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Maid in Rio
Photo: LEONARDO CARRATO / VII Mentor Program
I no longer know whether it was just curiosity or a certain desire for provocation, but at some point I started a survey among my Brazilian friends.
I wanted to know how men pee, standing or sitting, and the dubious looks I got suggested I was the first to confront them with this alternative.
"Sitting, what do you mean?" They asked.
"Do you think I'm gay?"
I actually think that these men are pretty enlightened.
They read newspapers, they don't eat meat, and they change their children's diapers, but not a single one of them ever thought of sitting on the toilet seat while peeing.
At first I thought it was an expression of machismo that was deeply rooted in her Latin soul.
But over time I realized that there was something else behind it.
Unlike in Germany, the toilets in Brazil are in a dead corner of emancipation.
Sit down or clean up your dirt yourself, those were words that accompanied me through my German youth.
The Brazilian mothers, on the other hand, made no demands on their sons.
They didn't have to because others did the cleaning for them.
And when my friends moved out, in their mid or late twenties, they made good enough money to have their own maid.
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