One of the reasons, given in ignorance, by some people for not wanting to travel to or in Turkey is that of toilet facilities. ‘I don’t want o use a hole in the ground’ is the witless whinge offered as a paltry excuse. Despite the fact that Turkey has had Western style toilets for years, that most public restrooms offer eastern and western options and that the eastern version is by far the most hygienic some, women especially, continue to malign amd miss out on a world of beauty and culture with this simple minded shrug off. As of this week there’s no reason to be afraid, those ladies too sophisticated to squat or to squeamish to sit in a public toilet can use Magic Mate.

Magic Mate is being marketed and sold by Vending Turkey, a company that specialises in installing automatic dispensers for women’s sanitary towels and tampons, condoms, chewing gum, toothbrushes and toys in toilets at work places, large superstores, bus stations and airports. For the princely sum of 1YTL a Magic Mate will save you from the hygiene hazard of actually sitting on a toilet stall. A triangular shaped cardboard funnel unfolds, slides over your vaginal area while you are standing and thus neatly encapsulating your urine flow. This can then be directed into the toilet bowl or if you wish to write your name in the snow. No more penis envy friends.

Twnety million of these and similar devices are sold in the United States every year but the urinary aids are a new phenomenon in Turkey having only been available for 10 months. Being sold currently in Carrefour supermarkets and Varan and Ulusoy bus companies restrooms the product was discovered (indirectly) by the general manager of Vending Turkey, Hakan Erorbay, during a visit to the 2006 German World Cup. A friend of his was trying to sell Magic Mates via chemists but was encountering resistance as women were embarassed to make the purchase face to face. At this point Mr. Erorbay decided to get his own company involved and they began production and sales in Turkey.

Twenty eight thousand lira has been raised by sales of Magic Mate since January (or 90 sales a day) but Turkey Vending faces problems trying to get wider distribution due to the cost of installing their machines in stores. Mr Erorbay complains that store managers are asking his company to pay $200 plus VAT for putting in a dispenser which is a cost on top of the 240 Euros it costs to produce the actual machine, although vending machines apparently pay for themselves after four months of use. In his efforts to get the female managers of large retail stores to change their minds Turkey Vending is meeting with them and asking them to use the Magic Mate to better appreciate it’s benefits.

The television media were quick to pick up on the story and Turkey Vending had a public relations coup on it’s hands when the nightly news on some channels bravely enetered the little girl’s rooms of  various organisations brandishing their ‘Mates’ and issued the Magic challenge. Most of the women asked were reluctant to try them dissolving in giggles but those who did gave positive reports. Turkey Vending themselves state on their website www.magicmate.com.tr that in market research trials they found a 90% satisfaction rate.

Interestingly the Magic Mate website also states that due to their anatomy women have to sit down to pee and this is the first of two important falsehoods surrounding the product. Actually it is very easy for women to pee device free while standing up although it takes some practice (ideally in the shower or bath) before it is a drip free process. Feel free to try the following;

1. Wash your hands.
2. Adjust clothing. Knickers should be pulled down in front a few inches. Skirts should be lifted. Underwear should be pulled down at the waistband or move the fabric at the crotch to one side.
3. Using either hand, make a "V" with your first and second finger and spread the inside of your labia minora. (the inner lips) Beginners may want to try using the fingers from both hands for better control.
4. Lift to the desired angle, then pee. If you don't spread and lift, it could run down your leg.
5. Wipe if necessary.
6. Wash your hands and you're done!

(from Caring Hands İnc on page : http://web.archive.org/web/20040213142128/http://www.restrooms.org/standing.html)

I wonder how many of you will secretly try this out?

The other lie behind the Magic Mate publicity and marketing spiel is that sitting on a toilet seat is a health hazard or unhygienic. Although thereare serious diseases that one can catch from ingesting fecal matter the actual sitting on a toilet seat part is very safe. Your skin (the first layer of the immune system) can repel the day to day germs that live here. In fact the most likely way to get an infection is to touch something in a toilet that someone else touched without washing their hands. If you also don’t wash your hands and then go to eat you may transmit microspoic amounts of faeces to your food and then your stomach. Door knobs are probably a more serious health threat than toilet seats.  

Ladies ....revolt and free yourselves from the prosthetic shenis......stand up and pee proud.