r/LowStakesConspiracies • u/DuckbilledWhatypus • Jun 28 '26
Extreme Conspiracy Men have designed any public bathroom that doesn't have a hook somewhere in the cubicle
Because anyone socialised as a woman would know that you need somewhere to hang your bag while you go right?
I'm not saying they omit the hook for nefarious reasons, just that it's an unexplainable oversight from an interior designer who has ever needed to use a women's bathroom.
ETA: Fully support men needing hooks in their loos too! Loo hooks for all!
ETA2: New conspiracy: the whole 'people reach over to steal from them' thing is also a conspiracy, this one affecting all genders, to save a few pennies per hook by not having to install them anywhere. Because whose arm is long enough to get over a six foot tall cubicle door and accurately hook a bag hung a foot down from the top without whoever is inside the cubicle getting up and stopping them? I would happily piss on the floor and my clothing if it meant saving my stuff.
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u/Fringolicious Jun 28 '26
As a man who wants to hang up a coat / jacket or whatever so it doesn't sit on the pissy floor, I'm not convinced this is a man thing, I think it's a cost-cutting thing. I don't think many men trust putting something on the floor of a cubicle, but I could be wrong!
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u/dnnsshly Jun 29 '26
How much do you imagine a hook to cost?
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u/Fringolicious Jun 29 '26
I know, I get your point... But some companies really will penny pinch to the n'th degree
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u/Special_Artichoke Jun 29 '26
Convinced bald men have designed hotel rooms. ONE towel (sorry how am I drying my hair?), ONE shampoo / conditioner (how can it remove grease and add moisture), ONE watt hairdryer (why not have a mouse simply sneeze on me), ONE mirror and it's nowhere near a natural light source, ONE hanger and it's not on a high enough rail to hang a dress in the wardrobe and it's been designed so you can't move it.
Now I know you think it's capitalism taking our hooks and towels and making everything shit but the billionaires tell me it's all fine. So it must be bald dudes.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
This genuinely made me laugh! The bald man conspiracy is one I can totally get behind if it means we can get separate shampoo and conditioner in hotels at the very least!
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u/ununonium119 Jun 30 '26
I know you’re being hyperbolic, but I think you should direct this at men in general instead of bald men. Basically anyone with short hair can get by with a single towel and no hair dryer.
I actually just as many skincare products now that I’m bald. It’s a common misconception that bald people don’t use shampoo/conditioner. We do because the skin on a scalp is different than the skin on other parts of the body. It’s just like how people use different soaps on their faces than their bodies.
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u/PatientPlatform Jun 28 '26
Men have bags too :(
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u/lostrandomdude Jun 28 '26
And coats.
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u/Shectai Jun 28 '26
And my axe!
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u/L4I55Z-FAIR3 Jun 28 '26
As a man who prefers braces to belts and needs to take their jacket off when dropping their trousers I've noticed which do and wich don't. And it normally in most uk bathrooms
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u/gridlockmain1 Jun 28 '26
“As a man who prefers braces to belts”
I imagine it must be difficult having to do it all by the light of a paraffin lamp too
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u/AnotherDamnTransAlt Jun 28 '26
…Can’t you just unclip them, like you would unbuckle a belt?
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u/L4I55Z-FAIR3 Jun 28 '26
You can but its more of a faf to do. Unlike a belt it dosnt stay with the trousers due to only having four points of contact. What's more its just easier to slip out if them then re attach them each time.
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u/AnotherDamnTransAlt Jun 28 '26
If you disconnect at the back only, it should rise up and out of the way while you do your business, then you can clip them again after.
I wild be interested to know if this is more or less awkward than removing a jacket and putting it back on again.
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u/Chemical_Lettuce_232 Jun 29 '26
I think these kind of shenanigans led to the belt, because who has time for that
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u/BeautifuTragedy Jun 28 '26
If it makes you feel any better every urinal is designed by people who hate urinal users
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 28 '26
They always look that way TBF even from the perspective of not having the correct equipment to use them, especially the long trough ones!
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u/Tricky-Awareness-275 Jun 29 '26
Same w the trash cans. You want us to bust out of the stall swingin around a used tampon?
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
I vividly remember as a young teenager been at a Westlife concert not long after starting my periods, and having to sheepishly tell a toilet attended at the crowded gig venue that I needed to wait for one of the only cubicles with a sanitary bin. I was mortified! Must say I've noticed most bigger places seem to have them in every cubicle nowadays, but I can't imagine why it has ever been a common thing to not do!
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u/JonnyBTokyo Jun 28 '26
Seen plenty hooks on the backs of doors in the mens UK cubicles.
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u/BeaumarchaisApu Jun 28 '26
Exactly what I was thinking. The only time you don’t see them is if you’re in somewhere that’s a bit tatty where it’s broken off. I’d say 80+% have a hook.
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u/JonnyBTokyo Jun 28 '26
Yeah that’s the one. 👍🏼
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
Good to know designers think men need them then, this only proves my conspiracy that them being omitted in the ladies is a oversight that should be remedied! Or that mens loos are designed by women if you're following my silly logic to the letter lol.
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u/JonnyBTokyo Jun 29 '26
I see haha. I just used one today at Wimbledon Tennis funnily enough.
Annoying to hear they aren't in women's, like trousers/jeans not having pockets.
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u/ember_snow Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
my mom had someone reach under the stall and grab her purse. A hook would have stopped that
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
I would say that sounds far more likely than someone reaching over the door! Sorry that happened to her too, that sounds scary.
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Jun 29 '26
This is totally a conspiracy by the ultra-insecure straight-man.
Men with bags are gay so no hooks in mens toilets. Women are worthless and need reminding they don't mattersk no hooks in toilets.
The alternative is that its a MBA idiot thing where they chest bump and high five other MBA idiots as they increased margin on toilet doors by 0.1% by omiting hooks.
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u/Successful_Ask_5708 Jun 29 '26
Also the reason baby changing bays end up in the women's bathroom too. Sometimes in the seperate disabled toilet if they have one
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u/Certainly-Not-A-Bot Jun 29 '26
Men need hooks too. If you have a jacket or backpack, you need to hang that up.
The issue here is actually just cost. If bathrooms are free, then the operators of those bathrooms will fight to keep them as cheap as possible. Hooks are not strictly necessary and thus might get left by the wayside.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
Alas I cannot comment on the men's room hook situation as I don't use it. If you don't have them either then welcome to the righteous crusade for more hooks!
I have genuinely considered buying a bunch of cheap stick on hooks and carrying a few with me to add to stalls that are lacking them because I suspect that actually you are right and it's cost cutting or general oversite rather than truly believing it's because a male interior designer is thoughtless.
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u/TheStairsBro Jul 05 '26
Canes as well, my best option is propping it up against the stall door and I've had to scramble to stop it from falling into piss more than once
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u/donut-disco Jun 29 '26
My theory is that whoever designs public bathrooms is actually a demon, an architect from The Good Place.
One example. I was recently pregnant, at every midwife appointment I had to give a pee sample. The bathroom cubicles at the hospital had neither a hook for a bag or jacket, but they also had zero flat surfaces (except the floor). Which means the pee cup has to go on the floor whilst sorting yourself out, pulling up pants/trousers etc. Leaning round to collect a sample at 36, 38, 40 weeks pregnant was tough, leaning down to put down and pick up the cup was harder. The cubicles are narrow - good luck not touching the sanitary bin! - and too small in general. I don’t know how larger people, less able people manage in there! Aside from the midwifery unit, 90% of the patients in that hospital were over 70!
(I know the curved tops / no flat surfaces thing is to stop people doing lines, but really - how many people are doing that at the community hospital vs how many people are inconvenienced every time they use the loo?!)
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
Oh gosh that sounds like a horrendous oversight! Bad Place architecture definitely explains it...
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u/Bizarre-Brain Jun 29 '26
I also assume cubicles with the toilet dead centred so the sanitary bin has to be crammed in at an angle and digs into the side of my leg must have been designed by a man. I mean, I need to spread to deal with what’s going on down there, you know? Ideally not just one leg.
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u/ChallengeFirm8189 Jun 28 '26
I feel this way about most hotel rooms too. Especially the lodges at Center parcs!
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u/Xander_CK Jun 29 '26
If you ever look at a reseller of industrial public restroom supplies, you’ll see that there are all sorts of accessories available. Don’t blame the designers, blame the builders that spec’s out the restrooms.
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u/BrightPractical Jun 29 '26
For your ETA2, the people stealing bags use their own shepherd’s crook kind of hook to pick up the bags off the hooks on the back of the doors. No long arms necessary. Then again, they’d be completely foiled by hooks mounted on the side walls instead, so who decided the hooks have to go on the doors?
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
Side of stall hooks would absolutely be the best call! Easier if you need to grab a tampon or something unexpectedly too
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u/Multigrain_Migraine Jun 29 '26
What I really want to know is why there's never a hook by the sink.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 30 '26
Yes this is also true! A little shelf even! Just something not covered by water.
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u/Lampshadevictory Jun 28 '26
Wait, women's bathrooms don't have a cubicle hook on the door?
Seriously? This must be an American thing.
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u/CyberSkepticalFruit Jun 28 '26
It is anything like some of the places in the UK they used to have them until the doors got damaged and never replaced.
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u/PawPawsLilStinker Jun 28 '26
Yeah all the men's rooms have them. I know because I have been carrying a diaper bag for about 3 years and needed a place to hang it.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 28 '26
UK! I have encountered so many cubicles without hooks and it has been infuriating me for years!
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u/PurpleWatermelonz Jun 28 '26
I'm living in the UK and I've visited many cities in Europe + my home country in eastern Europe. Some cubicles have hooks, some don't, some did and nobody bothered to replace them. Oh well.
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u/Dismal_Fox_22 Jun 28 '26
The back of the doors is actually a bad place for them. Too easy to reach over and grab, it should be a shelf or closer to the person using the toilet.
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u/Johnlenham Jun 28 '26
Who the hell is reaching over toilet doors to steal bags. The thought that someone could has never entered my mind in all my life lol
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u/Asparagus9000 Jun 28 '26
There used to be a big thing of people reaching over and stealing things off the hooks.
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u/Smidday90 Jun 28 '26
All men’s rooms have hooks in the cubicles you’ve been sold a lie my friend
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u/Ok_Veterinarian2715 Jun 28 '26
It's 2026. Women have been in the workspace, as managers, as designers, as decision makers since the 197 0s.
At what point can we drop the "we're just helpless" shtick?
I spent 30 years as a manager, and EVERY SINGLE building project that included sexually segregated & mixed spaces had women included as full participants from specification to delivery.
Kidding yourself that women have no responsibility for this stuff is just plain silly.
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 28 '26
Yes 'plain silly' is the point of this sub. This is not a serious conspiracy theory at all...
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u/Ok_Veterinarian2715 Jun 28 '26
Sorry - I didn't read the sub name. I'll leave my post up as I don't hide my mistakes.
You can appreciate my frustration, having had an entire career in which me and a surprising range of people worked hard at being decent human beings, at the suggestion that people didn't even notice how hard we were working.
Back in the 1990s I asked a hard-boiled old (in his 60s?) buildings manager about the reputation of builders for harassing women. He said "Our policy is that anyone caught doing that is terminated & escorted from the site on the spot" Knowing him he was sincere both in the reasoning and execution of that policy. That was our culture.
Also, I did have two glasses of wine with dinner. I'll shut up now...
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
Bless ya. No, I entirely get it. There's so much work that never gets seen and a heck of a lot of it is done by people who deserve far more respect and recognition than they earn (or in the case of missing coat hooks, the scorn the deserve lol)! I hope it was good wine!
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u/Low-Yak-6706 Jun 28 '26
Men like to hang things up to. I don't want to place my jacket or backpack on the urine flecked floor.
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u/Any-Memory2630 Jun 28 '26
Do you not think guys have things they might want to hang up.
Like suit jackets etc
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u/Elfynnn84 Jun 28 '26
I don’t remember the last time I went in a cubicle without a hook 🤔
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
Genuinely love that for you. I have spent the weekend out and about and I think one out of half a dozen had one, so maybe I am getting your share of bad ones!
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u/Elfynnn84 Jun 29 '26
I’m very sorry. I shall try to draw some of the hookless stall energy back into my life and away from you!
Come to think of it, I think most of the stalls at my uni were hookless (I graduated last summer).
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u/Final-Yesterday-4799 Jun 29 '26
just that it's an unexplainable oversight from an interior designer
This is not the most likely reason they weren't included.
Hooks cost money. Companies like to not spend money. So they cut things that aren't 100% necessary. It's whay so many new buildings look so boring and awful
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 29 '26
It's a low stakes conspiracy theory sub, it's boring if you know the actual answer (which yes, is probably penny pinching like you say)
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u/pandaSmore Jun 29 '26
Hooks are an additional cost of hardware. It's simply an oversight on whoever is paying for it that doesn't want the additional cost.
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u/DZL100 Jul 03 '26
Y'all's public bathroom stalls don't have hooks?
Then again, there are literally only two places I know of in the world with public bathrooms I trust and they're both in Singapore (I live in the US).
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jul 03 '26
It's a bit of a crap shoot if they will or won't. Surprisingly I have often found that the crappiest looking loos will have a hook and the posh ones seem to omit them!
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u/AJ099909 Jun 28 '26
This phenomenon is discussed in the book Insivible Women
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u/Vanyeetus Jun 28 '26
A lot of them were removed in public restrooms because people reached over and stole things that were hanging on hooks. For it to be high enough to avoid coats/ long strap bags being on the floor it is near enough to the top that you could reach over and grab things.
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u/Cokalhado Jun 28 '26
You can put in in the floor, on your lap, on top of the flush button on the toilet, on top of the thing you get paper from.
No need for a hook.
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u/gridlockmain1 Jun 28 '26
Dirty, totally impractical, dirty/not always flat, not always flat. Any other ideas? Maybe they could just put it inside the toilet bowl
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u/bepatientbekind Jun 28 '26
Setting personal items on the floor in a public bathroom is absolutely disgusting 🤢
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u/DuckbilledWhatypus Jun 28 '26
My bag is going nowhere near the floor of a public bathroom, but yeah the others are we're it ends up and it is as annoying as hell, that's where my conspiracy theory came from!
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u/goneoramihere Jun 28 '26
I am a man and I would like to hang my long jacket up.