£
England seems to traditionally have the toilet separate from the house and for some reason the bidet trend never caught on
Uh… wut?
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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.
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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.
Spain checking in here. Bidets are definitely popular in Spain. I suspect that’s how they made their way to south America.
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.
Interesting. Well, not losing sleep on that. Good on Italy and Spain though.
The utopian city of Atlantis sunk due to bidet overuse.
They might have sunk the city, but their butts were sparkling clean
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.
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.
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.
Well, for starters, you don’t pee from your vagina.
why are you explaining that to me, a woman with a vagina.
I’m aware of that.
stream of water blowing bacteria into my vagina
Because that doesn’t cause issues with your urinary tract.
- A man with a longer urinary tract
holy fucking shit do you know anything about PH balance of the vagina.
Well he probably knows that vaginas can’t get UTIs
Weird, in my current country bidet is in widespread usage and I haven’t known anyone getting a UTI from bidet usage.
I’m more susceptible to UTI’s than other women (or people with vaginas)
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.
I have a seat one that only does cold water and it hits different in the summer honestly. Sometimes you just need a splash of cold water in your asshole to keep going.
Comes in handy for spicy food night.
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.
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.
They may also be perceived as too expensive, if they only know of full toilet replacement kinds and not the seat replacements you can get for less than $100.
Cost me half that and I love it. It’s a life changer.
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
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.
There are a large number of Americans that think:
- Anything touching them there makes them gay - still not sure how your hand and TP is any different
- It will hurt - yeah… IDK
- It’s gross, or it doesn’t get you clean - uh…wiping some paper on it does? how???
There are valid concerns with regard to bidet use. They do result in aerosolized particulates in greater number than results from wiping, which means you are literally breathing more feces.
Is it enough to be problematic? Probably not, but that may also depend on how aggressively/frequently you use them.
See also:
- Ali, Wajid, et al. “Comparing bioaerosol emission after flushing in squat and bidet toilets: Quantitative microbial risk assessment for defecation and hand washing postures.” Building and Environment 221 (2022): 109284.
- Abney, S. E., et al. “Toilet hygiene—review and research needs.” Journal of Applied Microbiology 131.6 (2021): 2705-2714.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but shit is literally aerosolized any time you flush the toilet. And it’s not contained the bathroom. And it doesn’t matter if the toilet seat lid is up or down.
Mythbusters did an episode on exactly that. It is worse than you’d think. I can’t find the actual episode right now, but someone wrote an article about it/the findings.
The other brushes were placed elsewhere in the home, including the kitchen and even an office on the other end of the building, and all of the other ones were rinsed daily but not used for brushing. At the end of the month-long experiment, the toothbrushes were analyzed by a microbiologist, and they found that every toothbrush had a microscopic amount of fecal matter on them, regardless of the distance from the bathroom. source
Bidet or not doesn’t matter. Shit is literally all over EVERYTHING. ALL the time.
As an American who’s unsure.
I don’t like the thought of water spraying into my ass
I started using them in my adult life so maybe I can give some insight
it feels a little uncomfortable the first time. Not because it’s necessarily uncomfortable, but more because it’s a foreign feeling.
You get used to it after the 2nd or 3rd time though. Once you use a bidet it’s hard to go back to TP
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.
Bum gun >>> bidet
I find wiping just doesn’t do it for me… I can wipe myself raw and still have itching…
But a trip to the bidet clears it all up.
Big TP conspiracy :)
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 :)
A bidet can find the clit and I can’t? WTF
/s
/s
You lie
I found that discovery to be a highly welcome one personally
I mean, maybe in other circumstances, but I was not ready! :)
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.
Americans voted for him though
American here. Thanks to woot regularly selling them, I have a bidet on each toilet in the house. I have a battery operated travel bidet, because now I’m hooked.
It has certainly led to… “Interesting” responses from house guests. There’s always TP in stock, so it’s not required. Butt I’m never going back if I can help it.
There’s always TP in stock, so it’s not required.
That’s always weird to read. For me bidets are for after, not instead of.
After TP? Why? TP is for drying and a double check.
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You would make a mess of the bidet otherwise.
Is this like the bidet version of standing-wipers thinking normal people will get their hand in the water?
The fact that any time there’s a poll and about half of people respond as being standing wipers always blows my mind. It’s just so… wrong.
It gets all smushed up in between your cheeks too if you stand and wipe
Not true for any of the six bidets I have owned. the wand sits very far back in the spray is in the opposite direction of where the wand is and the wand itself retracts into a cover while spitting water to clean itself.
And I have never even had a fancy one with power or heated water. All these just run off the pressure in the pipe.
Come to Asia my friend, Bidet showers, no paper.
both my grandmothers used to preclean dishes with the same instrument before putting them in the dishwasher. It was attached to the kitchen sink of course. When I first saw one in a toilet in SEA I thought ‘what? But grandma how?’. She told me that dishwasher salesmen recommended them, and I always wondered how they made the jump from Butt to Wedgewood.
You need to eat more fibre.
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Whoa… Tell me more about this battery operated one. I just got back from vacation and I missed my bidet!
I bought a Toto HW300-W “Portable Travel Washlet” off Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008O1G4LQ) back in 2018 and it still runs like a champ. The text is all in Japanese, but easy enough to figure out (or Google Lens it if you really want to know).
* Edit: I should note that I paid about half of the current list price :-O
Thanks! Adding that to my wish list right now!
Yeah I’d also like a recommendation!
I have a travel one for camping. No battery though.
In America? Because we are barbarians.
I kinda think that’s why we are all so pissed and ornery most of the time….because our tushes are dirty.
I once read a book where this particular bathroom appliance was very intimately connected with prostitutes throughout history and that association created a big push against having it in every house. It was an interesting read.
In my country in particular, it became mandatory in every newly built house starting around the 50s and later it became mandatory to have one bidet and one bathtub in every house.
This was pushed to enforce a notion of hygiene that was lacking, as the country was very poor at the time. Paradoxically, it was easier to have higher standards of hygiene in the country, where access to water was easier and the field labour demanded a minimal cleanliness to be at the table and socially than in the growing cities, where poor living conditions made very difficult for the poor to access running water.
I know your country based just on this comment!
What a strange journey this thread has been, overcoming national boundaries through the power of bidets.
It’s a matter of planning and availability. In my country people don’t renovate their houses often and even rarely build them from scratch. Having a bidet requires planning and leaving space for it. Japanese style toilet seats are easier to install in smaller toilets, but they require electricity and/or hot water.
I’ve had no issues with the cheap $20-40 USD bidets from Amazon, while I’m sure the fanciness of a heated bidet would change my life I don’t see the need.
When you say bidet you are referring to a toilet seat with water or separate wash head next to toilet. When I say bidet am referring to what french call bidet, a separate toilet-like utensil next to toilet. Those things require planning and space since they require drainage, water source, etc.
I think it’s more common now to call a bidet insert a bidet. So just an inser that you fasten between the seat and bowl with an arm for turning on and off the spray. That connects to a T adapter at the inlet on the toilet. Works really good and costs 20-80€/$
IDK because they rock. I love mine. I’m even cool with the water being cold.
I turn the heat off in summer when it’s 28c inside. Nothing like a cool blast of water to help lower your core temps a bit.
