Another quote-- going to the bathroom in groups is period

[bunnyjadwiga]

From A Sociological History of Excretory Experience, by David Inglis, p. 105:

A story from the collection of tales known as the Heptameron (c. 1558), and usually attributed to the authorship of Marguerite, Queen of Navarre . . . A certain lady, on a visit to a Franciscan monastery, wished to go to the privy. 'For company she asked a girl called La Mothe to go with her, but for the sake of privacy and modesty she left her in a room nearby, and went on her own to the privy' (Navarre, 1984:156)
... The story goes on to relate that the lady gets covered in excrement due to the privy being covered in the stuff. Her shame at being discovered in such a besmirched state is related partly as being a function of being covered in that particular material, and partly because male members of her party discover her thus . . .