For Men Only: Old School at the Urinal?
 

Been teaching my son about standing up at the potty to do number one. This has me thinking about what appears to be a change in standard operating procedure that I've noticed out of the corner of my eye in recent years.

I was taught that you address the urinal, unzip, reach in, pull the critter out through the fly in your underwear and your pants, point and shoot. I've never had any problem with this.

In recent years, I've noticed a lot of 20 somethings and 30 somethings doing it differently. They approach aggressively, like an SUV bearing down on a stop sign, barely able to stop. When they get to the urinal, they spread their legs about shoulder width apart. Instead of just unzipping, they undo their belt and then unbutton their pants before unzipping and folding the front of their pants down. Now, whether they then go through their underwear or over the top is something I can't tell without giving the matter an unsafe amount of attention.

So, what's this all about? Are they going over the top rather than through? If so, are all these guys--from stockbroker types to working class--wearing a new style of flyless underwear? Is this all an affectation meant to suggest that things are so big that more space must be cleared? Has a coping mechanism to avoid pissing one's self while drunk carried over into daily life? Is it a borrowing from, how you say, the hip hop?

All insights welcome.

Corner of your eye, my eye.

The new style is designed to accommodate what's been going on for centuries ... the comparison glance.

I have no comment as I have not witnessed this action. Sounds amusing.

Hmm, I recently purchased a package of boxer briefs only to discover at home that were indeed flyless. It really baffled me, but I was too lazy to return them. I rarely wear them, but when I do, I have found that it's simple enough to just surreptitiously reach in, get a hold of the bottom of a leg opening, and go out the side. Never would have even thought to just unbutton and go over the top (and now that you mention it as a possibility...no, still not going to).

This thread is a good enough excuse to post this again:

The underwear I wear is flyless so that's one issue out of the way. And I prefer button-fly jeans so that is the other. So opening the pants is pretty much a habit even if I'm not wearing button-fly.

Also, "through the fly but over the top" can result in physical situations that mildly hamper a smooth flow by crimping on various passageways which can leade to leakage when putting everything away. As the old poem goes, "no matter how much you wiggle and dance, the last drop goes in the pants" which is bad enough without making it worse.

I don't pay enough attention to what other people do to have any idea if methods have changed.

Tee hee :) that one's cute.

But yeah, I blame it on the button fly. It is easier to undo your belt and unbutton it from the top, than trying to unbutton it from the middle (and then button it back up again from the middle) while the top button is still buttoned.

Word on the street... or at least from over the shoulder... is that perhaps it is zipper length. Shorter zippers require "going over." Longer zippers mean going through.

Or whatever you guys call it.

Oh, and all apologies for being the first girl to respond to a decidedly male thread.

I can't help but add that this little rhyme would sound better with more syllables. How about this:

No matter how much you wiggle and dance, the last drop of pee goes into the pants.

That'll be 5 bucks, thank you for your business.

Otherwise, I'm finding this thread very educational.

I got it from a Stephen King book (have no idea if it is original) and make no claim that it was recreated correctly.

But my version reads fine to me with a slight beat between drop and goes. A pause that, when spoken out loud gives the listener a moment to realize where things are going. Adding "of pee" removes the ambiguity of it (though there may have been other syllables in the source; unfortunately I forget which book it was in).