I struggled to get through this pointless, rambling rant and I still don't get it. Aren't there any funny stories today?

I read through it and the gist of it was towards the end. Do you reveal in poop humour but aren't comfortable talking seriously about your bowels?

I think it takes a level of comfort in the person you are talking to to be able to talk about your poop. It is hard and embrassing to talk to anyone without a bit of levity about your movements. It is easy to say "I just laid a 12 inch brick" or "all that blueberry licorise gave be a kelly green turd." But it is difficult to say, "Due to my diet, my bowels have been loose. What can I do to fix this, or what products will help me."

Crap isn't always funny, but our societial taboo about keeping what happened in the water closet in the water closet prevents a proper discourse on your bowels. The bowels being one of early indicators of many problems.

A interesting fact: The normal flora in a persons bowel is unique to the person. Ones stool contains a consistant sample of these bacteria. If properly analyzed, a poo print of an individual can be created and be used to identify their crap from another persons.

Always,
Craven Morhead

The only thing my former mother-in-law and I agreed was "you can't argue taste". Given our different backgrounds, upbringing, experiences and occupations what one person may consider funny, another doesn't. That is taken to extreme in today's hyper-PC culture. Watch what you say or you are branded. For a happier life, people should lighten up and not take things so seriously.

There should be a fine line between thoroughly explaining something and an obsession with a topic. A healthcare professional may have to disclose all possibilities as not to be sued for malpractice. Casual conversation and its line should be drawn closer to a shorter dialogue, joke or answer to a sincere question. I think many would agree leaving a poop is intimate and personal. As well as often smelly and filthy.

One soliciting advice in the form of a serious question should proceed unashamedly. The only ignorant question is the one that goes unasked.

I have found that each community has its own norms for not acceptable conversation. In the ASD community, while there is certainly very much talk about crap, it is all drop-dead serious. Extended conversations about potty-training are all the rage. Anything that glorifies an abnormal but positive relationship to shit is taboo. Heaven forbid that anyone should mention that, except for the stench, they kind of like the Systine Chapel aura of their feces-smearing child's bedroom.

There are a whole range of topics about which serious and contrary opinions are not welcome. It is equally taboo that anybody should hold the opinion that the current homeopathic trend(s) in ASD treatments is just so much brown pudding at the bottom of the great white toilet bowl of medical thought. Don't even think about raising the possibility that it might be reckless to fuck with your non-verbal child's body chemistry.

These are unmentionable in the ASD community because the parents are so sensitive to their child's condition, that there is so few effective treatments available for ASD and that is absolutely unthinkable that anything less than a full recovery is possible from ASD.

Even here in the PR community, there are norms. Some people seem to believe that, if it ain't funny, then it isn't fit to print as the lead. Sure, this site has a lot of humor, and I appreciate the entertainment. By the same token, scat perversion (which sometimes is funny to me) certainly isn't encouraged, and doesn't seem to be tolerated, although it's a very real part of some people's pooping life. It's just not part of the group norm.

I think that you're running up against the same phenomena. Maybe it's just the folks you're hanging around with. If it's larger than that -- like the overwhelming majority -- then I would suspect that most of these people are so inundated day-in and day-out with their handicap that they want relief from their condition, not a reminder. Or, like in the ASD community, that there's such a wide range of opinions, and that most people feel very strongly about their opinion, that there's very little room left for conversation that doesn't offend a vocal few. It's kind of like talking about politics: you can't really do it without pissing somebody off. For instance, I'm sure that somebody will complain when I state that George Bush should be sent to The Hague and tried for War Crimes. (What is that awful stench? Did I just float an air biscuit in this chat room?)

Yeah, it sucks that you can't even talk about the pragmatic or philosophical aspects of your condition with your peers. But humor can be funny and a relief. I suspect that if you look around you might find some like minded people, although they might be few and far between. And while I may not be nuanced in your specific handicap, I know what it's like to have to deal with one everyday.

Sifting through this article, what I boil it down to is that some handicapped people use their poop as a hobby to torment their caretakers, and that they resent anyone distracting them from the outlet of telling and retelling their gross stories.

Deja Poo, I have your Hague right here, dangling in front of my nutsack, you gutless piece of shit.

Thanks for the feedback, and based on that I regret not keeping this much shorter. Sometimes I get riled up about something and forget to explain that it's not me vs. everyone else, but as gottagogirl put it, *some* people acting a certain way rather than making it sound like I'm the only voice of reason about the issue. Honestly not my intent.

If I had kept this short, it would have made much more sense. Or it might have been better not to have submitted it. I do apologize for the wasted bandwidth.

I was trying to say that I do have a sense of humor but was questioning the difference between humor to lighten up a bad situation and simply trying to be offensive purely to *be* offensive.

Deja Poo's insights were interesting. thanks!

40 yrs in public health & I agree;I can, but don't like to discuss it,other then jokes. MR Hanky on South Park grossed me out & killed the show for me.I have/had no problem with my grandchildren,but 'changed'my children only when I had to,& did with surgical gloves-ie they were never ignored.Last 25 yrs till recent (semi) retirement had to deal with realties as I worked and trained caregivers,mainly for PLWAs. Heard u on Mtl. 800 cjad,Peter Anthony Holder early this am,01-01h edt. Mike

We're going to send GB to that thing in front of your nutsack, CEP? I thought you were an aviator, not a submariner.
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Deja Poo - Because this shit's so strange, it couldn't ever have happened before.

I really tried to read this but had to stop , to whom do i speak to get the minute of my life back i lost

Dave, please remove the original posting.

Now, now. Try not to take too personally. It's a public forum; everyone is entitled to their opinion. Free speech and all that, you know. Shake it off, man; shake it off!
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Hey! Don't touch my wenis!

Phoenyxx, don't let the negative people get you down, it's their only way of propping themselves up.

A lot of what you say is very similar to issues of sexuality. Some people just can't resist turning things into a joke because quite often they are uncomfortable with the subject and resort to humour to feel comfortable.

I had a coworker who could tell the nastiest dirty jokes without batting an eye but when his wife got sick it was "A woman thing". I asked what and he just shrugged it off. It turned out to be cervical cancer and it killed her, but he never referred to it as such, it was always "a woman thing".

Bunga- that's precisely what I was trying to say! The difference between having a sense of humor about things, and using the jokes or crass comments to gloss over a truly serious situation.- or as you describe, someone on one hand having no qualms about the vulgarity until something deadly serious hits close to home.

Like I said, I never had a problem with toilet humor on its own, but rather questioning the way some people will resort to it no matter how inappropriate it might be in certain situations. In regards to my own situation, I think it's simply a matter of having to deal with certain aspects of my disability and feeling like the people being obnoxious about those aspects think that the problems will "cure" themselves merely by being sufficently embarassed or grossed out about them.

Again everyone, thanks for the input on all of this!

I'd like to point out that the phrase "too much information," which Phoenyxx brings up in the article, is often used by many people who are uncomfortable with the subject of bodily functions as a codeword for, "Just shut up!"

Use of this phrase is not limited to discussions of those with disabilities. It can be interjected at any time by parents talking to children, teachers talking to students, and co-workers addressing co-workers in daily life.

There are, to be sure, people who aren't even comfortable with poop humor of any kind. The entire arena is just off-limits to them because of their upbringing.

Perhaps you'll feel a bit more included, Phoenyxx, by the realization that most people are simply not on the cutting edge of this subject like those who frequent this site are.
In other words, it's more likely the subject than it is your particular situation that some people are overreacting to.

This is, however, the right place to come to get ideas on how to handle any situation regarding bodily functions.

Pulling My Pants Down For Peace, Plop and Posterity!

Ah! The irony of finding better advice amongst the scatological humor than from a serious discussion.

everyone is articulating this whole line of thinking better than I initially tried to!

There is a fine line between being humorous about these matters, and making fun of a person.

It takes tact, which is something more and more people are lacking these days.

There is a place and time for these discussions.
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"Two percent of the population think; three percent of the population think they think, and 95 percent of the population would rather die than think."