culture or gender?

More than a decade ago, I lived in Ukraine for a year. At the time, Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union; I lived in a Russified city replete with Soviet architecture, Soviet fashion and Soviet cynicism. It was a phenomenal year: I became very close with my Russian sister, travelled through Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania, and ate more than my weight in colbasa. But what brings this year to mind today is a recent mini-series of public urination; for, while I lived in the Soviet Union, I became accustomed to the sight of men urinating in wide-open public. At the time, I found the practice astonishingly unclean. Somehow I thought that only happened in rural China, where the habits of blowing one's nose on the sidewalk or spitting were generally accepted, if not approved of, norms. Yet I came to realize that this was considered normal, if not savory, practice in the Soviet Union as well. In particular, women discussed it in terms of gender and politics: this is what Soviet men do in this godforsaken corner of the earth, where the government's indifference to people renders them into shameless animals. I began to understand the practice as one distinctly related to culture and history.

I am at a loss to explain public urination in my city. Oakland is not a godforsaken corner of the earth; while it has its share of ghettos and urban blight, much of the city is lovingly cared for. To wit, my neighborhood, cushioned between the city's lake and downtown, is full of lovingly cared for homes, their gardens and yards expressing in small ways the diversity of this city. So I did not expect to see, in the period of three days, three different men urinating in broad daylight on my street. Against the walls of private homes.

Is it gender or socio-econimics? Politics or culture? Contempt or brutishness? What compels, or invites, a man (For it is always men. I have never yet seen a woman squatting to relieve herself in public. In the woods, sure; but I submit this is a different issue.) to take a piss against someone's home?