4 ms·

I don’t know about operational speaking, but epedemiologically speaking, the two are very different. One of them is associated with e. coli, a lethal bacterium

I don’t know about operational speaking, but epedemiologically speaking, the two are very different. One of them is associated with e. coli, a lethal bacterium that even in modern times and developed nations kills people on a regular basis, e.g. Walkerton, Ontario, where seven people were killed by improperly treated drinking water in 2000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_E._coli_outbreak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkerton_E._coli_outbreak It’s easy to see why humans have developed behaviours and social stigma around defecation. Menstruation is very different. Our social behaviours around it may have more to do with our social behaviours around genders, sexual availability, and other stuff. I’m not an anthropologist, so I’ll just stop here before I dig a hole for myself. I’ll just note that the two are very unlike in very important ways.

moron4hire 11y ago
Not very unlike. They are mostly alike. They have differences, which is why we only say they are alike, not equivalent.
- braythwayt 11y ago
  They are only “mostly alike” if you carefully cherry-pick the ways in which you count similarity, while handwaving over the number and importance of the ways in which they are different. Humans care about deciding which things are actually alike and which things are only superficially alike, because such choices have important consequences. For example, if we decided they are “mostly alike,’ we might decide that all you need is a pad to absorb defecation, and you need only change it when it cannot absorb any more liquid. After many such discoveries, we change our minds and say, “Although they may appear to be alike at first glance, it turns out that they are mostly different."
  - Lawtonfogle 11y ago
    >They are only “mostly alike” if you carefully cherry-pick the ways in which you count similarity, while handwaving over the number and importance of the ways in which they are different. They are very alike if you look at all the other bodily activities and then rank them based on how different they are. Is 1mm a short distance or a huge distance? Without knowing the scale, you can't say if a 1mm difference is important or rounding error. 10000mm and 10001mm is not a big difference. .001mm and 1.001mm is a big difference. But both are only the difference of 1mm. In the same way, these bodily functions are different, but their differences are not great compared to the differences between these and other bodily functions. Urination is one of the only things I can think is closer... and it also has a lot of stigma around it.
xyzzyz 11y ago
I'm not a native speaker, so forgive me for not expressing myself clearly enough, but isn't urination also considered to be defecation, or does defecation in English refers only to the "number two"? I'm asking, because urine is mostly sterile. However, my point was that while there are a lot of obvious differences, defecation is similar enough to menstruation, such that it's not surprising that stigma is also similar.
- braythwayt 11y ago
  I’m only familiar with the word “defecation” being used to denote expelling of faeces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation
- kenbellows 11y ago
  At least medically speaking, yes, the term "defecation" is used exclusively to refer to "number two": > Defecation is the final act of digestion, by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid, and/or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation
- sangnoir 11y ago
  I'd argue urination is less stigmatized than defacation('number two') or menstruation. How many times have you seen someone urinating in (semi-)public vs. defacating in public?

moron4hire 11y ago

Not very unlike. They are mostly alike. They have differences, which is why we only say they are alike, not equivalent.

braythwayt 11y ago
They are only “mostly alike” if you carefully cherry-pick the ways in which you count similarity, while handwaving over the number and importance of the ways in which they are different. Humans care about deciding which things are actually alike and which things are only superficially alike, because such choices have important consequences. For example, if we decided they are “mostly alike,’ we might decide that all you need is a pad to absorb defecation, and you need only change it when it cannot absorb any more liquid. After many such discoveries, we change our minds and say, “Although they may appear to be alike at first glance, it turns out that they are mostly different."
- Lawtonfogle 11y ago
  >They are only “mostly alike” if you carefully cherry-pick the ways in which you count similarity, while handwaving over the number and importance of the ways in which they are different. They are very alike if you look at all the other bodily activities and then rank them based on how different they are. Is 1mm a short distance or a huge distance? Without knowing the scale, you can't say if a 1mm difference is important or rounding error. 10000mm and 10001mm is not a big difference. .001mm and 1.001mm is a big difference. But both are only the difference of 1mm. In the same way, these bodily functions are different, but their differences are not great compared to the differences between these and other bodily functions. Urination is one of the only things I can think is closer... and it also has a lot of stigma around it.

xyzzyz 11y ago

I'm not a native speaker, so forgive me for not expressing myself clearly enough, but isn't urination also considered to be defecation, or does defecation in English refers only to the "number two"? I'm asking, because urine is mostly sterile. However, my point was that while there are a lot of obvious differences, defecation is similar enough to menstruation, such that it's not surprising that stigma is also similar.

braythwayt 11y ago
I’m only familiar with the word “defecation” being used to denote expelling of faeces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation
kenbellows 11y ago
At least medically speaking, yes, the term "defecation" is used exclusively to refer to "number two": > Defecation is the final act of digestion, by which organisms eliminate solid, semisolid, and/or liquid waste material from the digestive tract via the anus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defecation
sangnoir 11y ago
I'd argue urination is less stigmatized than defacation('number two') or menstruation. How many times have you seen someone urinating in (semi-)public vs. defacating in public?