The women's loos: Five roles they play in our lives
Apart from the obvious, the women's loos often end up being a place to laugh, cry, escape, catch up with friends, talk to strangers, give and get advice.
Samantha Jagger has been taking photographs in women’s loos for the past 10 years, mainly in the pubs and clubs of Manchester and Leeds on a 35mm point-and-shoot camera. They now form a new photo exhibition called Loosen Up.
After spending hours and hours with her camera in ‘the ladies’, she outlined five roles the loos appear to play in women’s lives for ±«Óãtv Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
A place for sharing
"What I’ve witnessed most of all is sharing of tampons, condoms, smiles, dreary dates, just general funny stories, handing each other lipstick, sorting each other out, and sharing of loo roll of course.
"I captured this in a pub in Manchester. We were all lined up for the toilet and there were about 12 loos in this place, but there was no loo roll.
"This chick went downstairs to grab some, she came back up, we all saluted her and passed the loo roll on and that’s when I snapped the photo."
A place of escape
"Toilets are a form of escapism. It’s that five minute backstage break where you can go in and it’s a relief.
"I’ve noticed this quite a lot in clubs, when it can be really intense and there’s a lot of dancing and people and it’s just all popping off.
"Going to the toilet, you can just look in the mirror and go 'phew'.
"I’ve captured quite a few of my friends doing this. There’s one particular photo that I remember: My friend El, she’s a bit sweaty, but I captured her when she was just taking five."
A place to gossip
"You can’t deny that when you go into a toilet, sometimes you just need to talk about what’s going on in the pub or the club or the café or the scenarios that are happening outside of the WC.
"A great example of this is weddings. My friend was getting married and she took me to the toilets to ask me what was going on at the wedding that she didn’t know, because she’s obviously the bride.
"Took us about half an hour to undo her dress, but once we did we could get on with the gossip and see what had happened.
"Another form of gossip that obviously goes on is if you’re on a date. If the date is going good or bad and you want to call your mates, you just nip to the bathroom and give them a call."
A place for friskiness
"Despite toilets seeming like a private thing, I’ve noticed that people actually loosen up and become a bit more relaxed in a toilet.
"I’ve had quite a few people come back to me with different anecdotes of taking dates or their boyfriends/girlfriends into a toilet and doing the inevitable.
"A couple of my mates who are together, they’ve been caught snogging quite a few times in the toilet."
A place to take selfies
"I‘ve got quite a few photos of my friends taking selfies of themselves.
"Toilets can be quite a place where people can just go, 'alright mate, let’s get in [for a selfie]', as a celebratory thing on a night out, or you’ve had your cry or you’ve opened up to someone or a stranger, you go 'aw come on, get in' and then it just opens up from there.
"It also opens a conversation because someone’s taking a selfie or you’ll offer the camera to someone else and say, 'would you just take this photo of me?' Then that opens conversation and interaction."
Loosen Up is being held in May at The Brickworks at Barton Arcade Basement, Manchester. All photos courtesy Samantha Jagger.
