Friday, March 13, 2009

The Pee Post

So there was this article on Jezebel about Susie Orbach, who wrote Fat is a Feminist Issue and just published a new book titled Bodies which is about (obvs) loving our bodies. Orbach is all about telling women to stop having these weird relationships with food/hunger/overeating/dieting, and to prove the point Jezebel links to an Orbach quote:

It’s very hard—when you have a population that is disturbed by eating—to know how to eat the right amount of food without going nuts.

The only way out of that is knowing what hunger is and what satisfaction is the same way we know what peeing is. That could be the only guide.

At first glance that quote seems to hold up. But when I thought about it I realized that I, like many people, have a bit of a complicated relationship with peeing too. Complicated in the same way that my relationship with eating is. Consider this:

  1. The first thing I do in the morning is pee, even if I don't have to.
  2. The last thing I do before bed is pee, even if I don't have to.
  3. Sometimes I pee just because friends are peeing.
  4. Sometimes I want to pee just because someone else mentioned pee.
  5. Sometimes even thinking about pee makes me want to pee.
  6. Sometimes I pee just because I know I won't be able to pee again for a while.
  7. Sometimes I pee just because I want to see what the inside of a bathroom is like.
  8. Sometimes I pee because I need to get away from my desk for a moment.
  9. Sometimes I pee just because I'm in the bathroom (doing something unrelated like brushing my teeth) and the toilet is, like, right there.
  10. I always have to pee extra when I'm nervous, stressed, or tired.
Substitute "eat" for "pee" (and "refrigerator" for "toilet" in number 9) and it's the same thing. Sure, we all know when we really have to pee (and when we're really hungry), but many of us pee for unrelated, emotional/social/habitual reasons. Just like we eat.

Or am I the only one who does this? ^__^

(Thought I'd throw that one out there to the blogosphere for your amusement. )

2 comments:

Jennette Fulda said...

Well, if peeing was as pleasurable as eating, I'm sure peeing disorders would be more prevalent :)

Blue said...

LOL -- do you remember the made-for-TV movie "The Substitute Wife?" When Lea Thompson is dying she tells the "substitute wife" character that every time she pees she's worried that it will be the last time, and it makes her sad because peeing is SO MUCH FUN. :P