Women's Rights?

[bunnyjadwiga]

The Porcelain God: The Social History of the Toilet by Julie Horan (NY: Carol Publishing, 1996) is not my favorite of the various books I've been reading-- a lot of the material is poorly referenced not to mention anedoctal. But I was completely charmed by the story that the Manniquin Pis fountain of Brussels has a counterpart. (Peeing male cherubs or little boys are endemic in Renaissance and Baroque fountainry; less common but known are nymphs or goddesses squirting water from their breasts in fountains of the same period. I'm unsure why the people of Brussels have taken this particular fountain/statue so to heart -- it even has over 400 costumes-- but there you are.) Anyway, in 1987, a counterpart to the Manniquin was added in a nearby dead-end street: the Jeanneke Pis, a statue of a pigtailed young girl squatting to pee. Though it is plumbed as a fountain, apparently it isn't often left running. If you want to see a picture, you can look up the term... I don't want to link one here lest I offend.