Why do Men Leave the Toilet Seat up?

Throughout human history there has always been a battle of sexes.  It wasn’t until Alexander Cummings invented the toilet in 1775 that this battle was transformed into a war.  Since then, a toilet seat has done more damage to marriages than both money , strip clubs, and in-laws.  There are great arguments coming from both directions in this toilet seat dispute.

Men often wonder why they should always be the one responsible for putting the seat up and down.  Why can’t women simply raise the toilet seat when they are finished?  Women propose a counterargument by stating that they do enough work around the house to justify a man expending extra energy to put the toilet seat down.  Furthermore, the risk of falling into a urine-damp rim or falling into the toilet outweighs the inconvenience posed upon men for raising and lowering the lid.

At first, it may seem that men are simply lethargic, which could be true.  However, rather than saying lazy, men can call it being efficient.  Here’s why:

Biologists know that there are many attributes that humans develop to conserve energy.  This includes a trait known as bipedalism.  This paradigm of conserving energy is necessary and beneficial to the survival of mankind.  It is possible that men decide to leave the toilet seat up simply because they are conserving energy – in line for the next evolutionary step in mankind.  What is this next step?  Who knows, but it could have a couch and TV.

This seems to be at the defense of men; however, this does not do justice for the women out there who are haunted by recurring nightmares of that bathroom trip that ended in peril.  Fortunately, this dilemma has been the subject of academic papers.

Richard Harter, a retired mathematician from South Dakota decided to address this problem in a 1998 paper.  In his research, he included variables such as a woman’s compliance to agree to raise the toilet seat.  Harter concluded that the most efficient and fair solution would be for the man to put the seat down exactly half of the time.

In 2007, Hammad Al-Sabah Siddiqi, an economist from Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan, decided to input his thoughts.   Siddiqi argued that it is because of the nagging of wives and the social norm associated with men putting the seat down that men leave the seat down, despite it being less efficient.

There is little end in sight for this great debate.  Even if the sexes come to a truce, the focus will then shift to other issues (watch out in-laws!).

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