Pee curl

The pee curl (Dutch: plaskrul) is a public urinal, many of which are found in centre of Amsterdam. They originated at the end of the 19th century, and were first installed by the Publieke Werken, or Public Works Department of Amsterdam.

The curl is made of a spiral-shaped iron plate suspended half a metre above the ground by four iron legs, and painted dark green. The top half of the plate is perforated so that it passersby can determine at eye-level whether it is vacant or in use. The floor is made of tiles with a natural stone slab in an upright position and a urine gutter. The curls are connected to the sewer and are cleaned by the local municipality with water from the canal. The curls come in a single or double version and some are equipped with roofs.^{[citation needed]}

History

A double pee curl at the Paleis voor Volksvlijt, where they were first placed

In 1859 inventor Leijs proposed to place hollow pillars. However the design of the curl was chosen. The key element was transparency. It was easier for officers on duty to determine if there were multiple people in the urinal; because in the 19th and most of the 20th century such facilities were used by homosexual men to have sexual intercourse.^[1] In 1980 around 40 curls were used for sexual intercourse, but at the end of the 1990s this practice was as good as gone.^[2]

The first curls where placed around 1870. The first double curl was placed in 1877 at the Paleis voor Volksvlijt.^[3] In 1916 a new design was made by the architect Jan van der Mey.^[3] The ornamentation at the top was removed and the urinal was provided with a half-cylindrical cap.

In 1928 the urinal commission was founded.^[4] They decided the locations of the curls and moved on with building the public urinals via the Kiosk Organisation of Amsterdam. This included a telephone, water tap and a toilet. These facilities were eventually due to high costs.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008 all pee curls were galvanised and restored.^[5] The city had thirty-five pee curls in 2017.^[6] From those are two made by the "van der Meymodel". The pee curls to the side of the canals are kept in place by the local government to keep people from publicly urinating and thereby falling in the canal. On average 15 people drown each year in the canal due to multiple causes.^[7]

Pee-right

Public urinator at DWDD who refused to use a pee curl

The urinals serve the needs of men. The urinal commission has indicated that they are intended for "the man who has his job on the street". One rationale for them is that closed toilets are more expensive, and could be used for lewd conduct. They came to be used by homosexuals as a meeting point, which led to proposals to close them in the 1960s.^[8]

On 24 01 1970, Dolle Mina took action to close the pee curls with pink ribbons to demand 'peeright'.^[9] In 1985, the urinal commission gave positive advice to place automatic public toilets, but just in that time the commission was shut down and this plan was cancelled.^{[citation needed]}

The male-centred design gained public attention in 2017 when a woman in Amsterdam was ticketed for public urinating. The offender did not use the pee curl because of the possibility of cleavage while crouching. She refused to pay the fine on the grounds that she felt that the design discriminated against women. The judge in the case, however, stated that the pee curls were suitable for women, and she was forced to pay the fine.^[10] This led to the national urinalpeeaction Zeikwijf that got international attention.^[11]^[12] In 2017, there were 3 public toilets suitable for woman in the city, which is lower than in other cities. In 2017, Berlin had 177 public toilets and Paris had 150.^[13]

21st century use

The government of Amsterdam places temporary urinals (Dutch: plaskruizen) and urinals that can be retracted underground particularly for the nightlife public. In 2016 such a retractable urinal was placed at Paleis op de Dam that had two men urinals and one for women.^[14]