Loo Law: The Public Washroom as a Hyper-Regulated Place

The article suggests that the public washroom is the most regulated of all common spaces in the United States. It offers several possible explanations for this hyper-juridical attention. First and foremost, the article argues that such hyper regulation of the public washroom has to do with the sanitary and moral significance of this space. Secondly, it argues that the intensity of washroom regulation is due to its ambiguous public/private properties.

Finally, the articie suggests that the intense regulation of the public washroom is the result of physio-anatomical functions performed in it.