What can’t $37 billion buy you? An aircraft carrier with urinals:
The change heralded by the Gerald R. Ford class of carriers – starting with the namesake carrier due in late 2015 – is one of a number of new features meant to improve sailors’ quality of life and reduce maintenance costs, Capt. Chris Meyer said Wednesday.
Omitting urinals lets the Navy easily switch the designation of any restroom – or head, in naval parlance – from male to female, or vice versa, helping the ship adapt to changing crew compositions over time, Meyer said.
The Navy could designate a urinal-fitted area to women, of course, but the urinals would be a waste of space. Making the areas more gender-neutral is a relatively new consideration for the service, with most of its current carriers commissioned before it began deploying women on combat ships in 1994.
They list several other reasons but I think the bottom line is this: the entire everybody is equal bullshit has simply gone to new levels. Can you think of a downside to not having urinals on a ship? Anybody who has been to a busy bar can probably answer this question. Men who are forced to piss in a standard toilet generally do so standing up and I’d be polite if I said their aim was less than optimal. The toilet seat of practically every bar and restaurant you can find has been pissed on. Without urinals on these $37 billion aircraft carriers there are going to be a lot of piss covered toilet seats and I can tell you one thing, the women on board aren’t going to be too keen on switching the bathroom gender assignments.
Reality isn’t kind, it doesn’t bend itself to the desires of the everybody is equal zealots. Biologically men and women are different. At the very basic level men can’t have children whereas women can. Needless to say that apparently minor difference makes a lot of other differences also exist. Common sense people, we need to find it again.
After all, for $37 billion urinals should be accessories included with the base package. I can understand making the United States Navy pay a few billion more for the deluxe package that includes rail guns, but urinals should be standard.
Really it should have a fair number of unisex restrooms, and then a few urinal halls where its just some urinals and sinks since men do make up the vast majority of crew on any warship, thats assuming there are any women on the ship at all.