Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Vienna (dpa) - Public outrage among Vienna's female politicians over public urinals in an underground passage near Vienna's State Opera has paid off with the offending facilities to be removed, the owner said Thursday.
The urinals in the privately operated ?Opera Toilet" are shaped like women's lips, opened and wearing lipstick, a fact leading to accusations of sexism and disrespect for women on the part of the company running the toilets.
Sonja Wehsely, city councillor for women's affairs said on Wednesday that the urinals were "disgusting, misogynist and tasteless without comparison."
Vienna's Green Party expressed concern over the image of women portrayed by the lavatories. The city council also called for removal, but said there was no legal means to force the issue.
However, toilet operator Gerhard Neuholt bowed to public pressure on Thursday and said he would remove the offending urinals, the Austrian Press Agency reported.
Neuholt said he did not understand the fuss, on the contrary the "artworks" had been very popular with visitors in the past years. "That has nothing to do with sexism," he said.
However, to avoid trouble with Vienna's authorities he said he had decided to replace the lip-shaped urinals with less controversial pieces. The urinals will be cleaned and put up for sale on the Ebay internet auction house, Neuholt said. In case of strong demand more of the red-lipped urinals could be produced, he added.
The "art vs. sexism" issue inspired public debate in Austria, with forums on the internet erupting in heated arguments between posters criticising the toilets and those who see "Green fascists" forcing their ideas of taste onto others with "Nazi methods."
The red-lipped urinals have been in place for several years, but only now has the issue become public, since so far the male customers had not complained about them.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
